An Occurrence at Owl Creek Essay Example for Free

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Essay The wind made in the trees branches the music olian harps. Ambrose Bierce uses allusions and imagery to create a sense of wonderment and mysteriousness for first-time readers of his historical fiction story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Within this short story, a man named Peyton Farquhar is being hung from Owl Creek Bridge for trespassing into Union territory during the civil war. As he is dropped the rope breaks and he makes his escape after dropping into the river below. After swimming through gunfire and a vortex, traversing through an endless forest, and suffering thirst and weariness, Farquhar finally reaches his home. Just as he is greeted by his wife, Farquhars world ends as his neck breaks and his body is hanging from the bridge. The sudden conclusion reveals the past events, starting from the rope breaking, was all a hallucination. While the ending shocks many first-time readers, second-time readers may recognize numerous instances of foreshadowing implemented into the figurative language used to create emotion. In order to embed this foreshadowing, Bierce creates certain events in the hallucination that correspond with events outside of the hallucination. Furthermore, he adds conspicuous allusions to Greek mythology. Lastly, Bierce formulates a very unnatural and vague setting around Peyton Farquhar as he is hallucinating. Veteran readers will notice these three key components of foreshadowing. Suddenly he felt himself spinning like a top is an example of foreshadowing found in hallucination events. In the hallucination, Farquhar is spinning around in the vortex of water. In the actual events, he is spinning as he is dropping from the plank. Other examples of this style of foreshadowing exist in the story. e could no longer close them [his eyes] Conscious of the ending, veteran readers will view this quote as a sign that his neck is being constricted in real life due to the rope around his neck. Lastly, He could no longer feel the roadway beneath his feet. shows that Farquhar is in midair, and close to his death. Readers of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge may at first consider these texts as an emphasis on the weariness of the doo med man. However, these double as premonition for the sudden conclusion. Allusions to a largely known fundament of Greek mythology, Hades, is tilized to further foreshadow the closure of the story. The road was as wide and straight as a city street. No fields bordered it, no dwelling anywhere. this quote is a metaphorical reference comparing the scene in the Farquhars mind to the River Styx in Hades. The small instance of the word fields may refer to the Fields of Asphodel, also found in Hades of Greek myth. Not so much as the barking of a dog suggested human habitation. This quote from the story is an allusion to Cerberus, the three-headed dog of the Underworld. These particular citations all refer to Hades, which is broadly used as a symbol for death. Lastly, Bierce makes use of a strange and vague setting to give readers a feeling of mysteriousness and apprehension. This setting, found towards the concluding paragraphs of the story, also heralding Farquhars death. He distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue suggests paranormal entities envisioned around him. In this same setting, the black trees on both sides of the road formed a straight wall, creating a dark and morbid mood with the black trees and the formal configuration of the trees. This bleak setting foreshadows death and instigates a feeling of eeriness. Rereading An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge with familiarity on the story can yield and uncover a myriad of clever and subtle foreshadowing the astounding denouement. Much of the foreshadowing is combined with plot elements, such as setting, suspenseful climax, and figurative language. Ambrose Bierce used the described techniques to contribute to the inconspicuous foreshadowing of the ending, and thus, recreated the meanings of his written words.

American Agriculture Needs a Free-Market System Essay -- Argumentative

American Agriculture Needs a Free-Market System The words to the famous old children’s song â€Å"Old MacDonald Had a Farm† are due for a revision. The new lines should read â€Å"Old MacDonald had a farm . . . with a lawyer here, and an accountant there, and everywhere a new federal program and regulation.† Not quite as poetic, but definitely more appropriate. The current state of agribusiness consists of an incredibly complex mix of subsidies, price supports, and bureaucratic regulations that could confound the most knowledgeable business minds. Underlying this tangled web of rules and regulations are political battles that pit normally allied groups against each other, and bring normally adversarial groups into allegiance. One bizarre outcome of federal farm policy is that consumers and tax-payers (usually one and the same) are set at cross-purposes. In this paper, I will highlight some of the unusual policies that exist today and will try to present some rational alternatives to alleviate the nightmare tha t is U.S. agribusiness. E...I...E...I...Ohhhhhhh..... The United States Government and agriculture have had a working relationship for most of the twentieth century. In 1916, Congress established the Federal Land Bank to provide farmers with easier access to credit. Then, during the Great Depression, many New Deal programs came to the aid of the farmer (Rapp, 1988). A system of price supports and production quotas was established to ensure price stability. For the first time, farmers were being told not to grow as much as they could. After World War II, the government found that prices were a very difficult thing to stabilize, so it focused its attention on income supports. That is, it attempted to guarantee a farmer ... ... prosper, while those who are marginal will not continue to be a drain on the economy. We cannot continually advocate free trade around the world (the GATT talks) while protecting our farm industry at home. I believe that when the government gets out of the food-growing business, farming efficiency will increase, consumers will benefit, and the economy will be better for it. And after the shakeout, Old MacDonald’s son or daughter will have a chance for greater prosperity. References Rapp, David. How the U.S. Got Into Agriculture and Why it Can’t Get Out. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1988. Rawlins, N. Omri. Introduction to Agribusiness. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1980 Robbins, William. The American Food Scandal. New York: William Morrow, 1974. Tweeten, Luther. â€Å"The Economics of Small Farms,† Science 219 (4 March 1983): 1037-41.

Poor Lifestyle Essay

In the modern world, the modern urbanites are living in a tense community. Consequently, they might have different kinds of poor lifestyle in their life. According to Woods (2010), poor lifestyles always include smoking, drinking, poor diet and lack of exercise, which perhaps lead to a higher chance of cancer. However, it could be environmental pollution. Health plays an important role in people’s life. Therefore, it is essential to choose the right food or the right healthier way in your life. Moreover, environmental pollution could influence people in their lives as well. This essay will discuss about health issue on quality of life and how environmental pollution affects human’s lives nowadays. On the one hand, the healthy diet is more and more popular in this society. Hamer, Molloy and Stamatakis (2008) claim that there is a connection between the level of physical activity and diet or nutrition that people consume from the different foods. When a person eats immoderately, the calorie would be transformed to fat or cholesterol which is harmful for people’s health. It means that they will become overweight or obese. There are some dangerous factors if they are suffering obesity such as cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, body pain, being out of breath, easily tired and disability. Although people also eat a great deal of fruits or some natural food at the same time, it might be produced some harmful effects. For instance, eating too much animal fat is a main cause of sickness or ill health also our bodies need a little but most of us eat too much. Some people know saturated fat. Therefore, it could make the person get a disease and be overweight (BBC n.d.). However, there are numbers of fats in fish, chicken, eggs, turkey, duck, beans, dog, lentils and foods made from these. Unsaturated fat may be better for the people, but eating too much fat of any type can gain their weight. It is better to buy a small amount of lean meat rather than fatty meat or solid fat. The best way is to eat more fish or different kinds of nutritional food and do not forget to get a high iron intake by eating something like liver and bitter foods. Some traditional meal, they use pulses provide good nutrition, to reduce the use of animals fat in the cooking. (Morbidity, Mortality, 1996) On the other hand, environmental pollution could lead to poor lifestyle as well. The pollution could happen in many different sources such as contaminate water, air, and light. At first, the indoor air pollution will make children and teenager getting diseases. Cooking and heating with solid fuels on some open fires or traditional stoves will produce small particles and carbon monoxide, especially for young children and women. According to the Global Health Risks, indoor air pollution leads to 2.7% of world diseases. (WTO n.d.) Furthermore, air pollution also leads to higher temperature and green house effect. Take Chicago as an example. Many residents feel like it is too dangerous because of the high humidity and air pollution. People with pulmonary and respiratory diseases are very sensitive so they should limit their activitiesï ¼Ë†CDT, 2011ï ¼â€°. Secondly, water pollution would threaten tap water quality. According to the EWG, the biggest sources of contaminants are agriculture and industry. The environmental group finds the water that people drink everyday which contains about 260 chemical contaminants altogether. The pollution will be more dangerous to the citizens and pose a great threat on the human beings. (Larry West, n.d) As suggested above, environmental pollution is divided into several aspects, such as air pollution and water pollution, which might contribute to poor lifestyle. Nevertheless, every kind of pollution will damage our lifestyle so people should be aware of the risks. In addition, the government ought to lay down some laws to stop air pollution. This is because it could avoid deterioration of contamination. However, in developing countries , where pollution is strictly regulated, it still has much more things need to do. In conclusion, health and environmental pollution have a huge effect in the life. Air pollution is known to could affect people’s health as well.If a person had good health, they can do anything they want. As a result, people need to be care about their diet and lifestyle. It could save their health and lead the people more happy. Nevertheless, environmental pollution could affect the person. Even though the people are healthy. All show that poor lifestyle is unhealthy in this community. Reference: 1. Hamer M, Molloy GJ, Stamatakis E. (2008) Psychological Distress as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Events J Am Coll Cardiol. 52:2156-2162 2. Woods T. (2010) , Poor Lifestyle Means Poor life Span, [online] Available at: < http://www.emaxhealth.com/1357/poor-lifestyle-means-poor-life-span.html> [Accessed 1 August 2011] 3. BBC n,d, The risks of a poor diet and being overweight [online] Available at:[Accessed 31 July 2011] 4. Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report. June 14, 1996; 45 (RR-9):1-33.Guidenlines for School Health Programs to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eating. 5. WTO, n.d, Indoor air pollution, [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 August 2011] 6. CDT, (2011) Pollution alert today, heat index could reach 100 degree, [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 August 2011] 7. Larry West, n.d, Tap Water in 42 States Contaminated by Chemicals, [online] Available at: [Accessed 2 August 2011]

Alienation of Process according to Karl Marx - 651 Words

Karl Marx discusses four forms of alienation and two of the four are equally important in the ongoing production of capitalism: alienation from the process and product one makes. From the alienation of process, the proletariat or maker is just a producer of the product. He does not have any say as to how a product should be made or improved because he is not the owner of the facilities or tools used to make the product. This can be incorporated to a worker in a factory. He or she may be given specific instructions and must follow through with the creation of the product. The entrepreneur, who owns the amenities used to make the product, has power over the labor of the workers. Therefore, entrepreneurs have the say as how the product should be developed. As a result, any completed or incomplete product is left at the hands of the entrepreneur rather than the maker. This leads to another form of alienation known as estrangement. Alienation from the product one makes, or estrangement, r efers to the relationship of the manufactured goods and the maker. The proletariat may be able to put value in the product they make, but it does not necessarily mean they â€Å"own† the product. As a result, the higher class, in this case the entrepreneurs, makes revenue of the product produced by the maker. â€Å"All profit where the workers don’t own the means of production is based on exploitation† (89). The proletariats, therefore, are mistreated for the entrepreneurs’ benefit of gaining surplusShow MoreRelatedKarl Marx, Alienation of Labor784 Words   |  4 PagesKarl Marx believed that there are four aspects of a mans alienation that occur in a capitalist society. The product of labor, the labor process, our fellow human beings, and human nature are the four specific aspects of alienation that occur in a capitalist society. 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