The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens and The Red Room by HG Wells Essay Example

The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens and The Red Room by HG Wells Paper For my essay I am going to compare The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens (1866) and The Red Room by H. G Wells (1896). I am going to look at how the writers have crafted their language and structure to produce a growing sense of tension and intrigue. Herbert George Wells was born on September 21st 1866, in Bromley, Kent. He was educated at the Normal School of Science in London. He worked as a drapers apprentice, bookkeeper, tutor, and journalist then in 1885 he became a full-time writer. H. G Wells is best known for his science fiction novels, which often depict the triumphs of technology and also the horrors of 20th century warfare. He also wrote closely about his own experiences and ordeals. Wells died at the age of 80 years, on August 13th, 1946, in London. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7th, 1812, in Portsmouth, but spent most of his life in London and Kent. He started school at the age of nine, but soon was removed to support his family when his father was imprisoned for debt. Dickens was humiliated by this, and in one of his novels almost completely re-told the story in David Copperfield (1849-1850). He later returned to school, but he was mostly self-educated. He had worked in a shoe-polishing factory as a boy; later on he worked as a legal clerk, a reporter at Parliament and then for his uncles publication The Mirror of Parliament. He also worked for another publication called The Morning Chronicle. Through this he managed to get his works published. He became hugely popular. Dickens died on June 9th, 1870 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. These two writers have a substantial time gap in writing terms. Wells is at the time when modernism is just about to appear, whereas Dickens is in the middle of the more traditional ways of writing. We will write a custom essay sample on The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens and The Red Room by HG Wells specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens and The Red Room by HG Wells specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens and The Red Room by HG Wells specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer He was a leading figure in Victorian realism. Dickens offers a more formal and traditional style, whereas Wells was just starting to bend them. At the time of Dickens there would not have been the excitement and fear of the new discoveries in science that was around in Wells time. This gave Wells a new type of horror to write about. Both writers lived near or were born in the Kent area. Their surroundings and maybe even experiences would have been very similar. These experiences often appeared in both writers works. Each of their publications reflected past experiences and places that they had seen; although they are very far apart, the way in which they gathered information is very similar. The Red Room is set at Lorraine castle. The first person narrator is a middle-aged man who is investigating claims of a spectre in a certain room in the castle. Three elderly custodians warn him of going to the room. He ignores their cautionary words and ventures up the draughty subterranean passage. A frightening event happens within the room and the man is knocked unconscious. He wakes the following morning to find the elderly people watching him. He has found there is no ghost there at all but something that we cannot control: the fears of fear itself. The Signal-Man is set about a extremely deep railway cutting in the countryside. A rambler, who is the first person narrator, comes across the cutting and finds there to be a signalman working there. They talk on and off for two nights, and to the ramblers surprise learns that the signalman has been seeing a spectre. Each time the signalman sees the spectre an accident occurs soon after. The signalman also tells the rambler that he has recently seen the spectre, and that it was doing a certain action. The following day the rambler finds that the Signalman (was) killed this morning. Although the ghost story has been around since the earliest times it came into its own in the latter half of the 19th century when new events were occurring such as breakthroughs in science and the disintegration of religion. Charles Darwins theory on evolution was changing the way in which people saw their religion; they were starting to question it more. People were afraid of the far-reaching scientists who may go too far. A writer named Mary Shelley played on this particular fear, she created Dr. Frankenstein in which a scientist collects body parts and injects life into the dead limbs, so the creature lives. This links to the gothic novel in ways such as the setting, being dark and foreboding. Uncertainty was all around, people feared what they did not understand. They did not want the change that would come with these new findings. So the writers of the time played on these fears and concerns. They explored the depths of the human psyche, which was inspired by Sigmund Freud who was just beginning to explore the mind in the late 19th century. His work prepared the ground for the breakthroughs in psychology that would contribute towards modernism. The writers were trying to get a story that would affect many people. These stories were also an escape from the harsh life of Victorian Britain. The settings of Victorian ghost stories are often a remote castle or graveyard in a wild and foreboding landscape, with night approaching or with darkness already there. These settings have their roots in gothic novels; the traditions have simply been carried on. Quite often the victim of the story was a solitary person. In The Red Room the twenty-eight year old man stands in the first room with deep-toned, old-fashioned furniture. There is also a queer mirror which abbreviates, broadens and makes the onlooker more sturdy on the opposite wall, suggesting distortion to the onlooker. The presumed housekeepers room is warm but also has an air of age and malice to it. The door to the room is large and Baize covered this hints at a large holding. The passageway is chilly, echoing, long, draughty, subterranean and dusty this is building tension because of the darkness and isolation that the passageway holds. The only light that is in the passageway is by candlelight, which casts vivid black shadows across the walls. This creates atmosphere and tension by giving the man moving, creeping shadows to walk through, the shadows cower and quiver and the he has no idea of what is just out of sight. When he reaches the large sombre room it has corners and alcoves filled with germinating darkness. The darkness of parts of the room suggests that something may be hiding there, That odd suggestion of a lurking, living thing. Wells uses personification here to make the room alive and more frightening, suggesting that at any moment anything could appear and confront the man. Giving the whole castle suggestions of an insidious presence. The room has a perfect stillness which usually suggests that something is imminent, like the calm before the storm. This adds to the growing tension by making the reader have an expectation of what will happen. The actual name of the room the red room suggests that something has happened there before, a murder perhaps due to the red part of the name which points to blood. When the candles begin to extinguish the room turns darker and more foreboding. After the man had knocked himself unconscious he woke to the daylight, now the reader knows that nothing will happen. The daylight makes everything reveal itself; things that were there in the darkness have disappeared. The daylight diminishes the minds questions and its panic, since it can see everything nothing can harm you. The mind no longer runs away with itself in thoughts of the worst-case scenarios. The settings of The Red Room are very much the stereotypical gothic Victorian ghost story, the castle with the old and dusty furniture. The opening parts to The Signal-Man occur at sunset, when everything is nearing dark. This is indicative of an event happening in the near future. The cutting is surrounded by countryside, so if there were a problem you could not get help. In The Signal-Man the railway cutting is very intimidating. The cutting was extremely deep as if the rambler is going into a different world, it struck a chill to me, as if I had left the natural world. The only sign that the real world was still there was a strip of sky. The tunnel is massive, barbarous, depressing and has a forbidding air it is a very secluded and threatening place to be. The entrance to the tunnel has a gloomy red light and with the great dungeon behind it, it almost suggests that it leads to hell. The red light is suggestive of the flames and the tunnel, the darkness of hell. The cutting kills all good thought and provokes depression and misery with its solitary and dismal depths. The small hut, which has a fire, is much more welcoming than the environment around it. Over the two nights they talk they always meet and talk at night. This is done so that the reader thinks that something may happen, which the two men cannot see since it is just out of sight. The final day occurs during sunlight, this conveys to the reader that nothing will happen, giving the reader a false sense of security. The setting of the story is much is line with the typical gothic Victorian ghost story. But the railway cutting is different from the usual castle setting yet they still share the isolation and concealment from the world. The Red Room and The Signal-Man have similarities and differences. One thing they have in common is that both settings are dark, cold and intimidating, but The Red Room is more in line with the traditional ghost genre than The Signal-man is, since it has the typical castle and only a single character. Each story has its own tunnel or passageway, creating mystery and tension; they pose such questions as what is in the tunnel/passageway? What is at the end of the tunnel/passageway? Both stories end with daylight, creating a safer atmosphere in the readers mind. They each use the daylight to deceive the reader into thinking nothing will happen, then the writers surprise them with their twists in the ending. If the writers had ended their stories at night then the readers would have anticipated the ending, giving no surprise or shock to the reader. The Red Room has four characters, with one being the main character. The three elderly custodians who appear at the beginning and at the end of the story add suspense and set the scene. The way Wells uses the word custodians to describe the three elderly people is unusual because, apart from meaning that they are the caretakers of the castle, it may also imply that they hold all the keys. Custodian also suggests a prison guard, keeper or guardian; this could say that the castle is a sort of prison that men and women have died in, and that the young man is unlikely to get out either. The first elderly man is not described in much detail, but what Wells has said about him is that he has a withered arm and has a positive dislike for the second elderly man. The woman with her pale eyes wide open sat staring hard into the fire as if she was looking for something. She sways her head slowly from side to side displaying an unstable, maybe even mad mind. She mumbles more to herself than to anyone in the room (This night of all nights), this adds to the tension and even warns the man that something will happen. She may have even seen the event that happens later in the story. Which so disturbed her that she has turned into the state she is in currently. The third superannuated man is more bent, more wrinkled, more aged even than the first he adds a slight touch of antediluvian and evil to the room. With his small, bright, inflamed red eyes and his lower lip, half-averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth. His eyes seem to be permanently in shadow and his health appears to be failing, he began to cough and splutter. When the young man leaves the room he looks back to find them all close together, dark against the firelight, staring at me over their shoulders, with an intent expression upon their ancient faces. This to me is quite a haunting image, the three of them together, almost like they are plotting against the him. Wells explains more about them collectively than he does individually: they seemed to belong to another age, an older age an age when omens and ghosts beyond denying. Their very existence was spectral. This increases tension by adding mystery, and commenting that they were very spectral may point to the reality that they were in fact the ghosts that inhabited the castle, fashions born in dead brains. The human qualities seem to drop from the old people insensibly day by day this quote says that the elderly peoples life seeps and ebbs away continually, and that there appearances are no longer human. The narrator is eight and twenty years and tries to keep himself at a matter-of-fact phase but fails when the oddness of these three old pensioners affects him in his spirit. He is able to return to his former state of mind soon after with an effort I sent such thoughts to the right-about, but he then faces a dark and unsettling journey. When he reaches the corridor he stops abruptly because he has the impression of someone crouching to waylay me his nerves are such that he mistakes a person for a Ganymede and Eagle (a statue). When the narrator enters the room his mind is starting to fill with thoughts of previous events that had occurred in the room, events that will not help his nerves The great red room of Lorraine Castle, in which the young duke had died. To make himself more comfortable of his surroundings, the young man Began to walk about the room, peering round each article of furniture to make sure nothing or no one was there that could harm him. He also makes sure of the fastening of the door to reassure himself that nothing could get-in. To reassure himself even more he had pulled up a chintz-covered armchair and a table, to form a kind of barricade and on this lay my revolver ready to hand. His state of mind is obviously not good, since to go to the lengths of putting a revolver in front of him just in case is a huge overreaction. He must believe that something was in the room; otherwise he would not take such precautions to protect himself. His mind is overreacting to the shadows and deep recesses of the room, his mind is panicking him, not the room. He knows this and states, I was in a state of considerable nervous tension, although to my reason there was no adequate cause for the condition. To rid himself of the shadows, he decides to bring in more candles from the corridor, seventeen in all. These were so arranged that not an inch of darkness was showing to make the man nervous. Snuffing the candles gives him a job that keeps his mind occupied. Just after midnight the candle in an alcove went out by Jove that draughts a strong one the man said to himself, comforting himself with the sound of his voice. Then consecutively, each candle seemingly extinguished itself, at the same time the narrator is almost frantic with horror of the coming darkness. My self-possession deserted me his mind can no longer retain his self-control. When the last flames distinguished the darkness crushed the last vestiges of reason from my brain he then tries in a vain effort to thrust that ponderous blackness away from me. He then remembers the moonlit corridor just outside the door. And with my head bowed and my arms over my face, made a run for the door, but unfortunately he forgets the exact position of the door and strikes himself heavily on a piece of furniture. At this point his mind is in a complete state of panic, he continued to batter himself against the bulky furniture until a heavy blow on the forehead ends his blind hysteria. When he awakes the next morning his mind was much clearer and calmed. He now realises that he had seen and thought things that were not there, fear that will not bear with reason that deafens and darkens and overwhelms. It followed me through the corridor, it fought against me in the room. A famous quote made by an American president fits very well into the experience of the narrator, there is nothing to fear, except fear itself. The room held nothing but shadows; it was fear that made the man run after the diminishing light. The Signal-Man has one narrator and another main character, there are also three men introduced towards the end. When the signalman is first addressed, he seems to ignore it and turned himself about and looked down the line instead of looking at the rambler above him. The signalman is a dark sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows there is a use of repetition here to get the point of the mans darkness across. The first conversation the signalman and the rambler hold, is stiff and uncertain. At one point when the rambler turns he detected in his eyes some latent fear of me when questioned upon this the signalman asks whether or not the rambler has ever been to the red light. He answers no and then the signalmans manner clears. The signalman has enough responsibility to bear; but exactness and watchfulness were required of him he cares deeply about his work and it weighs heavily upon him. The rambler also learns that the signalman is remarkably exact and vigilant and is the most appropriate man for the position. Every time the electric bell rang he would break of the conversation and would not speak until all the work had been done. The signalman broke off speaking twice turned his face towards the little bell when it did not ring he would then look towards the red light. When he returned, he had an inexplicable air upon him, so whatever he had seen had either frightened him or made him worried about something. The signalman also speaks of something troubling him, but would not disclose it until their next meeting. This may have been so that the signalman could find the right way to tell the rambler. When the men were outside, the signalman asked when you come tomorrow night, dont call out a very mysterious question to ask. It may mean that he did not want to be frightened the way he had that evening. The signalman discloses what he has been seeing the next night; he is obviously not afraid of the spectre but is afraid of what will happen after it has gone. He still has his rational thought and mind, even though the rambler suggests otherwise, but is proved correct the next morning. The rambler is a very mysterious character, we are never told what he looks like, or what he is wearing, we are only told of his thoughts and actions. To be able to suggest that the signalman was a spirit, not a man may show that he has some belief in the supernatural. When he is told of the signalmans sights he tries to stop the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine so is a little frightened by this but immediately comes up with a more probable explanation the figure must be a deception of his sense of sight. When he was informed of the first accident that occurred soon after the seeing, a disagreeable shudder crept over me he comforted himself by saying remarkable coincidences did continually occur. But when told of the second accident his mouth was very dry and he could think of nothing to say these coincidences had affected him. When told of the ringing bell that did not ring he regained his composure, he took the signalman to the door to prove that it was not there. Once they resumed their seats the rambler began to think that it was the man himself that was the problem. It was mental torture of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance by an unintelligible responsibility involving life the rambler believes the signalman; even though he precise in his work should be discharged from working otherwise he will brake under the pressure. He does state when he has left the hut that he does not like the red light Nor, did I like the two sequences of the accident this shows he is still human but just does not believe the proceeding events. The following day when he is walking he experiences nameless horror at the sight of a man by the red light, but to his relief finds it to be just a man. In going down to investigate the tarpaulin he learns of the signal mans death, and the words in which the signalman and himself had repeated, I said, below there! Look out! Look out! For Gods sake clear the way! were last things said to the signalman. He now knows that the signalman was correct but paid a high price. In both stories the writers withhold all characters names, this adds mystery and a touch of the unknown to the stories. It makes the reader wonder about who they really are, if theyre good or not, whether theyve just been released from prison a man who had been shut-up within narrow limits or are have genuine intentions. It makes the reader unsure of whom to trust, so they come into the story with an open mind instead of just trusting their narrator. When I first read the sentence from The Signal Man (above quote) I thought that it might have been the narrator who was the ghost, because the narrow limits could also be portrayed as a coffin, in which he had just been released. Each story describes the other characters more than the main one, but the writers keep description to the minimum. The main characters in both stories are male; this may be because they were considered more trustworthy and reliable than their female counterparts who would make the stories less believable. I think that the young man in The Red Room is the most believable character out of all of them; Wells displays his thoughts very vividly so you can almost feel what he is going through. The Red Room is written in the first person, this gives the reader the thoughts of the young man as he goes through the story. It conveys his fears, which the reader can relate to, giving the reader a sense of being there as it happens. A disadvantage to writing in the first person is that the reader knows the young man will survive the stay in the red room. The Red Room opens in the middle of a conversation, putting the reader immediately in story. Tension would be present from the start due to the young man saying, it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me this gives the reader a hint at what the story will be about. The elderly man also invites intrigue when stating that it is your own choosing making the presumed trip sound dangerous which heightens the tension. When the third man comes in , chilling descriptions are used to add even more tension, red eyes from under shade. When the young man journeys through the passageway tension is built by his frightened thoughts someone crouching to waylay me. There is a trough in the tension when he realises it is only a statue, he then feels calmer and controls his thoughts. The reader then thinks nothing will happen for a while. When he enters the room it is dark and shadowy, tension builds with his thoughts about the remoter darkness of the place things that could hurt him are just of sight. The revolver is there to heighten the tension; it does this by making the reader think it is going to be used, the reader expects it. He solves his problems by bringing in candles that abolish the penumbra and dark corners. This settles his nerves and his mind; the reader then perceives that since there is light and cheeriness in the room nothing will happen, this is where there is a trough in the tension. Then just after midnight tension rockets with the disappearing light, his actions are wild and frantic. But the tension then drops when he knocks himself out and wakes up to daylight. Nothing can happen to him in daylight. The explanation of fear depending upon the reader may cause the tension to rise or fall. Wells uses tension to create a roller coaster ride for the reader, one moment the reader expects nothing to happen but then it does. I entered, closed the door behind me at once, turned the key I found in the lock within, stood with the candle held aloft, surveying the scene of the my vigil, the great red room of Lorraine Castle, in which the young duke had died this extended sentence is there to make it sound as if the man is doing the actions, going through the paces of entering, locking the door and turning around. This displays his minds thoughts, which are quick and short, showing unease. The Signal Man is also written in the first person, this enables the reader to have an insight into the narrators thoughts. The story opens to dialogue, putting the reader straight into the story. The reticence of the signalman to tell the rambler how to get down is suspicious and adds suspense. There is a tension between the two men when they first meet, this will also add to the suspense. After they have finished talking and the rambler is about to leave the signalman says I am troubled t is very difficult to impart if you make me another visit, I will try to tell you this adds tension by making the reader wonder what is troubling the signalman. There is a trough in the tension when the rambler leaves the signalman, but the next night there is jump in tension because the signalman is waiting for the rambler when he returns the following night. The thing that was troubling the signalman is disclosed to the rambler, the tension would rise quickly. But the narrator is doubtful and leaves some hours later, the tension would fall again. The following evening when the rambler is walking he sees a man by the red light, thinking that it is the spectre he experiences a moment of Nameless horror this would relate back to the reader, increasing the tension radically. The tension would then fall, because the narrator sees it is only a man, but then sees the tarpaulin. The tension would go through the roof when the rambler finds that the signalman is dead and what the signalman had said to him the night before came true. Dickens creates tension and then dissipates it to make the reader unsure of what will happen next, which engages the reader and entices them to read on further. Both writers use short sentences to convey actions at a time of nervousness. Each writer makes use of the troughs and peaks of tension in their story. Making sure the reader cannot tell what will happen next. The Red Room is dynamic and upbeat because the storyline introduces new thoughts and actions often, whereas The Signal Man is slower and more stagnant because most of the story is concentrated on the conversations between the two men. The stories are written in the first person giving the reader a first hand view of what is happening. This enables the emotions of the narrator to get across easily to the reader, making the story more real. Both stories were written in 19th century, so the language is slightly archaic, atavistic apoplexy. The archaic language adds tension to the writing by giving it an old air, which is appropriate for the ghost story. The Red Room uses a lot of figurative language, mainly personification to create images in the readers mind, giving them a different way to see the story. The reader can relate to it more if they can see a picture than just words. The use of figurative language starts when he is in the passageway. The shadows cower and quiver this is a good use of personification; it makes the shadows move like they were alive. Cower and quiver are actions that something does when they are scared, so if the shadows are scared then it does not bode well for the young man. A shadow came sweeping up after me and one fled before me into the darkness are both quotes of personification, the shadows move quickly and alarmingly about the man. Lifting the tension because there is almost a point of no return for the man, since they are behind him as well as in front, this also gives the reader a taster of things to come. On one page there are three metaphors, germinating darkness this makes the darkness like an infestation that spreads quickly about the room, it could also mean that the darkness vegetates in his mind making it larger and darker than it really is. My candle was a little tongue of light in its vastness making the room huge and the darkness overwhelming, the candle is not enough to explore all of its hidden depths. And left an ocean of mystery, the ocean means a vastness, endlessness of mystery, with nothing moving or making a sound. But his mind is still full with thoughts. It is the stillness that is frightening, the stillness is not right to his mind; things should be moving or making a sound, but are not. The candles in the room are cheery and reassuring but after midnight the Black shadows sprang back, personification is used here to create the effect of a rapid and sudden darkness that fell upon the room. The fear of the man is portrayed in mostly personification, such as the shadows I feared and fought against returned, and crept in upon me a lot of tension is added with the word crept it suggests a quiet and slow advance of the shadows, that would prolong his nightmare. Like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stars is a fantastic simile, it conjures a great storm raging above in my mind. The images of the storm blocking the starlight are great, they are perfect comparisons to the darkness and light. The extended piece of figurative language towards the ending, darkness closed upon me like the shutting of an eye, wrapped about me in a stifling embrace, sealed my vision, and crushed the last vestiges of reason from my brain reflects the sheer panic and terror the man is going through. The writer has used similes and personification throughout the sentence. The first few words of the line describe how quickly the darkness came, the shutting of the eye may indicate death and now that he is in total dark he will not get out alive. Darkness wrapping about him means that the blackness is total and all around, the stifling embrace of the darkness about the man means that it holds him tightly and will not let him go. Crushing the last vestiges from his brain indicates that he has lost complete control of his thought, his mind is thinking on its own and not producing any good thoughts. The writing is long and dynamic, which is a reflection on how fast and how out of control his thoughts are. This reveals the narrators mind and body are out of control. The penultimate paragraph describes the mans black fear as an extended piece of personification, followed me lurks creeps follow deafens. This amount of personification is needed to reinforce the idea that fear is a human attribute that we make, not a room or house. The very last line is cryptic there is fear in that room and there will be- so long as this house of sin endures the reader then asks themselves a number of questions. What has happened to the room/house to make it sinful? How has the sin of the house made people fear that particular room? This ending makes the story unfinished, as a reader this is annoying, but it also makes the story more sinister and malign. Dickens uses more literal language to craft his narrative. Although he does make use of figurative language it is far less apparent than his application of literal language. His descriptions of the environment and characters are very controlled and precise. He relies heavily upon the choice of noun, verb, adverb and adjective to craft his vivid imagery. The narrative shows that Dickens is a Realist writer since it is precise and exact. The description of the cutting has adjectival imagery littered throughout, such adjectives as angry deep violent deadly. These are negative adjectives implying darkness and evil. They get a clear message across that the cutting has a malicious air. The tension of the story is done almost completely on the use of adjectives. Adjectives set the tone for the story; they also add tension and darker tones to it. Dickens uses adjectival images throughout the story, some include daunted damp arbarous monstrous these continue to keep the story sombre and morose. The use of figurative language is limited to just a few instances, one being an angry sunset personification is used to give the atmosphere an even more menacing air. This story was written in 1866, the writing is very cynical maybe the rambler thoughts were the writers own. This was a time when people were starting not to believe ghosts and the supernatural. The verbs and adjectives used are also an indicator to what time the story was written, as I perused the fixed eyes and saturnine face, peru

The Impact of Pornography on Children and Youth Essay Example

The Impact of Pornography on Children and Youth Essay Example The Impact of Pornography on Children and Youth Essay The Impact of Pornography on Children and Youth Essay Persuasive Essay Kurtis Olson Per. 1b 2/6/11 Pornography is a word that is brought up as bad for kids to watch. Kids are most likely exposed to it at a young age. The largest group of viewers of Internet porn is children between ages 12 and 17 â€Å"Family Safe Media, December 15, 2005. † Kids will want to see it and try it. We need to have stricter pornography sites on the internet. Entering a birth date isn’t enough clarification, it’s easy to lie. The identification number you see on an identification card or driver’s license should be used to go along with clarifying your age online for anything that requires a mature audience. Kids may think that they could steal their parent’s license but all pornography sites should have a small fee so their parents would know if they made a charge with their credit card. Teens are mostly lazy so an average teen or child wouldn’t go through all that work. Any parent who looks at their bill will penalize the child in someway. Kids won’t be exposed to sex at such a young age, or making sacrifices to watch pornography. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the western industrialized world. More than 2/3 of all teenagers who have a baby will not graduate from high school. Billions of dollars are spent taking care of teenage mothers and their children and they are more likely to be in the poverty bracket. Teenager pregnancies are dropping; it is still a constant problem as there are more and more kids who enter their teenager years each year. It’s not always the parents fault when kids are looking at porn. Parents may work two jobs, have to cook, help with homework. With this economy parents aren’t always home. Parents could also have a schooling type of their own. With America being so much in debt and destroying the economy it’s almost impossible for two parents or especially a single parent to be watching every move their kid makes at all hours. Charging for pornography will reduce how much kids will watch. At the same time it will boost the economy and possibly make more jobs. Some say exploiting sex for money isn’t right but I guess people have to make do in life. So the next time you think about watching porn for free, leave it alone and wait till you’re older to do it. Unless you actually realize that watching it is pointless and unproductive in any way. When you have kids always watch them and what they’re doing as much as possible.

Program for action research in Mi9 Melbourne Thesis

Program for action research in Mi9 Melbourne - Thesis Example The systems are proposed to be supplemented by a hardcopy and email feedback systems for the services of the Mi9. Results from the workshops and the email and hardcopy feedbacks are proposed to be consolidated by a research supervising group and presented to management for use in change management. Program for Action Research in Mi9 Melbourne Table of Content Abstract 1 I. Introduction 3 II. Review of Literature: Action Research and Soft Systems Methodology 6 III. Action Research Program 9 A. Problem Definition 9 B. Objectives 11 C. Research Design, Framework & Methodology 11 D. Basic Steps of Applications 13 1. Identifying the problem 13 2. Viewing the problem form several perspectives 14 3. Selecting perspectives and identifying root causes 14 4. Modelling the problem or how the problem can be solved 15 5. Identifying the limits of the model and reality 16 6. Identifying the changes that must take place 16 7. Identifying the action the action that must take place 16 E. Data Gatheri ng and Processing 17 F. System Iteration/Validation 18 G. Installing Solutions to Problems Identified, Continuity and Change Management 18 IV. Research Implementation Gantt Chart 19 Program for Action Research in the Commercial Sales and Client Services of Mi9 I. Introduction Change management is â€Å"making changes to a certain method or system in an orderly, systematic fashion to make sense out of the organizational chaos that is permeating the company, its suppliers and vendors and most importantly its customers† (Ledez, 2008, p. 112). Ledez (2008, p. 112) elaborated that change will be internal----which means â€Å"that the change will take place within the confines of the company and not outside the ‘walls’ of the organization.† Yet, Ledez (2008, p. 112) pointed out that even if the change must take place internally, â€Å"the reason for the change may be completely externally oriented.† However, I add that the urgency and necessity of change may arise precisely because the internal characteristics of the organisation may have failed to adjust after several years of changes taking place in the external environment. This work focuses on the process of change in a corporate setting. The corporate setting is Mi9 with its official website at http://mi9.com.au. Through its website, Mi9 declared itself as â€Å"one of Australia’s leading digital media companies, with the potential reach up to 69% of the population each month.† The company’s official website reports that Mi9 is a joint business between Microsoft and Nine Entertainment Company. The company was established in 1997 as an expansion of the â€Å"ninemsn† business which covers a number of products and companies. Mi9 services cover â€Å"publishing, online services, data strategies, consumer insights and advertising technologies† (Mi9, 2021a). Clicking the â€Å"About us† of the ninemsn website at http://ninemsn.com.au/ will l ead the internet user to the Mi9 â€Å"About us† webpage at http://mi9.com.au/aboutus.aspx. On the other hand, based on the Mi9 website, Mi9 covers â€Å"80+ premium content environments like ninemsn, Nine News, Wide World of Sports, The FIX, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Grazia and Woman’s Day† and these are only a few on the list of Mi9 services. Mi9 is â€Å"also home to Australia’

See attach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

See attach - Essay Example According to the play paragraph presented, the relation between the speaker and other people has been affected by his mentality or perception towards them. He sees other people as advantaged having compared his daily occurrences to theirs. According to his perception, his life occurrences are the worst compared to any other person. All these can be proven by the utterances in the last four sentences of the given play paragraph. The speaker in the last paragraph of the play admits that he cannot meet his full objective based on his personality and set to fake and try a new pattern. As per my perception, the speaker is very intelligent and trusts his personality. This can be proven by his words in the first three sentences that he is determined to prove villain since he cannot prove a lover in the fair well-spoken days (Wells, 32). The speaker is a hard working and determined person. His change of pattern shows that he is a character that can go to extreme to achieve his desire. This can be explained by his utterance in the seventh sentence of the given paragraph. In this sentence, the speaker plots to set his brother Clarence and the king in a deadly hate to prove villain (Wells, 32). Comparing the two lines of the play paragraphs, the speaker failed in accomplishing his life desire in the right path as those who chose the villain path succeed. This has brought a change in the speaker’s perception about his personality that he is set to abandon his personality achieve his desire. The soul reason is to prove villain and drive people back to reality. As per my perception, induction is always the best mode of logical thought though surrounded by minor setbacks (Wells, 34). Induction is a slow process that is based on reality while deduction is based on presumption that tends to drive people to the shortest way possible to achieve their life desire. According to the first paragraph, the

Compare and contrast intelligence processes Research Paper

Compare and contrast intelligence processes - Research Paper Example Every organization has its specific role and mode of operation and, therefore, the nature and frequency of intelligence that they may require for the execution of their tasks also vary. Thus, the cycles and processes of intelligence collection among these organizations differ drastically though they may be sharing some similarities. The responsibility of organizations that have the onus of taking care of national security, such as National Security Agency (NSA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has increased manifold in the recent days due to the ever evolving nature of security threats from â€Å"terrorist groups as well as hostile nation states† (Best, 2001, p.1). Thus, these organizations have revamped their intelligence collection machinery to obtain necessary information for the maintenance of internal as well as external security. They mostly rely on highly sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment sometimes using aircraf ts for collection of intelligence, such as TechELINT to â€Å"collect, analyze and sometimes and locate† electronic signals from the foreign targets (Bernard, 2009, p.11). On the other hand, law enforcement and homeland security mostly deploy conventional methods for collecting intelligence, mostly using human intelligence sources or less sophisticated electronic devices including human intelligence sources, security cameras and other surveillance equipment. In the present day, the US authorities are rather resorting to a system where all the intelligence disciplines are combined under one window to be utilized by different organizations involved in law enforcement. This is intended to fetch better flow of information among the organizations and will also reduce the consumption of resources apart from ensuring that most reliable information is made available to organizations. Intelligence cycle is the process by which information is disseminated for drawing conclusions about particular evidences in a crime. The main difference between law enforcement intelligence and homeland intelligence is that while the former focuses on criminal aspects, the latter also deals with â€Å"noncriminal domestic threats† including issues of public health and public safety (Carter, 2009, p.14). On the other hand, the concept of national security intelligence covers â€Å"policy intelligence† and â€Å"military intelligence† including identification and observation of hostile elements, weaponry, capabilities of warfare, battle order etc (p.15). Accordingly, the processes and cycles of national security intelligence, law enforcement intelligence and homeland security differ. However, the intelligence collected by all the agencies are similar in the context that such intelligence collection is done for ensuring the safety and welfare of citizens. The main focus of homeland security intelligence is Fire Service Intelligence Enterprise (FSIE) and Public He alth/Medical Intelligence, which are two of the initiatives that are â€Å"moving forward with greater rapidity† after the 9/11 tragedy (p.19). The main difference in the process and cycle of information among various agencies stems from the roles and responsibilities these organizations have in terms of security.

Social vs Liberal Market Economies

Social vs Liberal Market Economies Gabriela Lopez Section I Dictators Dilemma: Dictators can never be sure of how much support they really have because of the repression they practice. As explained in the chapter â€Å"repression breeds fear, which in turn breeds misinformation.† Dictators often have to spend more on civilian or military spies to gain knowledge of opposing parties or disloyal civilians. Since dictators cant be sure of how many supporters they have, they find themselves spending money to buy loyalty. Dictators spend a lot of resources trying to neutralize areas that they believe could be a threat. Military regimes tend to be more paranoid when it comes to measuring the loyalty of the nation. They are aware that in order to gain power they overthrew the standing government; therefore, they know that someone else can do the same to them. It is important for the dictator to ensure the military’s loyalty but spending luxurious amount of money and resources. In Africa in authoritarian regimes it was obvious who was ruling because of the difference in infrastructure from one place to the other. Dictators tend to prefer to spend more on their home areas than anywhere else. It is common for authoritarians to be more generous with the people of own ethnic group. Drogus and Orvis 2012, Chapter 8 Social vs liberal Market Economies: Market economy is the system in which individuals exchange goods and services in a large manner. It is not limited to finished good, this system also includes labor. Social market economies are designed to benefit a larger amount of people. In a social market economy the government is highly involved in creating social goods for the people. They have highly coordinated business communities. In a social economy the government is heavily involved in protecting the citizen’s welfare and providing employment security. Germanys highly productive market economy led to be the leading industrial exporter. They have and extensive welfare policies that cover almost every citizen of the nation. Germany has been successful at keeping the productivity levels high, secure wages, and low inequality levels. In contrast, a liberal economy limits government intervention. The United States is an appropriate example of liberal economy, the states has allowed the economy to take its course with little of no intervention. The market has crashed more than once, taking the nation’s economy down with it. The bargaining levels are not as efficient in a liberal economy that in a social economy because of the lack of government intervention. The bargaining happens between the employer and employee, and unfortunately for the working class we get paid what the employer things the labor is worth. The United States continue to be one of the wealthy countries that don’t provide its citizens with welfare. The United States has been successful in creating good growth, keeping unemployment rates in a moderate state. On the opposite side, the United States has high inequality and poverty levels compared to other wealthy countries. Drogus and Orvis 2012, Chapter 5 Market Externalities: Market externalities are one of the three causes of market failure. Market externalities occur when the cost or benefit of the product is not reflected in the market price, this in turn reduces efficiency. The market price should include the price of production and the price of the damage it creates. Environmental damage is often considered an externality because the company that created the pollution did not pay for the damage. When a factory pollutes the air they create a long term health problem for the people that inhale it. Therefore, some people believe that industries should be limited to the amount of pollution that they can release to the environment and or be responsible for the full cost of their production. Efficiency can also be maximized if both the seller and the buyers know the full cost of the product; this is known as â€Å"perfect information†. The 2008-09 recessions were partially caused by investors not knowing the full cost. Home buyers were so desperate to buy homes that they didnt check the variable interest rates that were in the contracts. The high mortgage payments would be higher than what families could afford after a certain period of time. This happened to my family back in 2009, my parents lost the home that they had invested so on because the mortgage payment double from one month to another. I explain this part of my life to show that I completely understand market externalities. Drogus and Orvis 2012, Chapter 5 Four Welfare Policy Types: Social policy can be categorized in four distinct types: universal entitlements, social insurance, mean tested public assistance, and tax expenditures. Universal entitlements are the benefits that the government provides equally to all its citizens, these are funded with taxes. The only example that can relate to the United States is public education, which is a right that every citizen has. Some believe that is an indirect component, the government only offers free education because that will decrease the poverty level in the future. In Europe the universal entitlement is more direct, they provide cash benefits to the families to help pay for the expenses of raising a child. People dont always agree with universal entitlements because they feel that its a waste of money that is going to people that dont need it. Social insurance is a form of insurance that you only get if you have contributed to the funds. For instance, in the United States we have social security, the pension system created by the government to help you when you need it. The money is taken out directly from the paychecks and its put into the general fund. Young people pay for the elder’s social security and in turn we rely on the future generations to do the same. People are more supportive of social insurance because they dont have to question the reasons why people get money. Means-tested public assistance are the programs that only people that fall under low income levels get. SNAP, CHIP, WIC, TANF are programs offered in the United States to families that need financial assistance. The tax payers dont always agree with means-tested public assistance because they are funded with their tax money. The working citizens that contribute the nations general tax fund dont feel that the people receiving welfare benefits are worthy of the assistance because they are getting money that they did not work for. Tax expenditures are tax breaks that only specific people get. This social policy is different from the rest because the government is not spending money on providing you with assistance; instead they allow you to keep this money. This is sometimes helps families to keep money that they can use to purchase a home, which would stimulate the economy in a different way. Tax breaks can be limited to certain groups of people and they are meant to help lower poverty and inequality. Drogus and Orvis 2012, pages 564–596 Cap and Trade: Cap and trade is and incentive given to companies by the government that is intended to reduce the pollutant that a company releases into the environment. The government gives vouchers to the companies that allow them certain units of pollution, the companies are then free to trade or exchange with other industries that have a higher cost of pollution. The companies that cannot afford to but cleaner technology to create less pollution can buy more rights from the companies that can easily upgrade to more ecofriendly technology. The downside to the cap and trade system is that any company with enough resources can buy all the rights it needs, creating some trouble areas where they will suffer from severe pollution. The government still has to limit the amount of right a company can buy to be able to successfully make the cap and trade system work. Some suggest that a simpler solution will be to directly tax pollutants. Drogus and Orvis 2012, pages 564–596 Part II Is political science actually science? Political science as Aristotle described it is the study of the state. Political scientists preoccupy themselves with studying nations, states, and government policies among other things. As defined by dictionary.com science is the study of a subject that deals with facts systematically arranged to show the operational of general laws. Based on that definition I will say that political science is definitely a science. The study and comparison of the state policies and nations is no easy task, it requires hard work and years of study to find out what works for society and what doesnt. Comparative politics is possible because even when nations are not exactly the same they do have similar variables that can help weight the differences. Thanks to comparative politics we are free to â€Å"exchange ideas† with other nations. Throughout the course we have compared many nations and their rules and we have being able to make our mind on what we find correct and the things we wish to stay away from. For instance most of us already had an idea of what democracies are, but little did we know that there are different types of democracies. The type of democracy that we find politically correct is the one in the United States, the nation that allows a liberal market economy, and holds free and fair elections regularly. Other nations that are not democratic have adopted the term to make them sound democratic like the Democratic Peoples Republic of North Korea and the People Republic of China. Communist countries have gone as far as to adopt elections and have democratic institutions. Then there are nations that are recognize as democracies but don’t measure up to the definition of the word. Comparative politics ha s allowed us to measure how democratic a nation is based on contestation and inclusion. Political scientists are constantly focusing their studies on topics such as health care and the different types of health coverage offered across the world. Most of the world has adopted the idea that health care is a social right. Everyone is regardless of social status has the right to get the appropriate health coverage they need. Most wealthy countries have been able to intervene in the market to be able to create universal coverage to the citizens. Even though the United States has not taken it into its own hands to recognize health care as a social right it, it does claim the provision of the best health care possible to the largest number of people. Comparative politics has put the health care systems into perspective to be able to adequately identify which one serves the largest amount of people. In Germany the national health insurance system has been a success, the government has mandated that every must have health insurance. Since the government regulates insurance compa ny’s there’s absolute control on how much those companies can charge for premiums and health procedures. National health insurance only works for wealthy countries; most citizens in poor countries cannot afford insurance. Some countries implement a modified version of the national health insurance that adapts to the peoples budget, or that only benefits the higher classes. The national health system is also more common in wealthy countries. This system is government financed and managed. Doctors that work in a national health system get their income directly from the government. Therefore the government can regulate the cost of procedures and drugs. Poor countries attempt to enforce the national health system by offering services through public clinics and hospitals. Market based insurance is the least common; the insurance game is ran by markets. This allows limited government regulation which in turn creates high prices for the citizens to pay. Even though, the market based economy is usually pricier due to the lack of government regulation, the size of the population that doesnt have health insurance is relatively small. Comparative politics sets the examples of what country we want to be like. Do we want to continue to have a market based insurance system or do we want to be like Germany where health care is a social right? Political science has helped us gain knowledge of things that have failed in the past to keep us from making the same mistakes in the future. Everything in this world can be measured and compared; some things are more obvious to the eye than others. Comparative politics is certainly possible. If it wasnt for the patience and dedication of political scientist that live to reject their theories there might not have been such great advancement in the world. Citations: Clark et al. 2009, Chapter 5 Drogus and Orvis 2012, pages 564–596 Essay 2 Advanced Democracies Advance democracies are countries that have institutionalized democracies and have high levels of economic development and prosperity. Originally, advanced democracies were considered â€Å"first world† countries, they were ahead of all others because they were growing economically and they had declared themselves democracies. Referring to countries as first, second and third world had to be redefined because countries with oil-based economies began to become wealthier but werent exactly heading toward democracies. The biggest challenge that advance democracies face is staying ahead in the economy game. Advanced democracies can be identified as such by looking at the degree of institutionalization of participation, competition, and liberal. Advanced democracies have open market policies and high levels of private property ownership. A small portion of the economy is based on agricultural. Advanced democracies initially replaced agriculture with industrialization, which is now being replaced by education, real estate and other parts of the service sector. Liberal democracies all share common characteristics of high economic development based on industry and services. However some differences stand out. Advance democracies take different approaches to measure freedom and inequality. Liberal democracies limit the freedom that the citizens have. For instance, some countries like the United States allow abortion as long as they are done before the first trimester. In other countries the government can go as far as to ban abortions all together. Every country can takes different approache s to protecting certain liberties. Todays advanced democracies are rational, materialistic, and bureaucratic. They give greater importance to individualistic freedom than collective equality. Advance democracies are undergoing social, political and economic changes. These changes have shifted from having an economy that was based on industrial and agricultural goods to service sector economies. Most of the people in the nation are employed in the service sector, instead of producing something that can be sold or traded people are working in finance, retail, and health care. According to the reading three quarters of the population are employed by the public sector, the â€Å"made in China† stickers are to blame. Globalization has made it easier for companies to move to foreign countries to pay for cheap labor. Industries have migrated to China and India among other countries where labor is so cheap it outweighs the cost of transporting the goods. Advanced democracies are faced with the daily challenge of keeping unemployment levels down by creating different jobs. Globalization has made it easier for communist countries to draw economic growth their way. Being a manufacturing company in the United States comes with more costs than what companies can afford. In the United States environmental awareness is rapidly gaining attention, companies find themselves either having to buy newer ecofriendly machinery or buying pollution rights from other companies. Environmental issues might not be that big of a concern in developing countries, they are yet to see the long term cost of the rapid economic development theyve been enjoying. In consequence advanced democracies no longer have the advantage of selling â€Å"home-made† products. Companies in advance democracies have taken the rational approach to increase their individual gain while ignoring the nation’s economic needs. Globalization has made the challenge of even greater, economic growth more difficult. Fortunately, the market has been creative enough to come up with jobs that might not have existed years ago. The main concern is to come up with leverage to somehow be able to compete with growing economies that are benefiting from the companies that have found better business opportunities elsewhere. As a supporter of advance democracies, I believe in the strength and the efficiency of the countries to successfully compete in foreign markets. The United States must be able to produce something that other nations want to invest on, in order to have even trade with other countries. I also admire globalization and how easy it is to be united with other parts of the world. I believe that globalization is a threat when countries are competing for economic growth. The United Stated and other advance democracies should not ignore the importance of trading manufacture goods, there should be some incentive plans to keep American companies in American soil. Citations: O’Neil 2010, Chapter 7

The Importance of Books :: Teaching Education Essays

The Importance of Books Book have been a part of my life since the beginning. My mother once told me her and our neighbor would sit together and read to me and the other woman’s baby, who was later to become my childhood best friend. I didn’t start reading Wharton and Steinbeck until much later, but we have to start somewhere. Before knowing how to read, my mother and father would read to me a book from my endless number of â€Å"The Bearnstein Bears† books. Every book had a lesson. I think that having been read to every night and being explained some of the words and their techniques of why they are the way they are, helped plow my way in favor of learning to reading in school. When it came to reading â€Å"Look at Spot† and those other memorable 2-3 worded pages that made up a story, I was always ahead and frequently help my teacher with her work rather then practicing reading with the rest of my class. Now being read to before bed time became reading to me mother and father. My most sentimental memory of being read to be when my father went overseas to be in Desert Storm, he recording himself reading a countless number of books so he could still read to me even though he was a lot of miles away. It was one of few moments I can really remember about him in my childhood. He was always aroun d when he could be but when he wasn’t there he was dreadfully far away. When I started to read for myself, the books would consist of Amelia Badelia, Peanut, Butter, and Jelly, and any book authored by Shell Silverstein. Eventually in school we were being assigned to read books for class and for Accelerated Reader. AR book are certain books that contain a test you take and the difficulty of the book corresponds with the number of point receives with each correct answer given. After, about, every six weeks there is an AR prize cart. This system works like Chucky Cheeses’ or Peter Piper Pizza. You could wait to â€Å"spend† your points until the end and receive a really expenditure and remarkable prize. It encouraged others and me to read more and to read the more difficult books.