Disabled Monologue

Disabled Monologue Setting: [Fruit Man walks to the center of the stage] Fruit Man:I remember the day he left and the day he returned. Crowds cheered him off but only a few welcomed him home. The fact was that nobody had cared enough to go out of their way to see the negative aspects of the war they once had encouraged. I saw them return, one by one, leaving the ships, almost all of them broken in a way, physically or mentally. They deserved thanks, so I gave them fruits, an action that would mean little when they left, but means the world to them now.This soldier, I was there as he went and came, and I have seen everything. Today, unlike a year ago, no big welcome home for them. They were not welcomed home as they had expected they would be. Thousands came to send them off and cheer them on. Soldiers happily marching down the streets, waving to cheering crowds, accepting flowers from pretty girls. Some cheeky soldiers may even steal a kiss here and there. It was so joyous, proud and honourable. Everything was rosy and good. Everyone thought it would be a short war and a happy one and of course we will win.No one gave a thought about anyone getting hurt or killed. He had once been so young and virile. Now he is crippled, unattractive. He had been foolish when he was young; the media persuaded him that the war was glorious, fun and glamorous. It was cool wearing an army uniform and carrying a rifle. It was exciting, an adventure and maybe returning a hero with a medal. AAH, the pretty girls and the kisses, the good things to come. The young soldier isn’t thinking about getting hurt or killed. Then, the reality! It is wrong that society does not appreciate the hardships and sacrifices that were made on their behalf.Almost none of the soldiers’ work was grand, glorious or fun. Their work was necessary. Most of this work goes against what we cherish in our society. We were taught that ‘life is valuable’ and ‘violence is bad’. This war, a war nobody wants. He was such a handsome man, a ladies man before he joined the army. Now, broken, haggard and older than his real age. No women will look twice at him. They much prefer healthy ones. Heroes are strong and big. Heroes do not get injured. Girls do not want to be with cripples. How he must hate this.He used to get so much attention from the girls. What a hopeless life. He does not want pity or disgust. He wants admiration and love. Memories can be so cruel. It is quite depressing to see that he will be sent to an army hospital. I am sure experiments after experiments will be done trying to fix him until they decide that they are nothing they can do for him. He will be discharged and live alone on government handouts. What a terrible life lies ahead. He will be alone, helpless and he will never experience the love of a woman or have a family. The poor man, how much he has LOST.

Free Essays on Comparing Oedipus And Death Of A Salesman

Arthur Miller’s â€Å"Death of a Salesman† and Sophocles’s â€Å"Oedipus Rex† coincide in that they both are tragedies, the former being a modern tragedy, specifically set in twentieth-century America; meanwhile, the latter is much older, of ancient Greek origin. Despite the extensive time frame between the two plays, in creation and in setting, as well as the different societies to which they pertain, both works remain true to the genre of tragedy; thus, the two pieces can suitably be placed side by side and compared to one another. Willy Loman is the central character in â€Å"Death of a Salesman,† and Oedipus is his counterpart in â€Å"Oedipus Rex.† Both Willy Loman and Oedipus have characteristics in common, like the fact that they are both blind to reality; yet both remain distinct in their own ways, and it is precisely these differences, such as their honour, what draws the line of distinction between Oedipus being a hero and Willy Lom an being an anti-hero. Both Willy Loman and Oedipus suffer from a major flaw in their character, which is the primary factor in drawing the course of their respective fates. This flaw is blindness to reality. Willy Loman is incapable of discerning what is real from what is not. His paramount obsession with the American dream, which he has not achieved at his 60 years of age and will never achieve, causes him to seek solace in past memories while living in the present. This becomes evident by his flashbacks, like the one he experiences when Willy and Charley are playing cards and Willy begins to speak out loud referring to Charley as Ben, Willy’s brother: WILLY. I’m getting awfully tired, Ben. CHARLEY. Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better. Did you call me Ben? WILLY. That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben. (Miller 1718) Willy is unable to perceive the harshness that surrounds his situation, not unlike Oedipus, who is blindfolded by t... Free Essays on Comparing Oedipus And Death Of A Salesman Free Essays on Comparing Oedipus And Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller’s â€Å"Death of a Salesman† and Sophocles’s â€Å"Oedipus Rex† coincide in that they both are tragedies, the former being a modern tragedy, specifically set in twentieth-century America; meanwhile, the latter is much older, of ancient Greek origin. Despite the extensive time frame between the two plays, in creation and in setting, as well as the different societies to which they pertain, both works remain true to the genre of tragedy; thus, the two pieces can suitably be placed side by side and compared to one another. Willy Loman is the central character in â€Å"Death of a Salesman,† and Oedipus is his counterpart in â€Å"Oedipus Rex.† Both Willy Loman and Oedipus have characteristics in common, like the fact that they are both blind to reality; yet both remain distinct in their own ways, and it is precisely these differences, such as their honour, what draws the line of distinction between Oedipus being a hero and Willy Lom an being an anti-hero. Both Willy Loman and Oedipus suffer from a major flaw in their character, which is the primary factor in drawing the course of their respective fates. This flaw is blindness to reality. Willy Loman is incapable of discerning what is real from what is not. His paramount obsession with the American dream, which he has not achieved at his 60 years of age and will never achieve, causes him to seek solace in past memories while living in the present. This becomes evident by his flashbacks, like the one he experiences when Willy and Charley are playing cards and Willy begins to speak out loud referring to Charley as Ben, Willy’s brother: WILLY. I’m getting awfully tired, Ben. CHARLEY. Good, keep playing; you’ll sleep better. Did you call me Ben? WILLY. That’s funny. For a second there you reminded me of my brother Ben. (Miller 1718) Willy is unable to perceive the harshness that surrounds his situation, not unlike Oedipus, who is blindfolded by t...

Causes and Effects of the Crus essays

Causes and Effects of the Crus essays Towards 1071 AD, Seldjuk Turks had grown powerful and had started conquering the East. Christians began to find it difficult to reach the holy places during their pilgrimages. The military expeditions planned and fought by western European Christians that began around 1095 AD, are known today as the Holy Wars, or the Crusades. The purpose of these expeditions was to overtake and gain control of the holy land of Jerusalem, from the Muslims. Deus Vult, meaning God Wills It, was the battle cry of the thousands of Christians who took part in the event of the Crusades. It was Christian belief that fate was to gain control of the Holy Land for the glory of God. In the year of 1095 AD, Pope Urban II started the Crusades. On November 18, 1095 AD, Pope Urban II opened the Council of Clermont. Nine days later, the Pope made a speech just outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. During this speech, Pope Urban II had called the Christians to join a holy war Holy War to reclaim the Holy Lands as an act of Christianity. Pope Urban II stayed in France until September 1096 in hopes of providing leadership and control for the First Crusaders. Soon, his famous speech had begun to spread throughout the west, and many people of different social classes started joining the crusading army. For peasants, the crusade let them be free of feudal bonds. Everyone was also promised immediate salvation in heaven if they were killed in trying to free the holy land from non-Christians. This goaded many people to become part in this battle. Soon, Urban lost all control of the vast army that was far beyond his control. Therefore, he did not have to power to stop the slaughter of Jews in northern France, and so many other populations in the East and in Europe. At this time, and at the start of the crusades, the Pope had little real power over Christianity. Urban was hoping that the Crusades would help strengthen his power and ...

Consequences of the Conquest of the Aztecs

Consequences of the Conquest of the Aztecs In 1519, conquistador Hernan Cortes landed on Mexicos Gulf coast and began an audacious conquest of the mighty Aztec Empire. By August of 1521, the glorious city of Tenochtitlan was in ruins. The Aztec lands were renamed New Spain and the colonization process began. Conquistadors were replaced by bureaucrats and colonial officials, and Mexico would be a Spanish colony until it began its fight for independence in 1810. Cortes defeat of the Aztec Empire had many ramifications, not the least of which was the eventual creation of the nation we know as Mexico. Here are some of the many consequences of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and their lands. It Sparked a Wave of Conquests Cortes sent his first shipment of Aztec gold back to Spain in 1520, and from that moment, the gold rush was on. Thousands of adventurous young Europeans - not only Spanish - heard tales of the great riches of the Aztec Empire and they set out to make their fortune just like Cortes had. Some of them arrived in time to join Cortes, but most of them did not. Mexico and the Caribbean soon filled with desperate, ruthless soldiers looking to take part in the next great conquest. Conquistador armies scoured the New World for wealthy cities to loot. Some were successful, like Francisco Pizarros conquest of the Inca Empire in western South America, but most were failures, like Panfilo de Narvaez disastrous expedition to Florida in which all but four men out of over three hundred died. In South America, the legend of El Dorado - a lost city ruled by a king who covered himself in gold - persisted into the nineteenth century.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Population of the New World was Decimated The Spanish Conquistadors came armed with cannons, crossbows, lances, fine Toledo swords and firearms, none of which had ever been seen by native warriors before. The native cultures of the New World were warlike and tended to fight first and ask questions later, so there was much conflict and many natives were killed in battle. Others were enslaved, driven from their homes, or forced to endure starvation and rapine. Far worse than the violence inflicted by the conquistadors was the horror of smallpox. The disease arrived on the shores of Mexico with one of the members of Panfilo de Narvaez army in 1520 and soon spread; it even reached the Inca Empire in South America by 1527. The disease killed hundreds of millions in Mexico alone: its impossible to know specific numbers, but by some estimates, smallpox wiped out between 25% and 50% of the population of the Aztec Empire. It Led to Cultural Genocide In the Mesoamerican world, when one culture conquered another - which happened frequently - the winners imposed their gods upon the losers, but not to the exclusion of their original gods. The vanquished culture kept their temples and their gods, and often welcomed the new deities, on the grounds that their followers victory had proven them strong. These same native cultures were shocked to discover that the Spanish did not believe the same way. Conquistadors routinely destroyed temples inhabited by devils and told the natives that their god was the only one and that to worship their traditional deities was heresy. Later, Catholic priests arrived and began burning native codices by the thousands. These native books were a treasure trove of cultural information and history, and tragically only a few battered examples survive today. It Brought Forth the Vile Encomienda System After the successful conquest of the Aztecs, Hernan Cortes and subsequent colonial bureaucrats were faced with two problems. The first was how to reward the blood-soaked conquistadors who had taken the land (and who had been badly cheated out of their shares of the gold by Cortes). The second was how to rule large swaths of conquered land. They decided to kill two birds with one stone by implementing the encomienda system. The Spanish verb encomendar means to entrust and the system worked like this: a conquistador or bureaucrat was entrusted with vast lands and the natives living on them. The encomendero was responsible for the safety, education and religious well-being of the men and women on his land, and in exchange, they paid him with goods, food, labor, etc. The system was implemented in subsequent conquests, including Central America and Peru. In reality, the encomienda system was thinly-disguised slavery and millions died in unspeakable conditions, particularly in mines. The N ew Laws of 1542 tried to rein in the worst aspects of the system, but they were so unpopular with colonists that Spanish landowners in Peru went into open rebellion. It made Spain a World Power Before 1492, what we call Spain was a collection of feudal Christian Kingdoms which could barely put aside their own squabbling long enough to oust the Moors from Southern Spain. One hundred years later, a united Spain was a European powerhouse. Some of that had to do with a series of efficient rulers, but much was because of the great wealth flowing into Spain from its New World holdings. Although much of the original gold looted from the Aztec Empire was lost to shipwrecks or pirates, rich silver mines were discovered in Mexico and later in Peru. This wealth made Spain a world power and involved them in wars and conquests around the globe. The tons of silver, much of which was made into the famous pieces of eight, would encourage Spains Siglo de Oro or golden century which saw great contributions in art, architecture, music, and literature from Spanish artists.   Sources: Levy, Buddy. . New York: Bantam, 2008. Silverberg, Robert. The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado. Athens: the Ohio University Press, 1985. Thomas, Hugh. . New York: Touchstone, 1993.

Differences between IFRS and AAIOFI standards Term Paper

Differences between IFRS and AAIOFI standards - Term Paper Example The development of the international accounting standards and its acceptance would help in reducing the compliance costs and in the process would develop consistency in the quality of the audit. (IFRS in your pocket 2005, p. 2) What are IFRS standards? The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been enforced by International Accounting Standards Committee for the better understanding by the equity investors, the lenders and anyone else who uses the information. The world securities regulators have been recommended by the International Organization of Securities Commission to allow the foreign users to use IFRS in making financial statements for the cross border offerings and listings. The uses of IFRSs have been made obligatory in the consolidated statements of the listed Europe companies from the year 2005. It has also been reported that many countries have started replacing their national GAAP by IFRSs in their domestic companies in comparison with the other nation s which are adopting policies to approve IFRSs either verbatim or in the exact manner as their national standards. The IASB and the US counterpart of it, the Financial Accounting Standard Boards, have taken up a comprehensive agenda to converge the IFRSs and the US GAAP as much as possible over the next several years. A convergence project has also been initiated with Japan. The pre-requisites of the global business is a global capital market which is ensured by superior governance, better-quality laws and a set of internationally accepted accounting standards. The IFRSs standards have been largely accepted around the world. The Standards of IFRS 1. The initial acceptance of the International Financial Reporting standards. The objective of the standard was to lay down the process when the IFRSs are being newly adopted by any organization while drafting its financial statements for common purpose. The statement includes an overview of the financial statements for the first time entit ies and they should draft their accounting policies according to the IFRSs which have been enforced from 31st December, 2005. The organization is needed to frame its financial statements at least for the years 2005 and 2004 and also should reaffirm the opening balance sheet. As IAS 1 requires the comparative financial data of the previous one year minimum the opening balance sheet that will be produced should be of January 1, 2004 if not earlier than that. If the entity adopts the standards on 31st December 2005 and produce selected portion of the financial data on an IFRS basis for the period before 2004 along with its financial statements for the year 2004 and 2005, that would not change the fact that the opening balance sheet according to the IFRSs standards will be of 1st January 2004. (p. 57) 2. Share Based Statement The objective of the standard is to lay down for the transaction which involves the receiving or acquiring of goods or services by the entity either as a â€Å"co nsideration for its equity instruments or by incurring liabilities for amount based on the price of the entity’s shares or other equity instruments of the entity†. (p. 58) The Standard specifies the mandatory recognition of the entire share based payments in the financial statements on the basis of a fair value measurement. It also specifies the recognition of any goods and

Atomic Bomb Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Atomic Bomb - Research Paper Example Miscamble C.S.C  (Cambridge University Press, 192 pp.) This book focuses on the American use of the atomic bomb and how it affected the result of World War II by exploring the situation and context in which President Truman decided to use the atomic bomb. Miscamble uses archival research and latest scholarship to address the value of the decision to end the war and at the same time writes on the moral premise of such an act. The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb: Hiroshima and Nagasaki: August 1945 by Dennis D. Wainstok  (Westport: Praeger, 1996. x, 180 pp.) In his book Dennis D.Wainstock, a teacher at the Salem–Tieyko University in Salem, West Virginia, discusses the political aspect and the implications of President Truman’s decision in the backdrop of the last year of World War II, when the Japanese were on the brink of conditional surrender. The author uses important sources e.g. Strategic Bombing Survey interrogations of leading Japanese officials to substantiat e his argument. Atomic Tragedy: Henry L. Stimson and the Decision to use the Bomb against Japan by Sean L. Malloy Atomic Tradgedy provides a distinct outlook of the situation in World War II and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. ... In the August of 1945, towards the end of the World War II, the United States of America dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The estimated loss of life within four months after the bombing were more than 80,000 in Hiroshima and 60,000 in Nagasaki, with almost half of the deaths occurring on the first day only.1 To date these bombings have been the only instance of nuclear weapon use in a war. Such an acute episode of mass killing along with its long-term radiological consequence is unprecedented in the wars of the twentieth century. In order to assess the necessity of such an act it is important to analyze the event in the military and political backdrop of the involved nations. In his book ‘The most controversial decision’ Miscamble provides a persuasive argument behind the rationale to bomb Japan. Miscamble states in the book that â€Å"the time has come at long last to explode permanently the myth of a Japan ready to surrender.à ¢â‚¬ 2Although Germany had already surrendered Japan was providing fierce resistance to the Allied forces. The Americans had suffered huge losses in the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and now they had to prepare for more losses which would be incurred during the invasion of Japan. Many in America’s military regime were ready to bend their initial war aim and accept a conditional surrender by the Japanese but the latter’s minimum demand was that their emperor system should remain intact. This was unacceptable to the Americans as President Truman believed that the root of Japan’s militarism was their imperialist government. Furthermore negotiations with the Japanese would take months which would provide Japan enough time to strengthen their

Entre Nos Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Entre Nos - Essay Example The movie proves to us that lack of immigrants’ cultural understanding, close friendship and interpersonal relationship in a city results to frustrations, mistreatment and suffering of immigrants in the cities. As Zukin (1995) analyzes, culture is a powerful tool for controlling cities. Culture is a summation of social, economic, linguistic, and political aspects of life and how people in a particular setting execute these components in their unique way. The video is an account of an experience by Mariana; a wife and mother of two young children, Gabriel and Andrea. Mariana’s husband, whom they have immigrated to live with in New York City, abandoned the naive family at the city. Unable to settle bills, Mariana is evacuated from their rented apartment to the streets and things get worse when she discovers that she is pregnant. In addition to her lack of knowledge of the language spoken in the vicinity, she has not employment or work experience. Language is a powerful to ol in life and immigrants are sometimes constrained and limited when they can not express themselves in the middle of strangers. Inability to understand the language of New York makes it difficult for the family to adapt to the culture of the city given that culture is inculcated largely through language. One of the inevitable thing that city immigrants should establish is social network; a powerful tool that members of the society can use for survival. In the vast urban environment, such as that of New York where Mariana and her two kinds were struggling to survive, social network could have been a way of soliciting for support from friends and neighbors. For example, immigrants should have a way of communicating and associating with their fellow immigrants, neighbors or those close to them. For example, if Mariana had known another fellow immigrant in the town, she could have been assisted because not all immigrants suffered the tragedy. In fact, the story would have been differen t if her husband stayed and continued to support his family. Another survival tactic, which ensures safety and security when one gets to a vast urban environment is creating close friendships with the people one is close to; either neighbors, workmates or associates. Close friendships makes a person to acquire and amass enough social, political and even economic security because friends can help in finding a solution in extreme cases instead of learning the hard way like Mariana. Moreover, close friendship is a significant part of social life and, as noted from the movie, much of the agonies that Mariana and her two kids underwent were as a result of lack of close friendship. As it is known, men are created solitary beings, but necessity forces them to create social networks because there is no survival in isolation. In this case, cities are depicted in an influential cinema as tragic places where people are not concerned much about their neighbors. In cities like the one Mariana wa s living, the owners of property such as tenants in urban areas are exceptionally capitalistic, and they are only concerned with their economic gains and not social welfare of their tenants; it is an economic regime that does not consider those who do not have. Economic challenges are, therefore, not a concern of the owners of resources in cities. For example, we see the owner of the apartment where Mariana and