Z for Zachariah Essay Example for Free

Z for Zachariah Essay Survival, basically refined is stated as the fact or state of continuing to live or exist, especially in difficult situations. â€Å"Never, never give in, in anything great or small, never give in† is a famous quote by Sir Winston Churchill that helps explain the real aspects of what it takes to survive. The following text will explain and explore ‘survival’ from various techniques and effects as well as compare and contrast the similarities and differences between ‘Z for Zachariah’, our class novel of a teenage girl living in a post-apocalyptic world and ‘Touching the Void’, a thrilling story of two adventurous climbers who’s journey takes a turn for the worse. ‘Z for Zachariah’ is based in a post –apocalyptic time period within the American Midwest. It is set out in a diary entry written by the protagonist, in this case a 16 year old girl named Ann Burden. It focuses on what she does just to stay alive during the daily events she encounters. Through the use of this 1st person perspective, you are able to believe that you are right there in the heart of the novel. Most importantly, it enables you to experience the life of Ann and what it is like to live in a time of struggle and despair. Other techniques such as flashbacks (a jump backwards in time to fill in details from the past) and symbolism (the use of an object or idea to represent something else by association) help re-instate the initial format of ‘survival’ portrayed in the novel. Touching the Void’ is a documentary based on the true story of two mountaineers climbing in the Peruvian Andes where one of the climbers falls and sustains a serious leg injury, making him unable to carry on. This leaves them with a serious conundrum of what to do to get out alive. Throughout the documentary a variety of techniques are portrayed to get the audience engaged. It is c onstantly reverting to the interviews of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates to concede a much better engaging atmosphere for the audience. Also, through the use of re-enactment it provides the feeling of you actually being there and witnessing the events that happen throughout the film. ‘Survival’ is clearly shown in its true form in this documentary. Both of these particular texts have differences and similarities between them. Whereas ‘Z for Zachariah’ is written with many themes in mind such as ‘good and evil’, ‘hope and despair’ and ‘life and death’ ‘Touching the Void’ is filmed with only one, this is ‘survival instinct ‘. This simply stated is what happens when you are put in a high pressure situation with no apparent way of etting out. Also, where the novel is a fiction story, the documentary happened in the ever present world in which we live, making it a more realistic and easier to understand the viewpoint. Although there are not many similarities shared between the two texts, there is one key feature they both possess and that is the aspect of ‘Lone Survival’. This is what makes these stories of survival what they are and why they are truly great. The ability to think when you are all by yourself is quite difficult, especially when the thought of death is in mind. However, in both of these texts the protagonists are able to regain their focus and carry on strong to finish alive at the end of the journey. Both ‘Z for Zachariah’ and ‘Touching the Void’ have uniquely different ideas of how survival can vary in different ways, as well as change the people involved in the event for the rest of their lives. These are great examples of survival at their best, and In the end Life is the struggle for survival, in which the strongest wins, and as Winston Churchill once said â€Å"Never, never give in, in anything great or small, never give in†.

The Torpedoes :: essays research papers

The Torpedoes  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The pre-war issue torpedo had the disadvantage of leaving a visible trail of bubbles on the surface on its way to the target.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The standard torpedo of the war suffered from early problems with its internal depth-keeping equipment, and its firing pistol, but these were solved after the Norwegian Campaign. In mid 1942 an improved version was introduced with an increased battery capacity. The increased battery capacity increased the range 50%. Falke, the first homing torpedo, was fitted with a passive acoustic homing device. It was introduced in March, 1943 and used by U-603,U-758, and U-221 against convoys HX-229 and SC-122. Few were used, as it was replace by the T5, which was faster, had a greater range and could be used with either magnetic or contact detonators. The Zaunkà ¶ning (Gnat) came into service during the autumn of 1943. Intended to be an escort-killer, it achieved some early minor success only to be countered by the allied Foxer noise-making decoy. It was scoring hits against escort and merchants to the end of the war though. The weapon was designed to lock onto the loudest noise after a run of 400m from its launch. This often proved to be the U-boat itself and standard issue-orders were to dive immediately to depth of 60m after launch from a bow tube while a stern shot was to be followed by a complete silence in the boat. Two U-boats were almost certainly lost when hit by one of their own T5 torpedoes, U-972 in Dec 1943 and U-377 in Jan 1944.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Variants All the German U-boat torpedoes were 53.3cm (21 inch) in diameter and had a warhead of 280kg. (The T5 had two important pattern-running devices, which could be applied to various torpedo types.

Gang Violence in American Schools Essay

Did you ever have to move because your kids were bullied at school? Is the community you are living in is unsafe with gang violence and you were afraid your kids will grow up to be a notorious gangster? You believe the ideal place to raise a family is in a higher income suburban area where the school system is better and your kids will be free from violence. You might want to think again. In fact, youth â€Å"gangs, now more violent than ever, are spreading to new locations† (Gaustad, 1 ) all across the country, including public schools. Gangs are moving suburban areas to recruit more members to expand their gang group. They are using new members to distribute drugs because it is appealing to young children and profitable. It is causing an increase in violence in schools because other gang group does not get along with another set of gang. Kids are scared to go to school because they are afraid they might get bullied and attack. The dropout rates has increase, more weapons are being brought to school endangering lives. School properties are being vandalized with school logos and teachers are getting injured from trying to intervene (Capozzoli and McVey, 81). Gang violence in school are getting worse that school officials, community members, and law enforcements are coming together to figure out solutions. The three solutions that seems to be showing a great impact in reducing gang violence in American schools are school uniforms, peer mediation programs, and after school programs. School uniforms are the first solution that will help cut back gang violence in American schools. Gangs use colors, certain types of clothing, and bandanas to symbolize what group they are from or associate themselves with. Students that are not involved in gangs are unable to walk down the school hallway without being accuse they are involve with a rival gang due to the color shirt he or she may be wearing. School uniforms are typically seen in private or foreign country’s schools to indicate a business-like atmosphere ( Skiba, 10). Now it is becoming more common in public schools because it keeps pupils in similar clothing. The typical school uniforms usually consist of khaki pants and collar shirts. Female pupils are sometimes in a skirt that goes down past their knees. The colors of the collar shirts vary depending on what schools students attend. School uniforms will end gang members from wearing clothing indicating what group they are from. This will help reduce violence between rival gangs because it will be difficult to point out what gang another student associate themselves with. Students will be able to concentrate more on learning than worrying about getting attack. Not only does uniform help reduce the violence but it also help schools bring unity together and help pupils who come from a family with financial difficulty feel less pressure to dress a certain way to fit in (Lopez, 4). The Long Beach Unified School District decided to establish a school uniform policy during the 1990’s to help pupils further their education in an elementary school. The school district had supports from parents who feared for their child’s safety while they were walking to school and mistaken to be a rival gang member due to the color clothing they were wearing. Violence has dropped 86% after the school uniform policy been established for 5 years (Lopez, 4). Murray states,† higher student ratings of the quality of school climate in schools with a uniform policy† after studies was done on two North Carolina schools (qtd. in Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence, 10). The second solution are peer mediation programs. Peer mediation is a program that involves people who are chosen and educated to resolves issues between individuals that has dispute with one another. The program is used in schools, youth centers, and juvenile justice setting to help young people learn how to solve their conflict through talking it out instead of using violence. Peer mediation programs are used to help decrease lockdowns, suspensions, detentions, and to bring positive atmosphere. Instead of adults trying to diffuse the conflict between young people, the program gives students the ability to help their peer s figure out a solution to their conflict with one another. It also allows the disputers to be more open and able to express why they are conflicting with the other student. Young people tend to feel more comfortable and connect better with people their own age because they feel they won’t be judged. Students are the initiator of confrontations among other students. They have to be neutral and must go through training so they can understand the process. The process of peer mediation are broken down into six steps where the facilitator has to come up with rules that must be followed, hear both sides of the story, determine if it is the same issue causing the problem, suggest solutions that will fix the problem, make sure solution fits the goal of the outcome, and help dispute agree on a solution (Crawford and Bodine, 23). Classical high school in Lynn, Massachusetts has been using peer mediation program for 14 years now and feel that the program will help decrease violence in schools. The program is very important to the school that students have to put an application in and go through an interview process by the coordinator of the program, Miriam Markowitz to become a mediator. Student who have conflict dispute with one another are brought into a private room where the student mediator tries to resolve their issues by easing the pressure off the disputers to act a certain way if they were around their friends. Classical high school reported a â€Å"90 percent success rate† (Weber, 9). When school is out; kids can keep themselves occupied and out of trouble by going to an after school program. After school program is a safe place where kids are supervised, kept busy to drift them away from negative behaviors like gangs and drugs. A lot of the kids who goes to the after school programs lacks adult guidance, or come from a low income family that the parents are working a 12 hour shift and cannot be around to supervise their every move. The staffs at after school programs don’t just help kids with their homework but they build relationships with them and try to guide them in the right direction (after – school activities and clubs). After school programs are not just programs where kids come to do home works and activities, it is also a place where they learn about gang violence, how to prevent involvement. Council for Unity is an after school program located in Riverhead, New York that was developed by Riverhead high school. The program consist of students from different ethnic backgrounds that come together every Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to talk about what issues are going on in the community, ways to prevent the violence in their schools and to learn about gang violence prevention. The coordinator, Mr. Desenna ask special guest to come by to talk and educate the kids (Council for Unity). Another after school program that is a major success and has been around since 1988 is Roca located in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Roca is a nonprofit organization that works with young people from ages 14 to 24 to help them stay away from gang, teen pregnancy, being incarcerated and graduate high schools. Roca work very closely with young people who are involved in gangs. Staffs from Roca have a program that they call outreach that consist of them walking the streets and trying to build relationships with the gang members. Most of the staffs have gone through incarceration or is an ex-gang member that has turned their lives around and using their experience to influence youths in a positive way. The program â€Å"helped more than 15,000 young people make positive, profound changes in their lives† (rocain.org) Gang violence in American schools is not going to go away overnight but if efforts are put in like: establishing school uniforms, peer mediation programs and providing more free after school programs, it soon will not be an issue facing the school systems. Having positive young people trying to influence their peers will help tremendously. Works Cited Capozzoli, Thomas, and R. Steve. McVey. â€Å"Gangs and Schools.† Kids Killing Kids: Managing Violence and Gangs in Schools. Boca Raton, FL: St. Lucie, 2000. 81-82. Print. â€Å"Council For Unity.† Riverhead.net. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. . Crawford, Donna, and Richard Bodine. Conflict Resolution Education. Rep. Champaign,IL: Research, 1996. Print. Gaustad, Joan. â€Å"Gangs.ERIC Digest.† Ericdigests.org. 2005. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. . Lopez, Rebecca A. â€Å"The Long Beach Unified School District Uniform Initiative: A Prevention-Strategy for Urban Schools.† The Journal of Negro Education 72.4 (2003). The Long Beach Unified School District Uniform Initiative: A Prevention-Strategy for Urban Schools. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. . Project, – Key. â€Å"Roca : Who We Are.† Welcome to Roca. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. . Skiba, Russel J. Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence. Rep. 2000. Print. Weber, Gretchen. â€Å"Peace among Peers.† The Lynn Educator 2008. Print.

The Meaning of True Forgiveness Essay - 770 Words

The Meaning of True Forgiveness Forgiveness is defined as a merciful act that has to be carried out by both Decisional and Emotional forgiveness; it is a true and genuine factor that is essential to our daily lives. Everyone has had fake forgiveness happen to him or her. It occurs when that one important person does the unthinkable. Finally, that person earns forgiveness to which one would think all is forgotten. But they are not receiving true forgiveness. This is not actually forgiveness. When it comes down to forgiving someone one has to make that decision to; forgiveness is not something one can carelessly over-look. Worthington and McCullough state that â€Å"[D]ecisional Forgiveness involves a change in a person’s behavioral†¦show more content†¦Getting even is also associated with decisional forgiveness. The forgiver says the person who did wrong is forgiven but choose to partake in mean acts towards the offender to â€Å"get even.† For example, one has a best friend who they accidently offended. Their friend says they have forgiven them, but for weeks even months down the future the friend does rude things to the offender and say they are just getting even. This is where decisional forgiveness comes into play; if one chooses to forgive someone they need to truly forgive him or her and never bring it up again. Emotional Forgiveness is an act that needs to take place in your heart over your mind, one cannot tell their mind their going to forgive someone. One has to have a change in heart or that bitterness towards the offender will only grow. Worthington and McCullough state that â€Å"[E}motional forgiveness is a replacement of negative, unforgiving emotions with positive, other oriented emotions. At first, the positive emotions neutralize some negative emotions, resulting in a decrease in negative emotions. However, once the negative emotion is substantially eliminated, positive emotions can be built.†(4) Emotional forgiveness mostly involv es ones state of mind. If someone repeatedly tells himself they can never forgive a person who has wronged them, then they never will be able to. Emotional Forgiveness is simply whole-heartedly forgiving someone andShow MoreRelatedDefinition Essay938 Words   |  4 PagesDefinition Essay Forgiveness by the World English Dictionary is the â€Å"act of forgiving; state of being forgiven, disposition or willingness to forgive†. But what does it really mean? That is my question. Is being able to forgive and not forget the same thing? In my life, I have found that true forgiveness is a quality that separates us from other species and it is what makes us human. 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