The Giver by Lois Lowry Essay Example

The Giver by Lois Lowry Essay Lois Lowry depicts an ideal society in her book The Giver. She successfully accomplishes this by conveying a utopian community through the eyes of a young boy named Jonas and she even won the John Newbery Medal for its great success. By following the protagonist, the reader is given the ability to recognize the ways in which the residents of the community have structured their lives over the years in order to live the most desirably. Lowry communicates to the reader the importance of societal relationship connections by implementing central themes including the importance of memory and individualism throughout the community in which Jonas is living. Jonas allows the reader to grasp the ideas and desirable behaviors the entire community shares as he is maturing in life. The community residents have imposed strict rules governing everything in daily life in order to eliminate what are some of the more depressing elements of an ordinary world. These include such things as pain, hunger, hatred, competition, and illness in exchange for happy and peaceful everyday lives. Adherence to the rules and community cooperation is the key to their utopian society. As this sounds like mere fantasy, the community is able to accomplish since no one possesses any memories of such elements. Therefore, the community is able to create and perfect society without disruption since the residents are not aware of the different choices in life that could change their community structure dramatically. With such order, the community is able to ensure the most convenient and pleasant society possible. We will write a custom essay sample on The Giver by Lois Lowry specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Giver by Lois Lowry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Giver by Lois Lowry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Within the strict guidelines reserves the right to one specially selected community resident to retain all of the memories for the community as a whole. This selected resident is known as The Receiver of Memory and is highly respected. As the reader learns when Jonas is selected for this duty, that it is extremely important and is the job which is the most honored in the community (61). The retiring Receiver of Memory, The Giver, passes on the memories of the community and of the entire world onto Jonas through senses. All of the memories that passed onto Jonas are new to him and according to the rules must remain mysterious to the rest of the community. Some of the memories passed on include enjoyable ones like snow, sledding, trees, and colors. However, other memories The Giver passes on to Jonas are not so enjoyable such as pain, suffering, and death. The selection of jobs like Jonas is the foundation for the structure of the small community. The community keeps careful order of the residents by grouping them according to similar age groups starting at birth. As each group progresses to an older age group, the community ensures that the most suitable residents fill specific jobs and even families according to their abilities and interests observed and determined by the community residents. The community was so meticulously ordered, the choices were so carefully made (48). The community residents put families together by selection and request from an already selected couple and were assigned exactly two children each. Such structure was important for the community to retain its perfect environment; even the sight of colors and different weather patterns as Jonas learned were not allowed. As The Giver tried to explain the community and Jonas new assignment he stated, they dont want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable-so painless. Its what theyve chosen (103). As Jonas received more and more of the communitys memories, including death and release, he began to gain an appreciation for each memory individually. He wished that the entire community could share them as well so that they too could have the same appreciation since he was beginning to realize how orderly and empty the lack of memories was keeping the community. He knew they could not understand without the memories since without them they could never experience things like love and pain (135). The community designated The Receiver of Memory to possess all of the memories to ensure that they did not repeat the mistakes of their p ast and to prevent change. The memories transformed Jonas and allowed him to appreciate the importance of the memories for the survival of each resident in the community. The memories gave Jonas his own individualism, something he didnt understand why it was being kept from the entire community. Jonas was determined to change the way the community structured itself forever by giving the citizens their own history. He released himself from the community physically and mentally in a quest to find Elsewhere in order to help The Giver disperse the memories to the entire community. He was awed by the surprise that lay beyond each curve of the road after a life of Sameness and predictability (172). His journey, like the memories, taught him more about the outside world because he experienced the dangers of hunger and exhaustion first hand. Jonas character develops and transforms dramatically as do the central themes throughout the Lowrys book. The transferring of the communitys memories onto Jonas created a sense of individualism for himself as well as his questioning of the current community structure. The memories transformed Jonas as he in turn plans to transform his community. He experiences the importance of individualism and sets out on a life threatening quest in hopes to allow the community as a whole to experience individualism too. However the ending is uncertain, Jonas himself is successful at understanding the importance of societal relationships by staying strong and searching for a change for his entire community.

Mass Incarceration in the United Kingdom The WritePass Journal

Mass Incarceration in the United Kingdom WRITEPASS SOCIAL SCIENCE DISSERTATION CUSTOM ESSAY WRITING Mass Incarceration in the United Kingdom ).   The increased need for spaces due to higher rate of imprisonment   led to the emergence of the prison-industrial complex, whereby people were incarcerated without a mechanism for reintegrating them back to the society. Prisons became contracted out, and the influence of the government was reduced. As Panchamia (2012) concludes, ten percent of the prisons in the United Kingdom and Wales are currently contracted out. Davis (1998: 3) states: â€Å"while government-run prisons are often in gross violation of international human rights standards, private prisons are even less accountable†. The emergence of these prison-industrial complexes is attributed to the criminological theory, hinged on the conflict theory, arguing that t there is a   struggle between different groups (Akers 1979: 527).Crime is perceived as a function of the conflict within any society based on Marxist theory, calming  Ã‚   that social and economic situations facilitate criminal activities. This paper argues that the emergence of the prison-industrial complex in England and Wales was attributed to mass incarceration, the lack of effective social policy, and early interventions. Mass Incarceration Mass incarceration is characterized by the removal of people from communities and taking them to   prisons.   (Newburn 2002: 165). Sparks and McNeill (2009) define mass incarceration as restricting the freedom of a group of people, subjecting them to surveillance and regulation, while increasing their dependency.   According to a recent publication by Wacquant (2001), the plain aim of prison complexes and mass incarceration is to segregate people. The author goes further, and compares prisons with Ghettos. Focusing in the American context, the article highlights the impact of class segregation on the demographics of prison population. The above argument is powerful, as both prisons and ghettos are considered to be places extremely hard to escape from. The main aim of mass incarceration is to remove the criminal from the neighbourhood to ensure that they are detained. Often this priority means that prisoners are denied rehabilitative facilities (Harnett 2011: 7). As an implicati on,   prisons become areas for punitive segregation, for the criminals who must be removed from the society. Therefore, most of these prisons are detention centres where people enter   a perpetual cycle of incarceration for crimes committed because of their economic need. Davis (1998) states that prisons are not providing adequate solution for crime or social issues. The author goes further, claiming that prisons reflect that racial bias and social injustice of the society. Studying American prison population, the author states that â€Å"the political economy of prisons relies on racialized assumptions of criminality – such as images of black welfare mothers reproducing criminal children and on racist practices in arrest, conviction, and sentencing patterns† (Davis 1998: 2).   The defining features of mass incarceration are that it is characterized by comparatively high number of people in prisons. In Reagan’s United States prosecution patterns and conviction rates increased the proportionate representation of   African Americans and Hispanics,   as well as those from lower socio-economic statuses (Wacquant 2010, p. 74). This was during the New Deal and Great Society, which contributed a lot towards   the increasing tren d of   mass incarcerations, and the adoption of the prison-industrial complex system that emphasized governance through punitive acts (Downes 2001, p. 62). At the advent of economic reforms introduced by Britain’s Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, the rising rate of unemployment hit   the working class the most. With the   labour market in crisis,  Ã‚   urban areas had to bear the burden of   the high proportion of lower class and unemployed population. As social issues increased, the government resorted to the creation of a prison-industrial complex, to deal with the people that suffered most (Wehr 2015, p. 6). The newly created prison-industrial complex that emphasized mass incarceration was based on cultural bias and social injustice (Sparks and McNeill, 2009). These institutions symbolised thee society’s thoughts and prejudice,   suggesting that the degradation of a person may be a way to solve the social conflict. As a result, the British   society started to increasingly rely on   criminological theories to support mass incarceration of the lower classes, whereby the prison-industrial complexes become a large enterprise for the state. Democracy, Inclusion and Social Policy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is worth noting that mass incarceration in England and Wales led to the economic and social exclusion of people within the prisons. This segregation and incarceration endangered democracy (Sparks and McNeill, 2009). In line with the conflict criminological theory, mass incarceration of offenders who mostly belong to a particular race or class enhanced the structures of oppression and privilege (Van 2007, p. 189). This occurred when mass incarceration gave undue advantage to one group as opposed to another. Today, both in the United States and the United Kingdom, it is   evident that   people of colour or lower classes are disproportionally overrepresented within the prison-industrial complex. While the mass prison complex created privilege to higher classes, it created a situation whereby the victims were stigmatized, criminalized, and did not enjoy the privileges of democracy and inclusion. The economic and social drivers of mass i ncarceration are explained by Downes (2006), who confirms that there is an inverse relationship between a state’s spending on welfare and imprisonment rates. Mass incarceration also hindered democracy by preventing means through which people could share ideas or communication (Young 2000, p. 208). An incarcerated person experienced political disempowerment and a lack of influence, power, while he became extremely dependent on the prison complex (Travis 2002, p. 19).   Despite several attempts of inclusion, provision for rehabilitation, training, and work opportunities,   current social policies   have not been successful in reinstating the equal representation of lower classes, and the mass incarceration continues. (Reiman 2004, p. 5). Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The above review of publications and research studies, it is evident that the conflict theory accurately explains the emergence of mass incarceration during the reign of Thatcher in the United Kingdom, and Reagan in the United States. Historically, the upper class, that was more advantaged socially, economically and politically created laws and policies that increasingly criminalized the less powerful, creating a policy of segregation. Increased incarceration within the prison-industrial complex removed people who were not wanted. Apart from enhancing exclusion and stifling democracy, it helped the powerful class to maintain its influence, wealth and position within the society. Bibliography Akers, R.L., 1979. Theory and ideology in Marxist criminology.  Criminology,  16(4), pp.527- Davis, A. (1998). Masked racism: Reflections on the prison industrial complex.  Color   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lines,  1(2), 11-13. Downes, D., 2001. The Macho Penal Economy Mass Incarceration in the United States-A European Perspective.  Punishment Society,  3(1), pp.61-80. Downes, D. (2006). Welfare and punishment The relationship between welfare spending and   Ã‚  Ã‚   imprisonment. Hartnett, S. J. 2011.  Challenging the prison-industrial complex: activism, arts, and educational alternatives. Urbana, University of Illinois Press. Newburn, T. 2002. Atlantic crossings: ‘Policy transfer’ and crime control in the USA and Britain.  Punishment Society,  4(2), pp. 165-194. Panchamia, N., 2012. Competition in prisons.  Institute for Government,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Instituteforgovernment. org. uk/sites/default/files/publications/Prisons,  2. Reiman, J. H. 2004.  The rich get richer and the poor get prison: ideology, class, and criminal   justice. Boston, Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Sparks, R. and McNeill, F., 2009. Incarceration, social control and human rights. THE   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY Project on Social   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Control and Human Rights Travis, J. 2002.  Invisible Punishment: An Instrument of Social Exclusion (From Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment, P 15-36, 2002, Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind, eds.). Van der Linden, H. 2007.  Democracy, racism and prisons. Charlottesville, Va, Philosophy Documentation Center. Wacquant, L., 2010. Class, race hyperincarceration in revanchist America.  Daedalus,  139(3), pp.74-90. Wacquant, L., 2001. Deadly symbiosis: When ghetto and prison meet and mesh.  Punishment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Society,  3(1), pp.95-133. Wehr, K. 2015.  Beyond the prison industrial complex: crime and incarceration in the 21st century. [Place of publication not identified], Routledge. Young, I. M. 2000.  Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Existentialism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Existentialism - Essay Example For that matter, he explored the said journey of every man focusing on the lives of his acquaintance. According to Frankl, people exist sue to different factors regardless of the nature of the said factors. Some people live based on negative or positive reasons yet they still exist and survive. The said view then is referred to as the â€Å"will to meaning.† His followed the inspirations of Freud who proposed the view â€Å"will to pleasure† and Adler’s â€Å"will to power† in his objective to give meaning to human existence (Pytell 285-306; Frankl and Allport 101). The most notable applications of the view of Frankl had been about the experiences in concentrations camps which occurred during the time of Holocaust. During the period of high stress wherein the main objective that consumes a person’s life is survival, thus, even simple things and events can give a person’s life an important meaning. Based on his observations, such situations can be considered as the time wherein the simplest principles of existentialism applies, an event wherein luxuries are deprived and even basic needs are in shortage. He then summarized that even in worst situations, existence will still have meaning. For that matter the will to meaning is an important reason for existence (Frankl and Allport 15-20). Soren Kierkegaard is a Danish proponent of Existentialism and is s theologian. He is against the formalities undertaken by the Danish church. For that matter, he often discussed issues that are related to Christianity, ethics, and the emotions of the people in different situations and decision-making events in life. Basically, Kierkegaard can be considered as a relatively opinionated person who explored challenging issues of his time such as existentialism, philosophy, psychology, literature and a number other fields. For that matter, his critics can be classified in both the fields of science, literature and even

The effectevnice of the green building evaluate & labing system Article

The effectevnice of the green building evaluate & labing system - Article Example ilding formulated the green building evaluation and labeling system (GBELS) which uses nine indicators to evaluate if a building project is environmentally viable. After implementation in 1999, the government mandated that all state building should undertake the green building design. Green building labels were awarded to building fulfilling at least four indicators. Differing feedback have been received with some claming that some GBELS indicators cant be used at the initial design stages, neglects the designer, clients and contractor needs and is not effective. However, some positive feedback indicates that GBELS helped in power conservation, improvement of project life cycle and promotion of green building. In light of these, this research work evaluated GBELS by examining its effectiveness, implementation, application, scope, current practice as well as reveling its merits and demerits for the purposes of recommending on the methods of improving it and using it internationally. ( Chinese architecture and building center, 2007; Lin et al, 2006 and Vivian, 2007) The main aim of the research work was to evaluate and analyze the effectiveness and implementation of GBELS its terms of its applicability, suitability as compared to other environmental assessment tools, its merits and limitations as well as its applicability on an international level. After collecting the data, selection was done to discard wrongly filled questionnaires. For the comparative analysis the author compared GBELS with BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), HKBEAM (Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) (CET, 1999). Where W was the weight given by each factor by the respondent {1(least important)-5(most important)}, A was the highest weight, N was the total number of the sample and was the relative importance index. Administering of questionnaire provides for an adequate means of

Management Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Management Theory - Essay Example Many theories are formulated for different schools of thoughts with the help of fathers of Management. There are different management theories main are Scientific management theory, it clearly focus on the maximizing the efficiency by matching the job description with people; other is administrative management with clearly enlighten the creation of efficient systems in management and in organization. Then comes the behavioral management theories, these are developed both pre and post Second World War, this theory focus on the phenomenon of controlling the work force and leading them in a way to increase the performance. Lastly the management science theory that was born during Second World War and gained popularity in researchers, this theory focus on the measuring and controlling of organizations performance through quantitative and analytical techniques done by managers. To deal with formal organization and the concepts for enhancing the management efficiency Classical organization theories were born by Taylor formed scientific management concepts in 1947, Weber introduced the bureaucratic approach in 1947 and Fayol presented the administrative theory of the organization in 1949. These three management fathers have contributed a lot in the developing on classical theories. Adam smith was the founder of management theories, he observed two factories making pin wheel. In one factory a worker had to perform 18 tasks on his own to make a pin wheel and could make few thousands of pin wheel by the end of the day, where as in other factory 10 workers has expertise on one task and were able to manufacture 48,000 pin wheel per day. This gave birth to the idea of Job Specialization, it means that if workers are skilled in one tasks then and will do it repeatedly, they will have safe hands and will have faster rate of production with same quality. It will increase the efficiency and will lead to great organizational performance. Era of modern management was begun with t he theories of Fredric Taylor, when he noticed the national loss of men and started condemning the â€Å"awkward, inefficient, or ill-directed movements of men". This started in late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He transformed the old management system into new scientific management. Taylor actually wanted to increase the productivity of the organization through mutual understanding of trust between the managers, management and workers. Taylor suggested few techniques to improve the productivity and increasing the trust level. He suggested that 1) The rewards should be given to workers for high productivity. 2) Focus on the elimination of anxiety and stress from the work place. 3) Proper training and guidance should be provided to develop the capabilities in workers, 4) Eliminating the typical concept of â€Å"boss†, will increase the efficient and effectiveness at work? Further, Taylor also developed four principles for improving the productivity in scientific ma nagement theory that are 1) rule of thumb 2) scientific selection of the workers 3) Labor and management’s co-operation rather than the conflicts 4) Training and development of workers scientifically. However Taylor focused on breaking of a job into its parts, timeline for each part should be configured, and then reengineering the parts in a way that it minimizes the time and

Study on nightmares and there causes

Study on nightmares and there causes Nightmares are essentially negative emotions felt during the dream state. They elicit no movement during sleep and when a person wakes up from it, he or she can recall many but not all details. The environment, consisting of the society in which one lives and the experiences to which one is exposed, can affect types of dreams. These sociocultural factors can be considered the nurture side of the nature-nurture debate. Innate factors of age and presence of mental disabilities can be regarded as the nature argument. To what extent do sociocultural and innate factors influence nightmares in children? Young children have nightmares, many out of fear of abandonment; at that age, they have the need to be loved more than most other ages. However, this fear is not contained to a single culture; children have nightmares in every nation. Many parents try to avoid nightmares by putting their children to bed early; common culture shows that people sleep early to be well-rested but maybe sleep do es much more than that; it might be part of the de-stressing process each person needs at the end of the day, an outlet to renew and apply the adage every day is a new day. Sociocultural causes include movies children may have watched the night right before the nightmare. It was long believed that scary movies would induce nightmares and children would wake up in the middle of the night, scared to go back to sleep. In addition, children who have suffered war trauma and orphans are prone to nightmares. The environment has an effect on ones dreams. Children need more care from parents or guardians than another age; and those who are not guaranteed such mental safety relieve that stress in their dreams via nightmares. Sociocultural factors that may influence nightmares in children include TV/movies, stress, and war trauma. TV/Movies Fisher and Wilson (1987) reported that many parents blamed their childrens nightmares on TV shows. Their children said that scary dreams were related to something they watched on TV (Muris et al., 2000). Children report watching TV as the most often done activity weekly, followed by playing computer games (Schredl et al., 2008). When children four- to eleven-years-old watched TV, they developed sleeping disorders (Owens et al., 1999). Thompson Christakis (2005) found that infants and toddlers also developed irregular sleeping schedules due to excessive TV-viewing. Schredl and Pallmer (1997) concluded that the content of nightmares was influenced by fairy tales, cinema, and TV. One possibility for this excess in nightmares could be the mental insecurity in their lives and the viewing of movies that elicit a similar fear that triggered the nightmare from their real-life fear, not the fear from the movie. However, Schredl et al. (2008) found that fourteen percent of their sample report ed watching police and criminal fiction without having an expected increased amount of nightmares. This discrepancy could be due to the fact that they have an interest in the topic or they feel secure in their environment. An experiment (Foulkes et al., 1967) consisted of thirty-two male children, ages ranging between six and twelve, with families in the middle class staying two nights in the laboratory for the experiment with one night at home in between the two to rest. Half the boys watched a short film about the old West, a hostile stimulus about Native Americans attacking European settlers, while the other half watched a non-violent film about baseball on the first night, and on the second night, the boys watched the other film. Both the younger and older boys showed more interest in the Western film. They had nightmares twice as much on Baseball nights than on Western nights. The difference in the two films had no effect on sleep onset or time to the initial REM period. The myth of watching scary or violent movies before bedtime is false. The nonaggressive Baseball film elicited more vivid dreams that were more aggressive and scary than those elicited by the violent Western film. Even though the Baseball film preceded a more frightening dream, the boys had no greater difficulty in falling asleep on that night than on the night they watched the Western film. Watching a more intense, violent movie worked off more stress, and then the stress did not have to be relieved in the boys dreams through nightmares. It seems as if the greater viewing involvement the young boys have towards the films may release accumulated psychological tensions as opposed to the seemingly obvious effect of exposing them to more stress leading to nightmares (Foulkes et al., 1967). Another study has found a greater number of nightmares after adults watch a violent film as opposed to a peaceful film. The subjects were sophisticated intellectual types who did not pay much attention to the films shown to them. As opposed to the young boys interest in the violent film, these adults were more interested in the nonviolent film (Foulkes Rechtschaffen, 1964). This cause in nightmares is due to the stress-relief effect; watching violent films releases anxiety and such emotions, and without them, people will have such emotions permeate their dreams. Both studies, regarding adults and children viewing violent and nonviolent films, suggest that if the film that attracts more interest from the individual viewer contains more violence, the less aggressive the plot will be in their dreams. However, most adults did not have much interest in the violent film which explains their higher amount of nightmares. Stress After watching the violent and nonviolent films, the low distortion of the boys dream content indicates that everyday experiences interfere with dreams and that the content is rarely out of the ordinary (Foulkes et al., 1967). Berrien (1935) found that more activity during the day precedes emotionally devoid dreams. Events right before sleep have some impact on the nature of some of his participants dreams. Attendance in usual day activities has little influence on dreams. Unusual night or evening activities that cause lack of sleep inhibit the frequency of dreams. According to parental reports of their young children and preteens (Owens et al., 1991) and self-reports of seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds who watch enticing television shows (Van den Bulck, 2000), the children sleep less as a result of watching too much television. Sleep deprivation is also linked to computer game play (Tazawa Okada, 2001) negatively in relation to time. Sadeh, Raviv, and Gruber (2000) said that sleep in children is sensitive to cultural and psychosocial influences. Social influences include but are not limited to parents, personality, and education (Morrell, 1999; Rona, Gulliford Chinn, 1998; Sadeh Anders, 1993; Van Tassel, 1985). Stress and trauma can cause nightmares and scare the child awake. They defined poor sleep as sleep that is characterized by à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ a sleep percentage lower than 90 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ waking three times or more per night on average. The parents higher education level had improved sleep quality, and family stress caused poorer sleep quality. Families living in areas exposed to war conditions have children who are more concerned about their parents and take adult responsibilities earlier than do children in safe conditions (Yule, 2002; Punamaki, 1987, 2000). As a result, they are more concerned about threat towards their family, friends, and homes in their dreams. The stress they get from worrying about others induces nightmares, reality imposing on the unconscious mind. Crugnola et al. (2008) compared childrens dreams in April and June. Exams for the end of elementary school were held in June and it may have been stressful for the children. Males showed an increase of female characters in their dreams and an increase in aggressive interaction, but a decrease in physical aggression. Dreams involving positive emotions and events increased in frequency as well. Girls showed a similar decrease in the male/female percentage of characters in their dreams and a decrease in physical aggression. Spain (Oberst, Charles, Chamarro, 2005), the United States (Saline, 1999), and Switzerland (Strauch Lederbogen, 1999) have similar distributions concerning aggression. Stress in real-life decreased physical aggression possibly because stress is generally caused by fear that one cannot do anything about the situation or fear over the outcome of the situation. Also, stress increased physical interaction, possibly as a stress release. In the case of watching TV, night mares decreased from watching TV as a stress reliever. In the case of exams, the stress that needs to be relieved is the childs reality, and the fear increases nightmares. Orphans reported more dreams than did non-orphans. Girl orphans reported more dreams than did the boys, while there was not a difference among the boy and girl non-orphans. Boys reported more aggression, while girls dreams involved anxiety. Older children reported more bizarre dreams. Children who have had traumatic experiences have dreams with death and destruction and negative feelings (Punamaki et al., 2005). Although the general effect of being an orphan is dominant in this study, there is still an inconsistency between demographic factors. There seems to be more of an effect of gender and age probably due to environmental factors, the way older children are treated, the difference in treatment between girls and boys, etc. War trauma Children in war conditions have more nightmares from the traumatic events. The nightmares serve as an outlet to protect survivors mental health (Hartmann, 1995). Military trauma in Palestinian children did not negatively affect mental health; they had dreams with mixtures of feelings and bizarre plots, while there was high psychological stress in children with common dreams (Punamaki, 1998). Children whose dreams related to their traumatic events adjusted better than children without that relationship (Barrett, 1996). Also, since bizarre dreams are easily remembered (Punamaki, 1997; Schredl, Kleinferchner, Gell, 1996), children living in traumatic conditions remember their dreams. Traumatic events had an effect on earlier developmental stages and included negative feelings. Severe trauma can cause children to regress and lose cognitive and emotional skills (Smith et al., 2002). Along with the fear from exams, fear from war trauma is stress in reality. The increase in nightmares could be due to the increase in the need to reduce stress, while the decrease in nightmares from watching violent films is due to the actual watching as the stress reliever. Revonsuo (2000) developed the Threat Simulation Theory of dreaming (TST) that states that peoples dreams replicate threatening events and that those events activate the threat simulation system. Dreams come from the long-term memory, which is traced from the degree of negative emotions and most recently encoded or activated memory trace. The TST failed to explain responses to threats in dreams of children exposed to war trauma. Their dreams self-reacted to only one-third of the threats. Children exposed to trauma had longer, more frequent, severe, and aggressive dreams than children unexposed and out of those dreams, they had more threatening ones. The children were most often the ones most threatened, followed by their loved ones, strangers, and then their homes. The children who suffered from trauma had dreams that self-reacted more from life-threatening events than any other threats, while normal children had no difference in self-reaction (Valli et al., 2006). Seligmans (1980) learned helplessness theory explains why traumatized children reacted to threats as frequently as the non-traumatized children; in real life, they learned that efforts to fix the situation were futile. The non-traumatized children did not learn from real life experiences and reacted to try and resolve the situation Hartmann (1995) described dreaming as a type of homeostasis, a process by which these children can return to a balanced center mentally. Dreaming is such an outlet to rid the negative emotions and wake up to a positive reality, serving as a mood regulation process (Punamaki, 1999; Cartwright, Luten et al., 1998; Kramer, 1993). Without such dreaming, a child will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (Breslau, 1998). Innate causes Innate factors also have an effect on nightmares. Ability to recall dreams has also been a factor in the existence of nightmares. If children cannot remember their dreams, then they will tell researchers and psychologists that they did not have nightmares the night before. Girls have a higher level of dream recall in comparison to boys; however, they may have not actually had more nightmares than the boys; they maybe have only recalled more. Innate factors that may influence the prominence of nightmares in children include mental deficiencies, age, and gender. Mental deficiencies Participants of another study were six- to twelve-year-old children admitted to the Allentown State Hospital in Pennsylvania for people who have mental deficiencies. The children had dreams of two categories: emotional or devoid of emotion, indeterminate emotion. On the fourth day, only one dream with emotional coloring was reported. The average amount of emotional dreams during the first three days was approximately twelve and for the fifth to seventh, there were around fifteen instances of emotional coloring. The fourth days events consisted of watching a movie and sleeping an hour later than on average nights. On the ninth day, they saw a play and also had an increase in emotional coloring (Berrien, 1935). This increase in emotional coloring could be due to the fact that their increase in activities resulted in a higher exposure to daylight which could influence depth of sleep, declining the frequency of dream activity. Berrien (1935) took count of emotions and actions during their sleep. The five most frequent emotions included pleasure, commanding, fear, anger, and resent in order of frequency. The most recurring actions the children exhibited during the night were mumbling, and walking or talking. He also recorded dreams hourly and found that it differed from a study he found of college students who dream more at the beginning and end of their sleep, with less frequency in the third hour, while his findings in children shows a gradual decline in dreaming as time progresses. This difference might be the result of innate tendencies; the mental deficiencies and problems could be causing the time lapses in the childrens dreaming. There is an overall trend in dreaming as morning approaches and both IQ and age have a slight positive influence on the frequency of dreams. Age Older children, in their teenage years, had pleasant dreams after watching TV; and Computer games caused 10% of nightmares in boys, twice as much as in girls who had only 5%. Boys watch significantly more TV than girls do in Sweden possibly because they are targeted more by television programs. First-year students had TV-related nightmares occur most often; although there is no distinction between boys and girls regarding nightmares. Boys also play more video games than girls do in both years; first-year girls play video games twice as often as boys do. Interestingly enough, first-year boys have both more nightmares and pleasant dreams than the other three age groups after playing video games and after watching TV. TV and video games caused a significant amount more pleasant dreams than nightmares in all age groups. Ignoring age, TV has a stronger effect on dreams in general disregarding whether it was a nightmare or a pleasant dream. (Van den Bulck, 2004) Even though older children and children of older parents fell asleep later and mostly woke up earlier than their counterparts, sleep quality remained the same. Sleep schedule is best estimated with the age of children and their parents and sleep quality was measured with the parents education and family stress. (Sadeh, Raviv Gruber, 2000) Foulkes (1982) found in dreams of children ages 3 to 15 years that developmental changes in their dreams imitated their actual emotional and cognitive changes. Children of median age had adult-like dreaming and older childrens dreams differences were from lifestyle differences. Since children are still developing during preteen years, dream content is changing at the same time (Foulkes, 1982, 1999; Foulkes et al., 1990; Strauch, 2005; Strauch Lederbogen, 1999) until it stabilizes after late adolescence (Domhoff, 1996). Foulkes (1982) study of children showed that it was only around that age that their dreams began to have dreams on a higher intellectual level as adults. With age, children report longer dreams that involve more emotions and thinking (Foulkes, 1999; Punamaki, 1998). Older children had more bizarre dreams. Age might not directly influence the prominence of nightmares. Children of different ages are treated differently by each other and by adults. They feel different levels of responsibilities and put tasks in different orders of importance. Gender Males predominate in mens dreams, while males and females appear equally in womens dreams (Strauch and Lederbogen 1999; Domhoff, 1996; Hall Van de Castle, 1966). Avila-White, Schneider, and Domhoff (1999) conducted a study with twelve and thirteen year-olds and found that boys dreams differed from girls in the same ways mens dreams differed from womens in Hall and Van de Castles (1966) study with young adults; girls dreams contained an equal proportion of male and female characters in their dream as in womens dreams, and boys had an excess of male characters like in mens dreams. The male/female character ratio increased with age in girls; the seventeen- and eighteen-year-old girls had a higher male/female ratio than the younger groups (Oberst, Charles, Chamarro, 2005). The children in both Crugnola et al. (2008), and Giudicis (2008) and Salines (1999) studies also show that the most significant differences between men and women are similar to those found in preadolescents, like agg ressive/friendly interactions and male/female percentage. Males are more likely to report physical aggression in dreams (Oberst, Charles, Chamarro, 2005; Hall, et al, 1982), while women are more often victims of aggression (Saline, 1999; Domhoff, 1996) and have more introspective aggression, depression, and solution-seeking (Punamaki et al, 2005; Schredl, Sahin, Schafer, 1998). Children encounter more aggression, express more aggression, and come across more hardship than adults in their dreams (Hall and Domhoff, 1963; Domhoff, 1996). The youngest boys had a higher level of frequency and severity of receiving aggression in their dreams (Oberst, Charles, Chamarro, 2005). Strauch and Lederbogen (1999) found children to be victims in their dreams, while in waking life, they are the aggressors. Vulnerability, dependency, and fear of aggression could account for younger children having more aggression in their dreams than in those of older children, especially for young boys, who tend have more exposure to aggression than girls. More aggressi ve exposure, specifically in preadolescent boys, leads to more aggressive content in dreams (Achenbach Rescorla, 2007). The children with aggressive personalities were more prone to having aggressive personalities in their dreams, and children with unaggressive personalities had unaggressive personalities in their dreams. Also, women who do not work and stay at home have more dreams fitting the pattern for females, while women who work have dreams that follow a male pattern (Lortie-Lussier et al., 1992; Lortie-Lussier, Schwab, De Koninck, 1985). Dream content of males and females imitate the pattern of the social roles they have (Schredl, Sahin, Schafer, 1998). Foulkes (1982) studied positive social interactions among teenagers and found less negativity in their dreams. Avila-White, Schneider, and Domhoffs (1999) teenagers in study had more aggression than Hall and Van de Castles (1966) young adults; girls had a higher friendliness per character than did the women, while boys had lower friendliness per character than men. Boys have more aggressive interactions than girls (Crugnola et al., 2008). Nightmare frequency was significantly higher in girls than in boys, a finding explained by girls heightened dream recall frequency (Schredl et al., 2008). The tone of TV watched was not related to the emotional tone of the following nights dream; however, negative evening mood caused emotional dream to be negative, more pronounced in girls than in boys. Six- to eight-year-old boys could recall dreams better than the ten to twelve year old boys (Foulkes et al., 1967). The discrepancy in nightmare frequency, female/male ratio, presence of aggressive interactions, etc. could be a result of environmental factors. People put different pressures on girls as opposed to on boys; they set different expectations for each. Conclusion The studies used were done with small sample populations and could probably have been expanded on with populations of other samples. Also, some studies had multiple dependent variables, and the innate causes like gender and age had a causal relationship with the increase or decrease of nightmares. A single study determined that age, TV, and gender are all factors that caused a change in nightmares, making it difficult to see which is the initial cause. The innate factors seem to be caused by the sociocultural factors. Boys are exposed to more aggression and in turn have more aggression in their dreams because the way their parents treat them or what their teachers and peers expect of them. Girls have more depression because what society imposes on them. They fear becoming ugly, fat, or unwanted; therefore, these factors are incorporated in their nightmares; they face more emotional aggression than actual physical aggression. Age might have an influence based on the fact that older children may watch scarier TV shows or movies and younger children in normal cases fear losing their parents, their main caretakers. Innate factors for nightmares are less innate than they seem as they are caused by the childrens environment.

Madeleine Neveus Epistle To My Daughter :: Neveu Epistle Daughter Essays

Madeleine Neveu's "Epistle To My Daughter" Madeleine Neveu eloquently gives words of wisdom to her daughter Catherine in her piece entitled, "Epistle to My Daughter." Madeleine is quite aware of the attitude surrounding educated women in her time period. Yet, she abandons those opinions to express her own for her daughter. Her epistle embraces the need for a woman to be true to herself and to stand on her own two feet, as opposed to relying on a man to hold her up. Madeleine’s epistle is quite straightforward. Her message to her daughter is very sincere. She starts her epistle by referring to traditional views on how one should live their life. "Ancient lovers of learning, / Said that to God one must do one’s duty, / Then to one’s country, and a third to one’s lineage" (ll.1-3). But Madeleine is quick to refute those opinions. She then states that while she does honor God, she is completely helpless when it comes to public service affairs on the other hand because men have all the power. "I revere the Lord God; as for my country, I lack all power, / Men have full authority" (ll. 7-8). It is here that Madeleine refers to the Salic Law, the law that excludes women from the throne. But Madeleine’s duty to her "lineage" or daughter is taken much more seriously. Since Madeleine has no control over Salic Law, she takes control of the matters she has a say in. Her daughter is under her control. She feels the need to provide the best life for her daughter as possible. And thus she writes this piece as a guide for her. After Madeline refutes the ideas of the old, she presents ideas for the future. The piece seems to pause just before she focuses solely on her daughter. The tone of the first nine lines is snobbish almost. Madeleine seems to be raising her nose to ideas of the old. But as she begins to focus on her daughter, the tone changes. The snobbish tone becomes softer, gentler, as if she’s raising her daughter’s chin to meet her gaze and speak to her: But as concerns you, my daughter, who are so dear to me / I would be liable to great blame and reproach / If I were to lead you on the beaten path, / Seeing that your heart is born into virtue.