Narrative and Genre Features in the Opening Sequence of...

Narrative and Genre Features in the Opening Sequence of Pulp Fiction A narrative is the story itself and generic features are elements expected to be contained within a certain category of film. Pulp Fiction is labeled as a gangster film; however gangster films follow very precise generic elements such a death, contraband’s, violence, wealth and strong family loyalties. Pulp Fiction doe follow the above mentioned elements but the locations of the action are unorthodox. Screen gangster activities tend to take place in sophisticated up market places as gangsters tend to be perceived as sophisticated and highly respected and feared individuals in society. This is a generic convention which is†¦show more content†¦However these two sit and weigh up the pro’s and con’s before they engage in the activity. The male says ‘†¦. no-body ever robs restaurants’ This illustrates they are breaking conventions. In a traditional narrative we expect to see characters that have prominent roles in the film to be in the opening sequence; also you’d expect the story contained in the opening sequence to be followed up. This is not the case in Pulp Fiction. We leave the opening scene in a moment of action. Therefore we are set up with the expectation of what happens next? In a traditional linear narrative this is a question which is likely to be answered. However in Pulp Fiction the next scene contains different characters and a different plot. We do not return to the opening story till the end of the film. The next scene contains the opening credits. The music is upbeat and compliments the emotional intensity of the two thieves’ situation. The music also suggests we are still with the two thieves’ story. In the middle of the title track we hear a radio changing dial and a new track plays ‘Jungle Boogie.’ This suggests unpredictability. This is also a subversion of traditions in itself as it doesn’t happen in any other film. We enter the next scene mid-way into a conversation. We do not know of they’re related to the couple in the restaurant. AShow MoreRelatedThe Film War Horse By Michael Morpurgo1575 Words   |  7 Pagesall film genres, for example in the film War Horse. Unlike Pulp Fiction there is a larger variety of camera shots used, to express visually the different scenes and emotions present. War Horse is ‘an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s’ (Madigan 2012, 48) children’s novel, and gives its viewers a breath-taking tale of a friendship between a horse (Joey) and a young man (Albert) amongst the devastation of World War 1. The films use of cinematography creates an effective and realistic narrative, reviewsRead MoreInsight to Coach Carter Film7710 Words   |  31 Pageseliminate up to 10 players each hour. Then, once a player was chosen, he began an intensive training program. I’m telling you these kids worked nonstop for months to ensure the believa bility of the game sequences and I believe all their hard work and practice really paid off. Those on-court sequences are really full-throttle.† Shooting with three or four cameras and thousands of extras, the big dunks, block shots, and all the intensity of a real game truly come to life. â€Å"You can no longer cheat thisRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesthat defined the nineteenth-century world order. On the other, it perversely unleashed forces that would undermine Western world dominance and greatly constrict the forces advancing globalization, both of which can be seen as hallmarks of the opening decades of the twentieth century. This intermingling of the forces and processes that were arguably essential components 2 †¢ INTRODUCTION of two epochs we routinely set apart as centuries suggests the need for flexibility in demarcating

Realism, Liberalism, And Marxism - 1024 Words

Realism, liberalism, and Marxism are all different perspectives that can be used to analyze situations and aid government officials to understandings and agreements in relation to trade. Lawrence Herman s article focusses on the potential destruction of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) caused by the disturbing and unacceptable proposals by the United States president, Donald Trump. There are many different views on Free trade but three main perspectives are the realist views, which claim that all nation-states have to rely upon their own resources and security and act in pursuit of their struggle for power and self-interest, liberal views, which approve of free trade, and lastly, through Karl Marx’s theory of Marxism.†¦show more content†¦Tariffs overall are pro-producer and anti-consumer which is why the United States are making these destructive proposals, they are all to provide security and self-help. Consequently, through realism the zero-sum game would likely aid the United States and the United states only with their economic gains. Liberalism is another concept that has significant arguments regarding international relations. Liberal economics have determined the shape of the monetary system and support the concept of open markets, where individuals have the freedom to engage in commerce. Unlike realists, liberals oppose mercantilism and the zero-sum game much like the countries in NAFTA. This disagreement is the cause of many disagreements during the NAFTA negotiations. If countries are able to work together and trust one another to attain power, conflict is less likely to occur and overall economic wealth for countries can be gained. Through free trade, the goal is to have a decreased amount of wasted resources on inefficient production because the more individuals that engage in this collective use of resources the more likely the system would become efficient and acquire heightened economic gains such as wealth. ) Finally, there is the liberal institutionalism perspective which approves of regimes and int ernational organizations. Utilizing these rules through rapid growth of regimes, regulate economic affairs, determine which activities are allowed and disallowed, and assure thatShow MoreRelatedThe Major Problems That International Relations1639 Words   |  7 Pagesunderstanding and perspective on the issue. The three theoretical approaches we will explore in this paper are Realism, Liberalism and Marxism. These three approaches are chosen due to their verity as well as how vast their explanation stretches allows for contrasts to show more accurately. As we will discuss later, we will find that there are some similarities between Liberalism and Realism also where Marxism brings in a perspective completely alternate to the first two, adding to the depth of the explanationsRead MoreThree Ideologies of Political Economy Essay974 Words   |  4 PagesAt the core of the debate are the three main philosophical ideologies (Realism, Liberalism and Marxism) which create conflicts revolvin g around the role and significance of the market in the organization of society and economic affairs. This paper will analyze these three philosophical ideologies and explain how the advocates of these ideologies would assess the phenomenon of global integration. Realism, Liberalism and Marxism differ significantly in relation to the IPE. The realist view of IPE Read MoreInternational Relations : Definition, Liberalism, Constructivism And Marxism903 Words   |  4 Pagessystem works. The major theories are Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism and Marxism. According to realism, the system for the countries works for their benefits only by working in increasing their power relative to that of other countries. The reasons realism theory works this way because it claims that the world is a very dangerous place and the only way to survive is to be strong and powerful by having a reliable military power. There are many reasons that realism thinks that way. First, there isRead MoreMarxist Theories Of International Relations903 Words   |  4 Pageswere excessively concerned with the role of economics in defining social and political relations. These were also exceedingly pessimistic in their approach, offering hardly any viable option to replace the capitalist system. The core principle of Marxism is that the world is divided not into politically determined nations but into economically determined classes. Subsequently, politics does not supersede economics, but rather economics trumps politics. The various Marxist theories of internationalRead MoreThe Politics of International Economic Relations Essay1505 Words   |  7 PagesThe Politics of International Economic Relations The purpose of the essay is to draw out the conceptual differences of Liberalism, Realism and Marxism. Each author stands for different approach among the three readings. Deundey and Ikenberry are liberals, Gilpin researches for Realism, David Harvey is a typical scholar of Marxism. The perspectives of three authors overlap on three issues but have different view on them. The first issue is what are the main actors involved in economic relations accordingRead MoreThe Problem Of National Self Reliance Essay1473 Words   |  6 Pagesmore robust economy. Does this mean one is more efficient or productive than the other? From the 14th to the 17th century the period following the middle Ages and also know as Renaissance the international Political Economy (IPE) was dominated by Realism Politic theory the predominant school of thought or a theory of political philosophy that attempts to explain international and domestic politics. Its roots date back to 400 Before Christ, and many Realists such as Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas HobbesRead MoreGlobalization and the International Political Economy Essay3605 Words   |  15 PagesRealism, Liberalism, Marxism and the Phenomenon of Global Integration Introduction Various theories and perspectives have been proposed by theorists and international relations observers in explaining International Political Economy (IPE). The most salient among these perspectives are Realism, Liberalism, and Marxism. These paradigms or ways of looking at IPE enables international relations students to study the forces at work in the international realm and analyze how these factorsRead MoreRealism and Liberalism in Literature1397 Words   |  6 Pagesdeveloped by thinkers with the help of historical process. Realism, liberalism, Marxism, constructivism, and idealism are the main theories of international relations but among these 5 mainstream theories, two of them have more validity and effectiveness: Realism and liberalism. These two theories of international relations have a very high reputation and efficiency to explain and understand of the historical process. Realism and liberalism may seem totally different from each other but at some certainRead More The Traditional Global Environment Evolved Into The Modern Global System1233 Words   |  5 PagesQuestion 1: Starting in 1900, the traditional global environment evolved into the modern global system. As international relations scholars have attempted to examine and explain this change, six worldviews have emerged. These are Realism, Liberalism, Idealism, Neo-Marxism, Constructivism, and Feminism. In an essay format answer, you are to discuss the main characteristics of each worldview. One of the peculiarities of research of international relations is the variety of conceptual constructionsRead MoreThe Effects Of Global Economic Crisis On The Great Depression Of The 1930 S876 Words   |  4 Pagessituations. The previous four decades were really pushed into eras of neo-liberalism and cutting down on regulations by letting the market regulate prices. Furthermore, the situation highlighted the importance of domestic markets, effective resource management, and risk assessment. 2) Define the 3 global economic traditions (liberalism, Marxism, Mercantilism)? How each of them helps us better understand world politics? Firstly, liberalism is a tradition in which liberty is placed above all else, and government

Geralds engagement Essay Example For Students

Geralds engagement Essay An Inspector Calls was written in 1945, but was set in 1912, before any of the wars. The play involves the Birling family. A family of six (Mr Arthur Birling, Mrs Sybil Birling, Sheila Birling the daughter, Eric Birley the son, Gerald Croft, of Sheila, and Edna the maid.) The play begins with them all celebrating Sheila and Geralds engagement. During their celebrations, an Inspector calls round because of an apparent suicide, which each and everyone of the family, in one way or another drove the girl to. The girl named Eva Smith apparently poisoned her self with disinfectant. Sheilas Confession  Sheilas confession comes in Act one at the very beginning of the play; it is straight after the Inspector interrogates her father, Mr Birling. It is the most dramatic of the confessions as she is very emotional, and she is the only one that actually admits to her guilt, and that she has done something wrong. She admits that she got Eva Smith fired from her job, at Millwards shop, all because she was jealous of her being prettier. She accused Eva of deliberately laughing at her when she tried on a dress and then she got so angry she complained to the manager, and got her sacked. In Sheilas confession she starts talking to the audience, this is strange because normally in a play, there is a fourth wall between the audience and the actors. Sheila breaks this rule because she feels she needs to gain the audiences sympathy. She acts as if the audience are the jury and they are judging her. Priestleys Text  The playwright introduces the confession by getting the Inspector to show Sheila a photograph of Eva Smith. Sheila recognises it gives a little cry and a half-hearted sob, and then runs out. This is exactly what Priestly wanted a lot of emotion. She comes back into the room crying. Priestly wanted this because it gives you the impression that she is distressed and worried but also shocked. We know she feels responsible because she asks the Inspector so Im really responsible? Priestly wanted the girl that played Sheila to explain what she did in a very distressed way. So she said: I went to the Manager, at Millwards, and I told him that if they didnt get rid if that girl, Id never go near the place again and Id persuade my Mother to close our account with them. This confession seems very cold and jealous. The final quote is when she says All right, Gerald you neednt look at me like that. At least Im trying to tell the truth. I expect youve done things youre ashamed of too. When Sheila says this, Priestly wants her to suddenly turn to Gerald, because she is trying to get rid of some of the blame, and get him to confess. National Theatre Version In the National Theatre Version, Sheilas speech begins normally; she is very calm. But after the first sentence she starts to talk quicker and becomes more emotional, then out of no where she becomes jealous and spiteful. When she begins to ask questions like How could I know what would happen afterwards? she is trying to convince them that it wasnt her fault. Sheilas family was very wealthy, her father was the Mayor and thinks he is better than anyone else. She doesnt like to be treated as a child; because her family treat her as an adult she expects it from everyone. As she starts her speech she doesnt feel guilty, she is just convinced that the girl shouldnt have laughed at her. Then the Inspector starts to twist things and she then begins to blame herself. .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a , .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .postImageUrl , .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a , .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a:hover , .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a:visited , .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a:active { border:0!important; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a:active , .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u04a207256b44471756c20059b3bc0e4a:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: There are many different aspects of Love in "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare EssayHer tone of voice is very insecure, because she doesnt know what to say and doesnt want to confess anything that they dont already know. I think this suggests that she is used to help, but this time she cant have it and is finding it very hard to manage without her dad, or any other family. Her tone of voice of also goes from being soft to angry when she starts to talk about Eva and the dress. However her speech is very gesticular. I think this shows how insecure she feels, even though she comes over a spoilt immature little girl she is the first to admit her guilt and to realise tha t she has done something wrong, and she feels ashamed. Paragraph 5 I think Annabel Mullions performance in the National Theatre version was a lot more dramatic. It was also much more gesticular than the woman in the film. Annabels tone of voice goes from being very nervous, to being angry and jealous. The film goes to a flashback, so you dont get the plea of her case, unlike the Theatre version, where she is desperately pleading her case to the audience as though they were her jury at a trial. The Inspectors in each version are very similar because they both end up talking to Sheila in an angry manner towards the end of her confession. They are almost the same because in a way they become sort of friendly towards her. By this I mean that because she has confessed and shown the audience her guilt, especially in the Theatre version, the Inspector sees this in her character and in a way he has a hidden respect for that. Conclusion Out of the two versions, I preferred the National Theatre version because it was acted in front of a live audience and it had a much deeper emotion and feeling to it. The theatre was much more dramatic. To create this I think they put more detail in to it. I think the actors researched who they were playing so they had a lot of understanding of him/her, this meant they could act how they thought the person would have acted.

Pearl Essays - The Pearl, , Term Papers, Research Papers

Pearl Ever since Midas' lust for gold, it appears to be that man has acquired a greed and appetite for wealth. Juana, the Priest, and the doctor have all undergone a change due to money. They are all affected by their hunger for wealth and inturn are the base for their own destruction, and the destruction of society. Steinbeck's "The Pearl" is a study of man's self destruction through greed. Juana, the faithful wife of Kino, a paltry peasant man, had lived a spiritual life for what had seemed like as long as she could remember. When her son Coyito fell ill from the bite of a scorpion, she eagerly turned towards the spiritual aspects of life. Beginning to pray for her son's endangered life. The doctor who had resided in the upper-class section of the town, refused to assistant the child, turning them away when they arrived at the door. Lastly they turned to the sea to seek their fortune. When Juana set sight on the "Pearl of The World." she felt as though all her prayers had been answered, if she could have foreseen the future what she would have seen would have been a mirror image of her reality. Juana's husband was caught in a twisted realm of mirrors, and they were all shattering one by one. In the night he heard a "sound so soft that it might have been simply a thought..." and quickly attacked the trespasser. This is where the problems for Juana and her family began. The fear that had mounted in Kino's body had taken control over his actions. Soon even Juana who had always had faith in her husband, had doubted him greatly. "It will destroy us all" she yelled as her attempt to rid the family of the pearl had failed. Kino had not listened however, and soon Juana began to lose her spiritual side and for a long time she had forgotten her prayers that had at once meant so much to her. She had tried to help Kino before to much trouble had aroused, only to discover that she was not competent enough to help. A hypocrathic oath is said before each medical student is granted a Doctors degree. In the oath they swear to aid the ill, and cure the injured. In the village of La Paz there lived a doctor who had earned his wealth by helping those that were ill and could afford his services. Not once in his long career would he have dared refuse to aid a wealthy lawyer or noblemen. However when Kino and the group of money hungry peasants arrived at his door with a poisoned child he had refused them entry saying "Have I nothing better to do than cure insect bites for `little Indians'? I am a doctor, not a veterinary." for the doctor had known that the peasants hadn't any money. He had been to Paris and had enjoyed the splendors of the world, and therefore he wouldn't be seen dealing with the less fortunate as he knew that the less fortunate would surely always be just that-less fortunate. However it seemed that he had been stereotypical of the less fortunate, as he soon discovered when hearing of a great pearl discovered by the peasants who had knocked upon his door earlier that day. A hunger for wealth was what pushed him to visit the peasants house and aid their destitute son. However he had already ended Coyito's life without knowing he'd done so, for if he had administered aid to Coyito when they were first at the doctors door, Kino would have no reason to seek his fortune in the ocean, and would not be led down the road to hardships. One might think that a doctor, one who has the image of being passive, and caring should not stoop to such a level. When one is down on their luck, chances are they will turn to superstition in hope to acquire what it is that they would want to achieve. A good example of this would be a good luck charm such as a rabbit's foot. In La Paz the peasants were uneducated and probably had never heard of a superstition. The peasants only reliability, there only scapegoat was God. God had always been their to aid them in there times of need. The first reaction of Juana when seeing the scorpion is a good example of spirituality, rather than attempt to kill the scorpion she began to pray to

Notice of Litigation Essays

Notice of Litigation Essays Notice of Litigation Essay Notice of Litigation Essay Premier CollegeLitigation Hold Notice POLICIESIssued: November 21,2011 Responsible Official: President Responsible Legal Counsel/Chief Information Officer Office: Policy Statement Policy Statement Premier College has a legal obligation to preserve evidence and records, including electronic documents that are relevant to a pending or potential claim or action, such as a government audit, administrative proceeding, or lawsuit. Upon notice of pending litigation or anticipated, Premier College must implement a Litigation Hold Notice that requires the retention of certain paper and electronic records for an indefinite period of time due to pending state or federal litigation. Each employee of Premier College is responsible for acting in compliance with the Litigation Hold Notice regarding the preservation and maintenance of evidence relevant to pending litigation. The Office of Legal Counsel together with the Chief Information Officer at Premier College is responsible for implementing the Litigation Hold Procedures upon notice of the need for a litigation hold to preserve relevant electronically stored information and paper documents. Identifying instances in which a Litigation Hold Notice is required and its subsequent implementation requires collaboration of multiple individuals within , Premier College, including the Records Coordinator. Purpose This policy and procedures applies to all personnel and covers all records, regardless of form, made or received in the transaction of Premier College business. Definition Definitions A â€Å"Litigation Hold Notice is an order to cease destruction and preserve all records, regardless of form, related to the nature or subject of the legal hold. Litigation Hold Procedure The process whereby Premier College sends a notice to all involved departments suspending the normal operation of document destruction polices for particular records relevant to any pending or potential claim or action. Notwithstanding the applicable records retention schedule, documents that are subject to a particular Litigation Hold Notice must be retained until the hold is removed. Records Coordinator The Records Coordinator, as designated by the Vice-President for Business and Finance, has the authority and responsibility to dispose of paper and electronic documents in accordance with approved records disposition authorizations policies, per Premier College Records Management Program. Evidence Includes all records, whether in electronic or paper form, created, received, or maintained in the transaction of University business, whether conducted at home or work. Such evidence may include, but is not limited to, paper records and electronic records stored on servers, desktop or laptop hard drives, tapes, flash drives, memory sticks, DVDs, or CD-ROMs. Electronically Stored Information (ESI) Refers to all forms of electronic data and documents. Electronic records includes all forms of electronic communications, including, but not limited to, e-mail, word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, instant messages, calendars, voice messages, videotapes, audio recordings, photographs, SharePoint files, Wiki materials, telephone or meeting logs, contact manager information, Internet usage files, and information stored in PDAs, Blackberry devices, or removable media (e. g. , CDs, DVDs, thumb drives, etc. ). Procedures Notification of Litigation . All employees have an affirmative duty to inform the Office of Legal Counsel when they receive notification of any claim or action or threat of any claim or action against the College. 2. Employees are considered to be in receipt of notice of a claim or action when they receive a complaint, summons, and/or other official document(s) related to a lawsuit or claim. 3. The Office of Legal Counsel will determine whether the notification received warrants issuance of a Litigation Hold Notice. Employees Notification of Litigation to Legal Counsel 1. Employees who have notice of any pending or potential claim or action against Premier College must inform the Office of Legal Counsel, in writing, of the matter. The Office of Legal Counsel will determine whether to initiate a legal hold and to identify Premier College personnel subject to the hold. 2. This notification must occur within two business days of their receipt of the notification. Issuance of Litigation Hold Notice Letter 1. College counsel will issue an Official Litigation Hold Notice Letter regarding the matter to the appropriate individuals within five business days of receipt of notification of pending litigation. 2. The Litigation Hold Notice Letter shall provide the categories of electronic and paper documents, including ESI, that must be retained until further notice and that electronic information must be preserved in its original electronic form, so that all information contained within it, whether visible or not, is also available for inspection. Employees Compliance with Litigation Hold Notice Letter 1. All employees who receive notice of the hold must give confirmation of receipt of the hold notice along with a statement agreeing to abide by the litigation hold within one week of receipt of the hold notice. 2. All employees must immediately suspend deletion, purging, overwriting, or any other destruction of electronic information relevant to this dispute that is under their control. This includes electronic information wherever it is stored, including, but not limited to, on hard drives of College work station desktops or laptops, on flash drives, CD-ROMs, DVDs, memory sticks, tapes, zip disks, diskettes, PDAs, etc. 3. This electronic information must be preserved so that it can be retrieved at a later time and must be preserved in its original electronic form, so that all information contained within it, whether visible or not, is also available for inspection. 4. It is not sufficient to make a hard copy of electronic communication. Electronic records must be retained in the original format (e. g. burned to a disk/CD saved in a secure folder on the system server that is not subjected to unannounced deletion, etc. ) 5. It is the responsibility of the individuals to whom the litigation hold notice is issued to retain all records that are responsive to the notice until they receive written notification that the litigation hold has been removed. 6. Preserve any new electronic information that is generated after receipt of the legal hold notice that is relevant to the subject of the notice. This should be done by creating separate mailboxes and files and segregating all future electronically stored information in these separate mailboxes and files. Violations Violations of this policy and procedures are subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. FAQs Q; What is anticipated litigation? A; Litigation is anticipated where Premier College receives information that a claim or dispute has arisen which has a strong possibility of becoming litigation. This is a fact specific inquiry which shall be done in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel. Some examples include EEOC complaints, Office of Civil Rights complaints, government or internal investigations, and claims filed with the Claims Commission. Q; What happens once I receive the Litigation Hold Notice? A; The Litigation Hold Notice will provide the description of the materials that need to be protected as well as how the information should be stored. The Office of Legal Counsel will provide guidance throughout this process and the Information Technology Division will assist employees in storing relevant ESI.

The Function of The

The Function of The The Function of â€Å"The† The Function of â€Å"The† By Mark Nichol I found it interesting, when researching this topic, that the definition for the in Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary is nearly as long as this post and that’s for just one set of functions for the word, as a definite article. The also functions, less often, as an adverb (â€Å"I like that one the best†) and, rarely, a preposition used in place of per (â€Å"Those cost ten dollars the dozen†). And why should anyone feel the need to look the up in the dictionary? Isn’t it obvious? When it comes to meaning, yes, the role of the in a sentence is clear. But it’s not always clear whether the cast of characters in the sentence must include that role. Consider the sentence â€Å"I looked out over the land.† The writer describes surveying a particular plot of land. However, â€Å"The price of land has gone down lately† omits the because no specific plot of land is being discussed; the topic is the concept of land in general. But notice that in these nearly identical sentences, the difference in meaning seems to be the reverse of the difference in the previous paragraph: â€Å"I poured water out of the pitcher† explains what was poured, whereas â€Å"I poured the water out of the pitcher† emphasizes where the water came from. Notice, however, that in those examples and the pair that follow, the is a marker for a second reference: â€Å"I put the shoes on and walked outside† emphasizes the particular pair of shoes, which presumably have already been referred to. â€Å"I put shoes on and walked outside† calls no special attention to the shoes; the sentence merely describes the writer’s routine preliminary to leaving the premises. Sometimes the presence or absence or the in a sentence is irrelevant; the person quoted could have employed either usage: â€Å"She’ll have the strawberry cheesecake† identifies the particular dessert a diner wishes to be served, one either visible to the speaker or listed on a menu a literal or implied second reference. â€Å"She’ll have strawberry cheesecake† means the same thing with the subtle difference that the speaker is not directly alluding to the dessert selection visible in the form of a slice or a reference in text. However, in the case of the pair of sentences about the shoes, the previous reference may be very important; these are magic shoes we’re reading about, for example. â€Å"I put shoes on and walked outside† presumably leaves the unusual footwear behind; â€Å"I put the shoes on and walked outside† moves the plot along. The is deliberately omitted in many types of usage. For instance, most references to countries (â€Å"Afghanistan,† â€Å"Zimbabwe†) need no definite article, nor do references to their citizens (â€Å"Afghanis,† Zimbabweans†), unless, again, a particular subgroup is in question (â€Å"The Afghanis in the tour group kept to themselves†). Exceptions include use of â€Å"the Netherlands† and similar geographically influenced names. The same rule applies to names of other geographical or geopolitical features (â€Å"Mount Everest,† but â€Å"the Himalayas†; â€Å"Hawaii,† but â€Å"the Hawaiian Islands†; â€Å"Lake Tahoe†, but â€Å"the Great Salt Lake†). Oddly, writers who would never make the mistake of omitting the before â€Å"Netherlands† or â€Å"Hawaiian Islands† frequently refrain from preceding names of organizations: â€Å"March of Dimes Foundation was founded in 1938.† Admittedly, some names do not merit the definite article, but they are usually obvious (â€Å"Project Reason,† â€Å"People for the American Way†). However, logic should override poor usage. The People for the American Way Foundation, associated with the organization named in the latter example, incorrectly self-identifies as â€Å"People for the American Way Foundation.† The rule of thumb is that any organizational name ending in a word referring to the entity (foundation, organization, project, etc.) requires the definite article, just as a generic reference such as â€Å"the foundation† merits it. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive At50 Latin Phrases You Should KnowForming the Comparative of One-syllable Adjectives

History of African American and European American Families Article

History of African American and European American Families - Article Example These families were ruled by the father where they control women, men mainly called the puritan fathers were the representatives of their families in the political and social affairs of the community. Additionally they had the legal right to choose a spouse for their children. Then puritan family were self sufficient economically since they were large where all the members of the family contributed to the surfaces needed for production. United States also known as the diversity nation, the African American people who also form a large percentage of American population went through for stages in their Americas. These were, slavery that lasted from colonial times until the end of civil war most of these people mainly lived in the south, during their slavery, nuclear family was common. However, the slavery interrupted their organization since they had to freedom to do what they wanted. Slave parents also had no rights in regard to their children. Slave owner treated men and women the same way where any work could have been allocated to either, through peaceful means African Americans fought for their equity which they latter got after a hard

Athletes and Performance Enhancing Drugs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Athletes and Performance Enhancing Drugs - Essay Example Athletes playing football, hockey, and gymnastics commonly use Creatine. Side effects of taking Creatine include nausea, kidney damage, and weight gain. Anabolic steroids are hormone testosterone’s synthetic version (Helmenstine, 2013). Anabolic steroids are used to increase muscle strength and build muscles. Weightlifters and football players commonly take Anabolic steroids. They use can cause damage to liver and heart, halt the growth of bones, and cause the permanent shortage in the body stature. Steroid precursors are substances that are converted into anabolic steroids by the body. Â  Marion Jones was the first woman to be the winner of five medals in total during the Sydney Olympic games of 2000. Her titles were stripped from her after her confession about the use of banned substances (Menton, 2011). Roger Clemons who was once considered to be amongst the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball was accused of using anabolic steroids by the Mitchell Report between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Lance Armstrong was caught using performance-enhancing drugs and he was deprived of his cycling trophies (Bucholz, 2013). People found it hard to believe that someone could even cheat them at a transportation method. Similarly, many other athletes have been caught using the performance enhancement drugs; Barry Bonds, A-Rod, Manny Ramirez, Ben Johnson, Floyd Landis, and Shawne Merriman to name a few.

Role of Spirituality in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease Essay Example for Free

Role of Spirituality in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease Essay Spirituality, as defined in this article entitled Role of Spirituality in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease, is the capacity to rise above life experiences, to celebrate life, and to experience joy. Spirituality is comprised of acceptance, the need for love, mercifulness, and self-fulfillment and it applies to all mankind; on the other hand, being religious is relative to the person’s religious group and its practices (Cooper-Effa, et al. , 2001). They have divided a person’s spiritual well-being into involving a religious component or a relationship with God and an existential component, which involves the individual’s sense of life purpose. It was concluded in this study that those patients with a relatively high existential component were able to cope up more with the pain and the over-all outcome of the disease. It has been known that spirituality can increase the ability to tolerate pain (cited in Landis, 1996). This concept can be applied by getting the patient’s cooperation and trust, and then the nurse will facilitate a talk about spirituality. This will empower the patient to establish his spirituality and the nurse will also be able to develop closer ties with the patient, improving rapport. The nurse can further help the patient by getting him a spiritual counselor, as per patient’s request. By helping the patient strengthen his spirituality, an improvement in the patient’s over-all outlook on the disease, on life, and a probability of lesser pain may take place. Holistic practice in nursing is very important nowadays. As a nurse, there are several skills that should be present to help client’s achievement of spiritual needs. The nurse should be open to all kinds of religion and beliefs, he must try to maintain open minded. He or she should respect these beliefs and religious practices by not questioning the nature of these and by participating in these activities whenever the client wishes the nurse to. Also, nurses cannot let their own beliefs take over them. If there are circumstances wherein the nurse finds that he is unable to accept a client’s belief or practice, then it would be best for the nurse to ask for help from another nurse discreetly. Patience, understanding, and wisdom are needed for a successful patient and nurse interaction. References Journal of the American Board of Family Practice. (2001). Role of Spirituality in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease. Retrieved February 01, 2008, from http://www. medscape. com/viewarticle/405838_1.

Mendels Peas and Hawkweeds :: Heredity Genes Mendel Research Essays

Mendel's Peas and Hawkweeds Works Cited Missing Many Scientists have contributed to the field of genetics. Yet the groundwork for today's modern genetics can be found in the work done by one man, Gregor Mendel. While there were many scientists who tried to answer the same questions before him, none were able to come to the successful conclusions he did. Before Mendel's experiments, many other theories had been in place to answer the questions about why we look like our parents. Many of these beliefs were myths, and the true reasons behind heredity were not sought, because creation was the belief of the majority of people. Some of these beliefs include "'The preformation theory"' (Bowler, 2), in which it was believed that "the embryo grew from a perfectly formed miniature already present in the mother's womb ( or the father's sperm)." (Bowler, 2) Another theory was that of "'blending inheritance' in which the offspring's characters were always intermediate between those of its parents." (Bowler, 3) It was in the time of these theories that Mendel did his work, which was dismissed as stated in the story. Mendel was a monk who taught in the monastery, and he did his experiments in the garden outside the monastery while teaching as said in the book. His main focus was on the garden pea, Pisum sativum. One peculiarity of pea reproduction is that the petals of the flower close down Tightly, preventing pollen grains from entering or leaving. This enforces a system of self-fertilization, in which sperm and eggs from a particular flower Unite with each other to produce seeds. As a result, individual pee strains are Highly inbred, displaying little, if any genetic variation from one generation to The next. Because of this uniformity, we say that such strains are true-breeding. ( Snustad, 42) In his experiments, Mendel tested many different traits. Among them were the following traits and the frequencies each appeared in: Mendel was successful in his experiments, because he tested one trait at a time, as compared to other scientists who tried to follow multiple traits. This is what allowed him to be successful, although with what we know now, it is easier to follow many traits at a time. In his first set of experiments, he crossed tall varieties with dwarf varieties. To do this, He carefully removed the anthers from one variety before its pollen had matured and then applied pollen from the other variety to the stigma.

Operating System Security Essay

Operating System Security Security is the most important part of an operating system when it comes to keeping the system and its information safe. There are various aspects to the security piece in an operating system; which are protocols, kernel and encryption. The UNIX/LINIX, Apple and Windows Server 2008 all have protocol, kernel and encryption features. These features need to be enabled to the highest level in order to have the most security for each of these operating systems. Even though some of these features are already enabled to some level by default, the security level still can be raised for more protection. Starting with the UNIX/LINUX versus Apple operating systems, the most secured versions of these operating systems will be used to demonstrate which is more secured. There are two aspects of these operating systems, desktop and server, however we will stay with the desktop versions of these operating systems. This will allow a more forward approach, so that it will be more understandable for the end user. The LINUX Red Hat Enterprise edition offers the most security of any of the other editions of UNIX/LINUX desktop versions. The protocols of this operating system offer some level of security but there are no new approved security measures built into the security stack. This allows hackers/attacker to be able to gain access easier than newer security measures. One of the newest measures of security in LINUX is SELinux this includes enhancements to the kernel in the LINUX operating system. It provides a security measures that enables access control security policies. This level of security also includes MAC (mandatory access controls) which is a government style level of security measure. This kernel security measure is the highest level of security that this operating system has to offer. When looking into the Apple operating system, OS X offers the most protection of any version of Apple operating system. One of the main security features in the Apple OS (operating system) is XProtect, this feature is used to add the highest level of security to browsers. However, the older versions of Safari and Mail will no longer be able to run once this security update is applied to the OS. And this makes this OS have less functionality than it would normally in a browser aspect. The OS X version 1.6 code name snow leopard is the Apple OS security that we will be discussing. The highest level of security that this Apple OS has to offer is the hidden malware protection that it provides. This Apple OS has a built in system that detects malicious software and attempts to protect the system from the user to prevent him/her from damaging their system(s). However, since the malware are quarantined and not deleted/removed, it poses another security issue. Unfortunately, Apple has been slow when it comes to security threats and so we will have to see if there will be any additional security measures in the future. The Windows Server 2008 is the most secured Windows operating system available and also has the most security features available than any other OS developed by Microsoft. The Windows Server 2008 has an improved firewall and advanced security features. Incoming and outgoing filters can be customized and configured to the level and flexibility needed by the user. NAP (network access protection is an advanced security feature of Windows Server 2008. This feature helps keep unsecured computers from accessing the network of a business and also a single computer or home based network as well. This OS does allow external access from remote computers by mitigating possible security breaches. The NAP security feature is an enhancement of the NPS (network policy server) feature from Windows Server 2003. And so it is a proven security feature with proven results and is the highest advanced security feature available in Windows Server 2008.

Heard and unheard music of Casablanca Essay

While Casablanca is one of the most know, satirized and often many lines repeated, the unsung hero of the movie is its music. Everyone knows â€Å"As time goes by†, but after seeing the movie can you think of any other music from this classic. People who have seen Casablanca dozens of times ( my father ) in their life can only remember â€Å"As time goes by†. This song brings back the happy memories of Ilsa and Rick in Paris. When Rick tells Sam not to play that song, is it possible that Rick never wants to remember the good times with a woman he will never see again or his alcoholic self destructive nature depriving himself of any happiness. Ilsa on the other hand wants to remember the good times and that is why she asks Sam to Play it. In the scene following Rick’s refusal to sell Laszlo the letters of transit, the German officers start singing a German song Die Wacht Am Rhein. Victor Laszlo never one to let the Germans get the upper hand asks the band to play La Marsellaise. Many in the crowd sing along to La Marsellaise as well as Laszlo. The German officers try in vain to out sing the crowd, but with their small numbers and their Nazi cause, the French Anthem wins the day. Shortly after this, Major Strasser orders Captain Renault to close down Rick’s. Two competing songs bring the closure of our heroes night club, a pivotal point in the movie, and few if any can remember the names of the 2 songs nor even hum a few bars. This scene also places Victor Laszlo on top of Major Strasser’s list of things he needs to clean up in Casablanca. So why is it that 2 epic anthem’s, such a critical part of this film goes unheard and a song like â€Å"As time goes by† is sung, hummed and quoted so often. It is my belief that â€Å"As time goes by â€Å" brings back the memories of the good times and Die Wacht Am Rhein and La Marsellaise bring up the confrontation that many go to the movies to forget. The next time I see Casablanca, I will be humming â€Å"As time goes by.

Free Essays on Talented Or Opinionated

â€Å"The Talented or the Opinionated† Although the Japanese educational system meets the challenges of our everyday world, the American educational system tends to focus on free will, and expressing opinions pushing the children to exceed their creative limits. In her article â€Å"The Japanese and American Educational Methods,† Jane Korission states that most American high school students are underachievers, and are not pushed enough to reach their ultimate goals whereas, Japanese students have shown the best performance in all categories of the mathematics exams. â€Å"The entrance exams are a large part of the academic curriculum, but a stronger emphasis is place on preparing students to get used to living and working within a group-oriented society.† The Japanese system has an excellent curriculum, and although students might learn many things effectively, they get too much homework and will not have free time to enjoy themselves. In his article â€Å"About the Japanese Educational System,† Hans Lee explains that in America, though curriculum could not compare to Japan, American students have time to vent, and spend time with their friends after class because there is less homework. â€Å"Although there is a low crime rate in Japan because there are many strict rules these rules make the students stressful, so the number of teenager's suicide and juvenile delinquencies are rising.† The way of killing is also being cruel these days. Japanese education makes students learn many subjects and students are able to find something they like, but that is possible only at school. Students must study even after school, so they will not have time to increase their talents. On the contrary, American students have more time to express themselves because there are fewer subjects to study. There is too much free time after school in America so it is likely for the students to waste their times. However, this system allows the teachers to t... Free Essays on Talented Or Opinionated Free Essays on Talented Or Opinionated â€Å"The Talented or the Opinionated† Although the Japanese educational system meets the challenges of our everyday world, the American educational system tends to focus on free will, and expressing opinions pushing the children to exceed their creative limits. In her article â€Å"The Japanese and American Educational Methods,† Jane Korission states that most American high school students are underachievers, and are not pushed enough to reach their ultimate goals whereas, Japanese students have shown the best performance in all categories of the mathematics exams. â€Å"The entrance exams are a large part of the academic curriculum, but a stronger emphasis is place on preparing students to get used to living and working within a group-oriented society.† The Japanese system has an excellent curriculum, and although students might learn many things effectively, they get too much homework and will not have free time to enjoy themselves. In his article â€Å"About the Japanese Educational System,† Hans Lee explains that in America, though curriculum could not compare to Japan, American students have time to vent, and spend time with their friends after class because there is less homework. â€Å"Although there is a low crime rate in Japan because there are many strict rules these rules make the students stressful, so the number of teenager's suicide and juvenile delinquencies are rising.† The way of killing is also being cruel these days. Japanese education makes students learn many subjects and students are able to find something they like, but that is possible only at school. Students must study even after school, so they will not have time to increase their talents. On the contrary, American students have more time to express themselves because there are fewer subjects to study. There is too much free time after school in America so it is likely for the students to waste their times. However, this system allows the teachers to t...

Mendels Law of Independent Assortment

Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment In the 1860s, a monk named Gregor Mendel discovered many of the principles that govern heredity. One of these principles, now known as Mendels law of independent assortment, states that allele pairs separate during the formation of gametes. This means that traits are transmitted to offspring independently of one another. Mendel discovered this principle after performing dihybrid crosses between plants that had two traits, such as seed color and pod color, that differed from one another. After these plants were allowed to self-pollinate, he noticed that the same ratio of 9:3:3:1 appeared among the offspring. Mendel concluded that traits were transmitted to offspring independently. The image above shows a true-breeding plant with the dominant traits of green pod color (GG) and yellow seed color (YY) being cross-pollinated with a true-breeding plant with yellow pod color (gg) and green seed color (yy). The resulting offspring are all heterozygous for green pod color and yellow seed color (GgYy). If the offspring are allowed to self pollinate, a 9:3:3:1 ratio will be seen in the next generation. About nine  plants will have green pods and yellow seeds, three will have green pods and green seeds, three will have yellow pods and yellow seeds, and one will have a yellow pod and green seeds. This distribution of traits of typical of dihybrid crosses. Mendel's Law of Segregation Foundational to the law of independent assortment is the law of segregation. Mendels earlier experiments led him to formulate this genetics principle. The law of segregation is based on four main concepts. The first is that genes exist in more than one form or allele. Secondly, organisms inherit two alleles (one from each parent) during sexual reproduction. Thirdly, these alleles separate during meiosis, leaving each gamete with one allele for a single trait. Finally, heterozygous alleles exhibit complete dominance, as one allele is dominant and the other is recessive. It is the segregation of alleles that allows for the independent transmission of traits. Non-Mendelian Inheritance Some patterns of inheritance do not exhibit regular Mendelian segregation patterns. In incomplete dominance, for example, one allele does not completely dominate the other. This results in a third phenotype that is a mixture of those observed in the parent alleles. An example of incomplete dominance can be seen in snapdragon plants. A red snapdragon plant that is cross-pollinated with a white snapdragon plant produces pink snapdragon offspring. In co-dominance, both alleles are fully expressed. This results in a third phenotype that displays distinct characteristics of both alleles. For example, when red tulips are crossed with white tulips, the resulting offspring sometimes have flowers that are both red and white. While most genes contain two allele forms, some have multiple alleles for a trait. A common example of this in humans is ABO blood type. ABO blood types have three alleles, which are represented as (IA, IB, IO). Some traits are polygenic, which means that they are controlled by more than one gene. These genes may have two or more alleles for a specific trait. Polygenic traits have many possible phenotypes. Examples of such traits include skin color and eye color.

Corporate Code of Conduct Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Corporate Code of Conduct - Essay Example The Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), commonly known as HP, is one of the world's largest information technology corporations and is worldwide known for its printers and personal computers. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States, it has a global presence in the fields of computing, printing, and digital imaging, and also provides software and services. Hewlett Packard has reached the US$91.7 billion mark in annual revenue just this 2006. Hewlett Packard is now facing off and accelerating its business weapons to topple the higher ranked competitor called with IBM in order to be acknowledged as one of the best in the realm of world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. Hewlett Packard has finally, after many years of painstaking hard work, has been recognized as the No. 1 ranked in terms of worldwide personal computer shipments from its arch rival Dell. Environment. Hewlett Packard has been implementing the best practices in its environment. The company is doing this environmental Code of Conduct by addressing its environmental footprint through by its increased introduction of computer recycling programs and partnerships. The company has good disclosure reporting standard and it produces an environmental report in compliance with the Global Reporting Initiative, a global framework for reporting. Hewlett Packard has a robust Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) management system which is patterned on recognized international models like the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. The company has strong performance, as evidenced by the continuously increasing energy efficiency of HP laptops. HP voluntarily participates in beyond-compliance programs including the Energy Star and the PFC Emissions Reduction Partnership. Hewlett Packard has been named as a potentially responsible partner in 15 Superfund remediation sites. Workplace. Hewlett Packard implements the best practices in its company workplace area. The company is energetically imposing many relevant policies and programs in diversity, labor relations and safety, It has put into actuality its workplace safety program that which also includes ergonomics and job-specific training. Like it competing computer companies, Hewlett Packard is working to reduce and even eliminate work conditions throughout the company's supply chain. Hewlett Packard is expecting its suppliers to have a spotless record in terms labor practices and occupational health and safety. Hewlett Packard has launched the Supply Chain Social and Environmental Responsibility Program to address in order to comply with this issue. Hewlett Packard's diversity programs includes many affinity groups, outreach efforts and domestic partner benefits. Aside from offering a comprehensive workplace safety program, Hewlett Packard's risk-reduction activities includes personal communication an d follow-up with employees. Hewlett Packard's human rights and labor policy includes supporting international human rights and recognition of the rights of employees to organize into labor unions if they choose to do so. As of the present and it is expected to continue, there is no incidence of labor unrest, safety violations, or discrimination of employees and other affected persons. Hewlett Packard has currently incorporated computer programs so that its products are designed to allow full access by more persons

Reggae Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reggae - Essay Example Reggae is a musical style which traces its roots to the small island nation of Jamaica. It is synonymous with the former British colonial territory, the recreational use of â€Å"ganja†, the rise of Rastafarianism around the world and a man commonly known as â€Å"the first Third World superstar† (Pawka). When Reggae first emerged from the Caribbean in the early 1960’s, the United States and United Kingdom’s musical scenes were enthralled with the latest craze of rock n’ roll and R&B. But during this era of musical explosion in the slums of Kingston, â€Å"pan-Africanism merged with American R&B and Caribbean music in (the) back alleys to forever change global music† (John). And as the Jamaican record and radio industries began to gain more independence, more music began to flood out from the region. First, new musical genres emerged from the Jamaican R&B flooding the island, which shaped the sound of reggae music. â€Å"†¦around 1960, Jamaican drummers began hitting the second and fourth beats in unison with the piano and guitar, while the bass played walking quarter-notes.

German Bundestang Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

German Bundestang - Essay Example It has been argued that the use of mobile phones during the driving is not safe and can cause serious safety issues for the drivers therefore German Government should be implementing regulations such that they teach and educate the drivers to avoid using the mobile phones during the driving. This education should emphasis on the possible consequences of the use of mobile phones during driving on the lives of the drivers and others who can fall victim of reckless driving because of this fact. Further through the implementation of this new regulation, drivers, using the mobile phones during driving, should be penalized for not only breaking the law but putting at risk the lives of others besides and themselves. This report intended to pursue the government to not only sanction funds for the public awareness but also for the creation of proper regulations in the country so that the use of cell phones during driving can be avoided. Technology has made our lives easier and efficient as technology has been the most important variables which have virtually revolutionized our daily lives. However, its use can be harmful if technology is not used properly. The use of mobile phones during driving is one such example which is causing many deaths as drivers of the cars sometimes lose concentration and resultantly causes accidents to them. Though its use during the driving is prohibited in many countries however still many motorists tend to ignore the restrictions and use the cell phones during their driving. A survey by AA Trust reported that motorists across the Europe know about the restrictions on the use of cell phones during the driving however the fines and penalties imposed by various governments are different in each country. (IMA, 2008). However it must be noted that drivers are partially aware of the use of the cell phones during the driving is limited too as many considered that they can use the mobile phon es during the driving whereas many believe that the use of hands free during the driving is permitted and hand-held sets are not. The issue is not whether the drivers are aware of the same or not, what is most important is the fact that governments need to take proactive measures in order to ensure that drivers during driving take care of the fact that their lives may be in danger if they continue to talk on cell phones during their driving period. This report will pursue a case to the German government- German Bundestag needs to take proactive

Importance of Human Resource Management

Importance of Human Resource Management Lexi Childs The activity of human resource management is very important in the management of organizational activities. This is because all the activities in an organization are managed and controlled by human activities. With the advancement of technology and passage of time, the role of human resources management has become more strategic. The article mainly focuses on the functions of human resource management in the 21st Century. It aims at finding out the advantages of human resource management, functions of human resource managers and factors influencing human resource management. In the articles, there are emerging trends, challenges facing the human resource management and other related relevant practices. Human resource management entails activities such as recruiting, managing and instructing people on how best to work in a given organization. It also deals with issues such as wellness among organization, safety, employees motivations through incentives, training, and organizational development. Through human resource management, the following activities can be done efficiently and effectively. Recruiting employees, this is an activity done by an HM manager who does the work of employing new workers in an organization. Recruiting should be done after considering the capability of the employees and those that have qualified for a given work needs to be recruited through the objective interview. Human resource management also helps in compensating the employees in case a contract is being terminated or in case employees are being laid off.   Compensation can be done by giving money or through a golden handshake. Safety in the workplace. Human resource manager also ensures there is safety in the workplace by adhering strictly to the occupational safety and health practices. These regulations when implemented can minimize the risks and hazards in the workplace and ensure safety. The motivation of employees. Employees can be motivated to work harder through activities such as the provision of incentives which would encourage them to worker harder. This would in turn help to active the organizations goals and objectives. Human resource department also ensures that there are wellness and benefits among the employees. This is achieved through honesty and accountability. All these can be implemented through giving employees commissions whenever necessary, promotion and increment in salaries. In the 21st century, there are new ways of human resource management such as outsourcing services. This has made the companies of nowadays to be more adaptive to changes such as technological advancement and changes in the market patterns such as advertisement mechanisms etc. Most of the companies today are customers centered in the sense they aim fully to satisfy their customers needs. Therefore, there are new departments in the human resource management called customer care department whose work is to attend to adapt to the grievances channeled by the customers. This improves the customers loyalty to a company. Human resource department of the 21st century helps to keep workers motivated which would improve the success of that company. The following are some of the challenges of human resource management in the 21st century. Selection of the best employees who best suit and qualify for the job. Most of the people in the 21st century are aware and informed on the current trends of most companies and thus it becomes very difficult for a human resource manager to choose the best-talented people who are suitable for the job. It is very difficult to come up with a decision. This is because; the human resource department is made up of people from different diverse cultural and ethnic origin. These people come with different views with are difficult to form one solid idea for an organization. Adoption of new rules and policies to govern the organization activities. It is very difficult to come up with new rules and regulations which would govern the employees and to make them suitable and unique as compared to other organizations.   Implementation of these rules would not sound relevant to other employees. For example, rules governing the occupational health and safety rules. Upholding business ethic and values. This needs to happen considering the changing workplace ethic and competition among the competitors. Workplace ethic would also make the management of employees easy and possible since ethic would accept their diversity and opinions.

A Soldiers Life in the Civil War Essay -- Papers

Life during the Civil War was not a pleasant time. There was basically utter chaos going on the South. Soldiers had to deal with the harsh conditions and the thought of death. Plantation owners had to worry about who was going to work their fields. Business owners had to worry about who was going to buy their products. Citizens had to worry about soldiers destroying their property. And the government had to worry about how to pay the soldiers and how to end the war. This was a very rough time to be alive. Soldier Life During The Civil War The camp life for a soldier was hardly one to be desired. â€Å"The weather was hot and the water was bad, yet the men kept in good spirits, and there was no grumbling at the hard drill and harder work(Ratchford, 11).† The weather varied a lot during the Civil War. At times it would snow up to depths of eight inches and sometimes it would rain and hail for hours on end(Russell, 130). Other times it would be very hot. Sometimes when it would rain, soldiers would wake up half submerged(Brown,122). Death was also a major fear during the Civil War. â€Å"We cook and eat, talk and laugh with the enemies dead lying all about us as though they were so many logs(Brown, 115).† The soldier would march threw battlefields where dead men, horses, and smashed artillery were scattered about in utter confusion; the Blue and the Gray mixed-their bodies so bloated, distorted, and discolored from decomposition, that they were basically unrecognizable(Mohr, 326). There was also the duties of the officers. â€Å"Often when a detachment was on scout, there were no men left in camp to release the pickets, and they had to remain on post for seventy-two hours at a stretch(Histor... ...g, and killing(Ratchford, 11). To me it sounds as though the life of a soldier during the Civil War is not one that I would want to live. I would rather sit at my computer and type a paper about it than actually leave through it. The soldiers and the civilians alike, had it very rough. The conditions were harsh and the fear of death would be the only thing on my mind. Or fear of having my house burnt down or taken from me is something I would not want to experience. In conclusion, I would be very proud to shake any soldiers hand that fought in the Civil War. Outline I. Introduction II. Life of a Soldier During the Civil War A. Camp Life B. Death C. Duties D. Shooting E. Food F. Medical G. Pay III. Government and Citizens During The Civil War A. Government Reaction B. Citizens Reaction C. Citizens Vandalism IV. Conclusion

An Analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood Context Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on November 18, 1939. She published her first book of poetry in 1961 while attending the University of Toronto. She later received degrees from both Radcliffe College and Harvard University, and pursued a career in teaching at the university level. Her first novel, The Edible Woman, was published in 1969 to wide acclaim. Atwood continued teaching as her literary career blossomed. She has lectured widely and has served as a writer-in–residence at colleges ranging from the University of Toronto to Macquarie University in Australia.Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in West Berlin and Alabama in the mid-1980s. The novel, published in 1986, quickly became a best-seller. The Handmaid’s Tale falls squarely within the twentieth-century tradition of anti-utopian, or â€Å"dystopian† novels, exemplified by classics like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orw ell’s 1984. Novels in this genre present imagined worlds and societies that are not ideals, but instead are terrifying or restrictive. Atwood’s novel offers a strongly feminist vision of dystopia.She wrote it shortly after the elections of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain, during a period of conservative revival in the West partly fueled by a strong, well-organized movement of religious conservatives who criticized what they perceived as the excesses of the â€Å"sexual revolution† of the 1960s and 1970s. The growing power of this â€Å"religious right† heightened feminist fears that the gains women had made in previous decades would be reversed. In The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood explores the consequences of a reversal of women’s rights.In the novel’s nightmare world of Gilead, a group of conservative religious extremists has taken power and turned the sexual revolution on its head. Feminists argu ed for liberation from traditional gender roles, but Gilead is a society founded on a â€Å"return to traditional values† and gender roles, and on the subjugation of women by men. What feminists considered the great triumphs of the 1970s—namely, widespread access to contraception, the legalization of abortion, and the increasing political influence of female voters—have all been undone. Women in Gilead are not only forbidden to vote, they are forbidden to read or write.Atwood’s novel also paints a picture of a world undone by pollution and infertility, reflecting 1980s fears about declining birthrates, the dangers of nuclear power, and -environmental degradation. Some of the novel’s concerns seem dated today, and its implicit condemnation of the political goals of America’s religious conservatives has been criticized as unfair and overly paranoid. Nonetheless, The Handmaid’s Tale remains one of the most powerful recent portrayals of a totalitarian society, and one of the few dystopian novels to examine in detail the intersection of politics and sexuality.The novel’s exploration of the controversial politics of reproduction seems likely to guarantee Atwood’s novel a readership well into the twenty-first century. Atwood lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme Gibson and their daughter, Jess. Her most recent novel, The Blind Assassin, won Great Britain’s Booker Prize for literature in 2000. Plot Overview Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the United States of America. Because of dangerously low reproduction rates, Handmaids are assigned to bear children for elite couples that have trouble conceiving.Offred serves the Commander and his wife, Serena Joy, a former gospel singer and advocate for â€Å"traditional values. † Offred is not the narrator’s real name—Handmaid names consist of the word â€Å"of† f ollowed by the name of the Handmaid’s Commander. Every month, when Offred is at the right point in her menstrual cycle, she must have impersonal, wordless sex with the Commander while Serena sits behind her, holding her hands. Offred’s freedom, like the freedom of all women, is completely restricted.She can leave the house only on shopping trips, the door to her room cannot be completely shut, and the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police force, watch her every public move. As Offred tells the story of her daily life, she frequently slips into flashbacks, from which the reader can reconstruct the events leading up to the beginning of the novel. In the old world, before Gilead, Offred had an affair with Luke, a married man. He divorced his wife and married Offred, and they had a child together. Offred’s mother was a single mother and feminist activist. Offred’s best friend, Moira, was fiercely independent.The architects of Gilead began their rise to power in an age of readily available pornography, prostitution, and violence against women—when pollution and chemical spills led to declining fertility rates. Using the military, they assassinated the president and members of Congress and launched a coup, claiming that they were taking power temporarily. They cracked down on women’s rights, forbidding women to hold property or jobs. Offred and Luke took their daughter and attempted to flee across the border into Canada, but they were caught and separated from one another, and Offred has seen neither her husband nor her daughter since.After her capture, Offred’s marriage was voided (because Luke had been divorced), and she was sent to the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, called the Red Center by its inhabitants. At the center, women were indoctrinated into Gilead’s ideology in preparation for becoming Handmaids. Aunt Lydia supervised the women, giving speeches extolling Gilead’s beliefs that women shou ld be subservient to men and solely concerned with bearing children. Aunt Lydia also argued that such a social order ultimately offers women more respect and safety than the old, pre-Gilead society offered them.Moira is brought to the Red Center, but she escapes, and Offred does not know what becomes of her. Once assigned to the Commander’s house, Offred’s life settles into a restrictive routine. She takes shopping trips with Ofglen, another Handmaid, and they visit the Wall outside what used to be Harvard University, where the bodies of rebels hang. She must visit the doctor frequently to be checked for disease and other complications, and she must endure the â€Å"Ceremony,† in which the Commander reads to the household from the Bible, then goes to the bedroom, where his Wife and Offred wait for him, and has sex with Offred.The first break from her routine occurs when she visits the doctor and he offers to have sex with her to get her pregnant, suggesting that her Commander is probably infertile. She refuses. The doctor makes her uneasy, but his proposition is too risky—she could be sent away if caught. After a Ceremony, the Commander sends his gardener and chauffeur, Nick, to ask Offred to come see him in his study the following night. She begins visiting him regularly. They play Scrabble (which is forbidden, since women are not allowed to read), and he lets her look at old magazines like Vogue.At the end of these secret meetings, he asks her to kiss him. During one of their shopping trips, Ofglen reveals to Offred that she is a member of â€Å"Mayday,† an underground organization dedicated to overthrowing Gilead. Meanwhile, Offred begins to find that the Ceremony feels different and less impersonal now that she knows the Commander. Their nighttime conversations begin to touch on the new order that the Commander and his fellow leaders have created in Gilead. When Offred admits how unhappy she is, the Commander remarks, â⠂¬Å"[Y]ou can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. †After some time has gone by without Offred becoming pregnant, Serena suggests that Offred have sex with Nick secretly and pass the child off as the Commander’s. Serena promises to bring Offred a picture of her daughter if she sleeps with Nick, and Offred realizes that Serena has always known the whereabouts of Offred’s daughter. The same night that Offred is to sleep with Nick, the Commander secretly takes her out to a club called Jezebel’s, where the Commanders mingle with prostitutes. Offred sees Moira working there. The two women meet in a bathroom, and Offred learns that Moira was captured just before she crossed the border.She chose life in Jezebel’s over being sent to the Colonies, where most political prisoners and dangerous people are sent. After that night at Jezebel’s, Offred says, she never sees Moira again. The Commander takes Offred upstairs after a few hours, and th ey have sex in what used to be a hotel room. She tries to feign passion. Soon after Offred returns from Jezebel’s, late at night, Serena arrives and tells Offred to go to Nick’s room. Offred and Nick have sex. Soon they begin to sleep together frequently, without anyone’s knowledge.Offred becomes caught up in the affair and ignores Ofglen’s requests that she gather information from the Commander for Mayday. One day, all the Handmaids take part in a group execution of a supposed rapist, supervised by Aunt Lydia. Ofglen strikes the first blow. Later, she tells Offred that the so-called rapist was a member of Mayday and that she hit him to put him out of his misery. Shortly thereafter, Offred goes out shopping, and a new Ofglen meets her. This new woman is not part of Mayday, and she tells Offred that the old Ofglen hanged herself when she saw the secret police coming for her.At home, Serena has found out about Offred’s trip to Jezebel’s, and s he sends her to her room, promising punishment. Offred waits there, and she sees a black van from the Eyes approach. Then Nick comes in and tells her that the Eyes are really Mayday members who have come to save her. Offred leaves with them, over the Commander’s futile objections, on her way either to prison or to freedom—she does not know which. The novel closes with an epilogue from 2195, after Gilead has fallen, written in the form of a lecture given by Professor Pieixoto. He explains the formation and customs of Gilead in objective, analytical language.He discusses the significance of Offred’s story, which has turned up on cassette tapes in Bangor, Maine. He suggests that Nick arranged Offred’s escape but that her fate after that is unknown. She could have escaped to Canada or England, or she could have been recaptured. Character List Offred – The narrator and protagonist of The Handmaid’s Tale. Offred belongs to the class of Handmaids, fertile women forced to bear children for elite, barren couples. Handmaids show which Commander owns them by adopting their Commanders’ names, such as Fred, and preceding them with â€Å"Of. Offred remembers her real name but never reveals it. She no longer has family or friends, though she has flashbacks to a time in which she had a daughter and a husband named Luke. The cruel physical and psychological burdens of her daily life in Gilead torment her and pervade her narrative. Read an in-depth analysis of Offred. The Commander – The Commander is the head of the household where Offred works as a Handmaid. He initiates an unorthodox relationship with Offred, secretly playing Scrabble with her in his study at night.He often seems a decent, well-meaning man, and Offred sometimes finds that she likes him in spite of herself. He almost seems a victim of Gilead, making the best of a society he opposes. However, we learn from various clues and from the epilogue that the Comm ander was actually involved in designing and establishing Gilead. Read an in-depth analysis of The Commander. Serena Joy – The Commander’s Wife, Serena worked in pre-Gilead days as a gospel singer, then as an anti-feminist activist and crusader for â€Å"traditional values. In Gilead, she sits at the top of the female social ladder, yet she is desperately unhappy. Serena’s unhappiness shows that her restrictive, male-dominated society cannot bring happiness even to its most pampered and powerful women. Serena jealously guards her claims to status and behaves cruelly toward the Handmaids in her household. Read an in-depth analysis of Serena Joy. Moira – Offred’s best friend from college, Moira is a lesbian and a staunch feminist; she embodies female resourcefulness and independence. Her defiant nature contrasts starkly with the behavior of the other women in the novel.Rather than passively accept her fate as a Handmaid, she makes several escape att empts and finally manages to get away from the Red Center. However, she is caught before she can get out of Gilead. Later, Offred encounters Moira working as a prostitute in a club for the Commanders. At the club, Moira seems resigned to her fate, which suggests that a totalitarian society can grind down and crush even the most resourceful and independent people. Read an in-depth analysis of Moira. Aunt Lydia – The Aunts are the class of women assigned to indoctrinate the Handmaids with the beliefs of the new society and make them accept their fates.Aunt Lydia works at the â€Å"Red Center,† the re? education center where Offred and other women go for instruction before becoming Handmaids. Although she appears only in Offred’s flashbacks, Aunt Lydia and her instructions haunt Offred in her daily life. Aunt Lydia’s slogans and maxims drum the ideology of the new society into heads of the women, until even those like Offred, women who do not truly believe i n the ideology, hear Gilead’s words echoing in their heads. Nick – Nick is a Guardian, a low-level officer of Gilead assigned to the Commander’s home, where he works as a gardener and chauffeur.He and Offred have a sexual chemistry that they get to satisfy when Serena Joy orchestrates an encounter between them in an effort to get Offred pregnant. After sleeping together once, they begin a covert sexual affair. Nick is not just a Guardian; he may work either as a member of the Eyes, Gilead’s secret police, or as a member of the underground Mayday resistance, or both. At the end of the novel, Nick orchestrates Offred’s escape from the Commander’s home, but we do not know whether he puts her into the hands of the Eyes or the resistance.Ofglen – Another Handmaid who is Offred’s shopping partner and a member of the subversive â€Å"Mayday† underground. At the end of the novel, Ofglen is found out, and she hangs herself rather than face torture and reveal the names of her co-conspirators. Cora – Cora works as a servant in the Commander’s household. She belongs to the class of Marthas, infertile women who do not qualify for the high status of Wives and so work in domestic roles. Cora seems more content with her role than her fellow Martha, Rita.She hopes that Offred will be able to conceive, because then she will have a hand in raising a child. Janine – Offred knows Janine from their time at the Red Center. After Janine becomes a Handmaid, she takes the name Ofwarren. She has a baby, which makes her the envy of all the other Handmaids in the area, but the baby later turns out to be deformed—an â€Å"Unbaby†Ã¢â‚¬â€and there are rumors that her doctor fathered the child. Janine is a conformist, always ready to go along with what Gilead demands of her, and so she endears herself to the Aunts and to all authority figures.Offred holds Janine in contempt for taking the easy w ay out. Luke – In the days before Gilead, Luke had an affair with Offred while he was married to another woman, then got a divorce and became Offred’s husband. When Gilead comes to power, he attempts to escape to Canada with Offred and their daughter, but they are captured. He is separated from Offred, and the couple never see one another again. The kind of love they shared is prohibited in Gilead, and Offred’s memories of Luke contrast with the regimented, passionless state of male-female relations in the new society.Offred’s mother – Offred remembers her mother in flashbacks to her pre-Gilead world—she was a single parent and a feminist activist. One day during her education at the Red Center, Offred sees a video of her mother as a young woman, yelling and carrying a banner in an anti-rape march called Take Back the Night. She embodies everything the architects of Gilead want to stamp out. Aunt Elizabeth – Aunt Elizabeth is one of t he Aunts at the Red Center. Moira attacks her and steals her Aunt’s uniform during her escape from the Red Center. Rita – A Martha, or domestic servant, in the Commander’s household.She seems less content with her lot than Cora, the other Martha working there. Professor Pieixoto – The guest speaker at the symposium that takes place in the epilogue to The Handmaid’s Tale. He and another academic, working at a university in the year 2195, transcribed Offred’s recorded narrative; his lecture details the historical significance of the story that we have just read. Analysis of Major Characters Offred Offred is the narrator and the protagonist of the novel, and we are told the entire story from her point of view, experiencing events and memories as vividly as she does.She tells the story as it happens, and shows us the travels of her mind through asides, flashbacks, and digressions. Offred is intelligent, perceptive, and kind. She possesses enough faults to make her human, but not so many that she becomes an unsympathetic figure. She also possesses a dark sense of humor—a graveyard wit that makes her descriptions of the bleak horrors of Gilead bearable, even enjoyable. Like most of the women in Gilead, she is an ordinary woman placed in an extraordinary situation. Offred is not a hero. Although she resists Gilead inwardly, once her attempt at escape fails, she submits outwardly.She is hardly a feminist champion; she had always felt uncomfortable with her mother’s activism, and her pre-Gilead relationship with Luke began when she became his mistress, meeting him in cheap hotels for sex. Although friends with Ofglen, a member of the resistance, she is never bold enough to join up herself. Indeed, after she begins her affair with Nick, she seems to lose sight of escape entirely and suddenly feels that life in Gilead is almost bearable. If she does finally escape, it is because of Nick, not because of anything she does -herself.Offred is a mostly passive character, good-hearted but complacent. Like her peers, she took for granted the freedoms feminism won and now pays the price. The Commander The Commander poses an ethical problem for Offred, and consequently for us. First, he is Offred’s Commander and the immediate agent of her oppression. As a founder of Gilead, he also bears responsibility for the entire totalitarian society. In person, he is far more sympathetic and friendly toward Offred than most other people, and Offred’s evenings with the Commander in his study offer her a small respite from the wasteland of her life.At times, his unhappiness and need for companionship make him seem as much a prisoner of Gilead’s strictures as anyone else. Offred finds herself feeling sympathy for this man. Ultimately, Offred and the reader recognize that if the Commander is a prisoner, the prison is one that he himself helped construct and that his prison is heaven compared to th e prison he created for women. As the novel progresses, we come to realize that his visits with Offred are selfish rather than charitable.They satisfy his need for companionship, but he doesn’t seem to care that they put Offred at terrible risk, a fact of which he must be aware, given that the previous Handmaid hanged herself when her visits to the Commander were discovered. The Commander’s moral blindness, apparent in his attempts to explain the virtues of Gilead, are highlighted by his and Offred’s visit to Jezebel’s. The club, a place where the elite men of the society can engage in recreational extramarital sex, reveals the rank hypocrisy that runs through Gileadean society.Offred’s relationship with the Commander is best represented by a situation she remembers from a documentary on the Holocaust. In the film, the mistress of a brutal death camp guard defended the man she loved, claiming that he was not a monster. â€Å"How easy it is to inve nt a humanity,† Offred thinks. In other words, anyone can seem human, and even likable, given the right set of circumstances. But even if the Commander is likable and can be kind or considerate, his responsibility for the creation of Gilead and his callousness to the hell he created for women means that he, like the Nazi guard, is a monster. Serena JoyThough Serena had been an advocate for traditional values and the establishment of the Gileadean state, her bitterness at the outcome—being confined to the home and having to see her husband copulating with a Handmaid—suggests that spokeswomen for anti-feminist causes might not enjoy getting their way as much as they believe they would. Serena’s obvious unhappiness means that she teeters on the edge of inspiring our sympathy, but she forfeits that sympathy by taking out her frustration on Offred. She seems to possess no compassion for Offred. She can see the difficulty of her own life, but not that of another woman.The climactic moment in Serena’s interaction with Offred comes when she arranges for Offred to sleep with Nick. It seems that Serena makes these plans out of a desire to help Offred get pregnant, but Serena gets an equal reward from Offred’s pregnancy: she gets to raise the baby. Furthermore, Serena’s offer to show Offred a picture of her lost daughter if she sleeps with Nick reveals that Serena has always known of Offred’s daughter’s whereabouts. Not only has she cruelly concealed this knowledge, she is willing to exploit Offred’s loss of a child in order to get an infant of her own.Serena’s lack of sympathy makes her the perfect tool for Gilead’s social order, which relies on the willingness of women to oppress other women. She is a cruel, selfish woman, and Atwood implies that such women are the glue that binds Gilead. Moira Throughout the novel, Moira’s relationship with Offred epitomizes female friendship. Gi lead claims to promote solidarity between women, but in fact it only produces suspicion, hostility, and petty tyranny. The kind of relationship that Moira and Offred maintain from college onward does not exist in Gilead. In Offred’s flashbacks, Moira also embodies female resistance to Gilead.She is a lesbian, which means that she rejects male-female sexual interactions, the only kind that Gilead values. More than that, she is the only character who stands up to authority directly by make two escape attempts, one successful, from the Red Center. The manner in which she escapes—taking off her clothes and putting on the uniform of an Aunt—symbolizes her rejection of Gilead’s attempt to define her identity. From then on, until Offred meets up with her again, Moira represents an alternative to the meek subservience and acceptance of one’s fate that most of the Handmaids adopt.When Offred runs into Moira, Moira has been recaptured and is working as a pro stitute at Jezebel’s, servicing the Commanders. Her fighting spirit seems broken, and she has become resigned to her fate. After embodying resistance for most of the novel, Moira comes to exemplify the way a totalitarian state can crush even the most independent spirit. Themes, Motifs & Symbols Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Women’s Bodies as Political Instruments Because Gilead was formed in response to the crisis caused by dramatically ecreased birthrates, the state’s entire structure, with its religious trappings and rigid political hierarchy, is built around a single goal: control of reproduction. The state tackles the problem head-on by assuming complete control of women’s bodies through their political subjugation. Women cannot vote, hold property or jobs, read, or do anything else that might allow them to become subversive or independent and thereby undermine their husbands or the state. Des pite all of Gilead’s pro-women rhetoric, such subjugation creates a society in which women are treated as subhuman.They are reduced to their fertility, treated as nothing more than a set of ovaries and a womb. In one of the novel’s key scenes, Offred lies in the bath and reflects that, before Gilead, she considered her body an instrument of her desires; now, she is just a mound of flesh surrounding a womb that must be filled in order to make her useful. Gilead seeks to deprive women of their individuality in order to make them docile carriers of the next generation. Language as a Tool of Power Gilead creates an official vocabulary that ignores and warps reality in order to serve the needs of the new society’s elite.Having made it illegal for women to hold jobs, Gilead creates a system of titles. Whereas men are defined by their military rank, women are defined solely by their gender roles as Wives, Handmaids, or Marthas. Stripping them of permanent individual na mes strips them of their individuality, or tries to. Feminists and deformed babies are treated as subhuman, denoted by the terms â€Å"Unwomen† and â€Å"Unbabies. † Blacks and Jews are defined by biblical terms (â€Å"Children of Ham† and â€Å"Sons of Jacob,† respectively) that set them apart from the rest of society, making their persecution easier.There are prescribed greetings for personal encounters, and to fail to offer the correct greetings is to fall under suspicion of disloyalty. Specially created terms define the rituals of Gilead, such as â€Å"Prayvaganzas,† â€Å"Salvagings,† and â€Å"Particicutions. † Dystopian novels about the dangers of totalitarian society frequently explore the connection between a state’s repression of its subjects and its perversion of language (â€Å"Newspeak† in George Orwell’s 1984 is the most famous example), and The Handmaid’s Tale carries on this tradition. Gilea d maintains its control over women’s bodies by maintaining control over names.The Causes of Complacency In a totalitarian state, Atwood suggests, people will endure oppression willingly as long as they receive some slight amount of power or freedom. Offred remembers her mother saying that it is â€Å"truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations. † Offred’s complacency after she begins her relationship with Nick shows the truth of this insight. Her situation restricts her horribly compared to the freedom her former life allowed, but her relationship with Nick allows her to reclaim the tiniest fragment of her former existence.The physical affection and companionship become compensation that make the restrictions almost bearable. Offred seems suddenly so content that she does not say yes when Ofglen asks her to gather information about the Commander. Women in general support Gilead’s existence by willingly participatin g in it, serving as agents of the totalitarian state. While a woman like Serena Joy has no power in the world of men, she exercises authority within her own household and seems to delight in her tyranny over Offred. She jealously guards what little power she has and wields it eagerly.In a similar way, the women known as Aunts, especially Aunt Lydia, act as willing agents of the Gileadean state. They indoctrinate other women into the ruling ideology, keep a close eye out for rebellion, and generally serve the same function for Gilead that the Jewish police did under Nazi rule. Atwood’s message is bleak. At the same time as she condemns Offred, Serena Joy, the Aunts, and even Moira for their complacency, she suggests that even if those women mustered strength and stopped complying, they would likely fail to make a difference.In Gilead the tiny rebellions of resistances do not necessarily matter. In the end, Offred escapes because of luck rather than resistance. Motifs Motifs ar e recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Rape and Sexual Violence Sexual violence, particularly against women, pervades The Handmaid’s Tale. The prevalence of rape and pornography in the pre-Gilead world justified to the founders their establishment of the new order.The Commander and the Aunts claim that women are better protected in Gilead, that they are treated with respect and kept safe from violence. Certainly, the official penalty for rape is terrible: in one scene, the Handmaids tear apart with their bare hands a supposed rapist (actually a member of the resistance). Yet, while Gilead claims to suppress sexual violence, it actually institutionalizes it, as we see at Jezebel’s, the club that provides the Commanders with a ready stable of prostitutes to service the male elite.Most important, sexual violence is apparent in the central institution of the novel, the Ceremony, which compe ls Handmaids to have sex with their Commanders. Religious Terms Used for Political Purposes Gilead is a theocracy—a government in which there is no separation between state and religion—and its official vocabulary incorporates religious terminology and biblical references. Domestic servants are called â€Å"Marthas† in reference to a domestic character in the New Testament; the local police are â€Å"Guardians of the Faith†; soldiers are â€Å"Angels†; and the Commanders are officially â€Å"Commanders of the Faithful. All the stores have biblical names: Loaves and Fishes, All Flesh, Milk and Honey. Even the automobiles have biblical names like Behemoth, Whirlwind, and Chariot. Using religious terminology to describe people, ranks, and businesses whitewashes political skullduggery in pious language. It provides an ever-present reminder that the founders of Gilead insist they act on the authority of the Bible itself. Politics and religion sleep in the same bed in Gilead, where the slogan â€Å"God is a National Resource† predominates. Similarities between Reactionary and Feminist IdeologiesAlthough The Handmaid’s Tale offers a specifically feminist critique of the reactionary attitudes toward women that hold sway in Gilead, Atwood occasionally draws similarities between the architects of Gilead and radical feminists such as Offred’s mother. Both groups claim to protect women from sexual violence, and both show themselves willing to restrict free speech in order to accomplish this goal. Offred recalls a scene in which her mother and other feminists burn porn magazines. Like the founders of Gilead, these feminists ban some expressions of sexuality.Gilead also uses the feminist rhetoric of female solidarity and â€Å"sisterhood† to its own advantage. These points of similarity imply the existence of a dark side of feminist rhetoric. Despite Atwood’s gentle criticism of the feminist left, her re al target is the religious right. Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Cambridge, Massachusetts The center of Gilead’s power, where Offred lives, is never explicitly identified, but a number of clues mark it as the town of Cambridge.Cambridge, its neighboring city of Boston, and Massachusetts as a whole were centers for America’s first religious and intolerant society—the Puritan New England of the seventeenth century. Atwood reminds us of this history with the ancient Puritan church that Offred and Ofglen visit early in the novel, which Gilead has turned into a museum. The choice of Cambridge as a setting symbolizes the direct link between the Puritans and their spiritual heirs in Gilead. Both groups dealt harshly with religious, sexual, or political deviation. Harvard UniversityGilead has transformed Harvard’s buildings into a detention center run by the Eyes, Gilead’s secret po lice. Bodies of executed dissidents hang from the Wall that runs around the college, and Salvagings (mass executions) take place in Harvard Yard, on the steps of the library. Harvard becomes a symbol of the inverted world that Gilead has created: a place that was founded to pursue knowledge and truth becomes a seat of oppression, torture, and the denial of every principle for which a university is supposed to stand. The Handmaids’ Red HabitsThe red color of the costumes worn by the Handmaids symbolizes fertility, which is the caste’s primary function. Red suggests the blood of the menstrual cycle and of childbirth. At the same time, however, red is also a traditional marker of sexual sin, hearkening back to the scarlet letter worn by the adulterous Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale of Puritan ideology. While the Handmaids’ reproductive role supposedly finds its justification in the Bible, in some sense they commit adultery by having sex with the ir Commanders, who are married men. The wives, who often call the Handmaids sluts, feel the pain of this sanctioned adultery.The Handmaids’ red garments, then, also symbolize the ambiguous sinfulness of the Handmaids’ position in Gilead. A Palimpsest A palimpsest is a document on which old writing has been scratched out, often leaving traces, and new writing put in its place; it can also be a document consisting of many layers of writing simply piled one on top of another. Offred describes the Red Center as a palimpsest, but the word actually symbolizes all of Gilead. The old world has been erased and replaced, but only partially, by a new order. Remnants of the pre-Gilead days continue to infuse the new world.The Eyes The Eyes of God are Gilead’s secret police. Both their name and their insignia, a winged eye, symbolize the eternal watchfulness of God and the totalitarian state. In Gilead’s theocracy, the eye of God and of the state are assumed to be one and the same. Chapters 1–3 Summary: Chapter 1 The narrator, whose name we learn later is Offred, describes how she and other women slept on army cots in a gymnasium. Aunt Sara and Aunt Elizabeth patrol with electric cattle prods hanging from their leather belts, and the women, forbidden to speak aloud, whisper without attracting attention.Twice daily, the women walk in the former football field, which is surrounded by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Armed guards called Angels patrol outside. While the women take their walks, the Angels stand outside the fence with their backs to the women. The women long for the Angels to turn and see them. They imagine that if the men looked at them or talked to them, they could use their bodies to make a deal. The narrator describes lying in bed at night, quietly exchanging names with the other women. Summary: Chapter 2The scene changes, and the story shifts from the past to the present tense. Offred now lives in a room fitted out with curtains, a pillow, a framed picture, and a braided rug. There is no glass in the room, not even over the framed picture. The window does not open completely, and the windowpane is shatterproof. There is nothing in the room from which one could hang a rope, and the door does not lock or even shut completely. Looking around, Offred remembers how Aunt Lydia told her to consider her circumstances a privilege, not a prison.Handmaids, to which group the narrator belongs, dress entirely in red, except for the white wings framing their faces. Household servants, called â€Å"Marthas,† wear green uniforms. â€Å"Wives† wear blue uniforms. Offred often secretly listens to Rita and Cora, the Marthas who work in the house where she lives. Once, she hears Rita state that she would never debase herself as someone in Offred’s position must. Cora replies that Offred works for all the women, and that if she (Cora) were younger and had not gotten her tubes tied, she cou ld have been in Offred’s situation. Offred wishes she could alk to them, but Marthas are not supposed to develop relationships with Handmaids. She wishes that she could share gossip like they do—gossip about how one Handmaid gave birth to a stillborn, how a Wife stabbed a Handmaid with a knitting needle out of jealousy, how someone poisoned her Commander with toilet cleaner. Offred dresses for a shopping trip. She collects from Rita the tokens that serve as currency. Each token bears an image of what it will purchase: twelve eggs, cheese, and a steak. Summary: Chapter 3 On her way out, Offred looks around for the Commander’s Wife but does not see her.The Commander’s Wife has a garden, and she knits constantly. All the Wives knit scarves â€Å"for the Angels at the front lines,† but the Commander’s Wife is a particularly skilled knitter. Offred wonders if the scarves actually get used, or if they just give the Wives something to do. She remem bers arriving at the Commander’s house for the first time, after the two couples to which she was previously assigned â€Å"didn’t work out. † One of the Wives in an earlier posting secluded herself in the bedroom, purportedly drinking, and Offred hoped the new Commander’s Wife would be different.On the first day, her new mistress told her to stay out of her sight as much as possible, and to avoid making trouble. As she talked, the Wife smoked a cigarette, a black-market item. Handmaids, Offred notes, are forbidden coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol. Then the Wife reminded Offred that the Commander is her husband, permanently and forever. â€Å"It’s one of the things we fought for,† she said, looking away. Suddenly, Offred recognized her mistress as Serena Joy, the lead soprano from Growing Souls Gospel Hour, a Sunday-morning religious program that aired when Offred was a child. Analysis: Chapters 1–5The Handmaid’s Tale plunges im mediately into an unfamiliar, unexplained world, using unfamiliar terms like â€Å"Handmaid,† â€Å"Angel,† and â€Å"Commander† that only come to make sense as the story progresses. Offred gradually delivers information about her past and the world in which she lives, often narrating through flashbacks. She narrates these flashbacks in the past tense, which distinguishes them from the main body of the story, which she tells in the present tense. The first scene, in the gymnasium, is a flashback, as are Offred’s memories of the Marthas’ gossip and her first meeting with the Commander’s Wife.Although at this point we do not know what the gymnasium signifies, or why the narrator and other women lived there, we do gather some information from the brief first chapter. The women in the gymnasium live under the constant surveillance of the Angels and the Aunts, and they cannot interact with one another. They seem to inhabit a kind of prison. Offre d likens the gym to a palimpsest, a parchment either erased and written on again or layered with multiple writings. In the gym palimpsest, Offred sees multiple layers of history: high school girls going to basketball games and dances wearing miniskirts, then pants, then green hair.Likening the gym to a palimpsest also suggests that the society Offred now inhabits has been superimposed on a previous society, and traces of the old linger beneath the new. In Chapter 2, Offred sits in a room that seems at first like a pleasant change from harsh atmosphere of the gymnasium. However, her description of her room demonstrates that the same rigid, controlling structures that ruled the gym continue to constrict her in this house. The room is like a prison in which all means of defense, or escape by suicide or flight, have been removed.She wonders if women everywhere get issued exactly the same sheets and curtains, which underlines the idea that the room is like a government-ordered prison. We do not know yet what purpose Offred serves in the house, although it seems to be sexual—Cora comments that she could have done Offred’s work if she hadn’t gotten her tubes tied, which implies that Offred’s function is reproductive. Serena Joy’s coldness to Offred makes it plain that she considers Offred a threat, or at least an annoyance. We do know from Offred’s name that she, like all Handmaids, is considered state property.Handmaids’ names simply reflect which Commander owns them. â€Å"Of Fred,† â€Å"Of Warren,† and â€Å"Of Glen† get collapsed into â€Å"Offred,† â€Å"Ofwarren,† and â€Å"Ofglen. † The names make more sense when preceded by the word â€Å"Property†: â€Å"Property Offred,† for example. Thus, every time the women hear their names, they are reminded that they are no more than property. These early chapters establish the novel’s style, which is charac terized by considerable physical description. The narrator devotes attention to the features of the gym, the Commander’s house, and Serena Joy’s pinched face.Offred tells the story in nonlinear fashion, following the temporal leaps of her own mind. The narrative goes where her thoughts take it—one moment to the present, in the Commander’s house, and the next back in the gymnasium, or in the old world, the United States as it exists in Offred’s memory. We do not have the sense, as in some first-person narratives, that Offred is composing this story from a distanced vantage point, reflecting back on her past. Rather, all of her thoughts have a quality of immediacy. We are there with Offred as she goes about her daily life, and as she slips out of the present and thinks about her past.Chapters 4–6 Summary: Chapter 4 As she leaves the house to go shopping, Offred notices Nick, a Guardian of the Faith, washing the Commander’s car. Nick liv es above the garage. He winks at Offred—an offense against -decorum— but she ignores him, fearing that he may be an Eye, a spy assigned to test her. She waits at the corner for Ofglen, another Handmaid with whom Offred will do her shopping. The Handmaids always travel in pairs when outside. Ofglen arrives, and they exchange greetings, careful not to say anything that isn’t strictly orthodox.Ofglen says that she has heard the war is going well, and that the army recently defeated a group of Baptist rebels. â€Å"Praise be,† Offred responds. They reach a checkpoint manned by two young Guardians. The Guardians serve as a routine police force and do menial labor. They are men too young, too old, or just generally unfit for the army. Young Guardians, such as these, can be dangerous because they are frequently more fanatical or nervous than older guards. These young Guardians recently shot a Martha as she fumbled for her pass, because they thought she was a man in disguise carrying a bomb.Offred heard Rita and Cora talking about the shooting. Rita was angry, but Cora seemed to accept the shooting as the price one pays for safety. At the checkpoint, Offred subtly flirts with one of the Guardians by making eye contact, cherishing this small infraction against the rules. She considers how sex-starved the young men must be, since they cannot marry without permission, masturbation is a sin, and pornographic magazines and films are now forbidden. The Guardians can only hope to become Angels, when they will be allowed to take a wife and perhaps eventually get a Handmaid.This marks the first time in the novel we hear the word â€Å"Handmaid† used. Summary: Chapter 5 In town, Ofglen and Offred wait in line at the shops. We learn the name of this new society: â€Å"The Republic of Gilead. † Offred remembers the pre-Gilead days, when women were not protected: they had to keep their doors closed to strangers and ignore catcalls on the s treet. Now no one whistles at women as they walk; no one touches them or talks to them. She remembers Aunt Lydia explaining that more than one kind of freedom exists, and that â€Å"[i]n the days of anarchy, it was freedom to.Now you are being given freedom from. † The women shop at stores known by names like All Flesh and Milk and Honey. Pictures of meat or fruit mark the stores, rather than lettered signs, because â€Å"they decided that even the names of shops were too much temptation for us. † A Handmaid in the late stages of pregnancy enters the store and raises a flurry of excitement. Offred recognizes her from the Red Center. She used to be known as Janine, and she was one of Aunt Lydia’s favorites. Now her name is Ofwarren. Offred senses that Janine went shopping just so she could show off her pregnancy.Offred thinks of her husband, Luke, and their daughter, and the life they led before Gilead existed. She remembers a prosaic detail from their everyday l ife together: she used to store plastic shopping bags under the sink, which annoyed Luke, who worried that their daughter would get one of the bags caught over her head. She remembers feeling guilty for her carelessness. Offred and Ofglen finish their shopping and go out to the sidewalk, where they encounter a group of Japanese tourists and their interpreter. The tourists want to take a photograph, but Offred says no.Many of the interpreters are Eyes, and Handmaids must not appear immodest. Offred and Ofglen marvel at the women’s exposed legs, high heels, and polished toenails. The tourists ask if they are happy, and since Ofglen does not answer, Offred replies that they are very happy. Summary: Chapter 6 This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary. (See Important Quotations Explained) As they return from shopping, Ofglen suggests they take the long way and pass by the church. It is an old building, decorated inside with paintings of what seem to be Puritans from the colonial era.Now the former church is kept as a museum. Offred describes a nearby boathouse, old dormitories, a football stadium, and redbrick sidewalks. Atwood implies that Offred is walking across what used to be the campus of Harvard University. Across the street from the church sits the Wall, where the authorities hang the bodies of executed criminals as examples to the rest of the Republic of Gilead. The authorities cover the men’s heads with bags. One of the bags looks painted with a red smile where the blood has seeped through.All of the six corpses wear signs around their necks picturing fetuses, signaling that they were executed for performing abortions before Gilead came into existence. Although their actions were legal at the time, their crimes are being punished retroactively. Offred feels relieved that none of the bodies could be Luke’s, since he was not a doctor. As she stares at the bodies, Offred thinks of Aunt Lydia telling them that soon their new life would seem ordinary. Analysis: Chapters 4–6 The theocratic nature of Offred’s society, the name of which we learn for the first time in these chapters, becomes clear during her shopping trip.A theocracy exists when there is no separation between church and state, and a single religion dominates all aspects of life. In Gilead, state and religion are inseparable. The official language of Gilead uses many biblical terms, from the various ranks that men hold (Angels, Guardians of the Faith, Commanders of the Faith, the Eyes of God), to the stores where Offred and Ofglen shop (Milk and Honey, All Flesh, Loaves and Fishes), to the names of automobiles (Behemoth, Whirlwind, Chariot). The very name â€Å"Gilead† refers to a location in ancient Israel. The name also recalls a line from the Book of Psalms: â€Å"there is a balm in Gilead. This phrase, we realize later, has been transformed into a kind of national motto. Atwood does not describe the exact details of Gilead’s state religion. In Chapter 2, Offred describes her room as â€Å"a return to traditional values. † The religious right in America uses the phrase â€Å"traditional values,† so Atwood seems to link the values of this dystopic society to the values of the Protestant Christian religious right in America. Gilead seems more Protestant than anything else, but its brand of Christianity pays far more attention to the Old Testament than the New Testament.The religious justification for having Handmaids, for instance, is taken from the Book of Genesis. We learn that neither Catholics nor Jews are welcome in Gilead. The former must convert, while the latter must emigrate to Israel or renounce their Judaism. Atwood seems less interested in religion than in the intersection between religion, politics, and sex. The Handmaid’s Tale explores the political oppression of women, carried out in the name of God but in large part moti vated by a desire to control women’s bodies.Gilead sees women’s sexuality as dangerous: women must cover themselves from head to toe, for example, and not reveal their sexual attractions. When Offred attracts the Guardians, she feels this ability to inspire sexual attraction is the only power she retains. Every other privilege is stripped away, down to the very act of reading, which is forbidden. Women are not even allowed to read store signs. By controlling women’s minds, by not allowing them to read, the authorities more easily control women’s bodies. The patriarchs of Gilead want to control women’s bodies, their sex lives, and their reproductive rights.The bodies of slain abortionists on the Wall hammer home the point: feminists believe that women must have abortion rights in order to control their own bodies, and in Gilead, giving women control of their bodies is a horrifying crime. When Offred and Ofglen go to town to shop, geographical clues and street names suggest that they live in what was once Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that their walk takes them near what used to be the campus of Harvard University. The choice of Cambridge for the setting of The Handmaid’s Tale is significant, since Massachusetts was a Puritan stronghold during the colonial period of the United States.The Puritans were a persecuted minority in England, but when they fled to New England, they re-created the repression they suffered at home, this time casting themselves as the repressors rather than the repressed. They established an intolerant religious society in some ways similar to Gilead. Atwood locates her fictional intolerant society in a place founded by intolerant people. By turning the old church into a museum, and leaving untouched portraits of Puritan forebears, the founders of Gilead suggest their admiration for the old Puritan society. Chapters 7–9 Summary: Chapter 7I would like to believe this is a story I’m tel ling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. (See Important Quotations Explained) At night, Offred likes to remember her former life. She recalls talking to her college friend, Moira, in her dorm room. She remembers being a child and going to a park with her mother, where they saw a group of women and a few men burning pornographic magazines. Offred has forgotten a large chunk of time, which she thinks might be the fault of an injection or pill the authorities gave her.She remembers waking up somewhere and screaming, demanding to know what they had done with her daughter. The authorities told Offred she was unfit, and her daughter was with those fit to care for her. They showed her a photograph of her child wearing a white dress, holding the hand of a strange woman. As she recounts these events, Offred imagines she is telling her story to someone, telling things that she cannot write down, because writi ng is forbidden. Summary: Chapter 8 Returning from another shopping trip, Ofglen and Offred notice three new bodies on the Wall.One is a Catholic priest and two are Guardians who bear placards around their necks that read â€Å"Gender Treachery. † This means they were hanged for committing homosexual acts. After looking at the bodies for a while, Offred tells Ofglen that they should continue walking home. They meet a funeral procession of Econowives, the wives of poorer men. One Econowife carries a small black jar. From the size of the jar, Offred can tell that it contains a dead embryo from an early miscarriage—one that came too early to know whether it was an â€Å"Unbaby. † The Econowives do not like the Handmaids.One woman scowls, and another spits at the Handmaids as they pass. At the corner near the Commander’s home, Ofglen says â€Å"Under His Eye,† the orthodox good-bye, hesitating as if she wants to say more but then continuing on her way. When Offred reaches the Commander’s driveway she passes Nick, who breaks the rules by asking her about her walk. She says nothing and goes into the house. She sees Serena Joy out in the garden and recalls how after Serena’s singing career ended, she became a spokesperson for respecting the â€Å"sanctity of the home† and for women staying at home instead of working.Serena herself never stayed at home, because she was always out giving speeches. Once, Offred remembers, someone tried to assassinate Serena but killed her secretary instead. Offred wonders if Serena is angry that she can no longer be a public figure, now that what she advocated has come to pass and all women, including her, are confined to the home. In the kitchen, Rita fusses over the quality of the purchases as she always does. Offred retreats upstairs and notices the Commander standing outside her room. He is not supposed to be there. He nods at her and retreats. Summary: Chapter 9Offred remember s renting hotel rooms and waiting for Luke to meet her, before they were married, when he was cheating on his first wife. She regrets that she did not fully appreciate the freedom to have her own space when she wanted it. Thinking of the problems she and Luke thought they had, she realizes they were truly happy, although they did not know it. She remembers examining her room in the Commander’s house little by little after she first arrived. She saw stains on the mattress, left over from long-ago sex, and she discovered a Latin phrase freshly scratched into the floor of the closet: Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.Offred does not understand Latin. It pleases her to imagine that this message allows her to commune with the woman who wrote it. She pictures this woman as freckly and irreverent, someone like Moira. Later, she asks Rita who stayed in her room before her. Rita tells her to specify which one, implying that there were a number of Handmaids before her. Offred says, gue ssing, â€Å"[t]he lively one . . . with freckles. † Rita asks how Offred knew about her, but she refuses to tell Offred anything about the previous Handmaid beyond a vague statement that she did not work out. Analysis: Chapter 7–9Atwood suggests that those who seek to restrict sexual expression, whether they are feminists or religious conservatives, ultimately share the same goal—the control of sexuality, particularly women’s sexuality. In the flashback to the scene from Offred’s childhood in which women burn pornographic magazines, Atwood shows the similarity between the extremism of the left and the extremism of the right. The people burning magazines are feminists, not religious conservatives like the leaders of Gilead, yet their goal is the same: to crack down on certain kinds of sexual freedom.In other words, the desire for control over sexuality is not unique to the religious totalitarians of Gilead; it also existed in the feminist anti-porn ography crusades that preceded the fall of the United States. Gilead actually appropriates some of the rhetoric of women’s liberation in its attempt to control women. Gilead also uses the Aunts and the Aunts’ rhetoric, forcing women to control other women. Again and again in the novel, the voice of Aunt Lydia rings in Offred’s head, insisting that women are better off in Gilead, free from exploitation and violence, than they were in the dangerous freedom of pre-Gilead times.In Chapter 7, Offred relates some of the details of how she lost her child. This loss is the central wound on Offred’s psyche throughout the novel, and the novel’s great source of emotional power. The loss of her child is so painful to Offred that she can only relate the story in fits and starts; so far the details of what happened have been murky. When telling stories from her past, like the story of her daughter’s disappearance, Offred often seems to draw on a partial o r foggy memory. It almost seems as if she is remembering details from hundreds of years ago, when we know these things happened a few years before the narrative.Partly this distance is the product of emotional trauma—thinking of the past is painful for Offred. But in Chapter 7, Offred offers her own explanation for these gaps: she thinks it possible that the authorities gave her a pill or injection that harmed her memory. Immediately after remembering her daughter, Offred addresses someone she calls â€Å"you. † She could be talking to God, Luke, or an imaginary future reader. â€Å"I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling,† Offred says. â€Å"Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance . . A story is a letter. Dear You, I’ll say. † In the act of telling her imagined audience about her life, Offred reduces her life’s horror and makes its oppressive weight endurable. Also, if she can think o f her life as a story and herself as the writer, she can think of her life as controllable, fictional, something not terrifying because not real. We learn in Chapter 8 that Serena used to campaign against women’s rights. This makes her a figure worthy of pity, in a way; she supported the anti-woman principles on which Gilead was founded, but once they were mplemented, she found that they affected her as well as other women. She now lives deprived of freedom and saddled with a Handmaid who has sex with her husband. Yet Serena forfeits what pity we might feel for her by her callous, petty behavior toward Offred. Powerless in the world of men, Serena can only take out her frustration on the women under her thumb by making their lives miserable. In many ways, she treats Offred far worse than the Commander does, which suggests that Gilead’s oppressive power structure succeeds not just because men created it, but because women like Serena sustain it.Nolite te bastardes carbo rundorum—the Latin phrase scrawled in Offred’s closet by a previous Handmaid—takes on a magical importance for Offred even before she knows what it means. It symbolizes her inner resistance to Gilead’s tyranny and makes her feel like she can communicate with other strong women, like the woman who wrote the message. In Chapter 29 we learn what the phrase means, and its role in sustaining Offred’s resistance comes to seem perfectly appropriate. Chapters 10–12 Summary: Chapter 10 Offred often sings songs in her head—â€Å"Amazing Grace† or songs by Elvis.Most music is forbidden in Gilead, and there is little of it in the Commander’s home. Sometimes she hears Serena humming and listening to a recording of herself from the time when she was a famous gospel singer. Summer is approaching, and the house grows hot. Soon the Handmaids will be allowed to wear their summer dresses. Offred thinks about how Aunt Lydia would describe t he terrible things that used to happen to women in the old days, before Gilead, when they sunbathed wearing next to nothing. Offred remembers Moira throwing an â€Å"underwhore† party to sell sexy lingerie.She remembers reading stories in the papers about women who were murdered and raped, but even in the old days it seemed distant from her life and unrelated to her. Offred sits at the window, beside a cushion embroidered with the word Faith. It is the only word they have given her to read, and she spends many minutes looking at it. From her window, she watches the Commander get into his car and drive away. Summary: Chapter 11 Offred says that yesterday she went to the doctor. Every month, a Guardian accompanies Offred to a doctor, who tests her for pregnancy and disease.At the doctor’s office, Offred undresses, pulling a sheet over her body. A sheet hangs down from the ceiling, cutting off the doctor’s view of her face. The doctor is not supposed to see her fac e or speak to her if he can help it. On this visit, though, he chatters cheerfully and then offers to help her. He says many of the Commanders are either too old to produce a child or are sterile, and he suggests that he could have sex with her and impregnate her. His use of the word â€Å"sterile† shocks Offred, for officially sterile men no longer exist. In Gilead, there are only fruitful women and barren women.Offred thinks him genuinely sympathetic to her plight, but she also realizes he enjoys his own empathy and his position of power. After a moment, she declines, saying it is too dangerous. If they are caught, they will both receive the death penalty. She tries to sound casual and grateful as she refuses, but she feels frightened. To revenge her refusal, the doctor could falsely report that she has a health problem, and then she would be sent to the Colonies with the â€Å"Unwomen. † Offred also feels frightened, she realizes, because she has been given a way ou t. Summary: Chapter 12It is one of Offred’s required bath days. The bathroom has no mirror, no razors, and no lock on the door. Cora sits outside, waiting for Offred. Offred’s own naked body seems strange to her, and she finds it hard to believe that she once wore bathing suits, letting people see her thighs and arms, her breasts and buttocks. Lying in the bath, she thinks of her daughter and remembers the time when a crazy woman tried to kidnap the little girl in the supermarket. The authorities in Gilead took Offred’s then-five-year-old child from her, and three years have passed since then.Offred has no mementos of her daughter. She remember