What The Hell Was That Michelle - 1190 Words

What the hell was that, Michelle? Michelle was rolling her eyes before she was even fully conscious. She opened them and saw her instructor or commander standing over her, his bulky silhouette framed by a high ceiling light which made an annoying whining sound as it drew power from the underground generator. The image was slightly blurred, so she blinked her eyes a couple of times to clear her vision. Her instructor was not a generally happy person. He was intimidating enough, with perpetual frown creases on his face, dark eyes, military hair, and muscles that screamed I m an impressive guy and you d better be scared of me. At least, that s what they screamed to Michelle. And when he was mad, he really was pretty scary. I told†¦show more content†¦The mission was already a success, you said so yourself, and I figured instead of just disappearing and waking up here, I ought to do something that would make a difference. That choice would ve saved hundreds of our soldiers in a real battle, and I think that s worth losing me for, don t you? I thought you were supposed to teach us battle strategy, sir, not just how to accomplish our mission and run away. With that, Michelle stalked out of the room, her green eyes flashing at anyone who tried to stop her. The instructor stood where she d left him in the center of the room. Usually, he would punish one of his pupils for such a blatant disregard of his orders, and certainly for back talking him like that, but she d had a point. He couldn t deny the bravery of what Michelle had done, risking her own life for the good of everyone else, and her resourcefulness was impressive. He scratched his scruffy chin, as a bit of debris rained down on him from the ceiling. He would have to have a private talk with Michelle later. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Michelle kicked the metal chest of drawers in the corner of her bunk in the compound. That had been her first mission in weeks, her first chance to even see above ground in a month, at least, and she d blown it. She d thought she d been being clever, but insubordination, was insubordination, and deliberately disobeying orders was like high treason. She sighed and plopped herself down on

To Build or Not to Build Free Essays

In the summer of 2005, Hurricane Katrina unleashed what resulted in a widespread devastation wreaked on the city of New Orleans. New Orleans—the colorful, zealous Mississippi Delta city, home to world-renowned restaurants, jazz and blues’ clubs, and universities, saw many of its neighborhoods flooded, even washed away by Katrina’s strong waters that breached the barrier of its levees. The extent of this catastrophe has triggered fierce debate over how the city should be rebuilt; taking into consideration the city’s population shift, economic emergency, and continued below sea-level vulnerability. We will write a custom essay sample on To Build or Not to Build or any similar topic only for you Order Now Actually, there are some who think that the potential for a similar disaster in the future begs the question whether the city should be rebuilt at all. I personally believe that New Orleans deserves to be rebuilt. As stated before, the continued below sea-level vulnerability is one of the major issues taken into consideration when debating whether or not to rebuild the city. Some may argue that the river that flooded New Orleans is a savage, untamable beast; aloof and unappeasable, with no heart except for its own task (Document A). However, the city has fought its mighty river for generations. The river is simply part of the New Orleans heritage, and is simply nothing new to its residents. This river is the same river that helped impregnate and vitalize the soil of early settlers. The austere beauty of the river itself is in fact too grand to be forgotten; and too awe striking to be completely omitted from New Orleans’ history and then categorized into a monster whose damage is underserving of man’s repair. Normally when tourists or first-time residents come to New Orleans, they have a difficult time understanding the city. Even a prolonged stay brings no easy recognition or familiarity. New Orleans history of different cultures, ethnicities and traditions that can help explain the city’s atmosphere. You can say that diversity is birthed out of this bustling city’s loins. From jazz to rock and roll, Creole cooking, Mardi Gras, or the architecture of the French Quarter, all play as elements of New Orleans (Document B). All of these elements possess an astounding liveliness that has spoken to people around the world and shaped much of the best of what we think of still as American culture. Though many may argue that it is nearly impossible to recreate traditions that have been deracinated by the unfortunate inevitable, it is safe to say that it is not the St. Louis Cathedral, nor Jackson Square, nor King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band that makes the city the landmark that it is. It is the spirit of vigor and robustness that lies in the city streets that drives the indescribable, potent energy its visitors and residents feel daily. The same spirit that the people had was present as they confronted Katrina. Peering into the eye of the storm, this spirit faced the storm unafraid; knowing the storm would potentially consume their past and future, New Orleans’ present spirit is stronger than the storm (Document D). To the people who possess this type of spirit, having faith is an understatement. New Orleans should be rebuilt because its culture is more than just for the â€Å"tourists’ eye†. The city represents antiquity. It represents some sort of security. It represents home. Not only does the city represent home for many, it also has a present national commercial value. Its ports are continuously a pulse-point for commerce in Iowa and the rest of the country. Many argue that the levee system is ineffective, and will not be intact for possibly another twenty years or so. Therefore, why rebuild a city when there is a chance that another disaster will strike again, and there is nothing in the government’s economic interest to help prevent future predicaments? Document C) Yes—the opposing side holds a nearly infallible argument. However, one must consider the billions of dollars’ worth of work put into these ports. Yes, economically New Orleans is suffering. But the future of the nation’s economy as a whole can be in grave jeopardy if commerce is discontinued. New Orleans must be rebuilt. Shortage of ideas on how to rebuild the city is no issue; but rather the dedication to get it done. In closing, urban recove ry is more than just putting bricks and cement together, mortar and asphalt, or bytes and electricity. It is about reconstructing the innumerable social relations entrenched in schools, workplaces, childcare, arrangements, shops, places of worship, and places of play and recreation. It is not about restoring New Orleans’ authenticity. It is about preparing an atmosphere that is welcoming and accommodated enthusiastically to former residents (Document E). New Orleans may never look exactly the same ever again. But its people deserve to feel the way they first felt about the city when they first encountered it; and how can you place a price upon falling in love? How to cite To Build or Not to Build, Papers

The Question of Ideology in Amitav Ghoshs the Hungry Tide free essay sample

The Question of Ideology in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide The stalwarts of Indian writing in English like Salman Rushdie, Khushwant Singh, Mukul Kesavan, Vikram Chandra, Amitav Ghosh and the like, are writing in a postcolonial space using novel as a means of cultural representation. Their novels are generally assumed to be engaged in postcolonial consciousness but a close study of the thematic range proves that the novels also attempt to universalized humanistic gesture, for human nature and social relationships are as important as the interplay of power and national relationships.Twentieth century novelists were preoccupied with the historic past and the unabated interest of the readers in the novels that depicted the past or that treated some event of national importance having wide repercussions, like the freedom struggle of India. The countrymen’s vitality and their devotion to the cause were amply reflected in the novels of Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand and K. We will write a custom essay sample on The Question of Ideology in Amitav Ghoshs the Hungry Tide or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A. Abbas in the 1930s and the 1940s; but the most historical event of our age, as is evident from the writings of the Indo-English novelists, was the partition of the Indian subcontinent by the English rulers in the year 1947.The Hindu-Muslim religious and political difference climaxed with this event which led to widespread disturbances. Many novels were written on the theme of Partition, the destruction it brought and the plight of the refugees; but a novel is never a mere recapitulation of historical events. To call Amitav Ghosh’s novel as mere political allegory would be facile. Instead what Ghosh shows is the impact of politics on the lives of ordinary people and human relationships. To do that he uses the historical events as raw material in his novels and The Hungry Tide is one such novel Ghosh wrote at the peak of his powers. This novel is limited to quite a narrow geographical area, i. e. , to the Sunderbans in the Bay of Bengal, and perhaps by extension Bengal, and the novelist does this on purpose. He wants to throw some light on this tidal country of darkness that is little known within India, even within Bengal. In The Hungry Tide, the various intertwining character-plots revolve around mainly two conceptual plots.The first explores the plight of the displaced people, here specifically a group of refugees from Bangladesh who found themselves in a confrontation with the Indian Government. The other conceptual plot questions how humans share a complex and dangerous ecosystem with animals like dolphins, tigers and crocodiles in the Sunderbans. Both these plots can be assessed from the ideological point of view but the first one bears a more distinct connection to the question of ideology. The undercurrent of ideological conflict in Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide is a very interesting area of study.Although some scholars have talked briefly about this issue in their respective papers, it has not yet been the central focus of any published research paper on the novel. Here, the present reader will try to address the question of ideology in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide. At the outset, it is important to define ‘ideology’ that has become a key concept in Marxist criticism of literature and other arts, though it was not much discussed by Marx and Engels after The German Ideology which they wrote jointly in 1845-’46.Marx inherited the term from F rench philosophers of the late eighteenth century who used it to designate the study of the way that all general concepts develop from sense-perceptions. In Marxist criticism it is claimed that Human consciousness is constituted by an ideology – that is, the beliefs, values, and ways of thinking and feeling through which human beings perceive, and by recourse to which they explain, what they take to be reality.An ideology is, in complex ways, the product of the position and interests of a particular class. In any historical era, the dominant ideology embodies, and serves to legitimize and perpetuate, the interests of the dominant economic and social class†¦ In its distinctively Marxist use, the reigning ideology in any era is conceived to be, ultimately, the product of its economic structure and the resulting class-relations and class-interests.In a famed architectural metaphor, Marx represented ideology as a ‘superstructure’ of which the concurrent socioeconomic system is the ‘base’. Friedrich Engels described ideology as ‘a false consciousness,’ and many later Marxists consider it to be constituted largely by unconscious prepossessions that are illusory, in contrast to the ‘scientific’ (that is, Marxist) knowledge of the economic determinants, historical evolution, and present constitution of the social world.