Summary of Bless Me, Ultima Essay -- Literature Bless Me Ultima Essays

Summary of Bless Me, Ultima Bless Me, Ultima is a story about the maturation of a young Mexican-American boy, Antonio M’arez, struggling with many questions about his destiny, life and death, and good and evil. Ultima who comes to live with Antonio becomes his caretaker and his teacher. Antonio learns there are powers in the world that differ from his beliefs in the Catholic faith. Ultima teaches Antonio â€Å"that the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart†. Ultima shows Antonio how to experience the magic of life with his heart and not with his eyes. For the first time, he sees the river not as something to be feared but as a source of life, â€Å"I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things†. The river is both creative and destructive in nature. It is this new magical way of seeing the river that will help Antonio understand many of the events that occur in the novel. Ultima also teaches Antonio to appreciate nature and helps him develop a spiritual relationship with the plants of the llano. It is this growing harmony with the earth that will later help Antonio connect with his heritage and the ancient ways of his ancestors. Ultima teaches him the magic of nature, â€Å"even the plants had a spirit, and before I dug she made me speak to the plant and tell it why we pulled it from its home in the earth†. Antonio learns which plants are good for healing but more importantly he learns of Ultima’s nobility and grace as they wonder the llano together. Ultima teaches Antonio that one must give back to the earth what has been taken away. It is this spirit... ... will build his own dreams, â€Å"out of those things that were so much a part of my childhood†. In the novel, Bless Me, Ultima, Antonio learns about his relationship with his universe. Through the teachings of Ultima, he learns to see with his heart and to appreciate all the magic that nature beholds. The river of life is never ending like the river that binds the llano to Guadalupe. All that Antonio has experienced is symbolized in the river and the life that surrounds it. Ultimately, it is his teacher and friend, Ultima, which teaches Antonio that life is a cycle and that understanding oneself brings peace and harmony. The river also serves to bind the past, present, and future. Antonio learns that his future is tied to his past and that his destiny will be guided by an understanding of his heritage and â€Å"the magical strength that resides in the human heart†.

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Essay

Quantitative research involves collecting numerical data though content analysis, performance tests, personality measures, questionnaires, etc. Quantitative research allows for experimental and non-experimental research. Experimental research tests cause and effect, while non-experimental research, such as, correlation research, relates variables, and survey research describes trends. There are three basic types of quantitative research questions: descriptive research questions, correlational research questions, and causal research questions. However, research involves collecting word data though interviews, open-ended questionnaires, observations, content analysis, focus groups, etc. Qualitative research can explore common experience (Grounded Theory Research), shared culture (Ethnography), an environment (Case Study), or an individual (Narrative Research). Both type of research ask research questions, focus on type of data, and have variables. Research Questions Research Questions are clear, concise, and arguable questions. A qualitative research question â€Å"explores a central concept or phenomenon† (Schreiber 2012). An example of a qualitative research question is how do African American male elementary students read popular fiction written by Caucasian female authors? This is an ethnographic research question that will explore hared culture of a group of people. Differently, a quantitative research question â€Å"relates attributes or characteristics of individuals or organizations† (Schreiber 2012). There are three basic types of quantitative research questions: descriptive research questions, correlational research questions, and causal research questions. Descriptive research questions describe variables being studied. An example of descriptive research question is does reading popular fiction increase test scores in elementary students? This research question is an experimental research question that tests the cause and effect. Another research question is the correlational research question, which relates variables. An example of correlational research question is do elementary students who read popular fiction has a higher test scores than those who do not read popular fiction? This is also a correlation research that relate variables. The final basic type of  quantitative research question is the causal research question. Causal research questions test for a cause and effect relationship between variables. An example of causal research questions is all other factors being equal, do elementary students reading popular fiction achieve better test scores than students reading curriculum-required fiction? This is also an experimental research question that tests the cause and effect. Variables Quantitative research and qualitative research have variables; a variable is any measured characteristic or attribute that differs for different subjects (Lane 2006). Variable can be either independent (IV), or dependent (DV). An independent variable is a variable that remain the same, but the researcher manipulates a dependent variable. Additionally, there are covariate (CoV) relates variable, is related to the DV, and is also a predictor value. In the example of a qualitative research question is how do African American male elementary students read assigned popular fiction written by Caucasian female authors? the IV is gender, age, and ethnicity, the DV is the assigned popular fiction, and the CoV is socioeconomic status. In the example of a quantitative research question is does reading assigned popular fiction increase test scores in elementary students? the IV is the age, gender, and ethnicity, the DV is assigned popular fiction, and the CoV is socioeconomic status. An example of the quantitative research question is do elementary students who read assigned popular fiction has a higher test scores than those who do not read popular fiction? the IV is age, gender, and ethnicity, the DV is assigned popular fiction, and the CoV is socioeconomic status. The final example of a quantitative research question is do elementary students reading assigned popular fiction achieve better test scores than students reading curriculum-required fiction? the IV is age, ethnicity, and gender, the DV is assigned popular fiction and curriculum-required fiction, and the CoV is socio-economic status. Type of Data Quantitative research uses Ordinal, Ratio, or Interval Scale, while  qualitativew research uses Nominal Scale. Both nominal and ordinal data are categorical, but interval and ratio data are continuous. In the example of a qualitative research question is how do African American male elementary students read assigned popular fiction written by Caucasian female authors? That data is nominal. Nominal data is categorical. Nominal data is consists of assigning items to groups or categories that cannot be related to each other (StatSoft 2010). The nominal data is African American and male, a well as Caucasian and female. Moreover, in the example of a quantitative research question is does reading assigned popular fiction increase test scores in elementary students? that data is interval. Interval data rank order, but also quantify and compare the sizes of differences between them (StatSoft 2010). Interval data is continuous. The interval data is the test scores, because they can be higher or lower, but it is not known how much higher. An example of the quantitative research question is do elementary students who read assigned popular fiction has a higher test scores than those who do not read popular fiction? that data is ratio data. Ratio data is continuous. Ratio data rank order, but also quantify and compare the sizes of differences between them. Ratio data has an absolute zero and allows for how many times greater. The research can find out how many times greater are the test scores of elementary student who read popular fiction than those who did not. The final example of a quantitative research question is do elementary students reading popular fiction achieve better test scores than students reading curriculum-required fiction? that data is ratio data. Like the question above, the research can discover how many times greater are the test scores of elementary student wh o read popular fiction than those who did not. Conclusion Both type of research ask research questions, focus on type of data, and have variables. Quantitative research uses an objective/unbiased approach to collecting numerical data from participants and analyzes these numbers using statistics in order to answer a specific, narrow research question. On the other hand, qualitative research uses a subjective/biased approach to collecting words from participants and analyzes/describes these words in  order to answer a broad, general research question. Bibliography †¢Lane, D.M. (2006, June). Glossary. Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics Retrieved January 31, 2014, from http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/glossary.html †¢Research Methods ** Available in the Presentations section. †¢Schreiber, Deborah Ph.D. 2012 Research Methods in Education †¢StatSoft, Inc. (2010). Electronic Statistics Textbook. Elementary Concepts. Retrieved January 31, 2014, from http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/elementary-concepts-in-statistics/?button=1

Sophronia Lui

Sophronia Lui Hong Kong, 1973 Sophronia Liu came to the United States. Lui earned her bachelor’s degree in English, and French and master’s degree in English from the University of South Dokata. She currently lives in Minneapolis St. Paul, where she is an organizer and educational consultant with the Asian-American community. So Tai – Fai This young man was a dirty, profane, and lazy. So Tai-Fai always caused trouble to his peers and to his missionary sisters at his Hong Kong school.He clearly wasn’t meant to be educated, and teachers were wasting their time and money on him. So why waste time on him? Sophronia Lui watches him every day in horror as his future breaks and falls. So Tai- Fai at age 14 the maximum age for sixth graders. In the sixth grade he failed almost all his tests and his classes. He failed 3 out of 14 subjects including, English, Grammar, Arithmetic, and Chinese Dictation.Horrible kid with a bad attitude, he passed notes in class made i nappropriate jesters toward his sixth grade teacher Sister Marie, and he was put in timeouts for being late. Sophronia Lui’s classmate So Tai-Fai dare-devilish attitude was always a burden in her class. He shows up late and in a mess, his hair in tangles, dirt on his face, and in a worn out dirty shirt. Sister Marie their sixth grade English teacher always asked him â€Å"why are you so dirty all the time, doesn’t tour mother flat iron your shirt? † â€Å"What about insecticide? So Tai- Fai sometimes joked around and classmates thought it was a joke that he was consuming insecticide that he got from his dads farm, which took his life during the school year. He died on his way to the hospital, his parents sad and devastated on his side. So Tai-Fai was the oldest son out of three children. His dad was a vegetable farmer, and his mother worked in a local factory. So Tai-Fai helped out with his dad in the vegetable fields with crops in Wong Juk-hang, by the sea. Sa dly, So Tai-Fai made it to the sixth grade.

Big Brother Little Sister

Euthanasia is a type of assisted suicide (where one person helps another person to take their own life). There are a number of reasons why people choose Euthanasia; if they have a very serious debilitating illness, which stops them having a reasonable quality of life, if they are terminally ill with something which will cause a very slow and painful death, they may wish to end their lives peacefully, and in the manner of their own choosing. Recently the parents of a young man helped him to end his own life because he had been paralyzed from the neck down and he felt he could not face life anymore.Euthanasia is NOT the same as suicide, for it to be euthanasia the person who dies must have had a very poor quality of life, or be unable to live with dignity. Euthanasia is about ending the suffering of an individual who WILL NEVER GET BETTER. (Someone who is depressed for example may have a very poor quality of life and want to commit suicide, but depression is generally only a temporary, treatable condition). EUTHANASIA IS ILLEGAL in most countries, AS IS ANY FORM OF ASSISTED SUICIDE.In the Netherlands, where their attitude towards life and death is far more enlightened; they have ‘euthanasia clinics' where you can end your life with peace and dignity. The legality of euthanasia in the Netherlands is causing many individuals to travel their in order to take their own lives, in a calm and peaceful manner. Since their own countries deny them any right to do so. Since many people may suffer accidents which leave them in a coma, or paralyzed, perhaps unable to communicate, many people are now choosing to make ‘living wills'.These are similar to the legal documents used to divide up your property after you die, but a ‘living will' states what you want to be done if you are ever terminally ill, permanently suffering, but unable to communicate your wishes (or if doctors are unable to act on what you say because they think you may not be in your right min d). Euthanasia can be in many forms, by painless lethal injection, tablets, or just ‘pulling the plug' on a life support machine. Only ‘voluntary euthanasia' is euthanasia. There is arguably no such thing as ‘involuntary' euthanasia. Involuntary' euthanasia would almost always be regarded as murder (or at least manslaughter), even in countries where euthanasia is legal. Always consult somebody who knows the laws of your country well whenever the law is concerned. Don't make any sort of decision based on what a stranger on the internet has said. Don't trust wikipedia, unless you have the time to check all the sources and citations yourself. User generated content should never be taken as a matter-of-fact, especially on such a serious topic as this one. P/S: The thing about ‘euthanasia' being the name of the drug they use to put animals to sleep is nonsense.Similarly, there is no drug called ‘euthanasia' which is used to euthanize people, this is further nonsense. Also; killing an animal which is terminally ill or in great suffering may be considered ‘euthanasia' but killing an animal just to make room at the pound is DEFINITELY NOT EUTHANASIA. This is just a very cruel system which many animal rescue centers have little choice but to implement. Thanks. Hope this info is useful to you. This website (BBC) has some very good legal information and moral discussions on the topic. Good reading if you still want to know more.

American Mania: When More Is Not Enough Essay

INTRODUCTION It takes immense courage to question something that has been so firmly etched into one’s mind or something that everyone accepts as normal, it also takes great insight to be able to see past the monotony and mundane details of life and observe something that is greatly and equally affecting a nation. Mr. Whybrow accomplishes this with great eloquence in his book American mania. Adam smith’s American dream of depth and desire† The book begins with the chapter titled â€Å"Adam smith’s American dream of depth and desire† in which Mr. Whybrow gives an account of his taxi ride on the way to the airport to catch a flight from Los Angles to New York, he tells his story in almost a poetic manner describing the myriad of scenes that he observes. He points out everything that makes him reflect on how rapidly the world is moving and how everyone is being swept away with this storm and how no one stops to think about where they’re actually headed and how everyone has less and less time for the small things in life, things which once were considered to be the essence of life. The author seeks to explain â€Å"the dramatic shift away from social concern and toward competitive self-interest that occurred during the closing decades of the 20th Century† (p. 257). Whybrow, himself a British immigrant, advances the hypothesis that Americans are a nation of â€Å"migrants† who are outfitted not just with the self-seeking genes but also with the restless, risk-taking genes of those who have risked all to look for a new land of opportunity. Whybrow argues that highly migrant people are novelty seekers, restless and optimistic risk-takers, CONCLUSION Whybrow’s theories are provocative because they not only revisit the possibility of psychoanalysis in the alliance of culture, speculating beyond the anthropology and identity politics that all cultures are just as advantageous, but also challenge us to reassess the insufficiency of our psychological descriptions. Identifying a culture as hectic or obsessed is somewhat useful in attempting to avoid the idea of national character but to propose a basic personality as the repository of a society’s values, from which individual character differentiates is a mammoth task Mr. Whybrow manages to make the reader question the values and beliefs that we have come to cherish so dearly. WORKS CITED Peter Whybrow (2006) American Mania: When More Is Not Enough. Retrieved on 18th October 2006 from : http://www.amazon.com/American-Mania-When-More-Enough/dp/0393059944

Novel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Novel - Essay Example However, some ideas of afterlife are based on the notion of rebirth. Other ideas believe in the existence of an afterlife where dead people reside in a supernatural environment determined by gods or other supernatural beings based on the activities and beliefs of the dead while they were still alive. With reference to the already existing afterlife, this paper aims at presenting a creativity based new afterlife idea. It is a common notion that afterlife always comes in the form of a punishment or reward for the things that people do during their lifetime. This afterlife idea is based on the things that people do during the time when they still live (Sebold 89). The things that people do when they are alive are always a matter of choices. Some people choose to do good while other chooses to do evil or bad. It will seem unfair for those people who choose to do bad things to be treated in the same way that those who always did good are treated. If in any case life would completely end at death, then the two types of human beings would be absolutely the same (Coward and Coward 101). However, this idea of afterlife seeks to reward those people who did good during their lifetime while making sure that those who did wrong would always be denied the benefits that those who do good get. This idea of an afterlife has its basis on social classes and rebirth. Social class is a very influential thing in human life. Therefore, being in a higher social class will definitely make the life of the individual seem better (Zevin 90). On the other hand, when someone’s social class is lowered they will definitely live a lifestyle that is less comfortable when compared with the type of lifestyle that they used to live before. Social class in the idea is used to either reward good deeds during lifetime or punish bad ones during the same period. Social class refers to the hierarchical and the categorical classification of human beings in the society. The most

Fukuyama's End of History and the Muslim World Research Paper

Fukuyama's End of History and the Muslim World - Research Paper Example The modern materialistic living style of the western world will influence the third world countries like a giant storm giving them no chance to think about an alternate, peaceful living style. Everybody will wear western clothing, eat their food and follow their lifestyle. Two decades after the book had been written we can now see most of his views have come true. There is a long queue covering three streets in China to buy the new iPhone which will be released in the US the day after. People in Korea alter their children’s tongue at a young age, so that they can speak better English and the most closed markets like India extend a red carpet welcome to Foreign Direct Investment, which comes from west, not from any developing country like Thailand or Indonesia. By far, the one and only people trying to resist these changes are the Islamists. They shoot the girl who wants to learn to read, write and barricade themselves from all scientific advantages in the name of religion. Who is right Fukuyama or the Islamists? In course of time, History will prove both wrong (Lal, 2006). Fukuyama’s theory states that capitalism which started to triumph at the death of communism, in the end of cold war will establish a ‘universal consumer culture’2 which will sweep down the ethical entities ingrained deeply in every individual. This is exactly what we see today. Education is no more a way to hone a skill. It is marks earned to secure a job with high earnings which in turn helps in buying ample things feeding the consumerism. So is it really the end of all indigenous ideologies which had been passed on from one generation to another. Not exactly because every ideology will keep evolving to some other form and liberal democracy is no exception (Marks, n.d.). Liberal democracy which simply evolved from communism based democracy eliminating its flaws and frays, will evolve into something better in the near future. Liberalism and Democracy themselves do n ot go hand in hand. There are several third world countries which struggle to use liberalism to their economic benefit. As Karl Marx stated, they will realize sooner or later, capitalism will lead to overproduction, low cost, scanty wages and unemployment doing more harm than good in the long run.3 They will start looking for alternate ideologies automatically leading to a better form of government and economic management. History proved aristocracy and communism cannot succeed. Likewise it will prove liberal democracy will also dwindle in some point of time in this 21st century (Marx & Engels, 1848). Do Islamists Have the Answer? Is Islamic idealism the core answer for an alternate ideology opposing liberal democracy? The answer is most certainly no because, evolution should lead to something which is better than the previous methods. But, Islamic ideologies force people to go back to the primitive living condition. Of course too much of sweet is bad for health. The available medic ine might have lots of side effects. But, a new alternate medicine or an ancient medicine which will cure the disease should be invented or revived, instead of banning the usage of sweets completely from life. Do the Islamists agree with it? Mainstream Islamic people do agree with it hundred percent. Karshidshak who worked in Iraq with the Muslim soldiers admits they are like any modern American youngsters longing for the latest model mobile and waiting to