A Christmas Carol Text Response free essay sample

Charles Dickens presents a warning to society through his novella ‘A Christmas Carol’. Discuss. Fictional stories, although based upon make-believe tales, can often expose the truth behind an author’s personal views and ideals, as well as act as powerful tools to present social messages and warnings to readers across many generations. ‘A Christmas Carol’, written by Charles Dickens, is a novella in which social inequality is highlighted through the journey of a notorious miser during the Victorian era in Britain. Throughout this morality tale, Dickens presents a warning to society through his ‘social commentary’ which centres on how society has become too self-absorbed and greedy in their ways. Dickens warns his readers that money and materialistic possessions should not take precedence over empathy and compassion towards others. This is portrayed through the journey and transformation of the novella’s protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer Scrooge is a misanthropic moneylender who is introduced as an extremely self-absorbed man with a callous attitude towards poverty. We will write a custom essay sample on A Christmas Carol Text Response or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Relatively well-off, Scrooge demonstrates his refusal to assist those nine need and his egotistical personality seems to be the focal point throughout the first stave. This is portrayed through Scrooge’s reaction towards the ‘portly gentlemen’ asking for a donation to fund the poor. â€Å"It’s not my business†¦It’s enough for a man to understand his own business and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. † This is an example of how Dickens emphasizes Scrooges lack of empathy towards others in an effort to warn readers of how not to live and focus oneself on personal gain. On a broader symbolic scale, Scrooge represents the many wealthy businessmen of industrial Britain who have cut themselves off from humanity to become fixated with personal gain and wealth. By doing this, Dickens is focusing in on the many wealthy businessmen of his time and warning them to change their greedy and self-absorbed ways. In an effort to present a warning to his audience, Charles Dickens creates his characters to represent different themes throughout the book. A great example of this are the characters of Want and Ignorance, who as their names suggest, represent the want of personal gain and wealth and the ignorance of the rich towards the poor. Want and Ignorance, two emaciated children of man, are presented to Scrooge through the ghost of Christmas Present. These two terrifying figures epresent humanity’s fate if people fail to respond to the plight of the poor. Almost wild in demeanour, the children have been neglected to the point they have become feral. â€Å"No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. † The children have been reduced to the status of monsters and following so rapidly from the jovial scenes of celebration, they shock the reader and terrify Scrooge. The children are in direct contrast to Tiny Tim and the other Cratchits; where they are joyful and thankful for what little they have, the characters of Want and Ignorance are feral and represent the good of the rich and misfortune of the poor. Dickens utilises these two characters to shock and warn the readers of humanity’s fate if society’s social division and stark inequality was to continue. Although Dickens sets out to warn his readers on what personal characteristics not to possess, he also makes an effort to educate his readers on how to be model citizens. This is demonstrated through the transformation of Scrooge’s character from the beginning to the end of the novella. Throughout the last stave, Scrooge is portrayed as a ‘changed man’, shown through his many acts of kindness and love as well as his changed attitude towards poverty and prosperity. â€Å"He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town or borough, in the good old world. † This statement encapsulates the stark contrast between Scrooge’s character in the first stave when compared to the last. It can even be said that the last stave is written in a symmetrical manner to that of the first. This is made obvious through the stark opposites that can be seen in Scrooge’s personality in the first stave when compared to the last; where he used to be greedy and self-absorbed, he became selfless and compassionate. Dickens uses this example of symmetry to make Scrooge’s transformation even more discernible to readers as to allow them to note just how a model citizen should act towards others. Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ presents a warning to society through the representation of characters and the journey and transformation of the notorious miser, Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens warns society of the grim future that awaits humanity if people fail to respond to the plight of the poor. Finally, if Dickens intentions weren’t made clear enough through these examples, his preface says it all. â€Å"I have endeavoured in this ghostly little book, to raise the ghost of an idea†¦May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. †

Zinc and Sleep on Acne Essays

Zinc and Sleep on Acne Essays Zinc and Sleep on Acne Essay Zinc and Sleep on Acne Essay Zinc is one of the longest-studied nutrients that correlates with statistically significantly less acne. Some months ago, I discovered that around 200mg/day of zinc picolinate could, under some circumstances, make me dramatically acne-free for the first time ever. That led to a very long course of study, research and experiments. For a megadose of zinc to affect acne dramatically, a good bet was that zinc is a cofactor in a reaction that affects acne. If you have a chemical reaction in the body like Zinc + X -gt; Y, then flooding the area with zinc will at least modestly increase the production of Y, since it makes it more likely that all the available X will get used up. After much study, I concluded that Y is actually zinc superoxide dismutase, or ZSOD. ZSOD comes with the usual labels people grope for in acne cures: anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, etc. But then, what is the X that must be combined with zinc to make this reaction? If I have to overdose on zinc to get enough Y, the implication is that what Im really deficient in is X. Like most people in America who eat meat, its highly unlikely that there is any lack of zinc in my diet. If I could remedy my deficiency in X, then I should be able to be acne-free without taking any zinc. More study led me to conclude that X is melatonin. Melatonin slows cell division. It may decrease the production of androgens right in the skin. And perhaps most importantly, melatonin crosses the cell membrane and directly stimulates your DNA to produce the precursor to ZSOD, the molecule that zinc must combine with in order to create ZSOD. Experiments with melatonin were immediately fruitful. By tending to my sleep cycle, I was soon able to be acne-free on less zinc, but still could not be acne-free reliably for long periods without any zinc supplement. Something was still missing. The final piece of the puzzle was finding the fairly recent discoveries that show that, in modern life, we fail to effectively suppress daytime melatonin because we live in relatively dim indoor light. When you dont effectively suppress daytime melatonin by having your eyes in outdoor light all day long, two bad things happen. First, your gut thinks its nighttime and you get carbohydrate malabsorption that keeps it from effectively digesting tryptophan (the fuel your body needs to make melatonin) and (tada! ) zinc! Second, you get a flattened melatonin curve when you sleep at night your body simply doesnt produce the giant burst of melatonin at night that nature intended. The data fits this hypothesis nicely, including the most obvious points: Do low zinc levels correlate with acne? Yes. Do low tryptophan levels correlate with acne? Yes. Do low ZSOD levels correlate with acne? Yes. Can this explain why primitive tribes are acne-free? Yes. This effect of daytime light is simply astounding. For example, I have long struggled with the ability to consume legumes. I bought into the standard advice that its a problem of gut flora, if you eat them long enough your gut will adjust and digest them better without gas, etc. If I had a large Coke and a large burrito, the result was 100% predictable: great intestinal discomfort. However, I now know that was simply another problem of failing to suppress daytime melatonin. By living in outdoor light all day, I can slam down a Coke+burrito with zero intestinal discomfort, hardly any gas at all. Ive repeated this experiment reliably several times, and outdoor light exposure is like a light switch (heh! ) on my ability to digest legumes. I speculate that the growth in acid reflux disease (and the esophageal cancer it can lead to) is probably another result of living in dim light during the day that produces carbohydrate malabsorption. The unfortunate thing is, although the pill-free cure for my acne is conceptually very simple, its also very hard for modern people to accomplish. I had to buy a laptop with an extra-bright screen so I could work outdoors during the day most people have indoor jobs with no option of working outdoors. Just look at some the many ways we guarantee we wont have a natural melatonin cycle: Work indoors all day. Indoor light simply does not produce the definitive OFF signal for pineal melatonin that outdoor light does. Even on a severely overcast day, outdoor light is much more intense (and also simply contains much more of the blue-green frequencies most effective at shutting down melatonin production). Sleep in the midst of light pollution. Ironically, while bright light is needed to shut melatonin all the way off, very little light is needed to depress the nighttime surge of melatonin that you need to make lots of ZSOD. A night light, a street light shining into your bedroom. Trying to sleep when the sun is up. Flipping on a light when you go to the bathroom. All easy ways to destroy your nocturnal melatonin surge. Go to bed at different times. Want to catch that late movie on the weekend? Its just like a form of jetlag your bodys 24-hour clock just got bumped and may take days to settle back down to match your regular bedtime again. Take in lots of caffeine. Caffeine will both depress your nocturnal melatonin peak and shorten the hours you sleep, both ways to become melatonin-deprived. Vegetarianism. Without meat, it becomes more difficult to get enough tryptophan and zinc in the diet. If you combine that with eating high-fructose foods like apples, pears, etc. and living in dim light during the day to produce fructose malabsorption, that greatly raises the odds of acne. This is not to say you cant be a vegetarian and acne-free, but it is plausible that some vegetarians might have to take a couple of pills to get there. Sunglasses, hats, travel in cars, etc. If you compare modern people to the completely acne-free primitive tribes that still exist, its almost like we are comically trying to avoid getting any daylight in our eyes. We stay indoors all day. When we travel, we run from shaded building to shaded car (often with dark-tinted windows). We cover our eyes with dark glasses not just when the light is bright, but often just as a fashion statement when the light isnt even bright at all! Depression. Depression and a screwed-up melatonin cycle often go hand-in-hand. But of course, acne itself is strongly correlated with depression. This is a real chicken-and-egg scenario. What causes what? The mess is more complicated by the fact that anti-depressants may tinker with the melatonin cycle for better or worse themselves. What is easy to say is that it would be better to not be depressed if you want a normal melatonin cycle (but that may be a complete tautology for some people! ). A Zinc-less Zinc Regimen I probably cant think of all the inventive ways people destroy their melatonin cycle, but heres the basic remedy to achieve natural levels of melatonin and ZSOD: Go to bed at the same time each night. Sleep in total darkness. (Black out your bedroom, go to sleep when the sun goes down, wear a sleep mask, never turn on a light in the middle of the night, etc. ). Avoid caffeine, especially evening caffeine. Spend all day in outdoor light without sunglasses or hats. Sleep gt;= 8 hours. (This becomes easy when you stop megadosing caffeine and suppress your daytime melatonin. ) FAQ Thats too hard. I just cant Since Ive been doing it for weeks now, I agree with you. I have the luxury of being able to choose to work outside, but its a pain I essentially do office work out on my deck. Its a pain to say I cant go to that midnight movie. Its a pain to put tinfoil on the bedroom windows, wear a sleep mask, etc. Its a pain to open every shade in the house every morning and get my eyes outside ASAP. All I can say is, its nothing like the pain of cringing when I have to go out in public with acne. Cant I just take a pill? Since there are periodic reports in the medical literature of people who hurt themselves by taking extreme doses of zinc (400mg/day, 800mg/day, even more) for their acne, I suspect you can just take a pill, but it could send you to the hospital eventually. I could argue in great detail why you cannot achieve the desired effect by taking melatonin orally, but the fact is many people have tried melatonin pills for acne and they just dont cure it. A melatonin pill before bedtime might help you sleep a little better and jumpstart a busted melatonin cycle, but you really wont need that if you effectively suppress your daytime melatonin. Put another way, if you need that bedtime melatonin pill to sleep, you probably still have a busted melatonin cycle. Why me? How come my acne-free friends can I used to just throw my hands up at this and invoke the fairy dust of it must be our genes. However, now that I have a detailed theory of the mechanism of acne that seems to me to hold water, I can say that theres a decent chance its you in significant part because you are doing some things different than your friends. For example, in college, were most of my friends staying up until 4am and virtually never going outside like me? Hmmmm, not really. And once you induce carb malabsorption by screwing up your melatonin cycle, then suddenly all the Coke I love to drink does make some difference, and the formerly confusing fact that trying to eat healthy by eating fruit really didnt work is incredibly frustrating. The fact is, I suspect I can induce acne in most of the acne-free people you know: just keep them in dim light all day every day, keep them in bright light when theyre trying to sleep, give them lots of high-fructose foods with every meal (Coke or apples your choice), and supply lots of caffeine. There may well be a genetic component to the why me? question, but it may be quite small compared the actual details of your acne-inducing lifestyle. What about dairy? I still dont know. The fact is, while living the outdoor lifestyle, I have been able to eat a suspicious amount of ice cream without the usually reliable cystic acne response, but I havent pushed it. It is plausible that the mechanism for dairy producing acne is not beta cellulin, but simply sugar (lactose), and that once carbohydrate malabsorption is cured by suppressing daytime melatonin, dairy isnt a problem. But I do not yet feel certain of that. Are you acne-free? What pills are you taking? Every week that I stick with all the rules to maintain my melatonin cycle, Im acne free. In fact, I sometimes cheat and have caffeine, or miss my bedtime. That sometimes results in a zit, but not always. I stopped taking zinc. I have stopped taking my normal complement of vitamins for a couple of weeks and stayed acne-free, but wont give them up for longer than that because I start getting arthritis. Maybe its just Vitamin D? No. Ive been Vitamin D replete for years (gt;50ng/dl) with no effect on acne. Its possible that if youre horribly Vitamin D deficient (many modern people are) you wont be able to absorb zinc well, compounding your problems. While working outdoors, I work in the shade with no direct sunlight on my skin (though as much view of sky in my eyes as possible). The only times my skin is in direct sunlight is when the sun is low in the sky (little UVB). So, despite spending massive hours outdoors, I havent tanned at all so far this year. As always, any hope that Vitamin D is really a significant factor in curing acne has to overcome the hurdle of explaining why theres no epidemiological evidence that it varies strongly with latitude (Canadians should have way more acne than Texans if Vitamin D were crucial to the disease). Can I do [ ] instead? Who knows? But if its really important to you to get rid of the acne, set aside 2 weeks where you can strictly control your light exposure, and see whether this works. I say set aside, because I find this regimen amazingly hard. The indoors couch is like a magnet for my butt; I initially had to literally keep a stopwatch outside to keep from fooling myself that I was spending more hours outside than I really was. If you can do it religiously for 2 weeks and it doesnt eliminate all new acne, then the heck with me and my theory. If it does, then youve gained some understanding of how you can control the disease and you can do your own experiments and make your own trade-offs. Get an hour of outdoor light in the eyes immediately after waking, before work, and before breakfast. Totally drop caffeine of all forms (it both depletes zinc and of course affects the sleep cycle). Try to arrange lunch so I can eat outside, and have eyes in outdoor light as many minutes as possible before actually eating the food. Likewise, try to get eyes into the outdoor light immediately after work and before eating. Avoid/reduce carbs (especially high-fructose fruits and fizzy drinks) when there was no significant outdoor light exposure before the meal. Make it a priority to get the all-day outdoor light exposure on weekends. Carefully tend my sleep cycle to get the best nocturnal surge I can.

The Effects of Tattoos in Human Sexuality Research Paper

The Effects of Tattoos in Human Sexuality - Research Paper Example It has become a way of expression of one’s thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. â€Å"A tattoo is a puncture wound, made deep in your skin, thats filled with ink. Its made by penetrating your skin with a needle and injecting ink into the area, usually creating some sort of design.† (The Nemours Foundation, 2012, para.1). This makes one think how ink can last so long. The uppermost layer of skin is called the epidermis. The cells of the epidermis continue to degenerate and then regenerate, as the skin sheds and forms again. The ink of tattoo is not injected in this layer. It is injected in the second layer, which is called the dermis, whose cells are very stable and do not shed. This makes the ink stay potentially longer, or permanently, in the dermis. Mukerji and Schudson (1991, p. 3) define pop culture as â€Å"beliefs and practices, and the objects through which they are organized, that are widely shared among a population†. They state that these beliefs, practices and material stuff may be local customs upholding folk material, or these may be customs and traditions on a commercial scale. So, it may be folk culture or mass culture, where the former is generated by people and is authentic, and the latter is generated commercially and is relatively unauthentic. Tattoos have become a part of the folk popular culture, because everybody seems to be tattooing- mothers, fathers, children, students, businessmen, bad boys, and good boys. The popular culture has made tattoos a widely accepted concept in workplaces and educational institutes. The concept of tattoos is no longer restricted with sailors, gangsters, prisoners, and the rapper Lil Wayne. People from all backgrounds are having tattoos, and some of them are having extens ive tattoo coverage, which is quite expensive too. People, today, do not frown upon people who have a tattoo here and there, on neck, arm, or ankle, as