The Year of the Flood Essay Example for Free

The Year of the Flood Essay â€Å"The Year of the Flood† is an epic, sprawling novel that moves back and forth between past, present and future effortlessly. Though it is told from Ren and Toby’s point of view, the novel is really about the story of three women (Ren, Toby, and Amanda) and their will to survive in a cruel and harsh world. It is a story of hope, despite all odds and a story of the power of love. Fatefulness about the survival of the species is not new. Religious thinking has end-time built in, and most of our sentient life on the planet humankind has been predominantly religious. That has changed in Westernized countries, but only relatively recently, and alongside advances in scientific knowledge. Our new pessimism no longer depends on a deity to wipe out this wicked world. Since the Manhattan Project, we have learned to do these ourselves. That end is also the end of â€Å"The Year of the Flood. † Here Atwood has brilliantly re-told her own tale, through other mouths and focusing on different details, showing us how the kids Jimmy and Glenn become the Snowman and Crake, (from â€Å"Oryx and Crake†) and how an end or the End can happen in the name of new beginning. The Waterless Flood has long been predicted by God’s Gardeners, a back-to-nature cult founded by Adam One. Its members live simply and organically, sing terrible hymns, have no dress sense and peddle a bolted-together theology, difficult to think about if you think at all. With values diametrically opposed to those of the ruling CorpSEcorps, the Gardeners aren’t â€Å"the answer,† but at least they’ve asked enough questions to avoid a life of endless shopping and face-lifts. The Gardeners sometimes do evangelical work in the mean streets, known as the pleeblands, or picket at fast-food joints like SecretBurgers because it’s wrong to eat anything with a face. At SecretBurgers they have rescued a young woman named Toby from the murderous clutches of her sex-crazed boss, Blanco the Bloat, and it’s Toby who is one of the central characters in the post-plague part of the story. As a Gardener, Toby rises to the position of Eve Six, in charge of the bees, herbs and potions, but Blanco never stops pursuing her, and to save herself, and the group, she receives a new identity in the health spa AnooYoo. Recovering from plastic surgery, she avoids the deathly wipeout germ of plague. Less cosmetically, but just as effectively, Ren, a pole dancer at a local sex joint called Scales and Tails, is in an isolation room after a bloody attack by a punter, so she too misses the bio-bug. The women’s past and present stories alternate and intertwine, bringing to life the world they must survive in- a world where pigs have human tissues and sheep are bred with human hair in different colors, silver and purple being the hot hits for whole-head implants, providing you don’t mind smelling of lamb chops when it rains. The sensitive CorpSEcorps elite boy Glenn, who becomes Crake, starts out as a teenage sympathizer for the Gardeners but is too seduced by his own brain power to trust nature. Like his friend Jimmy, Glenn doesn’t know to love, and the awkward devotion he feels for the girl he calls Oryx isn’t returned. Atwood is really good at showing, without judging, what happens when human beings cannot love. In the worst of them, like Blanco, brutality and sadism take over. In the better of them, Crake designs out love and romance because he wants to design out the pain and confusion of emotion. In this strangely lonely book, where neither love or romance changes the narrative, friendship of a real and lasting and risk-taking kind stands against the emotional emptiness of the money/sex/power/consumer world of CorpSEcorps, and as the proper antidote to the plague—mongering of Crake and Jimmy, for whom humankind holds so little promise. As ever with Atwood, it is friendship between women that is noted and celebrated—friendship not without its jealousies but friendship that survives rivalry and disappointment, and has a generosity that at the end of the novel allows for hope. Atwood believes in human kind, and she likes women. It is Toby and Ren who take the novel forward from the last page, not the genetically engineered new humans. Atwood is funny and clever, such a good writer and real thinker that there’s hardly any point saying that not everything in this novel works. Why should it? A high level of creativity has to let in some chaos; just as nobody would want the world as engineered by Crake; nobody needs a factory-finished novel. The flaws in â€Å"The Year of the Flood† are part of the pleasure, as they are with human beings, that species so threatened by its own impending suicide and help up here for us to look at, mourn over, laugh at and hope for. Atwood knows how to show us ourselves, but the mirror she holds up to life does more than reflect- it’s like one of those mirrors made with mercury that gives us both a deepening and distorting effect, allowing both the depths of human nature and its potential mutations. We don’t know how we will evolve, or if we will evolve at all. â€Å"The Year of the Flood† isn’t a prophecy, but is eerily possible.

Blanco Review :: essays research papers

The book, Please Stop Laughing at Me by Jodee Blanco, is an inspirational story about the abuse she endured during her years at school. She had to deal with physical, verbal, and emotional abuse throughout her school year. Once I started this book I couldn’t put it down. I can remember back in elementary school being the new kid. The kids made fun of me because I was new, but once they gave me a chance they liked me. In junior high some kids would call me names, but that was it. Verbal abuse is all that I had to deal with on occasion. This is nothing compared to the things that Jodee endured through her years of school.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story begins with Jodee’s description of how she was victimized in a 4th grade Catholic grammar school; coming to the defense of deaf children that were being treated cruelly. She supplied the school officials with names and was labeled a â€Å"tattletale.† No one would talk to her, recess was spent in anguish, and she would find garbage and spoiled food in her book bag. As she progressed into 5th grade some of the social atmosphere began to shift in subtle but profound ways. Being accepted into a clique was all that mattered. Instead of being admired for class participation, as in earlier years she was laughed at and labeled as â€Å"teacher’s pet.† She said the rules were simple â€Å"shun or be shunned—if you weren’t willing to go along with the crowd, you would become the reject.† Sixth grade Jodee enrolled at a private academy and the first few months were without incident. Jodee reveled in having friends and tried to do everything right to stay in their good standing. The trouble started when she called her mother to leave a party early. Jodee begged her mother not tell what was going on with the twelve year olds—but they were all caught in the act. Monday morning at school she found her favorite suede shoes floating in a toilet bowl of urine with a note attached—â€Å"Bitch, this is just the beginning.† She was cruelly treated, spit at, beaten, and shunned on a daily basis. Her parents were sympathetic to her dilemma and finally forced her to see a psychiatrist. She was placed on medication that made her very sleepy. The psychiatrist said that â€Å"kids will be kids and that possibly she was looking for attention from her parents.

Mktg 205 Principles of Marketing

Kirk Bausman American Intercontinental University Unit 3 Individual Project MKTG 205 – September 11, 2011 Abstract I n this paper I will give an overview of distribution channels. Channel Levels: Direct versus Indirect Distribution. Channel Organizations: Conventional, Vertical, Horizontal and Multichannel Marketing Systems. I will analyze my target market's needs. Explain what I know about my target market and what they want from a channel of distribution. Introduction This is an Overview of Distribution Channels, and our target market’s needs in distribution channels. Overview of Distribution Channels Direct channels to market are typically your sales force. Direct channels to market include any route to market that you control and finance directly. The direct channel is typically more capital intensive to establish and you typically achieve a far greater level of control over this channel than you do the indirect channel. In indirect distribution an intermediary is involved between the manufacturer and the buyer. That intermediary is responsible solely for the distribution of goods on the behalf of the company. Analyze Target Market’s Needs in Distribution Channels Our target market will need a security service that will fulfill their requirements that fit their needs. The market will be high profile property or persons. They will need the direct channel. By using the direct approach the clients will get catalogs, websites, talk directly to sales personal. When it comes to security you will want to see firsthand what kind of service you are getting. And with this kind of service and the clientele, a simple T. V. ad will not do. Determine Channel Members with Explanation The channel member that we will use will be direct: catalog, telephone, sales force, etc. n the world of security you do not want everyone to know how you do business. You only want those you service know how and when things get done. If everyone knew then there would be no point to have security. We will have a sales force go out and talk to clients, show them catalog, and follow up with phone calls. Discuss How Many Channel Members with Explanation We will be using only one ch annel member. The member we will use is selective distribution. The reason for this is so that I can chose who to let have my service. We do not want to provide security for a company that maybe doing illegal activities. Channel Organization We will use a vertical marketing system; this provides a way to resolve the channel conflict that can occur in a conventional distribution channel where channel members are separate businesses seeking to maximize their own profits—even at the expense sometimes of the system as a whole. Conclusion As a whole it is up to use all as a company to push the service we provide. References Triple Canopy Secure Success www. triplecanopy. com/ Blackwater security www. blackwater. com www. ustraining. com/new/contact. asp Marketing: Kerin, Hartley, Rudelius

Nursing Roles and Values Essay - 1345 Words

Nursing encompasses various roles, inclusive of providing beneficial care, supporting patient autonomy and patient advocacy. Patients are capable of designating the direction of their medical care, possessing rights to refuse and accept proposed procedures according to the Patient Self Determination Act of 1990 which mandates patients be given information regarding their rights and abilities to prepare Advance Directives. Nursing Roles and Values Each of the United States develops standards of care distinguishing nursing roles and competencies. Chapter 6, Section 2725 of California’s Nurse Practice Act defines the nursing role in patient care as independently interpreting the patient’s condition, behavior, abnormalities, and judging†¦show more content†¦Advance Directives by the patient designates no feeding tubes, artificial ventilation, or CPR. Concerns regarding alteration of mental status consequential to his illness provoke the physician to seek consultation from the designated Power of Attorney. Nursing responsibilities compel the nurse to consider if the proposed actions of Dr. G violate the patient’s rights of self determination and confidentiality and prompt the nurse to advocate for the patient’s desires regarding medical treatment. Health care providers have a responsibility to honor the patient’s autonomy and provide quality medical care (Badger, 2009 p122). Provid ing artificial nutrition and ventilation transgresses the patient’s directives and is unethical. The physician appears to be asserting a paternalistic approach in deciding what is best for this patient. Should the interventions be temporary and provide resolution of the condition, the physician can defend his actions as being healing and beneficial. However, there is a chance that the interventions may be permanent and futile; avoiding passive euthanasia and terminal dehydration, serving only to prolonging the illness. Violating the patient’s directives of care by performing invasive procedures can lead to legal incriminations of assault and battery. Role of Nurse Autonomy The Board of Nursing defines theShow MoreRelatedRoles and Values of Nursing1694 Words   |  7 PagesRoles and Values of Nursing Western Governors University Roles and Values of Nursing This paper is a comparison of the views of a BSN staff nurse and a BSN clinical administrator on various aspects of nursing roles and how they contribute to my professional development. Both of the nurses that I interviewed had obtained a BSN and worked in a hospital owned orthopedic and spine medical group. 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