Reaction Paper on Vampires Essay Example for Free

Reaction Paper on Vampires Essay Vampire movies always have lots of fans, and of course, I’m a vampire film fan, too. In the past, vampires looked so scary: they were old, extremely ugly, knows nothing but killing†¦ Nowadays, however, people start to make vampires more â€Å"human†(and sometimes they are made even better than human beings): They are so good-looking they have breath-taking faces, they have sexy figures; they are immortal  they won’t die because they are too â€Å"old†, in other words, they are undead. They still looked young even thought they are hundreds years old; they have so many superpowers they read minds, they move as fast as wind, they are unbelievably strong. Now people even made vampires know more than just hunting like animals they know romance as well, they will fall in love with like human do†¦ I think this might be one of the reasons why people love vampire movies that much: because we find that our dreams (which can never come true in real life) come true in these movies. Reverse Psychology† is often used on children, through which parents let their children to do something by telling them †don’t do this. † This is because children are more likely to respond orders with reactance. In the movie â€Å"let the right one in†, when Eli and Oskar first met, Eli told Oskar â€Å"I can’t be your friend†. But obviously, Oskar didn’t have a clear desire to make friends with Eli. Eli started stating a negative in order to achieve her positive goal. And this is the use of reverse psychology. Based on the film notes, Eli’s intentions regard the function of Oskar is a replacement of Hakan. But even after reading the film notes, I still feel that Eli’s ultimate goal with Oskar is not just for finding someone to kill people and get blood for her. For me, Eli is just trying to have a friend who can keep her company. It’s easy to tell that Eli’s attitude towards Oskar is totally different from that to Hakan, she cares about Oskar (at least for me it is). At the beginning I thought Hakan is the father of Eli, but later on I found he’s more likely to be someone who helps Eli finding â€Å"food†. He might used to be Eli’s lover, but that’s just a guess, because there might be other reasons why he chose to take care of Eli. For example, he might be the one who cause Eli’s changing into a vampire, he feel guilty so that he chose to stay with her. According to the notes, at first Eli tried to sense Oskar as a potential serial killer, then she took control of Oskar’s self-image†¦Assume that Eli is a pedophile, she might keep Oskar, a young boy with her and replace Hakan, who’s no longer useful to her. In this film, the uncanny ability is shown to audiences over and over again, and it presents that love is just an excuse, which is used to disguise the subliminal reality of objectification and exploitation. By looking at the way Oskar dresses and behavior, we can tell that Oskar is an effeminate personality in this movie. I think that’s why the boys enjoy making fun of him. I thought that the reason why Oskar didn’t ever fight back is because he is so cowardice that he’s afraid that they might hit him harder if he fights back. But the note assumes that Oskar is actually sublimating his unconscious sexual attraction by allowing himself to be victimized. I think that because the group of bad boys always attacked Oskar and he couldn’t get any help from someone else, so he was mentally ill already. He had a strong desire of revenging but he didn’t have the â€Å"courage† to do so. He wants to kill people if it is allowed. Just because he knows that he cannot do it, he transferred his inner desire of killing to collecting the newspaper clippings on murder. I think his too cowardice. When I first watched this movie and saw Eli asked Oskar to teach her how to play the Rubrik’s cube, I didn’t think too much about this. But after reading the notes, it shows me that Rubrik’s cube might be one of the tools Eli use to achieve her subterfuge (which is to get close to Oskar). I think because Eli is a vampire who cannot live without drinking human’s blood, so it’s better for her to live in a lower class apartment so that she won’t catch people’s attention, otherwise she will get into trouble so easily. In a telling scene, we saw Eli’s naked groin with a horizontal suture, which means Eli was a boy but castrated by someone.

Civil Liberties Essay -- Government Politics USA Essays

Civil Liberties After September 11, 2001, in the United States of America, many aspects of our daily lives have changed. One notable change has been the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Many bills are being drafted to ensure the safety of the United States. We, as Americans, are going to have to sacrifice many of our civil liberties due to this tragic event. There are many good reasons why these bills are being drafted, but there are also negative effects such as the loss of civil rights. One particular bill being drafted is the USA PATRIOT Act. The USA PATRIOT Act puts the CIA back in the business of spying on Americans. It permits a vast array of information gathering on U.S. citizens from financial transactions, school records, Internet activity, telephone conversations, information gleaned from grand jury proceedings and criminal investigations to be shared with the CIA (and other non-law enforcement officials) even if it pertains to Americans. Most importantly, the information w ould be shared without a court order. While there is a need to shut down the financial resources used to further acts of terrorism, this legislation goes beyond its stated goal of combating international terrorism and instead reaches into innocent customers’ personal financial transactions. If the USA PATRIOT Act becomes a law, financial institutions would monitor daily financial transactions even more closely and be required to share information with other federal agencies, including foreign intelligence agencies such as the CIA. Section 358 requires that, in addition to law enforcement, intelligence agencies would also receive suspicious activity reports. These reports are usually about wholly domestic transactions of people in the United States, and do not relate to foreign intelligence information. In addition, Section 358 would allow law enforcement and intelligence agencies to get easy access to individual credit reports in secret. There would be no judicial review and no notice to the person to whom the rec ords relate. Through these provisions, the CIA would be put back in the business of spying on Americans, and law enforcement and intelligence agencies would have a range of personal financial information without ever showing good cause as to why such information is relevant to a particular investigation. Since September 11, Federal, state, and... ... at odds. Law enforcement authorities already have great leeway under current law to investigate suspects in terrorist attacks – including broad authority to monitor telephone and Internet communications. In fact, under current law, judges have rejected only three federal or state criminal wiretap requests in the last decade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"This is a country that understands that people have fundamental God-given rights and liberties and our government is constituted to protect those rights. We cannot – in our efforts to bring justice – diminish those liberties,† said Sen. George Allen, R-Va., in a statement responding to the terrorist attacks. â€Å"Clearly this is not a simple, normal criminal case. This is an act of war, and those rules of warfare may apply. But here at home and domestically, we need to make sure that we’re not tempted to abrogate any civil rights such as habeas corpus, protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, the freedom of expression and peaceable assembly, or freedom of religion.† Sources Cited: 1. www.aclu.org, The American Civil Liberties Union, 2001 2. www.corpwatch.org, CorpWatch, 2001 3. www.msnbc.com, MSNBC Terms and Conditions, 2001

College Uneducation Essay

I wish to speak on â€Å"College Uneducation. † Is it possible that our college educationmay â€Å"uneducate† rather than educate? I answer â€Å"Yes. † It is a paradox but nonetheless the truth—the grim, unmerciful truth. We all believe in higher education; else we should not be in the University. At the same time, college education—like all other human devices for human betterment—may build or destroy, lead, or mislead. My ten years’ humble service in the University of the Philippines has afforded me an opportunity to watch the current of ideals and practices of our student body. In some aspects of higher education, most of our students have measured up to their high responsibilities. But in other features—alas, vital ones! —the thoughts and actions of many of them tend to stunt the mind, dry up the heart, and quench the soul. These students are being uneducated in college. I shall briefly discussthree ways in which many of our students are getting college uneducation, for which they pay tuition fees and make unnumbered sacrifices. Book Worship In the first place, there is the all but delirious worship of the printed page. â€Å"What does the book say? † is, by all odds, the most important question in the student’s mind whenever he is faced with any problem calling for his own reasoning. By the same token, may students feel a sort of frenzy for facts till these become as huge as the mountains and the mind is crushed under them. Those students think of nothing but how to accumulate data; hence, their capacity for clear and powerful thinking is paralyzed. How pathetic to hear them argue and discuss! Because they lack the native vitality of unhampered reason, their discourse smacks of cant and sophistry rather than of healthy reasoning and straight thinking. It is thus that many of our students surrender their individuality to the textbook and lose their birthright—which is to think for themselves. And when they attempt to form their own judgment, they become pedantic. Unless a student develops the habit of independent and sound reasoning, his college education is a solemn sham. Compare these hair-splitting college students with Juan de la Cruz in the barrios. Now, Juan de la Cruz has read very little: no undigested mass of learning dulls the edge of his inborn logic, his mind is free from the overwhelming, stultifying weight of unassimilated book knowledge. How penetrating his perception, how unerring his judgment, how solid his common sense! He contemptuously refers to the learned sophists, thus: †Lumabis ang karunungan mo,† which means, â€Å"Your learning is too much. † Professional Philistinism The second manner of college uneducation that I want to speak of is this: most students make professional efficiency the be-all and end-all of college education. They have set their hearts upon becoming highly trained lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers, and agriculturists. I shall not stop to inquire into the question of how much blame should be laid at the door of the faculties of the University for this pernicious drift toward undue and excessive specialization. That such a tendency exists is undeniable, but we never pause to count, the cost! We are all of one mind: I believe that college education is nothing unless it widens a man’s vision, broadens his sympathies, and leads him to higher thinking and deep feeling. Yet how can we expect a; this result from a state of affairs which reduces a law student to a code, a prospective doctor to a prescription, and a would-be engineer to a mathematical formula? How many students in our professional colleges are doing any systematic reading in literature? May we not, indeed, seriously ask whether this fetish of specialization does not smother the inspiring sense of beauty and the ennobling love of finer things that our students have it in them to unfold into full-blown magnificence. The Jading Dullness of Modern Life â€Å"A thing of beauty is a joy forever,†Ã¢â‚¬ says Keats. But we know that beauty us a matter of taste; and, unless we develop in us a proper appreciation of what is beautiful and sublime, everything around us is tedious and commonplace. We rise early and go out into, but our spirit is responsive to the hopeful quietude and the dew-chastened sweetness of dawn. At night we behold the myriad stars, but they are just so many bright specks—their soft fires do not soothe our troubled hearts, and we do not experience that awesome, soul stirring fascination of theimmense ties of God’s universe. We are bathed in the silver sheen of the moon and yet feel not the beatitude of the moment. We gaze upon a vista of high mountains, but their silent strength has no appeal for us. We read some undying verses; still, their vibrant cadence does not thrill us, and their transcendent though is to us like a vision that vanishes. We look at a masterpiece of the chisel with its eternal gracefulness of lines and properties, yet to us it is no more than a mere human likeness. Tell me, is such a life worth coming to college for? Yet, my friends, the overspecialization which many students pursue with zeal and devotion is bound to result in such an unfeeling, dry-as-dust existence. I may say in passing that the education of the older generation is in this respect far superior to ours. Our older countrymen say, with reason, that the new education does not lawfully cultivate the heart as the old education did. Misguided Zeal Lastly, this selfsame rage for highly specialized training, with a view to distinguished professional success, beclouds our vision of the broader perspectives of life. Our philosophy of life is in danger of becoming narrow and mean because we are habituated to think almost wholly in terms of material wellbeing. Of course we must be practical. We cannot adequately answer this tremendous question unless we thoughtfully develop a proper sense of values and thus learn to separate the dross from the gold, the chaff from the grain of life. The time to do this task is not after but before college graduation; for, when all is said and done, the sum and substance of higher education is the individualformulation of what life is for, with special training in some advanced line of human learning in order that such a life formula may be executed with the utmost effectiveness. But how can we lay down the terms of our philosophy of life if every one of our thoughts is absorbed by the daily assignment, the outside reading, and the laboratory experiment, and when we continuously devour lectures and notes? â€Å"Uneducated† Juan de la Cruz as Teacher Here, again, many of our students should sit at the feet of meagrely educated Juan de la Cruz and learn wisdom. Ah! He is often called ignorant, but he is the wisest of the wise, for he has unravelled the mysteries of life. His is the happiness of the man who knows the whys of human existence. Unassuming Juan de la Cruz cherishes no â€Å"Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself. † His simple and hardy virtues put to shame the studied and complex rules of conduct of highly educated men and women. In adversity, his stoicism is beyond encomium. His love of home, so guilelessly faithful, is the firm foundation of our social structure. And his patriotism has been tested and found true. Can our students learn from Juan de la Cruz, or does their college education unfit them to become his pupils? In conclusion, I shall say that I have observed among many of our students certain alarming signs of college uneducation, and some of these are: (1) lack of independent judgment as well as love of pedantry, because of the worship of the printed page and the feverish accumulation of undigested data; (2) the deadening of the delicate sense of the beautiful and the sublime, on account of overspecialization; and (3) neglect of the formulation of a sound philosophy of life as a result of excessive emphasis on professional training.

Mathilde Loisel and Louise Mallard a Look at Two...

On the surface there appear to be many similarities between the character traits of Mathilde Loisel in Guy de Maupassant’s â€Å"The Necklace† and Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† however; there are subtle differences between the two women. Both of these protagonists struggle with their fate, are self-centered, and lack empathy. Their lives are destined to end in their own tragic ways based on their individual character flaws. Both of these stories focus on women who struggle with their lifestyle conditions. Mrs. Loisel cannot bear her middle-class lifestyle, instead desiring â€Å"to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after† (Maupassant 60). As well as desiring these intangible things, she also†¦show more content†¦Both women dream of what they do not have, ultimately causing them lose everything, Mrs. Loisel her middle-class station and Mrs. Mallard her life. Their unique fates are based on their own variation on their individual character traits. Chopin, Kate. â€Å"The Story of an Hour.† Literature: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner, et al. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 66-68. Maupassant, Guy. â€Å"The Necklace.† Literature: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner, et al. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.Show MoreRelatedTheme Comparison3403 Words   |  14 Pagesdifferent. The two women, Madame Mathilde Loisel and Louise Mallard, portrayed in these literary works are protagonists who have trouble because of conflicting expectations imposed on them by society. Both Mathilde Loisel and Louise Mallard want something more than what their lifestyle offers them. During the time when the authors wrote these pieces, the social behaviors showed gender suppression/oppression. This essay will compare and contrast elements of content, form, and style between two differentRead MoreThe Necklace and Story of an Hour; a Comparison Essay2800 Words   |  12 Pageslittle in common. Chopin’s story, as displayed in its title is quite short; while in comparison, de Maupassant tells a much more detailed account of the beleaguered Loiselà ¢â‚¬â„¢s, who must learn from the self-centred Madam Loisel. With de Maupassant’s depiction of his female protagonist as selfish and ungrateful; it is difficult to fathom Chopin, known for her active role in describing womans oppression in the nineteenth century. Interestingly, Chopin, a realist, did consider de Maupassant to be oneRead MoreThe Story of an Hour and the Necklace Essay2858 Words   |  12 PagesHour† portray two different but alike women, who refuse to accept their destiny and deny the life of women of their class. They are both lost, looking to be saved and they find themselves in big trouble, when they think they have finally succeeded in their search. Nature plays a major role in both lives. They both struggle to find their independence and the ending of their stories end up being triumphant, tragic and ironic. â€Å"The Necklace† weaves a tale about Madame Loisel who has always