House of Sand and Fog" book and movie compare and contrast
"House of Sand and Fog" -- comparison between novel and film

Andre Dubus III's novel "House of Sand and Fog" presents a story involving two protagonists who end up in a chain of trouble and deaths as a consequence of fighting over ownership of a house. Kathy Nicolo loses her house to the authorities as a result of an error in the state's tax office and Massoud Behrani, a former Iranian colonel who is exiled, buys the structure with the intention of renewing it and selling it for a higher price. A conflict ensues as Kathy tries to recover her home while Massour is reluctant to give up the building unless he is paid a correct price.

One of the most important differences between the novel and Vadim Perelman's 2003 motion picture House of Sand and Fog involves Lester Burdon's character.…...

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Works cited:

Dubus, Andre, "House of Sand and Fog," (Vintage, 2004)

Dir. Vadim Perlman. House of Sand and Fog. DreamWorks Pictures, 2003.

As Poe builds this emotional tension in the reader on through his construction of the sentences, he also does it on the level of the narrative itself. The sense of dramatic tension within the narrative is created by Poe's masterful use of foreshadowing and delay. A prime example of this occurs early in the story, when the narrator explains his presence at the Usher mansion. He reveals that the occupant has summoned him there in a letter of "wildly importunate nature," and that the occupant is an old friend who now suffers a "mental disorder" (298). The combination of the ghoulish scene which the narrator has described and the mysteriously disturbed person who resides there evokes in the reader a morbid sense of curiosity and anticipation, foreshadowing a dangerous future for the narrator, his friend, and even the landscape.

Instead of gratifying the reader's desire to know more about this dangerous…...

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References

Poe, Edgar Allen. The Fall of the House of Usher. Naples, Florida: Trident Press, 2001.

By doing so right now, we are not only making a societal and human investment in today's citizens and today's crime rate, but we are improving the quality of life of entire families as well as working toward the reduction of future perpetrators of violence against women since the sons will see appropriate models of behavior and wil not be apt to become violent in the future.
eferences

A programme for action. (2008). etrieved May 5, 2010, from Care Against Domestic Violence, http://www.cadv.org.uk/points.html.

Coy, M., Kelly, L., & Foord, J. (2009). Map of gaps: The postcode lottery of Violence Against Women support services in Britain (United Kingdom, End Violence Against Women and Equality and Human ights, London, England). London: End VIolence Against Women.

Giles-Sims, J. (1985) a Longitudinal Study of Battered Children of Battered Wives. Family elations, 34 (2), 205- 210.

Great Britain., Home Office., Crime in England and Wales 2008/2009. (2009). The Home…...

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References

A programme for action. (2008). Retrieved May 5, 2010, from Care Against Domestic Violence,  http://www.cadv.org.uk/points.html .

Coy, M., Kelly, L., & Foord, J. (2009). Map of gaps: The postcode lottery of Violence Against Women support services in Britain (United Kingdom, End Violence Against Women and Equality and Human Rights, London, England). London: End VIolence Against Women.

Giles-Sims, J. (1985) a Longitudinal Study of Battered Children of Battered Wives. Family Relations, 34 (2), 205- 210.

Great Britain., Home Office., Crime in England and Wales 2008/2009. (2009). The Home Office departmental report 2009. London: TSO.

Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher
Of all the authors to employ use of the Gothic style in their poetry or prose, none mastered the craft more than Edgar Allen Poe. The classic American fiction writer specialized in fostering a unique sense of dread and terror for his readers by successfully using elements of the Gothic genre such as the grotesque, or distorted imagery and setting, mysterious circumstances and a slowly building and suspenseful pace. The short story which best displays Poe's use of Gothic literary themes is believed by many to be The Fall of the House of Usher, his hauntingly disturbing depiction of a man's descent into madness and the consequences that unbridled fear can ultimately have. Considered to be a masterpiece of Gothic prose, Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher touches on all of the centerpieces of the genre, including perfectly chosen diction which…...

One cannot build the right sort of house -- the houses are not really adequate, "Blinds, shutter, curtains, awnings, were all closed and drawn to keep out the star. Grant it but a chink or keyhole, and it shot in like a white-hot arrow." The stare here is the metonymic device -- we assume it is stranger, the outside vs. The inside, but for some reason, it is also the authority involved, and one that is able to ensure adequacy. In a similar vein, the "churches were freest from it," but they offer only an homage' to safety, and use their power to shut people out from the light that "made the eyes ache" and had been inhumanly oppressive. The prison, though, is "so repulsive a place that even the obtrusive star blinked at it and left it to such refuse of reflected light as could find." The stare…...

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Labor in Little Dorrit." Journal of the Novel. 31 (1) 21+.

Young, Arlene. (1996). "Virtue Domesticated: Dickens and the Lower Middle

Class." Victorian Studies. 39 (4): 483+.

All without distinction were branded as fanatics and phantasts; not only those, whose wild and exorbitant imaginations had actually engendered only extravagant and grotesque phantasms, and whose productions were, for the most part, poor copies and gross caricatures of genuine inspiration; but the truly inspired likewise, the originals themselves. And this for no other reason, but because they were the unlearned, men of humble and obscure occupations. (Coleridge iographia IX)
To a certain extent, Coleridge's polemical point here is consistent with his early radical politics, and his emergence from the lively intellectual community of London's "dissenting academies" at a time when religious non-conformists (like the Unitarian Coleridge) were not permitted to attend Oxford or Cambridge: he is correct that science and philosophy were more active among "humble and obscure" persons, like Joseph Priestley or Anna Letitia arbauld, who had emerged from the dissenting academies because barred (by religion or gender)…...

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By mid-century, however, these forces in the use of grotesque in prose were fully integrated as a matter of style. We can contrast two convenient examples from mid-century England, in Dickens's 1850 novel David Copperfield, compared with Carlyle's notorious essay originally published in 1849 under the title "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question." Dickens is, of course, the great master of the grotesque in the Victorian novel. Most of Dickens' villains -- the villainous dwarf Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop, the hunchback Flintwinch in Little Dorrit, the junkshop-proprietor Krook who perishes of spontaneous combustion in Bleak House -- have names and physical characteristics that signpost them as near-perfect examples of the grotesque. The notion that this grotesquerie is, in some way, related to the streak of social criticism in Dickens' fiction is somewhat attractive, because even the social problems in these novels are configured in ways that recall the grotesque, like the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit, Boffin's mammoth dust-heap in Our Mutual Friend, or the philanthropist and negligent mother Mrs. Jellaby in Bleak House who proves Dickens' polemical point about charity beginning at home by being rather grotesquely eaten by the cannibals of Borrioboola-Gha. We can see Dickens' grotesque in a less outlandish form, but still recognizable as grotesque, in the introduction of the villainous Uriah Heep in Chapter 15 of David Copperfield:

When the pony-chaise stopped at the door, and my eyes were intent upon the house, I saw a cadaverous face appear at a small window on the ground floor (in a little round tower that formed one side of the house), and quickly disappear. The low arched door then opened, and the face came out. It was quite as cadaverous as it had looked in the window, though in the grain of it there was that tinge of red which is sometimes to be observed in the skins of red-haired people. It belonged to a red-haired person -- a youth of fifteen, as I take it now, but looking much older -- whose hair was cropped as close as the closest stubble; who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown, so unsheltered and unshaded, that I remember wondering how he went to sleep. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand, which particularly attracted my attention, as he stood at the pony's head, rubbing his chin with it, and looking up at us in the chaise. (Dickens, Chapter 15)

We may note the classic elements of

In the cinema, women were often sexual, powerful vamps and flappers, portrayed by actresses like Louise Brooks and Clara Bow. Flappers cut off their long hair and shed their long skirts for a more athletic and empowered appearance. However, although the flapper was culturally significant in terms of her image and power, her time in the limelight was relatively brief. Born of the prosperity of the Roaring 20s, during the Great Depression, women faced more sober circumstances. Still, many women continued to work, often because they were now the primary breadwinners for impoverished households. But working away from the home and female independence was less idealized. Films such as The Gold Diggers of 1933 showed women looking to marriage as a way of relieving their economic despair.

Katherine Hepburn: The Next New oman

hile some of the stars to emerge during the 1930s were decorous and feminine, others, such as Katherine Hepburn,…...

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Works Cited

Adam's Rib. Directed by George Cukor. 1949.

Ali, Atka. "Lesson 10: Separate Spheres. " Women's history." July 12, 2010.

http://students.depaul.edu/~aali/lesson10.html

The Gold Diggers of 1933. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. 1933

Spontaneous human combustion is the claim that human beings from time to time burst into flame and are consumed, usually without much damage to their surroundings, as if the heat from the flame came from inside their bodies. These claims have been made for a long time, fueled by newspaper accounts of such deaths and vague statements about there being no other apparent means for these fires to have started. More recent investigations have suggested that most of these accounts ar a matter of faulty observation or faulty reporting in the press.
Mark Benecke makes this clear when he writes,

Paranormal proponents and popular articles are quick to attribute certain dramatic fire-death characteristics to an unknown or bizarre power source, but in all such deaths documented in forensic literature, there has been no need to resort to bizarre interpretations to account for the observed facts (Benecke 47).

The phenomenon was brought to the…...

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Works Cited

Benecke, Mark. "Spontaneous Human Combustion: Thoughts of a Forensic Biologist." Skeptical Inquirer (4 March 1998), 47-50.

Chalmers, Robert. "Weird Stuff: Flaming mysteries..." The Observer (3 March 1996), 24.

Herbert, Susannah. "International: Mystery of Widow Reduced to Ashes." The Daily Telegraph (10 Dec 1998), 4.

Irwin, Aisling. "The Theory of Spontaneous Human Combustion Goes Up in Flames." The Daily Telegraph (14 April 1998), 4.

The study by Darrag et al. uses HRM as a mode to identify several clear obstacles to effective recruitment on an international scale. A major point of concern for MNCs, the article indicates, is the difficulty of penetrating culturally ingrained models of hiring and promoting. In such contexts as Egypt, Iran and Taiwan, the article reports that nepotism remains a powerful force preventing the use of merit in recruitment situations. These are concrete examples of the culturally-bound challenges facing the international human resource manager.
The Human Resource Planning theory states that these challenges require an HR department that is formulated according to the cultural particulars of a host country. The article by Darrag et al. concludes that where MNCs are able to make adjustments through their Human Resource Management departments, host countries are likely to see greater economic benefits. Yielding this presumption based on its case examination of MNCs operating…...

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Works Cited:

Ardalan, K. (2008). Globalization and Culture: Four Paradigmatic Views. International Journal of Social Economics, 30(5), 513-534.

Brewster, C.; Sparrow, P. & Vernon, G. (2007). International Human Resource Management. London: CIPD.

Darrag, M.; Mohamed, A. & Abdel Aziz, H. (2010). Investigating Recruitment Practices and Probmes of Multinational Companies (MNCs) operating in Egypt. Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, 3(2), 99-116.

Morley, M.J. & Collings, D.G. (2004). Contemporary Debates and New Directions in HRM in MNCs. International Journal of Manpower, 25(6), 487-499.

plot summary, listing characters, styles author.
The bleak promise of technology:

There ill Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury

The short story "August 2026: There ill Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury is set in 2026 but was originally written in 1950. The tale reflects a common 1950s conception of a future in which most people's lives would be made much easier by technology. However, in stark contrast to the apparent ease of the life of someone living in the projected 2026, there is a continual sense of horror in the events that unfold. Because as easy as modern day life has been made by technology, it has also been destroyed by technology: the inhabitants of the house have been wiped out in an apparent nuclear holocaust.

The tale begins with breakfast, as the seemingly magical automated stove churns out perfect eggs and bacon, just enough for the entire family of four to…...

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Work Cited

Bradbury, Ray. "August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains." Full text available:

 http://www.elizabethskadden.com/files/therewillcomesoftrainsbradbury.pdf

quintessential elements of grotesque and the burlesque in Edgar Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. The author opens the story with the description of a dreary environment. "DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens"(1846). This introduction is reason enough for an instinctive reader to pre-empt the nature of things to unfold. He goes further to explain the landscape, the haunted house, "….upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees…"( 1846). Moreover, there are many other indicators of grotesque elements including the author's description of Roderick and his sister's health conditions. He goes into detail on Madeline telling of the feelings she evokes on him. Nonetheless, the vagueness in the story is…...

The Turbine Factory and its use of industrial material on a very grand scale is able to evoke feelings of machinery and production and how it changed society, or rather, how it controlled society at that time. Behrens was able to transform architecture by creating designs that reflected the changing culture.
Frank Lloyd Wright and Peter Behrens were pioneers in the innovation of functionalism. While Wright used more organic elements into his design to give the feeling that architecture and nature should go hand-in-hand, Behrens was creating designs out of more industrial materials that reflect the era and the culture of an era. However, both of these architects considered function as the dominating principal of building structures even though they essentially came to their way of designing via different ways of thinking (nature and organics vs. industry and function).

Both Wright and Behrens were innovative designers and architects and their innovations…...

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McCarter, R. ( 2010) "Wright, Frank Lloyd." Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. Ed. Michael

Kelly.

Oxford Art Online. Retrieved Sep. 20, 2010, from .

It is only through occult understanding that the forms and the archetypal images and symbols can be interpreted.
Here we see that the term unconsciousness is very similar to the Platonic ideals and forms. Another aspect that will form part of the theoretical perspective of this study is the concept of transformation. In order to understand the occult and its relationship to the forms, a process of transformation has to take place. In Platonic terms this transformation is a radical change in life, morality and ethics; while for Jung it is transformation in terms of the deeper understanding of the relation of the unconscious to the conscious mind.

Transformation also has related occult meaning and symbols such as fire. Fire is an age-old indication of change of perception and consciousness. This also refers to Jungian concepts such as the shadow. There are many other points of reference and similarity between the…...

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Bibliography

Archetypes as Defined by Carl Jung) October 9, 2004. http://www.acs.appstate.edu/~davisct/nt/jung.html#shadow

Arnzen. M. "The Return of the Uncanny." 1977. University of Oregon. March 17, 2004.  http://paradoxa.com/excerpts/3-3intro.htm 

Boeree, G. Carl Jung. October 11, 2004.  http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/jung.html 

Christian Churches of God) Mysticism Chapter 1 Spreading the Babylonian Mysteries (No. B7_1). October 9, 2004. http://www.holocaustrevealed.org/english/s/B7_1.html

Videos
Mayor Nutter's budget speech contained several effective elements. The mayor is delivering a challenging budget. IN order to deliver this news, he begins with two effective devices. The first is that he rallies the support of the people by pointing out that he is a leader they can trust (had an open house at City Hall) and that the people of Philadelphia had rallied to meet challenges before (picking up trash, etc.). The second effective device was that he wanted to create a sense of urgency about the situation. In order to deliver bad news, it is important that a sense of urgency is created because it compels the listener to want to act right away, as opposed to delaying action. Thus, the mayor effectively recounts how bad the recession is, and the ways that it has already had a negative effect on the national economy and on the budgets…...

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Works Cited:

Peterson, J. (2012). 12 effective speech tips and checks. Speech Topics Help. Retrieved February 15, 2012 from  http://www.speech-topics-help.com/effective-speech.html 

Video: $14B auto bailout dies in Senate. Retrieved February 15, 2012 from  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7PMnKUcL1U 

Video: Nutter paints bleaker picture on budget crisis. Retrieved February 15, 2012 from http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/video?id=6492270

On November 8, 2001, the U.S. Senate passed several new conditions before direct 'military-to-military relations can be restored with Indonesia including the punishment of the individuals who murdered three humanitarian aid workers in West Timor, establishing a civilian audit of armed forces expenditures, and granting humanitarian workers access to Aceh, West Timor, West Papua, and the Moluccas."
Following are two very recent bills and rulings by the U.S. Congress concerning the Indonesian presence, changes, and sanctions.

In the House resolution, number 666, urton (R-IN), Wexler (D-FL), and lumenauer (D-OR) congratulate the Indonesian people and government for a successful election process, supported Indonesia in political and economic transformations, expresses gratitude to Indonesian leadership for arresting 109 terrorists, supports the emerging legal framework, commends Indonesia for "discovering new ways of working with regional law enforcement and intelligence communities in a sincere effort to root out domestic radicalism, and urged Indonesia to conduct ongoing…...

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Bibliography

(2001). U.S. And Indonesia Pledge Cooperation, Joint Statement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Indonesia.

(2001, October 1). U.S. To Send Team to Indonesia To Discuss Combating Terrorism. Xinhua News Agency.

(2001, November 27). U.S. Admiral Urges Indonesian Military To Account for East Timor Mayhem. Agence France-Presse.

Baker, P. (1997, April 22). U.S. To Impose Sanctions on Burma for Repression. Washington Post.