Culturally Competent Nursing in an Ever Changing Diverse World Essay Example for Free

Culturally Competent Nursing in an Ever Changing Diverse World Essay In nursing and healthcare the issue of culture is more pronounced than anywhere else. This is because many people various ethnic, religious, racial and cultural backgrounds come forth to hospitals and healthcare centres in search of health solutions. Due to these cultural disparities, patients often fail to receive quality services because of practices that are lacking in cultural competence. Cultural competence in nursing and healthcare refers to the efficiency with which a healthcare provider is able to offer quality service in a cross-cultural setting thus enhancing the system’s or institution’s capacity to function in effective manners (Dolhun, E. P. et al 2003). Culture influences an individual’s values, perceptions, beliefs and opinions. It influences how patients respond to healthcare givers and the medication prescribed to them. Therefore it is very important that nurses and other medical practitioners seek to improve their awareness towards the issues raised by cultural diversity in order to improve on service delivery. This paper examines ways in which a nurse can be more culturally competent. It also examines the opportunities in the work place and nursing school that requires culturally focused health practices. Additionally the paper discusses the issues of self-assessment and client assessment that is geared towards the delivery of culturally competent health solutions. Importance of Culture to Nursing. The US is comprised of the most culturally diverse population. A big percentage of the world’s ethnic, religious and cultural groups are represented in this population. This has created a most unique opportunity as well as challenge to many organizations in the service delivery sector. This is because people from all cultures get ill at one point in time and they have to seek treatment. Nurses are thus presented with patients from very diverse cultural backgrounds. Culture influences how different people will respond to the different ways of health service delivery, interventions and treatment (Dolhun, E. P et al. 2003). It is therefore important for nurses to move towards achieving cultural competence in order to effectively deal with the challenges that come with the cultural reality. Because of the demographic situation in America service providers are under pressure to provide more culturally correct services. The nursing profession cannot be left behind and therefore the need to comply with the changing needs is overwhelming. Language limitations are also another issue of concern in attaining cultural competence. Ethical Factor One ethical principle that guides nurses in their endeavour to provide culturally appropriate care is the appreciating that everyone regardless of their cultural persuasion is entitled to receive quality health care. Cultural differences can influence the caregiver’s prejudices and bias towards a patient (Galanti G. A. 1997). In a similar way a patient can misconstrue the caregiver’s actions and words. This can serve to lower the quality of care given to this particular patient. Professional ethics require that there be no form of discrimination in the provision of health care but in a situation where there is prejudice on either party, then the quality of care is compromised. Similarly what is considered ethical may have serious consequences when viewed from a cultural context. A fitting example is when the doctor feels obliged to divulge some information to a patient or a certain member of the family, because in some cultures it is believed that giving certain information to a sick person is unacceptable, the doctors ‘ethical’ actions may be viewed in very bad light Nurse’s responsibility Nurses are usually supposed to care for the general well being of a patient, they ought to be able to understand and empathize with the patient in order to cater for their physical and emotional needs. On an individual level, a nurse has a responsibility to learn the practices that are in accordance to cultural competence. It is important that nurses should have an attitude that goes further than just learning acceptable cultural behaviours. Nurses must be motivated by compassion to the patients and driven by moral responsibility (Tervalon M. Murray-Garcia J. 1998). This allows them to display a genuine concern and is thus motivated to internalize harmonious attitudes towards achieving cultural competence. In a hospital setting a nurse is required to be able to anticipate the issues that may arise due to cultural disparities and lack of proficiency in certain languages. They are also to understand the others’ points of view as well as appreciating the strengths and weaknesses of these points of view. In addition to this, respecting the cultural differences is key to the ability to provide culturally appropriate care. Since the issues raised by cultural diversity are multi-faceted in nature, they require a holistic approach that calls for a total overhaul in the nurses’ ways of thinking. There is no one culture that is the standard of what is good or bad and therefore an open mind is important as nurses move towards delivering health care that exemplifies cultural competence. Achieving this kind of competence is only possible if one comes to self-awareness and recognizes their own values, beliefs, opinions, prejudices and biases (Dolhun, E. P. 2003). From here, they can be able to understand how they respond to different points of view from other. Inorder to come to self-awareness one needs to examine their own cultural and environmental backgrounds. An underlying ethnocentricity is part most people where one is protective and to an extent defensive when it comes to cultural differences (Switzer, G. E et al 1998). However in the nursing practice each nurse should be flexible and work towards developing skills of responding to varied cultural settings and situations. Nursing Schools Similarly in nursing schools one is required to meet most of the aforementioned standards. In addition to that communication skills are developed in school. Learning to communicate effectively in a cultural context entails being open-minded, respectful and shunning any form of prejudice or bias (Robins, L. et al 1998). It is a great opportunity to learn form and about other cultures. Other communication skills that are essential are listening skills that enable one to establish a rapport with the others. Language skills also play an important role in communication and as such each student nurse has a responsibility to learn other languages. Ofcourse it is not possible to learn all the languages there are but one can do their best and that is what is required of them. In the same way nurses should have skills that would enable them to assess the patient in a cultural context. This would entail finding out as much detail on the patient as possible. It would help to understand their ethnic background, socio-economic class, religion, age group and other social entities that they identify with. Learning about their experiences could also aid in establishing biases. Impact of culture on health care In the year 2010 more than 45% of all patients in the US will come from minority cultures. This is due to immigration that is the greatest contributor to the cultural diversity (Tervalon M. Murray-Garcia J. 1998). The health sector has realized the reality of these facts and medical practitioners are now given incentives to encourage them to take up learning on cultural diversity. This is changing the entire medical profession. Many initiatives have been put in place in order to bridge health differences that exist between minority groups and the white Americans. The existence of cultural difference may impact negatively on the care given. Cultural factor do affect the response to the different methods of treatment and diagnosis. Some ideas are perceived differently in different cultures and in some extreme cases family members can react in ways that may seem bizarre in the western world. Conclusion The issue of culture is increasingly attaining great importance with the ever-changing cultural mixture. The provision of healthcare is now taking cognizance of the effects of culture on the delivery of these vital services. It has been realized that cultural differences have been an impact on the quality of care given. Nurses and other medical practitioner are now under increased pressure to attain cultural competence in order to achieve high standards of quality. This paper opines the achievement of an all round cultural competence is a long journey. It will take a collective as well as an individual effort to achieve. Nurses have a personal responsibility to seek to understand the cultural factor. Additionally each one of them needs to appreciate their moral duty to seek self-awareness inorder to understand their own behaviour in response to other people with a differing opinion. Respect and a non-judgemental attitude are important if one is to overcome the ethnocentricity that is part of every human being. This awareness cultivates interest and inquiry. Once this point has been reached cultural differences will be viewed as learning opportunities that will spur personal growth. Reference Dolhun, E. P. Munoz, C. and Grumbach, K. (2003). Cross-cultural education in U. S. medical schools: Development of an assessment tool. Academic Medicine. Galanti G. A. (1997). Caring for Patients from Different Cultures: Case studies from American hospitals. 2nd ed. University of Philadelphia Press. Philadelphia, PA. Riddick S. (1998). Improving access for limited English-speaking consumers: A review of strategies in health care settings. J Health Care Poor Underserved. Supp vol 9: Robins, L. S. Alexander, G. L. , Wolf, F. M. , Fantone, J. C. , Davis, W. K. (1998). Development and evaluation of an instrument to assess medical students cultural attitudes. Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, Switzer, G. E. Scholle, S. H. , Johnson, B. A. , Kelleher, K. J. (1998). The Client Cultural Competence Inventory: An instrument for assessing cultural competence in behavioral managed care organizations. Journal of Child and Family Studies, Tervalon M. Murray-Garcia J. (1998). Cultural humility versus cultural competence: A critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. J Health Care Poor Underserved.

Horror Women Clover

Horror Women Clover How has the role of women in horror films changed? Using Carol Clover, ‘Theory of Final Girl to analyse 1 scene from ‘The Hitcher, the changing roles of women in horror films will be explored. Traditionally horror films have seen women take on the role of the victim. More recently this has changed whereby the  women has taken on a more powerful and dominant position. ‘Carol Clover a professor of film wrote a book called ‘Men, Women and Chainsaw: gender and the modern horror film which focused on women. She developed a theory, which changed the way gender is looked upon in horror films. In a lot of ‘slasher films the women are represented as victims although what interested me is how the womens role has changed in recent years to what ‘Carol Clover claimed to be the ‘final girl. Women have been subject to different representations throughout time, within the horror genre; of which female audience consider being a sexist image. I will be exploring how women are represented in the films mentioned, analysing the scenes and comparing this to Carol Clover, and how the roles of women have changed through time. To do this I will look at ‘The Hitcher a 2007 remake (Michael Bay production) (Director Dave Meyer) which presents a clear representation of the ‘final girl. Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) and Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) decide to hit the road for spring break. However the film turns from a chick flick to the two of them fighting for their lives and trying to save others. The 1986 original is some what different from the remake where there is no final girl and the boyfriend is the only survivor. Dave Meyers wanted to create ‘female empowerment which is an added twist to the remake. Female empowerment is also demonstrated in a film series called ‘Saw. Directed by James Wan, the plot revolves around ‘Jigsaw Killer who kidnaps his victims, put them in traps and gives them a chance to repent from their previous lifestyle in which they took for granted. One victim from Saw named ‘Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) survives the trap and becomes ‘Jigsaw Killer partner. ‘Amanda is a heroin addict which she started while in prison. She is ‘Jigsaws only known survivor and believes it has made her a better person. This film clearly displays the female role changing from victim to survivor although this film goes against the theory of Carol Clover, in terms that ‘Amanda becomes a murderer. Women throughout horror film history have been stereotyped to victimisation and the focus of brutal murder. History has seen change from women not being able to vote to having basic human rights and a high status in society. Feminists have come along way to changing this stereotype, this being, able to direct films and having the chance to control a piece of media which affects the way people (women) are perceived by an audience. (Bridget (1999) â€Å"Without feminism there would have been no final girl or avenging women†. This quote shows that even though films such as ‘The Hitcher or ‘Scream were not writen, directed or produced by women, feminism has come a long way where women have more power in soceity and is being portrayed in films just as Dave Meyers wanted to create. This is to do with social change. According to film maker magazine blog, women are now attending the cinema to watch horror films more and are exceeding male figures. Carol Clover questioned who the audience identifies them with. It is assumed that the male identifies with murderer who is usually male. Many argue that men in the audience are sexually aroused by the victimisation of the female. This is caused by the camera angles and lighting. Murder of the female if shot from the mens point of view ‘Gaze Shot (masculine voyeur vs feminine victim). Carol Clover argues that the audience identifies with ‘final girl, and that the viewer (male or female) identifies with the fright of being attacked rather than the satisfaction of the murderer as he attacks. The final girl remains ‘virginal and ‘pure while her friends do the opposite. She escapes because she does not partake in adult hood such as drugs, and sexual intercourse. The final girl fights back and is the damsel in distress. The unempowered woman makes a movement to power over men. In order to compare Carol Clovers theory to ‘The Hitcher I shall look at 2 scenes from The Hitcher. The first scene opens and the viewer sees Grace (Sophie Bush) and Jim (Zachary Knighton) walk to a motel. There, they take a shower together and Jim steps out of the room to make a phone call, telling her that he will be gone for 15 minutes. Hes gone for several hours and Grace falls asleep watching a Hitchcock film. She is then awakened by someone in the bed who is feeling her up. She assumes it is Jim but then sees that it is Ryder (Sean Bean) trying to rape her. She tries to push him away, but Ryder gets on top of her. We see his hand over her mouth trying to stop her screaming. The camera shot is high angle which is used to make her look vulnerable and powerless. We see her bite Ryder hand and he hits her. The shot is then focused from Grace Eyes also known as point of view shot. When the low angle shot is used it emphasises the power and strength that Ryder has being on top of her. Throughout the scene a master shot is applied whereby the director cut from Ryder to Grace and back to Ryder throughout most of the scene. This showed the reaction of the two characters and established a clear spatial (space) and temporal (time) relationship. The audience then sees Grace grab the phone on the side table, of which she then hits him over the head and tries to get off the bed. Grace hits him over the head with the lamp she picks up from the floor and runs to the bathroom. Grace is trying to shut the door and the camera is focused mainly on her. Here a Close up is used. This is to draw the viewer/audience closer and involve them in what is happening. The close up shot also enables the audience to observe the reactions of Ryder and the emotions of Grace. There are two sorts of lighting being displayed in the scene; these are artificial and key light. The artificial lighting is low key to create a slight shadow on Ryder to make him seem dark and mysterious just as his character is portrayed throughout the film. The key lighting was needed as the scene was shot in the bathroom where there is no natural light available. Grace manages to close the door as she reaches for a gun and Ryder walks out of the room. She then makes her way to find Jim who she sees tied up between two trucks of which is stretching Jim every time Ryder accelerates. Throughout the whole of the last scene you see her fight for her life and she survives but she becomes extremely weak in this next scene when Jims life is on the line. Ryder keeps hitting the gas, brutally hurting Jim and tells Grace to get in and close the door. Grace begs and pleas with Ryder to stop and begins to cry but asks him questions such as what do you want and calls him sick. Her character changes from being strong to being very weak. Ryder says he cant stop and he wants to die. Here the theory of Carol Clover audience identification takes place. The close up shot enables the audience to identify with him or her and clearly the director wanted the scene to be focused on the audience identifying with the female. When focusing on editing of the scene there is a lot of cuts from Grace to Ryder and a two shot in between, this is often used when two people are in conversation. When counting the cut shots, when focused on Ryder they add up to less than 30 while the shots focused on Grace are over 30. The cops show up and see Grace with Ryder at gunpoint. They tell her to drop the gun, but Ryder tells Grace not to listen to them. Ryder then tells her to point the gun between his eyes. Grace cant do it so Ryder does it for her. Ryder then tells her to shoot him, but she cant, puts the gun down and says for Ryder not to hurt Jim. Grace shows a sign of femininity whereby she becomes very emotional and shows how much she cares for Jim Throughout the scene the audience can hear Jim moaning and groaning in agony. Ryder then gets impatient and snatches the gun out of her hands. He then mutters under his breath, Useless waste. There is a FX sound effect where the audience can hear a ‘splat where the blood explodes outwards to make the audience feel as thought they are the experiencing what has just happened to the victim (Jim). Although there is more to this than blood and emotion that makes the scene work, if she shoots him the foot will come off the brake and he will die and if she doesnt he puts his foot on the accelerator and Jim will die. Its a no win situation making you wonder what will be her decision. At the end of the film Grace does shoot and kill Ryder. Before hand Ryder smiles and asks Grace if it feels good. Grace tells him she doesnt feel a thing shoots him and walks away. The analysis has made the theory of Carol Clover more clear in terms of audience identification. Who does the audience identify with and why, are questions Clover asked when watching the slasher films. According to her theory, Carol said that audience identification was down to gender fluidity whereby the male killer was sexually repressed and therefore the male viewer could not identify themselves with them. For example: films such as Halloween, Psycho and Nightmare on Elmstreet, all the killers are sexually repressed and having something wrong mentally. Freddy Kruger (Nightmare on Elmstreet) was the result of him being brutally raped, and ‘Halloween was in response to his sister indulging in adulthood. However Ryder is not sexually repressed. Here her theory does not work. I believe that the camera shots and cuts affect who the audience is ‘forced to identify with. The audience (male) was being made to identify themselves with the female (Grace). Whereby there were more cuts of her, the audience had no choice but to see her emotion and hear her plea. At times Grace was isolated and alone making the audience only identify with the character they are being shown. I also feel as though the male audience identifies with Grace rather than Ryder because he lacks masculinity and deep down is weak as I will explain. Many times Ryder says he wants to die and for them to kill him as he cant do it himself. He makes Grace strong enough to kill him by killing others. However its always a no win situation. It is as if he doesnt want to die alone and is scared. The analysis above demonstrates a no win situation. Eric Red (director is ‘Hitcher 1986) talks about the film in 1986 and states that, â€Å"Because of the hell living inside his skin, John Ryder wants to die. But he wants to make Jim Halsey strong enough to kill him and he does.† (Eric Red Interview) In the 2007 remake, Grace is made strong enough to do this. There is a connection between her and the killer just like there was a connection between Jim and Ryder in the original Eric Red says, â€Å"I really think that this strange psychological connection between The Hitcher and the Kid, the irony that something of value is passed from this horrific guy Ryder to Halsey, strength to persevere in a nightmarish world† (Eric Red Interview) Looking closely at the film, it has made me has made me think about the narrative structure and that although the target victim in cab scene was not a girl; Ryder used Jim to get to Grace. Ryder was making Grace even more vulnerable and weak by taking away the man (protector) of her. She proved her weakness by not shooting Ryder and letting her boyfriend (Jim) die. This causes the narrative to move on and have Grace as Ryders last victim and for her to be the avenging women/ final girl. The audience does not need to know the killer past, but here the killer is trying to pass what he does and what he feels onto someone else so they can kill as well. This also happens in Saw. Amanda takes on the role of Jigsaw. Ryder many times says he wants to die and for them to kill him, but its always a no win situation. It is as if he doesnt want to die alone. For example the analysis shown above demonstrates a no win situation. Moving on, Clover argued that the final girl fights back just as Grace is doing. Grace is the one who sees everyone die. â€Å"Final Girl is chased cornered, wounded; whom we see scream, stager, and fall, rise, and scream again. She alone looks death in the face, but she alone also finds the strength either to stay with the killer long enough to be rescued (ending A) or to kill him herself (ending B)†. (Screams Of Terror) The two different endings are due to the evolution of feminist movement in film. If we look back at one of the first Final Girl films such as in Psycho, Lila figures out the unknown and when Bates attacks her, she is not given the chance to fight back as she is almost immediately rescued. This is ending A. Halloween, Laurie, was the first final girl to fight back (Ending B). Hitcher has ending B whereby the female (Grace) has empowerment to kill Ryder and to be just as strong as a male. This is where gender fluidity of the final girl plays its part. This enables the final girl to be identified by the male audience. She is not too feminine but has masculine traits such as being brave, intellectual and strong. The Final Girl is the one to make it to the end of the film. However I feel as though that her theory has left out an important thought that females can be crazy and psychotic as men. ‘Urban Legend, ‘Friday the 13th and ‘May show that females can be serial killers too. I feel as though her theory is one sided. ‘Urban legend is the result of her boyfriend dying due to few girls carrying out an urban myth. The killer in ‘Friday the 13th is revealed as a middle-aged woman whose son, Jason, drowned years earlier as a consequence of negligence on the part of the camp counselors. The women in these films commit each murder as an act of revenge. However ‘May just like the male according to Clover theory is also sexually dysfunctional. ‘May doesnt understand how to react around others and this frightens people, so the only way she can keep them in her life is by killing them and keeping parts of them to make a ‘big doll. The big doll wont even leave her as a doll isnt real. Bibliography Carol Clover (1992) Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender and the modern horror film, BFI Publishing Bridget, Cherry (1999) Refusing to look: female viewers of the horror film, Publisher The Hitcher Saw 1, 2, 3 www.best-horror-movies.com/female-serial-killer.html comm2.fsu.edu/faculty/comm./sapoisky/research/bookch/slasher.html Mass Media and Society edited by A. Wells and EA Hakanen. 1997. Greenwich, CT; Ablex Publishing www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2007/02/female-trouble.php Hitch with Red, Jan. 16, 2007 http://www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=6449 Eric Red Interview http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1775841 Feminist Horror Film Theory Mon Jan 09 2006 http://www.screams-of-terror.com/teenie.asp screams of terror 14/2/08

Dispute Resolution in Cyberspace Essay -- Internet Communication Essay

Dispute Resolution in Cyberspace Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods have been in use since the early days of civilization.(1) In the middle ages, crimes were seen as acts of injury caused by one person against another. The parties were expected to reach an agreement that would restore both parties and the community to a state where all involved healed from injury.(2) As civilization has evolved, so has the types of conflicts and perspectives on conflict. The basic premise of conflict will always be the same: â€Å"an expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties who perceive scarce resources, incompatible goals and interference from the other party in achieving their goals.(3) However, the ways in which parties can interact with each other has changed over the centuries. During the middle ages talking or writing about someone in your own village or country would not effect others thousands of miles away. Historically, conflicts are perpetuated by physical interactions, by people who know each other or who have at least seen each other. With the advent of Internet technology it is possible to effect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of hours anywhere on the planet.(4) In cyberspace it is possible to have a conflict over something that does not even physically exist or that can be changed with a push of a button. Internet technology also changes the way communication and information management are used in dispute resolution. With the invention of the fax machine and e-mail it is now possible to instantaneously distribute large quantities of information to anyone, anywhere.(5) Since the invention of real time chat and electronic conferencing, it is no longer necessary to have bot... ...ing the Walk, 15 February 1997: www.voma.org/doc/mhwalk.html. Katsh, Ethan M., â€Å"Dispute Resolution in Cyberspace,† 28 Conn. L. Rev. 953 (1996) :1-4. www.umass.edu/legal/articles/connmain.html. Katsh, Ethan,â€Å"The Online Ombuds Office: Adapting Dispute Resolution to Cyberspace.† 1-10. www.law.vill.edu/ncair/disres/katsh.htm. Leibowitz, Wendy R.,â€Å"Lawyers and Technology: Let’s Settle this, Online,† The National Law Journal (July 5, 1999) : 1-3. Nagle Lechman, Barbara A.,Conflict and Resolution, New York: Aspen Law & Business, 1997. Perritt, Jr., Henry H., â€Å"Electronic Dispute Resolution,†paper delivered at the On-line Dispute Resolution, Washington, DC.22 May 1996:1-14. www.law.vill.edu/ncair/disres/PERRITT.HTM. Severson, Margaret M. and Tara V. Bankston, â€Å"Social Work and the Pursuit of Justice Through Mediation,† Social Work 40 no. 5 (1995) : 683-691.

Web Page Creation Report :: Computer Science

Web Page Creation Report In order to create my web pages, I used a program called FrontPage Express. This allowed me to create web pages without learning the language they are written in, HTML. To start with, I created a new directory for the website to go in to. I did this by clicking on File>New>Folder. I then renamed the folder just created to Computerstore. Into that folder, I created five more folders, and renamed them Images, INP, OUT, MPU and STO. These were for the four different sections of products and for the images. My next task was to create the index page. In FrontPage Express, I created a new page by clicking on File>New>Normal Page. I then right-clicked on the page and selected page properties. I could then change the background colour. After I found that none of the preset colours were suitable, I created a custom colour by entering different amounts of Red, Blue, and Green until I found a colour that I liked. I then added this to the custom colours list so I could use it on the other pages. I then set all of the text and hyperlink colours to black so that all the text on the page would the same colour. Whilst I was in page properties, I added the page title that would be shown at the top of the browser by typing the title I wanted into the title box. With the properties set how I wanted, I could lay out the page. I wanted to add a table on the page, to contain the hyperlinks to the other pages. To do this, I clicked on Table>Insert Table, and entered the size of table I wanted, as shown to the left. I then formatted the table by right clicking on the outline, and selecting Table Properties. I added a border of size 10, aligned the table to the centre, and coloured the border navy, as shown to the right. I clicked OK and went back to the home page. I added the section names into the table, and added a two-line title. Using the defaults, the page looked like the image to shown above. I then formatted all of the text into a different font, Franklin Gothic Heavy. I then changed the size of the first line of the title to the largest, size 7, and underlined it. My newly formatted homepage now looked like this. I saved the file into the main directory as index.htm. In order to create the index pages for the sub-directories, I used the homepage as a template. For each index page, all I would need to do was to change

Personal Narrative About Me :: Autobiography Essay, Personal Narrative

Me I am sentimental, out-going, indecisive, understanding, curious, naive, lazy, and young. I want to be ... , well a lot of things, and growing is discovering what they are. I feel people cannot see the potential within, although there is no one to blame but myself. I look to others for approval instead of to myself. I aim to please; it leads to approval. I don’t like to discuss my faults; I pity myself. I am weak in some respects, but in others I am strong. My life is a balance of ups and downs. With my extremes however, my scales never fulfill the word "balance." The ups and downs equal a median on which I travel daily. I love those who understand me, who chose to come close to the fire, who stay long enough to love its warmth, and who know how to avoid being burned. I don’t trust people easily. I don’t throw around my heart. I’ve lost love from my lack of giving. I regret this. I grab hold of things, always seeking support, a rock on which to lean. I have tried God, boyfriends, and small successes in school and sports, feeling the title FAILURE rise upon my forehead when I slipped. Afterwards I tried even harder to bring myself back up, my recovery taken on the quickest, most unstable route. This explains how I fell so easily. The self-esteem I had needed to be constantly replenished and refilled. My source was not myself, but others, whose opinions mattered more than my own. I am passionate and at times fearless. I am everything, and I am nothing. I am ever-changing and unpredictable. I crave security but cry for independence. I am black or white, never gray. My actions may not reflect my feelings and vice-versa. I play the submissive female one minute and the aggressive female the next. Every year I learn more about myself. The person inside no longer takes peeks at the world outside, but screams "Look at me, see what I’ve become, watch because I am coming!" I’ve been through difficult times, but the odds are starting to lean my way; I feel ready for any challenge that may arise.

Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O Connors

In Flannery O†Connors† â€Å"Everything That Rises Must Converge†, the character of Julian sees his mother as racist and narrow-minded due to her sheltered upbringing and lack of knowledge and education of the black struggle for equality. He feels that due to his education that he has a higher understanding of social structure and inequality that his mother lacks, and he loathes her for this reason. However, despite his higher education, he still depends on his mother for financial support even as a grown man, and has a repressed emotional dependency on her. This is the inner character conflict that Julian faces. In reality, Julian is as facetious and narrow-minded as his mother, he simply refuses to come to terms with this harsh reality, and as a result he plays off his own inadequacies and shallowness on his mother, by criticizing her and having a negative and depressing view of her. He must come to terms with his repressed dependency on his mother and deep-seeded feelings of failure and personal inadequacy. Unfortunately, it takes the event of his mother†s stroke to realize that Julian must take care and depend on himself, and realize that he and his mother are almost identical in their social views and failures. The first instance of Julian†s facetiousness is seen on the walk to the bus station with his mother on their way to her weight reducing class. His mother finds herself on the topic of the recent African American civil rights movement, and how she remembers when she lived in the south on a rich plantation with two hundred slaves. Julian tells her to stop talking about it, showing his non-racist and modern views, unlike his mother. However, he finds himself thinking of how the old plantation house must have looked before it became run down and abandoned, â€Å"Negroes were living in it. But it remained in his mind as his mother had known it. It appeared in his dreams regularly†(O†Connor 1082). He fantasizes about the plantation mansion†s glory days, an obvious example of how his external behavior is different than his inner true feelings and wishes. As Booth illustrates, â€Å"what kind of man is it, we ask, who always belies his true feelings? His life is full of such contradictions†(1634). Julian lies to himself to cover his true self, that of a shallow failure. Then, after Julian and his mother get on the bus, a second instance of his inner-failure and true pathetic character is demonstrated. Despite his supposed high education and writing talent, he depends on his mother for money and shelter, and sells typewriters. His mother is shown on the same parallel of facetiousness as she comments on the bus to another passenger, â€Å"He wants to write but he†s selling typewriters until he gets started . . .. I tell him that Rome wasn†t built in a day†(O†Conner 1084). Despite the obvious personal failure, despite a college education is denied internally by Julian and externally by his mother, playing off Julian†s failure as taking his time. Julian pushes out his failure when put on the spot by entering a â€Å"mental bubble in which he established himself . . . From it he could see out and judge but in it was safe from any kind of penetration from without†(O†Connor 1084). Julian goes on to daydream about various scenarios that he could upset his mother by bringing an African-American into there lives, such as dating a black woman, further punctuating his false belief of racial equality using blacks as experiments. A second instance of Julian†s repressed racism is seen when an African-American man enters the bus and Julian attempts to engage him in conversation to spite his mother, however, this action shows that Julian really does not view African Americans as people. Despite his assertions of social awareness, he views blacks as guinea pigs to be used to test his mother†s tolerance of his actions. When a second African-American enters the bus, this time a woman with a child, the final instance of Julian†s insecurities and dependencies is realized. Upon exiting the bus Julian†s mother insists upon giving the African-American woman†s child a penny. This may be seen as a gesture of condescension, or that she thinks the black mother and child are poor, but in reality, it seems to simply be a friendly gesture she would do to any child, despite color. The black woman snaps in return, shouting at Julian†s mother that her child does not take money from anyone. This shock of rejection from an African-American causes her stroke, and in return, Julians epiphany. After he realizes what has happened, he comes to terms with his failures and dependency, he discovers he truly loves his mother, he shouts, â€Å"Darling, sweetheart, wait! â€Å"(O†Connor 1091). He then enters a world of â€Å"guilt and sorrow†(O†Connor 1091). His previous thoughts that he had no emotional dependency on his mother, that he was superior to her, are shattered in his realization of his true self. His journey to self-identity is complete, and he must now care for at least his mother, but most importantly, himself.

This Emotional Life Summary

This video talked about how and why we need relationship with others through family, friend and the case of lovers. In the beginning of the video psychologist, Daniel Gilbert, states that successful relationship gives us happiness. Moreover it also led to our emotional well being. On the section of family, it focused on the attachment. Children have problem communicating and building relationship, in most of the time, are lack of the love. Especially from the mother or care givers. When the period of crying and learning the surroundings, they have learned that they were not being pay attention. Also there is no one to protect and comfort them. Oxytocin a hormone plays an important role in social relationship because it helps format the attachment. In other words, to form a close relationship such as friends and parents it is necessary to create that hormone. The experiment between adopted and natural mother-child had shown that natural mother-child’s oxytocin increased. However the adopted one didn’t. It also mentioned that it is not only the child that gets influenced by, but also the parents too. By experimenting where mothers’ brain work by seeing their child’s emotions, stated that the part of â€Å"need to pay attention† have worked actively. On the next section about the friend, it focused on communication. People gets stress when they feel lonely which would led to hart disease, diabetes, accidents, and suicide.