Tea with the birds Essay Example for Free

Tea with the birds Essay The human being is a social creature with an essential need to socialize, but in our modern society many people feel that they are isolated and lonely in a world surrounded by people. The people of modern society are prejudice and judgmental towards the ‘unknown’ person, and we will rather observe and assume things about each other than getting to know one another. This is also the case for the main character and her neighbors in Joanne Harris novel ‘Tea with the birds’ from 2001. The narrator lives in a flat in Mortimer Street. The narrator describes Mortimer Street as being â€Å"busy without being comfortable; crowded without being friendly†.Mortimer street has a sense of coldness around it, and no-one really knows their neighbors even though they â€Å"live like birds in cages†. The coldness suits the narrator, because she enjoys the solitude, privacy and silence of her own flat. This has aroused her neighbors’ curiosity and suspicious towards her, because as she describes â€Å"I’m a completely different race from my neighbors†. Both the narrator and her neighbors consider her as an outsider, but this does not bother the narrator. Her neighbors consider her as being snobby cause of her reluctance to speak with them. Therefore her neighbors observe her and presume, she is a student nurse and she doesn’t bother to correct them. Mortimer Street is a reflection on the narrators own personality. She is very introverted and doesn’t have an interest in getting to know her neighbors. The narrator lives her lonely life, until the day when Mr. Juzo Tamaoki moves in the apartment opposite to hers. â€Å"Another foreigner said the Mortimer Street grapevine, with barely concealed disapproval†. This once again shows Mortimer Streets residents’ insecurity towards anyone different from them self. When the narrator and Mr. Tamaoki meet, his expression reminds her of a bird, she once saw in a zoo and still sees every morning, when she looks in the mirror. The bird resembles the narrator in the way that it has been bred in captivity, and the narrator has been kept in captivity in the two years she spent in a psychological hospital. The two years of solitude and silence and being hidden away from others has affected the narrator’s psychology, as she is now overwhelmed by the free and loud world and she has become introverted. The narrators` only wishes towards Mr. Tamaoki is that he will be quiet and leave her alone, and to her surprise he is the most silent neighbor, she ever had and he keeps to himself. Mr. Tamaoki begins to awaken her curiosity and interest, as she realizes that he is as much a foreigner in Mortimer Street as herself. He always nods and smiles, when he meets the narrator. This is the only kind of social contact, they have with each other. Mr. Tamaoki seems as the perfect neighbor, until he starts receiving a delivery of groceries at five-thirty in morning, which wakes the narrator because she suffers from insomnia. The narrator tries to complain to Mr. Tamaoki by pinning notes to his door, and she starts to resent Mr. Tamaoki for his lack of responds. The narrator’s irritation over Mr. Tamaoki lack of responds shows that she has an interest in social human contact. The narrator doesn’t want to admit her interest in social human contact, so she disguises her interest as irritation and resentment. The narrator starts observing Mr. Tamaoki and becomes like the neighbors’ without noticing it herself. Mr. Tamaoki is both a reflection of the narrator’s current person and the person, she wishes to become even though the narrator is ignorant of this fact. Mr. Tamaoki is a foreigner in a new country, where he does not speak the native language. This isolates him from the rest of Mortimer Streets residents. The narrator thinks that Mr. Tamaoki resembles herself ,because she believes that he has chosen to isolate himself from the other residents’ of Mortimer Street. This however is not the case. The narrator overhears Mr. Tamaoki practicing English phrases and this shows that Mr. Tamaoki has a desire to interact with people. This desire is shown again, when Mr. Tamaoki invites the narrator in for a cup of tea. This interaction translates to the title of the novel. The narrator has previously compared Mr. Tamaoki and herself to the bird from the zoo. Now the two birds are sitting in Mr. Tamaoki apartment drinking tea. Even though the narrator and Mr. Tamaoki sit in silence, she feels comfortable around another person. Mr. Tamaoki stands op after a while and get the narrator to look in the refrigerator. There she sees a colorful display of vegetable birds. She is amazed, and she notices how beautiful and detailed every bird is. The narrator`s anger towards the vegetable delivery disappears. When the narrator was unaware of the use of the vegetables’ ,they were an irritation to her but after she discovered the use of them, she sees the beauty in them. The narrator describes how people would perhaps wonder the birds briefly but they where most likely to ignore them altogether and therefore ever discover their beauty. These birds are a symbol of how the people of modern society observe and do not make an effort to discover the beauty and details of others. Mr. Tamaoki leaves Mortimer Street soon after the visit. Mortimer Street was Mr. Tamaokis nest. It was isolated and safe from the rest of world, but Mr. Tamaoki has left the nest by moving and is now facing the world. The narrator starts missing the sounds and movements coming from Mr. Tamaoki apartment after his departure. The coldness of Mortimer Street is no longer a comfort to her, and the narrator starts noticing her other neighbors. One day she finds the door to Mr. Tamaoki apartment open, and she goes inside where she finds a packet of Japanese green tea with her name on it. The narrator decides to invite her new neighbor in for a cup of tea. The departure of Mr. Tamaoki has made the narrator realize that people are not supposed to live like birds in cages. People should interact with each other like birds are meant to be flying among other birds and not be watched though the bars of a cage. The novel also ends with â€Å"†¦ In the semi-darkness of my room, with the fire casting stilted red shadows on the wall, the rising steam looked like a bird’s wings fluttering, ready to fly away.† The narrator is now ready to fly freely among other people.

The Cultural Front Essay examples -- essays research papers

The Cultural Front   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the USA, it seems as though there is always a revolution going on. The world is changing everyday. Everyday there is something new going on. Everyday there are people fighting for what they believe in, from social movements to political movements. Everyday people are working hard for their future. People are just trying to make it in the real world. In the the 1930’s, there was so much going on, from WWI to the depression. The world was in a slump, and people were doing everything they could to make it. The cultural front involves history on the ordinary person, politics, and literature. I wish to compare some of the problems of today, with the problems of the past, discussing politics, culture, hegemony, and the working class.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  USA is the richest country and has the most poor people in numbers. Our money isn’t spent on education, health, or housing projects for poor people. Recently most of our money has been going to Iraq or weapons for soldiers so they can keep the peace. Our money doesn’t go to the ordinary person. Rich people keep getting rich, and the poor keep getting poor! I don’t feel our money is put into any investments. How come our gas prices are so high? Wouldn’t it make sense to invest in oil, so the average person can have some spare change to spend on something other than gas to get from point A to B? Our system is unjust and the only way to fix it is to fight for it, and hope that someone in power hears you. When people in power say something, people automatically believe them, even if there is no basis to their knowledge. President Bush had repeatedly said that John Kerry had changed his positions about our war many times. Kerry said it wasnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t true, but people believed Bush anyways, because he is a man of power, which is a form of communism. There are ways to change our system fundamentally instead of going to war with other countries. Most of our money right now goes to our National Defense and Social Security. It’s nice the money will be there later for us when we retire, but what about those of us who need social security benefits now? There have and always will be problems with the system, and no matter what you do, you can never make everyone happy! In the 1930’s the big political movement was the power of the CIO, The congress of Industrial Organization. They came to power at the beginning of ... ...side had Ghetto pastorals, which were books about people growing up in the ghettos, Harlem, Chinatowns, Little Italy, etc. Ghettos are usually classified as projects for African Americans. They are run down housing projects, where the poorest of the poor live. People there usually are on welfare, and have many kids. People enjoyed reading these stories, because they were stories of everyday people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This Cultural front was a revolution in the United States. The Cultural front is part of our history and it is very important to read all perspectives of history. The Cultural front reshaped history through the everyday people, the writing, play wrights, politics, and social movements. The cultural front shows the perspectives of the poor; it isn’t things you will find in a history book. When you read history books you find falsification. White men wrote history, they designed it the way they wanted people to remember it, making past presidents heroes, justifying Christopher Columbus taking land that was not his, justifying slavery, and writing only about people in power. The book the Cultural front shows a perspective from the every day average American just trying to survive.

The problem with plastics

The problem with plastics The problem with plastic is that it doesn't break down and go into the soil it Just sits there for years and years and it's way overused. We use plastic for A LOT of things: packaging, transporting, manufacturing, etc, but do we ever stop to think about what happens to the plastic after we're done using it, or where it ends up? The ‘out of sight, out of mind' saying is perfect when it comes to a lot of environmental issues, especially the issue with plastic. Plastic is made from petroleum, which the earth cannot digest.Instead of plastic biodegrading (breaking down in the soil) it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, which causes more harm than Just staying in one piece. For example, if the plastic ends up in the ocean, the plastic pieces will get smaller, and filter feeders will start to eat those pieces. Since filter feeders are on the bottom of the food chain, every organism (birds, fish, marine mammals, etc. ) that feeds on the filter feede rs are also eating plastic. Plastic that ends up in the ocean, kills around one million marine organisms each year!One of the most obvious impacts of plastic bottles is what happens after its been thrown away. According to the Container recycling institute, 86% of plastic water bottles used in the US become garbage that ends up in landfills throughout the country. About 60 million plastic water bottles are used every day in the US. Each year making the plastic water bottles used in the US Takes enough oil and energy to fuel 1 million cars All that energy spent to make Water bottles even more to ship it around the Country

What is hypnosis Describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis Free Essay Example, 1250 words

What is Hypnosis? Introduction Hypnosis can be described as the â€Å"systematic procedure that typically produces a heightened of suggestibility† (Weiten, 2008). The state of hypnosis is normally induced by a process called hypnotic induction. This induction consists of a complex series of suggestions and instructions which may be self- administered or they may be delivered by a hypnotist. The hypnosis procedure may be applied for different purposes including: hypnotherapy, stage hypnosis and self hypnosis. Hypnotherapy refers to the use of hypnosis procedures for therapeutic reasons and purposes. Stage hypnosis is the kind of hypnotism that is used for the purposes of audience entertainment (Pintar and Lynn, 2008). Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not performed while the individual is in some form of unconscious state. Rather it has been proven that hypnotic subjects are normally fully awake and attentive, but their peripheral awareness is usually reduced. There are two main aspects of hypnosis: physical and psychological. The physical aspect affects the tangible parts of the body or body cells. The psychological aspect of hypnosis affects the emotional and mental aspects of human functionalities (Taddei-Ferretti and Musio, 1999). We will write a custom essay sample on What is hypnosis Describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Psychological Aspects of Hypnosis Psychological aspects of hypnosis are normally explained through psychological theories that affect the mental and emotion beings. These theories normally try to explain how consciousness and hypnotic suggestions come together in order to elicit certain reactions and behaviors in an individual. In the field of psychotherapy, hypnosis the effects of hypnosis can be explained through the ego state theory which emphasizes on the relationship between psychogenic amnesia, fugue states and multiple personalities. According to the ego state theory, different networks of human personality behaviors, experiences and traits are normally bound by principles common to all of them (Pettinati, 1988). Although it is possible for several ego states to coexist, they normally do so as distinct or independent entities. Hypnosis researchers believe that these entities have loosely defined boundaries. This makes it possible for communication to occur during the hypnotic state, which in turn results in a more general psychological integration of the egos. Some authors claim that hypnosis is a psychologically dissociative condition. In this context, dissociation may be any personality trait that is defined by the connections between perception and cognition of deliberate control over certain behavior.