Stem Barks of Bauhinia Acuminata | Analysis

Stem Barks of Bauhinia Acuminata | Analysis Materials and Methods Plant collection The stem barks of Bauhinia acuminata L. were collected from Rajshahi university campus, Bangladesh, in the month of September, 2013. The plant was authenticated by a taxonomist of Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi. A voucher specimen (Voucher No. MN-13) was deposited to the herbarium in the Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi. The stem barks were then washed separately with fresh water to remove dirty materials and were shade dried for several days with occasional sun drying. The dried barks were then ground into coarse powder by grinding machine and the materials were stored in dark at room temperature for future use. Extract preparation The extraction was performed according to method described by Alam el al. (Alam et al., 2002). About 400 gm of dried powdered stem bark were taken in an amber colored reagent bottle (2.5-liter capacity) and the materials were soaked in 2.0 liter of 100% methanol. The bottle with its contents were sealed and kept for a period of about 7 days with occasional shaking and stirring. The whole mixture was then filtered through cotton and then through Whatman No.1 filters paper and were concentrated with a rotary evaporator (Bibby Sterlin Ltd, UK) under reduced pressure at 45ÂÂ °C temperature to afford crude extract of the bark. The crude extract was mixed with 90% methanol in water to obtain a slurry of satisfactory volume of 100ml. The slurry was taken in a separating funnel and added equal amount of different partitioning solvent sequentially as like n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and finally water. The funnel was shaken vigorously and allowed to stand for a few minutes for sep aration of the compounds according to their partition co-efficient and thus extracts were prepared for the experiment purpose. The process was repeated three times. At last, the different fractionated parts were evaporated using rotary evaporator at 400C to obtain n-hexane fraction (NHF, 1.12 gm), chloroform fraction (CHF, 1.33 gm), ethyl acetate fraction (EAF, 2.27 gm) and aqueous fraction (AQF, 8.86 gm) respectively. Chemicals 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), potassium ferricyanide, catechin (CA), ferrous ammonium sulphate, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), gallic acid (GA), ascorbic acid (AA), AlCl3, trichloro acetic acid (TCA), sodium phosphate, sodium nitrate, ammonium molybdate, 2-deoxy ribose, sodium hydroxide, EDTA and FeCl3 were purchased from Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO, USA); potassium acetate, phosphate buffer, thiobarbituric acid(TBA),ÂÂ   HCl, H2SO4, H2O2were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, vinblastine sulphate (VBS) from Cipla India, folin-ciocalteuss phenol reagent and sodium carbonate were obtained from Merck (Dam-stadt, Germany). Determination of total phenolics Total phenolic contents in the extracts were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method described by Singleton et al. (Slinkard Singleton, 1977). 40 ÂÂ µl of the extract/fractions (250ÂÂ µg/ml) were taken in test tubes and to each 3.16 ml of water was added to make up the volume 3.2ml. 200 ÂÂ µl of folin-Ciocalteu (Undiluted) reagent solution was added into the test tubes and kept for 5-8min. 600 ÂÂ µl of sodium carbonate (20%) solution was added into the test tubes and shake to mix. The test tubes were incubated for 2 hours at 20ËÅ ¡C to complete the reaction. Then the absorbance of the solution was measured at 765 nm using a spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, USA) against blank solution. A typical blank solution contains all reagents except plant extract or standard solution. Standard Gallic acid solutions (50-250ÃŽÂ ¼g /ml) concentrations were also treated as above. The total content of phenolic compounds in plant methanol extract and in different fractions wa s expressed as Gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/gm of dry extract in respect to standard gallic acid curve equation (y = 0.0008x 0.005, RÂÂ ² = 0.975). Determination of total flavonoids Total flavonoids were estimated using aluminum chloride colorimetric assay described by Zhishen et al. (Zhishen, Mengcheng, Jianming, 1999). To 0.5 ml of samples/standard, 150 ÂÂ µl of 5% sodium nitrate and 2.5 ml of distilled water were added. After 5 min, 0.3 ml of 10% AlCl3 was added. At 6 min, 1 ml of 0.001M NaOH and 0.55 ml distilled water was added to the mixture and left at RT for 15 min.ÂÂ   Absorbance of the mixtures was measured at 510 nm. Total flavonoid contents were expressed in terms of catechin equivalent, CAE /gm of dry extract in respect to standard curve equation (y = 0.0178x+0.0524, RÂÂ ² = 0.9862). Determination of free radical scavenging activity DPPH radical scavenging activity Free radical scavenging ability of the extracts was tested by DPPH radical scavenging assay (DRSA) as described by Braca et al. (Braca et al., 2001). Aliquots of 2.5mL of methanolic solution containing sample at different concentration was mixed with 2.5 ml of 0.008% DPPH solution in methanol. The reaction mixture was vortexed thoroughly and left in the dark at room temperature for 30 minutes. The absorbance of the mixture was measured spectrophotometrically at 517 nm. Ascorbic acid was used as reference. Percentage DPPH radical scavenging activity (% DRSA) was calculated by the following equation, % DRSA = (A0-A1/A0) x 100 Where, A0 = Absorbance of control and A1 = Absorbance of sample. IC50 values denote the concentration of sample required to scavenge 50% DPPH free radicals. Hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity Hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity of extract was assessed by the method described by Zhang et al. (Zhang He). Aliquot of 1.0 ml of 0.1mmol/L H2O2 and 1.0 ml of various concentrations of extracts were mixed. Followed by 2 drops of 3% ammonium molybdate, 10 ml of 2M H2SO4 and 7.0 ml of 1.8 mol/L KI. The mixed solution was titrated with 5.09mmol/L Na2S2O3 until yellow color disappeared. The extent of scavenging of hydrogen peroxide was calculated as: % scavenging of hydrogen peroxide = [(V0-V1) / V0] ÃÆ'- 100 Where, V0 = Volume of Na2S2O3 solution used to titrate the control sample in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (without sample), V1 = Volume of Na2S2O3 solution used in the presence of samples. Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity (HRSA) of the extracts was determined by the method of Halliwell et al. (Halliwell, Gutteridge, Aruoma, 1987) with a slight modification. 100 ÂÂ µl of various concentrations of extracts were mixed with 100 ÂÂ µl of hydrogen peroxide (10mmol/L). To this 200 ÂÂ µl premixed FeCl3 (100mmol/L) and EDTA (100mmol/L) solution (1:1;v/v) was added. Followed by addition of 500 ÂÂ µl of 2.8mmol/L 2-deoxyribose in phosphate buffer (PH7.4) and finally the reaction was triggered by adding 100 ÂÂ µl ascorbate (300mmol/L).ÂÂ   Then the reaction mixture was incubated at 37.5ËÅ ¡C for 1 hour. To the above reaction mixture 2 ml of TCA (2.8% w/v aqueous solution) and 2 ml of TBA (1% w/v aqueous solution) was added. The final reaction mixture was heated for 15min in boiling water bath, cooled and absorbance was taken at 532nm using a spectrophotometer. The hydroxyl radical scavenging capacity was evaluated with the inhibition percentage of 2-deoxyribose oxidation on hydroxyl radicals. The percentage of hydroxyl radical scavenging (%HRSA) activity was calculated according to the following formula: % HRSA = [A0 (A1-A2] ÃÆ'-100/A0 where A0 is the absorbance of the control without a sample. A1 is the absorbance after adding the sample and 2-deoxyribose. A2 is the absorbance of the sample without 2-deoxyribose. REFERENCES Alam, A., Rahman, M., Baki, M., Rashid, M., Bhuyan, M., Sadik, G. (2002). Antidiarrhoeal principle of Achyranthes ferruginea Roxb. and their cytotoxicity. Ban Pharm J, 12, 1-4. Braca, A., De Tommasi, N., Di Bari, L., Pizza, C., Politi, M., Morelli, I. (2001). Antioxidant Principles from Bauhinia tarapotensis. Journal of Natural Products, 64(7), 892-895. doi:10.1021/np0100845 Halliwell, B., Gutteridge, J. M., Aruoma, O. I. (1987). The deoxyribose method: a simple test-tube assay for determination of rate constants for reactions of hydroxyl radicals. Anal Biochem, 165(1), 215-219. Slinkard, K., Singleton, V. L. (1977). Total Phenol Analysis: Automation and Comparison with Manual Methods. American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, 28(1), 49-55. Zhang, X., He, F. Science Press; Beijing, China: 2000. Principle of Chemical Analysis, 275-276. Zhishen, J., Mengcheng, T., Jianming, W. (1999). The determination of flavonoid contents in mulberry and their scavenging effects on superoxide radicals. Food chemistry, 64(4), 555-559.

Dynamics of Modernity: Berman Canclini

Dynamics of Modernity: Berman Canclini Compare and contrast Marshall Bermans and Nestor Garcia Canclinis account of the dynamics of Modernity To be modern is to live a life of paradox and contradiction. It is to be overpowered by the immense bureaucratic organizations that have the power to control and often to destroy all communities, values, lives; and yet to be undeterred in our determination to face these forces, to fight to change their world and make it our own. (Berman:1983:13-14) Modernity has long been hailed as one of the most powerful forces to have emerged in the world, with the capacity, according to Marx, to move mountains, and to ensure that all that is solid melts into air. Within the statement by Berman that begins this essay, we can see one of the dynamics that has created this impression. Modernity, despite its deeper roots, begins to be talked about by a series of thinkers who combine a high degree of abstraction with a imperative to act. Thus Marx argues for huge motors of historical telos that exist outside of our will, and at the same time argues for an immanent need to change historical conditions. This relationship between abstraction and concreteness is perhaps the most fundamental dynamic of modernity. It gives rise to the planned economies of communism, and the controlled biopower of modern states that Foucault (1998) talks about, which attempt to rule over the function of life itself. At the same time is gives rise to what Badiou (2005:12 ) calls the passion for the real; the search for an authentic existence in the absence of the certainties with which previous epochs lived. What is crucial about these two movements is the way in which they inflect each other. The idea of authentic will becomes possible only with the collapse of grand narratives and the rise of administered life, and the administered life then uses the same notion of self-fulfilment within consumerism to further be able to administer biopower. It is this covalence that is fundamental to modernity, and which this essay will argue is entirely misunderstood by Berman. One of the reasons for this is that, as Braudel (1995:14) notes, â€Å"each civilisation tends to overestimate its own objectivity.† Likewise, each age tends to see itself as more unique than the last. However, this is particularly a problem with the period called modernity because during this period it was thought reason could break with the past, and a utopia of the state was possible. We can see this legacy in both the Communist economies and in the artistic movements such as Marinettis futurism, which had as its mot to: â€Å"make it new.† It is precisely this trap that Berman falls into: confusing the ideas of modernity with the effects of modernisation. In fact, Bermans fetishished notions of will and authenticity, played out in the ahistorical telos of his modernist planar development, resemble nothing as much as a 19c treatise on the movement of history. Perhaps part of the reason for this is the combination of Bermans European sources with his background in the strong individualist tradition of American pragmatism, as we can see in his first book (1970). Canclini stands just south of Berman, but from the perspective of Mexico, modernity is a not a finished project to be talked about nostalgically in the way Berman does. Because this project is unfinished, Canclini is much better placed to understand the complex and intertwined relationship between what is constructed as tradition and what is constructed as modernity. His notion of hybridity, placed in the context of a heavy reliance on Gramscis theory of hegemony, allows one to understand that supreme category of modernity: tradition. For instance, Canclini notes (1995a:53) that there is no clear line between popular and hegemonic culture, because (ibid:75) peasant culture is necessary for capitalism as a symbol of national identity and because (ibid:83) it offers the construction o f a hegemony through the management of cultural fragmentation.† Thus modernity can be seen here as a hybrid form whereby old identities are mobilised rather than changed and uprooted. Canclini understands that modernity, if it means anything, means a change in underlying structure rather than the type of cultural universalism which lies as the undertone of the work of Berman. This essay will consider how Berman sets up the dynamics of modernity within this ahistorical schema, and argue, as previously alluded to, that he misses the important aspects of the relation. It will also be argued that Canclini, within his much more modest project, understands the underlying dynamics of the abstract and the concrete to a far greater degree. Perhaps Bermans problems begin with his tripartite division of modernity into modernity, modernisation and the modern, without every looking at how these categories are mutually constitutive of each other. Modernity, Berman explains is (1983:15): â€Å"a mode of vital experience – experience of space and time, of the self and others, of lifes possibilities and perils.† Bermans book is more of an evocation than a scholarly argument, but nonetheless is seems pertinent to insist on some evidence for such a claim: did other ages not experience space and time? The problem here is not simply that Bermans generalisations do not tell us anything about modernity, but that they conceal the real dynamics of the process. For instance, Berman often insists on the sense of newness, of authentic experience, within modernity. Yet understood as what Berman construes it to be, the sense of the new is not an experience particular to modernity at all. What is important here about the dynam ics of modernity is the way in which the experience of the new, what Berman calls modernity, is an essential part of the process of modernisation. This has been argued well by one of Bermans claimed inspirations, Walter Benjamin, whose Arcades Project (2002) traces the way in which a sense of wonder was used to create the consumer sensibility. This is also laid out in the work of Canclini, who chronicles the powerful political effect created by constructing modernity as something to come – around which one can mobilise people towards new identities and on new political projects. However, this is a discursive effect, rather than a fundamentally new ontological possibility for the modern subject, and Berman asserts the latter as a property of the former without giving a single argument. Instead, Berman (1983:15) gives us evocation and adjective, one strung after the other. The underlying dynamic of modernity for him is: â€Å"modernity is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish.† Underlying all this purple prose is Marxs statement, that inspires the books title, that all that is solid melts into air. Yet what Marx is talking about is the ability of capital to undermine use-value and create a world of people alienated from their labour and extracted of surplus value. Now one can take issue with Marxs account, (as Baudrillard (1983) most usefully does by pointing out that use-value is also a fetishisation, this time of authenticity, and that the original alienation occurs with the construction of value) but what he draws attention to is the way people see the imaginaries of capitalism as real: capital is perceived by people in Marx as somethin g actually existing, rather than a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration. Here, Berman fails to give proper account of why he diverges from Marx. What can we salvage from Bermans account of the dynamics of modernity? It is true to say that the political subject in modernity was thought of as massively flexible and capable of continual reinvention. Though it must be added that this notion has much broader historical roots that Berman gives credit for: one can already see it in Machiavellis (2004) notion that people are capable of masking their intentions and this constitutes the basis for politics. However, this continual possibility for reinvention led to some of the most firm sets of continuities the world has seen for some time: the idea of class war, the tradition of the French bourgeoisie, and the modern state. Berman writes off in a few lines most of the great thinkers who have analysed this mutually constitutive relationships, Adorno here meriting a line. Canclini, in contrast, is alert to the way the supposed newness of modernity function to preserve power, and in his account of modernity in Mexico draws attention to th e the way newness is made a continuity of ritual and hegemonic power. Berman then separates out modernization as the social process that brings this maelstrom into being. In doing so he outlines some clear divisions between the phases of modernity. These phases resemble nothing so much as the clear evolutionary steps of early modern thinkers like Morgan. In doing so he makes a mockery of the patient work of people like Arrighi (1994), who have worked to uncover all the continuities that exist between different periods. Furthermore, his account is not even internally consistent. There is insufficient clarity in his work as to the difference between the 19C and 20C: Pushkin and Biely are made manifestations of the same movement, despite the widely different impulses that inform their work. What Canclinis work manages to do very well is to understand the way in which modernity, more than any other epoch (for it is the epoch of men who make history themselves without reliance on religious narratives) is complicit in its own construction of history. He trac es the way in which history is used as a political tool, and that the function of the type of planar divisions Berman uses is to extract a continuity from a succession. Which is to say that such divisions function as a political tool to extract a notion of destiny and objective inevitability from a history which is contingent and uncertain. Bermans one-sided and simplistic reading of modernity reaches its apex in his account of the American city. His account is a one sided view of power, as if Le Corbusier had artfully created American cities and all the modern man needed to do was stand up against this bloody tyrant. Canclini (1995b: 743-755) charts the way in which the modern man is complicit in the spaces that he builds, and that the solution is to problems of alienation that occur in such spaces is not some type of revolt by a careful reworking of the practices and delimitations of space that occur in the city. It is working through the very dynamics of modernity that one resolves its problems, and to do so requires an understanding of their complex inter-relation. Such an understanding is accurately posed by Jameson (1992:335) in his understanding of how it was the very construction of space in Los Angeles that led to the possibility of that constructions overthrowing. Furthermore, Berman misunderstands how contest ed Le Corbusier is in architectural theory. He fails to see the varying currents that inform modernity and that produced a diverse and heterogeneous formation of space, even within Le Corbusiers own school (Rabinow: 1991). Theoretically, he also fails to see what De Certeau (2002:19) has persuasively argued for, which is that it was the very relationship of time and space in modernity that leads states to forget the possibility of space. He argues that the spatial organisation laid out by the modern state was predicated on a notion of time as mode of organisation (e.g. wage labour) and a possibility of reinvention which necessarily allowed the particularities of space (as somewhere one has a proper place and a tradition that cannot be reinvented) to left to the people. Thus the conditions for contesting the state in modernity emerges from the intertwining of the micro and macro processes. These complex processes are ignored by Berman, because he is looking for a will-to-power to set against what he sees as the large bureaucratic structures of modernity. This is why he is so against Foucault, who attempts to set out the co-relation between these things. In attempting to find human creativity outside of any sort of system (though without offering any kind of rigorous account of how that might be achieved) he gives to much credit to bureaucratic systems. Canclini, in understanding how the four divisions of modernity he sets out (the rationalising, renovating, emancipatory and democratising projects) are frequently in conflict and lead to a conflicting and contested legacy, is in a much better position to understand. Ultimately, Bermans work seems as if it was written with a long nostalgia to badly understood 19C authors. He uses a notion of freedom as fetishised will (where he deploys what one could reasonably call a notion at all) without understanding that the development of modernity has destroyed this very category. As Zizek (1999:389) artfully pointed out it is the search for the real, for fetishised will, that, when not placed in a grand narrative, ends up in indulging in its simulacrum; the real emptied of risk. Likewise, it is the bureaucratic form of government that has led to the globalisation and decentralisation of its own form. These processes are ignored by Berman, who sees modernity as a universalism, even if a contradictory one, issuing like a new beacon of hope from a centre in Europe. Canclini understands modernity as a hybrid formation that cannot be tied to Europe, and has begun to chart the complex ways that modernity brings to bear on itself, and construct it own legacy. Bibliography Arrighi, G. 1994: The Long Twentieth Century. London: Verso. Badiou, A. 2005: La Sià ¨cle. Paris: Seuil. Baudrillard, J. 1983: For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. London: Telos. Benjamin, W. 2002: The Arcades Project. Harvard: HUP. Berman, M. 1983: All that is Solid Melts into Air: Experiences of Modernity. London: Verso. Berman, M. 1970: The Politics of Authenticity: Radical Individualism and the Emergence of Modern Society. New York: MacMillan. Braudel, F. 1995: A History of Civilisations. London: Penguin. Canclini, N. G. 1995a: Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Canclini, N. 1995B: Mexico: Cultural Globalization in a disintegrating city. American Ethnologist. Vol. 22, No. 4: pp. 743-755. de Certeau, M. 2002: The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: UCP. Foucault, M. 1998: The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge. London: Penguin. Jameson, F. 1992: Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. London: Verso. Machiavelli, N. 2004: The Prince. Oxford: OUP. Rabinow, P. 1991: French Modern: Norms and Forms of the Social Environment. Mass: MIT. Zizek, S. 1999: The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology. London: Verso.

Hippocrates, The Father Of Medicine :: essays research papers

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hippocrates, greatest physician of antiquity, is regarded as the father of medicine. Born on the island of Kos, Greece in the year 460 b.c., says the earliest biography written by Soranus of Ephesus in the a third century a.d. Although a native of Kos he was forced to leave the island as the result of a fire for which he was blamed. He traveled to many other islands to practice medicine. Most of the cases in the two books of Epidemics considered to be genuine are located at Thasos, a small island in the North Aegean Sea, and at Abdera, a town on the adjacent mainland; but there are also references to Cyzicus, on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara, and to Larisa and Meliboea in Thessaly. He died, according to tradition, in Larissa, Greece; little else is known about him. His name is associated wioth the Hippocratic Oath, though he probably is not the author of the document. In fact, of the approximately 70 works ascribed to him in the Hippocratic Collection, Hippocrates may actually have written about six of them. The Hippocratic Collection probably is the remnant of the medical library of the famous Kos school of medicine. His teachings, sense of detachment, and ability to make direct, clinical observations probably influenced the other authors of these works and had much to do with freeing ancient medicine from superstition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Among the more significant works of the Hippocratic Collection is Airs, Waters, and Places, which, instead of ascribing diseases to divine origin, disusses their environmental causes. It proposes that considerations such as a town's weather drinking water, and site along the paths of favorable winds can help a physician ascertain the general health of citizens. Three other works- Prognostic, Coan Prognosis, and Aphorisms -advanced the then- revbolutionary idea that, by observing enough cases, a physician can predict the course of a disease.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The idea of preventative medicine, first concieved in Regimen and Regimen in Acute Diseases, sterss not only diet but also the patient's general

Comparing Fuentes’ Aura and Ligotti’s The Last Feast of Harlequin Essay

Mythological and Archetypal Reading of Fuentes’ Aura and Ligotti’s The Last Feast of Harlequin  Ã‚   Mythological and archetypal techniques coupled with the interpretation of symbolism found within a piece of literature tells the reader something about the mind and character of a people or culture. Not only does it allow you to delve deeper into this collective mind and speculate about the meaning of a particular work, it can give you something more. I believe that by using these techniques you also get a better glimpse into the main character’s state of mind. It also gives you clues as to is going on ‘behind the scenes’ that will affect the character’s mental state. The texts I chose for this essay are Fuentes’ Aura and Thomas Ligotti’s The Last Feast of Harlequin. Both are dark tales that are full of symbolism. Interpreting some of this symbolism may tell us why the main character acts the way he does and what his mental state is throughout the story. The main characters in both stories are similar. Both are young men who are well educated, with one who attended Harvard and the other who attended the Sorbonne in Paris. The two men are both teachers, each working on his own ‘life’s work’. Interestingly enough, neither story mentions any close family or friends the main characters might have. Fuentes’ Aura is definitely a strange story. It is hypnotic; it draws you in with its slow, seductive style. That is how I would describe this twisted love story that ends very surprisingly. Within this story there is symbolism that helps the reader to understand it better. First, we will explore some of the symbolism that could show us there was an effect on Felipe’s mental state. Darkness abounded in Senora Consuelo’s ... ...things. This approach also gives you an insight into the character’s mind and possibly answers the question of why would they do something that no other sane person would do. In Aura, some of the symbolism found throughout the story suggested that Felipe was not thinking clearly. Surely anyone else would have just left after encountering that woman and her house. In the other story, the main character’s dark side was leading him to do things he or any other outsider might not have done otherwise. Using this approach gives the reader little clues as to what might happen in the story, insight into the main character’s mental state, and a greater understanding of the story as a whole. Works Cited Fuentes, Carlos. Aura. Trans. Lysander Kemp. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981. Ligotti, Thomas. The Last Feast of Harlequin. The Voice of the Damned 1990.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible Essay

A crucible is defined as a severe trial or a container in which metals are melted at very high temperatures. Much like how metals mold to a new shape at very high temperatures, people change when severe trials and challenges present themselves. When innocent lives are lost, a person will realize the wrongs and attempt to make things right again. The character John Hale must forget his old teachings and way of life to try to return the town of Salem to a peaceful community. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Reverend John hale transforms from a prideful prosecutor of witches to a humble defender of the accused because of the guilt he experiences over the innocent lives lost during the Salem witch trials. Reverend John Hale arrives in Salem as a prideful man with intentions of persecuting the accused of witchcraft and ridding the town of all evil. Author Arthur Miller says of Hale, â€Å"This is a beloved errand of him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last been publicly called for.†(Miller 1252) Miller explains that the reverend has great pride in having the opportunity to show off his skills to rid the town of Salem of witchcraft. His skills in the beginning of the trials come from his books instead of from his own intuitions. Reverend Hale brings many books into the town in order to use their knowledge to persecute the accused. He believes these books to be infallible, and they cause him to believe that he will solve all of the town’s problems with them. Along with the knowledge from his books, he speaks, â€Å"with a tasty love of intellectual pursuit.†(Miller 1257) These stage directions imply that Hale thirsts to be the all-knowing savior of Salem. In his early days at Salem this thirst and his faith in the judicial system guide him to find the suspected witches and deal with them accordingly. The reverend’s early thirst for heroism soon vanishes as the trials pursue and more unexpected people in Salem are accused of witchcraft. Hale travels to the Proctor residence by his accord, without the court’s authority, to learn more about them because Elizabeth Proctor has been mentioned in the court. Learning about the faith life of Elizabeth, Hale starts to question whether all of the accused participate in witchcraft, and doubt of the infallible judicial system starts to arise in him. This doubt grows as he says to Judge Danforth about the trials, â€Å"But is does not follow that everyone accused is part of it.†(Miller 1300) He realizes now that the accused are given no chance to plead innocent without the sure fate of death. Hale sees flaw in the judicial system that he has lived by, and wonders if the many he has condemned to death had no opportunity at all to seek innocence. Knowing that the accused have no chance for survival but through confession of witchcraft, Hale proclaims, â€Å"I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse, Your Honor. I’ll not conceal it, my hand shakes yet as with a wound!†(Miller 1301) He knows that Rebecca has a good life of faith, and she will most definitely be condemned to death by the so called infallible judicial system because of him. Hale shows the feeling of guilt by signing away the life of Goody Nurse, and realizes that he must try to defend the accused because the court will not. Hale loses all motivation to condemn the accused and no longer holds pride in himself or his judicial system. With his motivation to seek out witches now gone, Hale believes many of the accused to be innocent and tries to convince this to the court. He tells Judge Danforth, â€Å"I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! I may not shut my conscience to it no more—private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to Heaven, I believe him now.†(Miller 1311) His guilt pushes him to defend the accused in front of the judge so that their blood will not be on his hands. Hale knows his association with the courts will result in the loss of innocent lives, and he cannot live with himself knowing this. Knowing now that the court operates with error, he quits it and denounces its proceedings. John Hale no longer want to participate in the court’s murdering of the innocent, and feels guilty for the lives that he has already condemned through the judicial system. Hale now knows that he needs to think for himself rather than following the laws and rules of the judicial system he has lived by his whole life. Working separate from the court, the reverend says, â€Å"I come to do the Devil’s work. I come to counsel Christians they should belie themselves.†(Miller 1325) Hale knows that the only way to rid the guilt from his mind is to convince the accused to lie and confess so that their lives may be saved. He has lost faith in the court system that will condemn innocent lives, and, throwing away his pride, puts out one last effort to save some of the lives he has condemned. His motivation has changed from condemning the witches in the town to attempting to save the accused. As his efforts are about to fail, he drops to his knees and says, â€Å"What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away!†(Miller 1334) His efforts to defend the accused fail, and guilt overwhelms him. Reverend John Hale cannot live with the innocent lives he has sentenced to murder and is humbled as the accused are led to their death. â€Å"Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood†(Miller 1326) says a transformed reverend as the Salem witch trials come to an end. Reverend Hale loses not only his faith in the judicial system, but also in the God who he believed to be too perfect to allow these tragic events to happen. He humbles himself because the pride that he once had leads to the death innocent lives in Salem. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend John Hale changes from a prideful prosecutor of the witches to a humble defender of the accused because of the guilt that overwhelms him due to the innocent blood shed at his hands during the Salem witch trials.

Civil War: Myths vs Facts

There has always been a number of circulating myths about the American Civil War. We need to dig deep and find out if these myths are true. Did the South HATE black people? Did Robert E. Lee hate America? Was the civil war all about slavery? Did the South start the civil war? All of these myths are to be revealed. Supposedly the Southern people were the only Americans that enslaved black people. They tortured, beat, and starved them. According to research, a slave in today’s modern world, would cost anywhere from $100,000-$200,000. Why would a slave owner waste that much money and something they would treat as a rag doll? In many cases slaves were treated as part of the family. The North also had slaves, not just the South. In the North, everything was supposedly free and had choices. The North technically did not own slaves, but they were people in the North that owed them things. These people were called indentured servants. These indentured servants were not all of African race either. They were to be released over a stated time. This myth came to be because basically whichever side won the war; they would blame the opposing side. Was Robert E. Lee a horrible man? Did he hate American with a passion? The answer to this is false. Robert E. Lee did not ever even own a single slave. He was very strong in his passion with the Confederate States of America. He lived in the state of Virginia and said he would never leave them in any hard times. In saying this, he joined the South in the American Civil War. He loved America, but did not like the injustice the South was being shown. His home of Arlington was turned into a war cemetery. Present day, it is known as Arlington National Cemetery. This was initially a cemetery for Union Soldiers. How could the entire war be about slavery? The war lasted 5 years, 1861-1865. The Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect in 1863. What could the war have been about for the last two years? The Civil War was fought because of Northern oppression. The South began to go bankrupt because the North was taxing the South very heavily, and the South was not as industrialized as the North. Slavery was an issue, but because the South was not industrialized. The South was just using what they had for resources. The slaves were their resources. There has been a myth that says that the South started the war. This is actually somewhat true, but not totally true. The South decided that it did not want be part of the United States of American anymore. It simply seceded. The North still had some forts located in the South though. Fort Sumter most notably was attacked by Southern soldiers because the South felt threatened by what could have been dangerous people from the North. The South was forced into battle because the North had sent a transport ship of supplies. The South defended itself because it had to protect itself from the transport ships and the Northern soldiers at Fort Sumter. The truth about all of these myths is revealed not by proof of Northern history, or Southern history, but of American History. Just because the North won, does not mean everything that they write and publish is true. There are many newspapers, letters, and diaries depicting significant events that reveal the truths of many other myths as well. The truth of these myths comes from the history that actually happened.

Good Fall

A Good Fall The word Freedom has a different connotation in every part of the world, to have freedom means to have certain characteristics. These characteristics would be having the Third Eye, self-control, humility, and the ability to be able to overcome problems with a strategized plan. In the short story collection A Good Fall by Ha Jin, each story puts characters in dissimilar positions where they show whether or not they have the characteristics that define freedom. A Composer and His Parakeet†, â€Å" In The Crossfire†, â€Å"The Beauty†, and â€Å"Temporary Love† all involve characters that seem to be trapped in a current relationship, but for different reasons. Learned Helplessness is a disease, in which you close your heart and mind to your strong self and settle for your weak self-resulting in shame, several characters are diagnosed with this disease. The Third Eye can be defined as self-awareness, it allows us to interpret the current situation w e are in, and analyze the good from the bad.It emphasizes the bigger, long-term picture over the short-term and helps make decisions out of reason rather emotion. A person with the third eyes exercises discipline over desire. Humility is simply learning from our mistakes to make us stronger and wiser. Fanlin from the story â€Å"A Composer and his Parakeets† shows traits of having freedom. His girlfriend Supriya owns a mute parakeet Bori; she leaves Bori with Fanlin as she goes off to Thailand for her job as an actress. At the beginning Fanlin disliked the bird because he believed one of Supriya’s ex-boyfriends gave her the bird.Over time he grows a heart and starts bonding with the bird, he lets him into his music studio in which the bird was not allowed in at first. Fanlin was preparing to write for an Opera event that was coming up. Weeks went on and the bird went everywhere Fanlin did, until one day by the beach the bird flies away and almost drowns and Fanlin thro ws himself into the water to save it. Bori would later die the following day and his girlfriend did not seem to care about the bird anymore. This made Fanlin’s third eye kick in as he wondered whether she would not care about him like she did with the bird over time.When the bird died so did his relationship with Supriya. Fanlin’s students that he thought music lessons seemed concerned about him and so they bring him another parakeet. This parakeet had a dirty mouth and Fanlin paid him no mind, he even left his window open so he would fly away. After the death of the first bird and the death of his relationship, Fanlin goes on to write a beautiful second half of music in his opera which was full of emotion and is told to go back to rewrite the first half. His second bird would fly away shortly after, symbolizing he being set free from his past relationship that was just a waste of time.Self-control is the ability to improve our position rather than surrender to self-de struction and compulsion. In the story â€Å"Temporary Love†, Lina a married woman who’s husband was in China, lived in the United States with a married man. Although she tells her husband that she lives by herself, she has sexual relations with this married man who’s spouse as well lived in China. They had a mutual agreement to end this temporary relationship until their spouses arrived in the United States. Unfortunately Panbin, the man Lina stayed with grew feelings for her and told her repeatedly he was in love with her.Lina told him a plethora of times that she was married and that they agreed to end this arrangement whenever one wanted. Her husband was coming to the United States so Lina prepares to move out and find her own apartment. She thought that her husband did not know about the affair but he did. He had his ways of having someone follow her and relay him the information he needed. This put Lina in an uncomfortable position, her husband told her he did not want to find a job and was going to go to business school to get his MBA. Not only that, but Lina was going to pay for it with all her money she had saved in her bank account.She had no other choice but to pay for his schooling, she feared that once she paid he would soon leave her. Secretly she would visit Panbin for advice but he paid her no mind for leaving him. Now she was trapped in a relationship she could not escape. Lina could either pay and face the consequences of her husband maybe leaving or not pay and face the humility, disappointment, and shame in her by her family back home for her actions. Lina is a victim of learned helplessness. Freedom was a major contributor in Fanlin actions as he could freely relieve himself from Supriya.As for Lina, she was strapped in for a long ride with the devil. Fanlin is able to figure out that Supriya was no good for him and that she would soon leave him. He made up his mind and left her, and was free without her. Lina in this case was stuck, she had no self-control, she was ashamed of herself and her actions, the only thing she could do was pay her husbands tuition for taking of her ailing father back home. Some people are born with the third eye such as Fanlin, while others lack it and suffer and live a life without any freedom.