Category: Personal Life

The proximate factors that lead Shakur to join a gang and commit crimes include his association with a delinquent peer at the age of fifteen and being influenced by his older peers that were involved in more violent crimes. A distal factor that led to his participation in gang membership and crime would be the vicious attack by the three gang members. The second distal factor that impacted him was his resentment towards authority due to the ‘harsh whippings’ he received from his father. A third distal factor would be his disengagement in school at a young age. The most significant distal factor that would have impacted him would be the vicious attack that he was victim to. The attack by the older gang members resulted in him expressing a great sense of humiliation and distress. He was overwhelmed by the strong gang bond that he saw and therefore wanted to be part of the same bond and decided to join a gang. The distal factors that led Shakur to desist from gang crime would include the lack of support and visitation that he received while imprisoned. A proximate factor that would have played a significant role in his disengagement from gang crime would be the death of his younger brother and mother. Shakur felt responsible for the death of these innocent souls as it was retaliation for the murder he committed. Another proximate factor that would have played a role is imprisonment. Imprisonment prevented him from seeking retaliation for his family members.

Classical theory is based on the idea of individual rights, the human capacity to reason, and the rule of law. The two leading figures in the development of classical criminology were Cesare and Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham (Beirne 1993; Taylor et al. 1973, as cited in White, Haines & Asquith, 2017, p28). According to Beccaria, (2009 [1767]) individuals possess free will and will rationally evaluate courses of action and will act in a way they believe will strengthen the satisfaction of their wants and desires. This suggestion would explain that Shakur participated in delinquent activities as he assumed it would maximize his satisfaction of wanting to be a ‘ghetto star’ and being more violent than his older peers. Bentham developed the concept of the pleasure/pain principle based on the notion of rational choice and efficacy. He argued that if the expected pleasure outweighs the expected pain, a rational person will engage in the act. This concept would explain that Shakur committed crimes as he believed the expected pleasure was greater than the expected pain. Instead of contemplating the consequences that he would have been subjected to for murder, he concentrated on the validation and acceptance that he would receive from his fellow gang members. One limitation of the classical theory is concerned with the idea of rationality (Corish and Clarke 1986, as cited in White, Haines & Asquith, 2017, p 34). Questions could be raised about the aggravating and mitigating factors that led to a person’s offense. This could be an underlying factor as to why they committed a crime. In relation to Shakur’s criminality, it could be argued that he participated in crime due to his association with a gang. the gang connection encouraged his criminality behavior. His mentality was influenced by the pop culture that others around him accepted. He was also young and naïve and unable to make accurate decisions. Furthermore, one could argue that he was thinking irrationally when he committed a crime.

In criminology, Differential association theory suggests that through interactions with others, individuals assimilate the attitudes, values, motives, and techniques for criminal behavior. The most significant interaction happens within intimate personal groups, which include peer groups. This theory could be emphasized on to support the judgment that ‘nurture’ was responsible for Shakur’s involvement in crime. Shakur idolized her older peers that were involved in delinquent activities at a young age and wanted to be like them. He observed their behaviors and attitudes which motivated him to want to behave in a more violent manner than them. His involvement in a gang also strengthened his criminality as he was exposed to people that obtained similar attitudes to crime and were offended regularly which encouraged him to participate in the crime. Another theory that could be raised to support that ‘nurture’ was responsible could be the area of social ecology. Particular kinds of neighborhood areas, such as inner-city ghettos, enhance criminality. Shakur was raised in South Central Los Angeles. This area demonstrated high levels of crime rate among African American youth due to structural and cultural factors. When Shakur was randomly attacked by the three gang members while at the restaurant, the feeling of humiliation evoked him to join a gang. Gang violence was a “neighborhood effect’ in his area when it came to crime. Thus, increasing his chances of becoming involved in criminal behavior.

The Differential Association Theory would best apply to Shakur’s involvement in a gang. The theory highlights that crime was cultural in nature, in the sense that it is learned behavior. (Sutherland & Cressy, [1974], as cited in White, Haines & Asquith, 2017, p.83) During his early years, Shakur was exposed to gang violence and thus observed the acts of the gang members until he learned it. He also experienced violence through his father’s aggression towards him. These external factors would have caused him to imitate the acts of violence. Once he was old enough to join a gang, he was able to understand the attitudes about the activities being learned. He learned that he had to adapt to an image and change his attitude to be accepted in the gang. He states that you had to “represent” your gang, meaning that everything you did had to be a representation of the values of your gang. In order to obtain validation and acceptance from the gang you had to fulfill your duty. This gave criminal behavior a meaning from their perspective, gang mentality meant that you were obligated to respond to violence with violence and couldn’t tolerate disrespect. Shakur couldn’t neglect his personal pride when the deceased approached him with disrespect. Therefore, he retaliated by murdering him to uphold his pride. He was exposed to a pop culture that idolized gangsters and became caught up in an image. He wanted to live up to his ego of ‘Joker’ that’s why he participated in violent crimes. The theory suggests that individuals with a greater proportion of their peers who participate in crime will be vulnerable to more delinquent models and will be subjected to a greater number of definitions positive to delinquency, and will recognize more rewards and benefits associated with criminal conduct (Sutherland & Cressy [1974], as cited in White, Haines & Asquith, 2017, p84). As a result, these individuals will be more likely to participate in criminal behavior.

Reference List:

1. White, R., Haines, F., & Asquith, N. L. (2017). Crime and Criminology (6th ed). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
2. Poor, N. (Co-producer, Co-host), & Woods, E. (Co-producer, Co-host). (2017, June 28). The Hustle Episode 2: Misguided Loyalty [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from: http://www.earhustlesq.com/episodes/2017/6/28/misguided-loyalty
3. The Classical School of Criminological. [online] Lawteacher.net. Available at: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/criminology/the-classical-school-of-criminological.php [Accessed 29 Aug. 2019].
4. Weatherburn, D. (2001) What Causes Crime? Crime & Justice Bulletin: Contemporary Issues in Crime & Justice No. 54, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics & Research

Work-life parity can be characterized as ‘the degree to which an individual is similarly occupied with and similarly happy with their work job and family job’ (Greenhouse, Collins, & Shaw, 2003, p. 510). Something contrary to this is a work-life struggle, which is when the zones of work and life are inconsistent, and accomplishing something for work meddles with family life, and vice versa. (Harris, Marrett, & Harris, 2011). Different terms like work-family parity and work-family struggle likewise exist. These terms even more explicitly allude to the connection between somebody’s work life and their family life. This investigation will research workers’ close home lives when all is said in done. Be that as it may, a portion of the exploration referred to utilizes the expression ‘work-family balance’ and is centered on the family part of somebody’s close-to-home life. In this investigation, the development of work-life equalization will be inspected in two Ways: work-life-to-individual life equalization, and individual life-to-work-life balance. On the off chance that somebody has a work-life to individual life balance, this implies their work-life doesn’t meddle with their own life. On the off chance that somebody has an individual life-to-work-life balance, this implies that their own life doesn’t meddle with their work life.

Theories behind Work-Life Balance

One of the Theories that has been associated with work-life balance is overflow. This hypothesis says that the family part of life and the work of some portion of life can impact each other through a penetrable limit (Chesley, 2005). Job limit porousness depicts the capacity for somebody to be in one job physically while mentally in another job (Chesley, 2005). In other words, what transpires at work can keep on influencing you during your own life (i.e., sway overflow to your own life). The effect can go the other way as well, with the mental effects of your own life overflowing to influence you during your work life. Mechanical improvements are one of the zones that have added to the obscuring of limits between work and family (Brough, O’Driscoll, and Kallaith, 2005).

Overflow has appeared to have both a negative and a positive structure. Negative overflow is when something terrible occurs in one territory and negatively affects another zone. Negative overflow can cause bothersome results like family disappointment and expanded trouble levels (Chelsey, 2005). Positive overflow happens when something great occurs in one zone and it likewise positively affects another territory. A case of positive overflow can be the point at which somebody gets an advancement at work and has a sentiment of fulfillment both at work and at home. Chesley (2005) tried a few theories identified with overflow and innovation use. One of her discoveries was that PCs and correspondence innovation caused expanded overflow which wound up causing a reduction in family fulfillment. Curiously she discovered mobile phones caused more negative overflow than PC use did. This is vital because wireless use has gotten incredibly prevalent, and its job in individuals’ lives keeps on growing. Moreover, on the grounds that phones are regularly more convenient than PCs, individuals will, in general, cooperate with them more frequently. This can incorporate utilizing a cell phone during individual time to address business-related issues and correspondences. Hence this investigation will concentrate on cell phone use.

Work-Life Balance Programs

Work–life balance programs have gotten very prominent. A Society of Human Resource Management survey found that 24% of associations have a formal work-life balance arrangement, and 52% of associations have a casual work-life balance strategy (Boyd, Schmit, Esen, Lee, and Scanlan, 2012). A portion of the regular formal approaches incorporates working during excursion time, staying at work past 40 hours at home or at the workplace, and working during the wiped-out time. A portion of the casual approaches included administrators urging their group to have a solid work-life balance and to request help when required. Moreover, Brough, O’Driscoll, and Kalliath (2005) found that utilizing authoritative assets for work-family balance programs causes representatives to have a higher family and occupation fulfillment. Work-life balance likewise has benefits for the business. Advantages may incorporate expanded profitability, lower truancy, higher stock worth, and expanded maintenance (Reed and Cark, 2004). Also, the expense of non-appearance because of elevated levels of work-life struggle has been evaluated to cost organizations as much as 10 billion dollars annually (Naithani, 2010).

History of work-life balance programs

Work-family balance programs have been around for some time. Truth be told Hill, Hawkins, and Miller (1996) expressed that telecommuting started to get mainstream in 1973. Telecommuting is characterized as doing work outside of the workplace while utilizing various types of correspondence innovation (or other important gear). Telecommuting was started by an organization moving all the vital innovation and other hardware to a worker’s home and setting it up there, so they could telecommute. Because of all the exertion required to set it up, it was not appallingly normal. In any case, it continued to develop as the innovation got accessible. Slope, Hawkins, and Miller anticipated that the development could be enormous to the point that places of business would be transformed into condos because such many individuals would telecommute. Even though this expectation has not happened at this point, another point made by Hill, Hawkins, and Miller might be working out as intended. They referenced that telecommuting could enable work to turn into ‘the internet sweatshop.’ This is because the limits between work and the home are so obscured and combined that never work truly closes.

Negative Impacts that Technology Has on Work-Life Balance

Although innovation has been incorporated into associations to make work progressively proficient and improve people groups’ working lives, there are ways that creation can cause expanded requests on representatives and cause an antagonistic effect. (Day, Paquet, Scott, and Hambley, 2012). As expressed before, innovation use can cause expanded obscuring of life and work limits and cause negative overflow and misery (Chelsey, 2005). Work-life parity can be characterized as ‘the degree to which an individual is similarly occupied with and similarly happy with their work job and family job’ (Greenhouse, Collins, & Shaw, 2003, p. 510). Something contrary to this is a work-life struggle, which is when the zones of work and life are inconsistent, and accomplishing something for work meddles with family life, and vice versa. (Harris, Marrett, & Harris, 2011). Different terms like work-family parity and work-family struggle likewise exist. These terms even more explicitly allude to the connection between somebody’s work life and their family life. This investigation will research workers’ close home lives when all is said in done. Be that as it may, a portion of the exploration referred to utilizes the expression ‘work-family balance’ and is centered on the family part of somebody’s close-to-home life. In this investigation, the development of work-life equalization will be inspected in two Ways: work-life-to-individual life equalization, and individual life-to-work-life balance. On the off chance that somebody has a work-life to individual life balance, this implies their work-life doesn’t meddle with their own life. On the off chance that somebody has an individual life-to-work-life balance, this implies that their own life doesn’t meddle with their work life.

Truth, the property of sentences, assertions, beliefs, thoughts, or propositions in metaphysics and philosophy are said to agree with the facts or state what is the case in normal discourse. Truth is the object of the belief; logical error is a mistake. Individuals need to endure the reality of the world. Knowing the truth is critical. Believing that which is not true will ruin a person’s plans and may even cost him his life. To say what is not true can lead to legal and social penalties. By contrast, a dedicated pursuit of truth characterizes the good scientist, the good historian, and the good detective.

So what is truth, should it be so gravitational and so central in people’s lives? They are various ways truth can be obtained or found but I’m going to limit myself to just two, objective and subjective truth. What is subjective truth? Subjective truth is the kind of truth that is derived from views or opinions. What is objective truth? This truth is based on facts or things are generally accepted. Truth, like reality, is shaped by an individual’s values, thoughts, expectations, and emotions. Nevertheless, truth and reality are not the same thing. Reality is the world we live in, while truth is the thing that helps people mold their reality. For the existence of reality, facts are widely accepted as true. A person can’t live a life without some kind of truth in their lives. Only if there is no truth – a false fact that can’t exist, there is deception.

Everyone has a sense of what they believe to be true. Since everyone can’t interpret facts objectively, it can only be assumed that truth is subjective. There are things that everyone can agree to be true, such as the idea that we are born, that we are alive, and that we will die. But aside from that, there are a number of different things that can be argued to be true such as the idea of heaven and hell, whether there is life outside of Earth, and so on. So by that thought, truth cannot be viewed as something objective. For something to be objective, everyone must agree it. If there’s a person who thinks otherwise, he must be considered subjective. Truth is the idea that people know that it’s true based on their concepts, though not everyone agrees with them, their ideas, their experiences, the knowledge, and their emotions. Human nature needs to adapt physically or socially to its environment.

People constantly redefine definitions that are seen as true, so it’s wrong to say the reality is purely factual. This doesn’t mean that all we think is true should not be challenged. Rather, the invitation to our agreed truths is an invitation by philosophies and facts. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong simply because one says something is wrong with you. It is in our nature as humans that we constantly define ourselves and what is right and wrong. It is in our best interest not to judge others by what we believe to be true but to understand different viewpoints. We must be open to other people’s thoughts in order to expand and understand the different ways we can view the world. ‘Human Nature Redux’ is an essay by David Brooks from the New York Times on nature.

Two claims are being made against human nature. Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau made the two points. Rousseau claims that people are born free, but that society is connected. As a result, he argues that culture corrupts people. Hobbes, on the other hand, argues that people are naturally born evil and that for civilizing people a third party is required. The idea of’ you versus me,’ which Hobbes sees human nature as a competition. Man is kept in line with the creation of a progressive society by having a third party like government. The argument that we seek to interpret here, what is the core of human nature? Brooks and Hobbes sides. He states, ‘Humans are struggling for hegemony and rejecting progressive egalitarian dreams.’ Moreover, he says, ‘this is based on the idea that there is a universal human nature; that it has nasty, competitive elements about which we do not understand much about, and that the conventions and institutions that have evolved prevent us from slitting each other’s throats are valuable and altered at great risk.’ I don’t see why it matters, personally. Whether Rousseau or Hobbes is right, I do not think it makes a difference. I believe it can be argued that both are correct.

The government could manipulate the people, Rousseau has a point. Hobbes can however be claimed that today’s state prevents people from doing bad things by sending wrongdoers to jails in society. All sides can be seen clearly by looking at various historical examples. The irony of human nature is that people can’t live without society, and society can’t survive without men. Human nature has its own flaws, but culture is the same. Society and man must work together to find a happy medium that prevents society. In this logic, rather than in stones, we look for facts. As people, we are adaptive entities. His perception of reality and truth are continually influenced every day. It is wrong to say that we are living in a world in which reality is laid in stone. One thought the world was flat at one point. However, when someone realized the world was round, the truth was adapted by the person. So I agree that there is truth and truth can be found through experience for example, we were told that if we put our hand in fire it will burn even though it is something that is proven, we can also acquire this knowledge through personal experience, that is actually putting our hand in the fire to find out whether it actually burns or not, or someone told you if you cheat in a test you are going to visit disciplinary panel. This is generally known but someone can also get this knowledge by actually cheating and when the person gets caught the person is OUT!!!, now the knowledge has been derived and the information is clearer to him and everyone based on that one person’s experience.

To fully understand and analyze a text it is difficult not to look at the author, in this case Edgar Allen Poe. Although Poe once claimed that his short stories are in no way about his personal life or about him, it is hard to imagine an author writing about something that they know nothing about or haven’t experienced at one point or another. Reading “The Fall of the House of Usher” through a Freudian lens helps us understand and analyze Poe as a person and as an author whether he saw it within himself or not. In this essay I will be analyzing Poe’s personal life through a Freudian lens and drawing connections between Poe and the four characters in “The Fall of the House of Usher”. The four characters in the story that I will bring attention to are: the narrator, Roderick, Madeline, and the house itself. Within this essay I will also argue that Poe’s story is actually a dream state in which Poe himself is the narrator and his surroundings and events that take place are part of his subconscious.

Let’s begin with a backstory on Edgar Allen Poe. According to The Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore, Poe was born in 1809 and just a year later his parents separated. His mother, Elizabeth Poe, took her three children with her after the separation and died in 1811 leaving Edgar, William, and Rosalie Poe motherless and separated from each other to be sent to live with other families. Poe’s new family, John and Frances Allen, took him in but Poe never had a good relationship with John. As Poe got older and struggled to make ends meet at a time when authors were paid closed to nothing, he reached out to John Allen to ask him for financial help but John ignored him. When John Allen died he left Poe out of his will, leaving everything to an illegitimate child he had never met. Frances Allen who was another mother figure in Poe’s life also died early on in his life when Poe was just 20 years old. Poe continued to live in poverty and as an alcoholic simultaneously losing those he loved due to various diseases and illnesses. Poe died in 1849 at just 40 years old.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is obviously filled with “uncanny” like descriptions and imagery. Within the first line we see that this story is somewhat of a gothic or horror story due to the tone it sets. It is also a story of melancholy, as Poe mentions numerous times throughout the text. The story itself can be taken as a fiction horror story about a man who goes to visit an old friend and is exposed to the uncanny of the Usher family and the Usher house. However, as literary analysts, we want to look at why Poe wrote this story and what does it say about him or in other words, what could have led him to write such an odd tale? Looking at the story through a psychoanalytic lens tells us two important things: what this story says about Poe and what the story says about the reader. Each reader will interpret this story in different ways depending on their state of mind and their surroundings. For example, the first time I read this story was in high school English. At the time it was just a horror story with no significant meaning to myself as a reader except its use for leisurely reading. More than a decade later and the story reads much different. Freud would psychoanalyze not only Poe, but also himself and what reactions arose from his reading and interpretation of the story, so I will do the same.

The story begins with “a dull dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens” where the narrator, who remains anonymous, arrives on horseback at the Usher home. He describes it as “the melancholy House of Usher” which is an interesting way to describe a house. From the beginning the narrator is affected by the melancholy of the house before he even enters it. He says, “a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit…vacant eye- like windows…decayed trees–with an utter depression of the soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream”. There is another reference to dreams later on the story which makes us think, could this all be a dream? We will look at this story like a dream and use Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams” to really analyze the story and its meaning.

Freud claims that when you dream of something it works as like a metaphor or a displacement of something going on in your subconscious mind, he also claims that in the unconscious anything is possible, which is why we have scary and sad dreams. Additionally, Freud also claims that everything that occurs in our dreams is about ourselves, even if the dream isn’t about you it actually really is about you. So far we’ve been introduced to two characters: the narrator and the house. We then meet Roderick Usher, a childhood friend of the narrator who has lost touch with him and was actually never really close to the narrator. Roderick asks the narrator for help in a letter and asks him to come visit him. It seems as though Roderick and the narrator both believe that he could be some kind of help to the Usher family, but we never find out what his credentials are and if he is some type of doctor or licensed professional. What we do know is that the narrator went with some intention of helping or figuring out what was troubling poor Roderick, and like us and Poe he will serve as some kind of psychoanalytic figure.

Once we meet Roderick and his strange illnesses, which from my point of view appear to be hypochondria, anxiety, and hysteria, we see that most of these arise from the declining health of his beloved sister and only companion Madeline. Although anxiety was not mentioned as one of Roderick’s symptoms in the story, it is the interpretation I, as a person who has suffered with anxiety for years, instantly noticed in his demeanor. Previously mentioned was the effect that stories can have on the reader and what that psychoanalytically says about that reader, so from time to time my own experience will be included to further prove Freud’s views. Also as mentioned before was Poe’s issues with money and substance abuse. Although, we cannot say whether he suffered from anxiety or not, we do know that he struggled to make ends meet, even leaving his then sick wife while he went to New York to find work. It seems that Poe projected many of his subconscious (or conscious) troubles onto Roderick. Ironically Roderick says that the house is conscious and it is the reason for decline in mental health. So while Roderick is the subconscious, the house and the narrator are the conscious part of Poe’s brain.

Madeline is barely seen or heard of in the story but that doesn’t mean she is not a crucial character, in fact she may be the most important character. Madeline is physically sick from the beginning of the story and “dies” shortly after. Roderick asks for the narrators help in putting her body in a coffin in the deep lower parts of the house. The narrator however, notices that Madeline has a slight smile on her face and rosy cheeks, not something that would be common on a deceased body. Later on in the story Madeline makes a very important and impactful reappearance. For now, if we are looking at these characters as part of Poe’s subconscious, we get the feeling that Madeline is controlled and oppressed by her brother Roderick. Madeline in this story serves as what is repressed. She is not dead, but Roderick almost wants her to be, prematurely burying her. Madeline is also mentioned as being “cataleptic” which is “a medical condition characterized by a trance or seizure with a loss of sensation and consciousness accompanied by rigidity of the body” according to the dictionary definition, making it more obvious that she is meant to be repressed and silenced. Madeline will take the role as the id. Because Roderick is the one dealing with anxiety and trying to repress the id, he serves as the superego, leaving the narrator to serve as the ego.

The longer the narrator stays in the house, the more it becomes part of him. He too starts feeling anxious and nervous, much like Roderick. He describes being in the house as an “overwhelming feeling of entrapment” which could explain the mental state of Poe at the time. The windows of the house are described twice as “eye-like”, so anatomically speaking if the windows are the eyes, then the head is the house itself and everything in it is part of the mind. This is why Madeline is buried deep within the lower levels of the house, being pushed to the darkest corners of the mind to remain repressed and out of sight for the conscious. The longer the narrator stays inside the mind and the deeper he ventures, the more his inner most thoughts and realizations affect him mentally.

Although being in this house affects the narrator in ways he cannot describe he choose to remain there and keep an eye on Roderick. “To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. “I shall perish,” said he, “I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this unnerved—in this pitiable condition—I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR” writes Poe. Here we learn that Roderick’s biggest fear is fear itself, fear of the unknown. Some of the clear indicators of anxiety include fear of the future and the unknown, which relate back to the instability in Poe’s personal and work life.

As the story comes to an end, Roderick’s paranoia and hypersensitivity becomes true and Madeline awakes from the dead to grab him and kill both of them instantaneously. Roderick’s obsession with fear and constant clues of his demise, such as one of the verses in the song he sang:

“But evil things, in robes of sorrow,

Assailed the monarch’s high estate

(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow

Shall dawn upon him, desolate!);

And, round about his home, the glory

That blushed and bloomed

Is but a dim-remembered story

Of the old time entombed” show signs of wish fulfillment within the dream. In other words, although Roderick was scared of death and claimed to love his twin sister and not be able to live without her, his obsession with the fall of his family and home and the premature burial of his sister touch on subconscious wishes within Poe’s mind. As we mentioned, Poe had a self-destructive kind of personality with his excessive drinking. The loss of so many people, mostly women and mother figures around him led to him drinking more and more heavily. If we look at Freud’s psychosexual stages we see that a life-changing event occurred in each one of the stages in Poe’s life leading to overall issues with anger, desire, and fear. More importantly, the Oedipus complex talks about the Phallic Stage, which is the “stage of development ages (3-6) in which the source of libido (life force) is concentrated in erogenous zones of the child’s body” (McLeod). This is also the stage when a child starts having unconscious sexual feelings for the opposite sex parent and jealousy towards the same sex parent.

The Oedipus Complex is important to understanding the story regardless of there being no mother or father figures. In this story, Roderick cannot live without Madeline. Once she falls physically ill he starts becoming more and more emotionally and mentally ill. Their relationship is a complicated one, but one that can be understood through a Freudian lens. Madeline, along with being the id, is also a symbol of all the mother figures Poe lost in his life: his biological mother, Frances Allen, and his aunt and mother of his first wife and cousin Virginia. Through Roderick, he tries to keep the terminally ill mother figure repressed in the deep vaults of his unconscious. However, like most things we try to forget, they keep coming back making appearances in our conscious mind. This is why at the end of the story Madeline comes back and finally takes down Roderick with her.

The repressed can only stay repressed so long, and Poe knew this. At the time of his writing “The Fall of the House of Usher” his last mother figure had already died and the father figures in his life had also abandoned him and passed away. The loss of so many parental figures could have had a severely negative impact on Poe and left him in a melancholy state, much like his character Roderick. Whether Poe knew it or not, he projected many of his troubles and subconscious worries about his future within these characters. He finished the story with the death of three of the main characters: Madeline Usher, Roderick Usher, and the Usher home. The narrator gets away but as he looks back a crack on the house that he noticed at the beginning of the story seems to get bigger and finally the house breaks in two, resulting not only in the fall of the physical house of Usher but the fall of the last remaining Usher family members, which is an amazing use of language on Poe’s behalf.

Lastly, as mentioned before Poe was one of three children who were all separated when their mother died. Unfortunately, all passed before they could have any children, much like the Usher children. “The Fall of the House of Usher” was the foreshadowing and possibly unconscious wish fulfillment of the future fall of the House of Poe, with the bloodline ending with Poe’s sister, Rosalie, in 1874. Poe was found unconscious, intoxicated and delirious one day in October 1849, he had boarded a train for New York City but somehow ended up in Baltimore. It was said that he never came to his senses and was not able to tell anyone how he got there or what had happened to him. What we can see are the similarities in the self-destructive personalities that led to his death and the death of Roderick Usher, his superego, just 10 years prior.

Works Cited

1. Gay, Peter. The Freud Reader. W. W. Norton & Company, 1989.
2. Mcleod, Saul. “Oedipal Complex.” Oedipus Complex | Simply Psychology, https://www.simplypsychology.org/oedipal-complex.html.
3. Poe, Edgar Allen. Fall of the House of Usher, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/fall.html.
4. “The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore.” Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore – The Life and Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, https://www.eapoe.org/index.htm.

End of Life Self Reflection

After my experience in the RD unit, I learned that not all those who receive end-of-life care are comatose or in the final days of their lives. Since the Clinical 1 rotation, my perceptions have stayed relatively the same. I was always open-minded when it came to people’s decisions in regard to end-of-life care. I am still open-minded but now I have a better understanding of why people choose certain plans for the end of life care. I learned many things from the Respiratory therapists that opened my eyes to a new reality of a greater quality of life for those who don’t have much time left. It also showed me the importance of having an advanced directive.

The respiratory therapist I worked with was excited to show me the ‘ropes.’ She told me that even though I won’t be doing any of the care she was performing unless I was an RN, it was good for me to know in case of an emergency or in the future. She showed me how her patient could use a machine to assist him in coughing up sputum. While performing care for her patient, she also showed me how being direct and yet gentle can greatly reduce a patient’s anxiety. I honestly thought that respiratory therapists provided suctioning and monitoring but they are a great asset to the multidisciplinary team.

Advance Healthcare Directives should be a required form that every person should complete. I think they are crucial to ensuring your own future will be in your control even if your life gets out of control. There are many positives compared negative aspects of creating your own Advance Healthcare Directive. The most enticing aspect in favor of Advanced Directives is their cost-effectiveness. Having a plan for the worst protects families from having to worry about who is in charge of finances, how to spend those finances, and where the money is coming from. The downfall to this is potential legal fees if you decide to use a lawyer to prepare your directive. However, by creating a directive, you are also assuring that the care you want and do not want is planned out. The person you want in charge of you when you are unable to make decisions is already chosen. However, it is important to keep in mind that in emergency situations the directive might not be followed. Another drawback is that there may be a situation where the facility or caregiver overrides the directive if it creates a conflict with their care or beliefs (Merill, 2019).

In order to obtain an Advance Healthcare Directive, you can go onto your home state website to download the forms needed to create a directive. Another option is to talk to your lawyer and primary care provider if you don’t have computer access. Once the Advance directive is complete, notarized in front of a witness, give a copy to your lawyer and primary care provider.

Resources

1. American Cancer Society. (2019, May 10). What Is an Advance Directive? Retrieved from https://www.cancer.org/treatment/finding-and-paying-for-treatment/understanding-financial-and-legal-matters/advance-directives/what-is-an-advance-health-care-directive.html.
2. Merrill Bank of America. (2019). Planning Ahead for Your Own Care. Retrieved from https://www.merrilledge.com/article/advance-directives-planning-ahead-for-your-own-care.
3. National Cancer Institute. (2019, August 20). Advance Directives. Retrieved from https://medlineplus.gov/advancedirectives.html.

I watched my teammates in action at our soccer games. It was an intense game because us being a new team learning each other on the field. The coaching was shouting at the sideline, and cheering on our team whenever we got the ball. I was surprised the team was able to focus on the constant shouting. The experience of playing at a College level is different than High School.

A couple of their teammates were nervous, about playing on the college, but they all wanted to win. Being my first year playing soccer and being recruited to play college soccer had mixed emotions, yet I am confident in my skill for the game. In our first game, we all were nervous about the outcome, but we did not show it on the field. We went out on the field with a lot of energy and a positive attitude working together as a unit to get the win. However, we did not win but the loss was not a big loss.

The second game was against an undefeated team, which had the team’s emotions everywhere. At this game, I was able to start. The opportunity to start was exciting and scary at the same time. When the game started my position on the field was forward. As I glare at the ball then the goal. Ball again, then goal. I started sprinting up to the multi-colored ball. I strike it perfectly. Perfect follow-through. The inside bend curves the ball just right. The sun puts a shine on the ball as I watch the ball fly through the air. I have lost sight of it in the sun. I close my eyes and hear the slip of the ball on the side net. I glanced up and I start cheering. Jumping up and down, I just score for the team. I love soccer because, it involves a lot of running and I love playing, and it involves a team effort.

After the scoring, the team became involved and the game became intense. Sitting on the sideline I watched my teammates by the game. The ball is at the end of the field. A forward is coming hard down the field, dribbling the ball. Our sweeper challengers him and strip the ball from him. Unfortunately, our sweeper as well as the forward go down in the process of this play. Our sweeper elbows the other boy in the chest as they are getting up. The whistle is blown and the yellow card is given to my teammate, while the other team gets the free kick. This situation seems to come into play quite often, due to the lack of anger control some of my teammates have. After all the running, dribbling, and stripping the game was over and we lost by one goal.

Overall, the game is consisting of eleven players on each side of the field, trying to get the ball to the opposing goal by crossing through the counter team by maneuvering the ball or performing a series of passes to get to the goal and score. Each team is composed of different kinds of players, from the goalkeeper to the defense line, the midfield line, and the front-striking players that usually score the goals. Each player, official or even the fan, of them, contributes to making the sport interesting.

When we look back upon the history of America, discrimination against immigrants of color appears to be our greatest injustice. We remember the plight of African slaves, the trail of tears that followed Indian removal policies, and the exclusion of Asian Americans in times of war and times of racial animosity. We remember the color line. When asked to define one’s ethnicity today, we’re presented with the options of Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, African American, and white. ‘White’ still stands alone, ‘white’ is enough to complete the race question. But is ‘white’ enough to understand the prejudice faced by immigrants who shared only their color? Throughout America’s early history, white was civility—man above savagery. Regardless of the color of one’s skin, white was a privilege. We may think of Irish Americans today as ‘white,’ but there once was a time when they, too, were deemed an ‘other’. Although their immigration to America differed, socially and economically, African slaves and Irish immigrants were once near equals.

When Africans first arrived on Virginia’s shores in 1619, race had not yet been an identifier of status. While the presence of Africans in America was due to the transatlantic slave trade, they belonged to an economic class of indentured servants—both white and black. When discontent among the class arose, the Virginia elite began to realize the threat that they posed. “The planters had come to a crossroads. They could open economic opportunities to white workers and extend political privileges to them, but this would erode their own economic advantage…[Reorganizing] society on the basis of class and race” (Takaki 60), appeared to be the only option for controlling rebellion. Thus, a class of African American slaves was born. Meanwhile, in Ireland, “many Irish saw parallels between themselves as a degraded people and the blacks in bondage” (Takaki 142). Following the English invasion of 1649, Ireland had fallen under British rule. They transformed Ireland’s economy of agriculture into an economy of export, the peasantry being degraded to near-slaves under their landlords. This hardship existed in Ireland for nearly two hundred years before the famine struck, intensifying Irish suffering. After hearing of the opportunities in America—of jobs and an escape from British tyranny—survivors of the famine began to leave the Emerald Isle. Africans and Irishmen alike lived under the hand of a European oppressor, bringing both groups to America. But while Africans arrived by force, with no choice in their captivity, the Irish arrived by necessity; emigrating to America was a matter of survival. Although their immigration to America may have differed, African Americans and Irish Americans would soon come to find that, in the American mindset, they didn’t differ that much at all.

Socially, Africans and Irish in America came to adopt the stereotypes associated with savagery. For African Americans, “slavery had become so widespread that, to many whites, it seemed like the natural state for black people” (Herbes-Sommers, Race – The Power of an Illusion). They were seen as inferior in intelligence, lazy, libidinous, and a threat to racial purity.

How Does Racism Affect My Life?

Have you ever considered how racism affects your daily life? To know how racism affects your life you must first understand what racism is. Racism can be defined in a number of ways. The way you judge a group of people by the way they look. It could be the way you treat a group of people because you think they are not smart. What makes a class of people show racism toward another class of people? Are they born that way? Is it something that develops in their heart? I will be comparing Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Racisms to Thomas Shelby’s Is Racism in the “Heart”? to explain how racism is developed in the mind and manifests change in the heart.

Appiah discusses the issues of racialism, intrinsic racism, and extrinsic racism. He defines racialism-“ that there are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, that allow us to divide them into a small set of races, in such a way that all the members of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not share with members of any other race.”(Appiah 471). According to his explanation putting people in different classifications are not exactly right. It just gives people a pass on being racist. There are two types of racism and they are intrinsic and extrinsic (Appiah 472). Basically, a person displaying these types of racism doesn’t have any reasonable explanation to believe that everyone should be treated the same. “For intrinsic racists, by my definition, are people who differentiate morally between members of different races because they believe that each race has different moral status, quite independent of the moral characteristics entailed by its racial essence.”(Appiah 472) In their mind, it doesn’t matter what qualities another race may have they are different. So that leads me to ask the question, can a person have racism in their heart?

Shelby believes that racism is not manifested in the heart. “If this is acknowledged, we must recognize that the “heart” does not have to be involved in order for an action or institution to be racist, and unjust because racist.”(483) This pretty much states that racism has to do with what a person has been through personally. Something has happened to a person to make them have racism toward a particular group of people. It could be a person’s attitudes and not their beliefs that make them racist. (479) The argument here simply is saying that sometimes a person doesn’t have racism toward a particular person but maybe it’s the person’s action that may be the real reason for them not being liked by the person. According to Shelby, “If Stephen (a white person) dislikes Andre (a black person), then we don’t yet know whether Stephen’s dislike for Andre is racist. If it is simply because Andre is having a love affair with the woman Stephen loves (who happens to be white), then this is not racist, provided Andre’s “race” is not an aggravating factor.”(480) What I believe Shelby is trying to say by this analysis is trying to disguise someone’s dislike for you with racism, there could be a legitimate reason for them not liking you. In “Is Racism in the “Heart”? Shelby asks, “Us to consider a different type of racist. She has no ill will toward blacks but learned as a child to believe that they are “naturally” disposed to violent, irresponsible, and indolent, and now that she is an adult, she uncritically continues to hold on to this belief, much as she does certain of her religious beliefs and many of her social values.”(483)

Appiah would refer to this woman as “sincere extrinsic.”(483) This type of thinking can lead to her letting it affect the way she feels about a certain group of people that she may encounter in her everyday living experiences. It could also very well develop in her heart as well. Shelby mentions, “ If this is acknowledged, we must recognize that the “heart” does not have to be involved in order for an action or institution to be racist, and unjust because racist. It is sufficient for the existence of racism that individuals with racist beliefs act on those beliefs in their private lives, the marketplace, or the public sphere. Such actions lead to and perpetuate oppression-an unnecessary, systemic, and underserved burden that is imposed on one group as a result of the actions of another-and they have this result whether or not they are performed with a racist heart.”

In conclusion, I can see how the information I read about both authors can go hand in hand with each other. Fully understanding what racism means can make you wonder if it’s in a person’s heart. I would have to say that I agree more with Shelby’s viewpoint. The example he gave of the woman who was taught to view black people a certain way agrees with my viewpoint about racism being taught. I don’t no one is born to hate. But I also believe that what you feel in your heart can influence how your mind thinks. What’s in the heart is eventually put into action. This was a great read for me because it made me reevaluate what I thought about racism.

I received the ball and looked up just in time to see that the keeper was way out of place, and I thought to myself, “This is the best chance I’m ever going to get.” So I pivoted on my left foot and watched as my other foot sliced through the air, striking the ball with all the force I could muster, and stopped once the ball had left my foot. There was nothing else left to do but watch as the ball sailed toward the goal painfully slow in my mind. Every second that the ball was in the air felt like an hour to me when in reality, it couldn’t have been much more than three or four seconds. But when I heard that familiar swish sound as it rolled down the inside of the net, it was as if a switch has been flipped. All the stress of that tied game for the past hour was gone, just like that. My teammates and I were ecstatic, literally jumping with joy as I ran back yelling and screaming. One of them, my friend Jon patted me on the back and I gave a few of the other guys high fives. We weren’t finished with that game yet. Less than a minute later after the tiebreaker goal, my teammate Robbie scored another goal! I left that game feeling a sense of belonging and pure happiness. To this day, this is still one of my fondest memories and I always remember it with a smile because it was that day that I experienced a taste of what it was like to be complete. I knew what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be.

I like to think of Soccer as a mentor, a best friend, and a passion, all in one. It’s taught me so many things about life and given me the very best of my qualities. From joy, hope, surprise, boredom, and even extreme disappointment, I’ve felt every possible emotion on the soccer field. An early lesson I learned from the game is to never, ever give up. When I was 9 and failed to make the club team or when I was 11 and my team went to a tournament in Myrtle Beach, losing every game more than 7-0. It was those times that motivated me to get better and not give up. It makes me shudder to think of where I might be if I’d given up and quit at any of those times.

Even now in high school, I’m still inspired by the sport every day. Being a team captain on my club team for the past several years has given me the best possible leadership experience I could have had. I can see how it’s carried over into my everyday life, I have a better social life and more confidence in myself, and I always try to do my best because of that. I’m just glad that I’ll always be able to fall back on Soccer if everything else is going bad, and that’s what takes away a lot of the stress and worry in my life. Because even on my worst days, I can walk to the nearest soccer field and forget about all my problems for a few hours and be who I’m meant to be. This is why Soccer has been the greatest force in my life, shaping me and helping me to become who I am today.

Estelle (Stella) Meldau is a true leader in my eyes. Stella and her husband, Nicholas, founded Woodrock Animal Rescue, a no-kill animal shelter that has saved many dogs, cats, and farm animals. She later started the Woodrock Pet Hotel, a pet boarding facility that, along with donations, funds the rescue center. Stella has a deep love for animals and has over ten pets of her own. She is also a breast cancer survivor. Stella has made a huge impact on the country. Not only does she rescue starving and injured animals from the streets, but she and her team also feed, sterilize and provide for pets living in informal settlements. This helps those who have a deep love for their pets but cannot afford adequate care for them. It also deeply impacts the lives of those animals, as they are receiving the care that they deserve. Stella is making an impact on future generations. She launched a project that allows groups of children to visit Woodrock, learn about the animals, and take care of them for the day. The project also involves bringing dogs to schools to educate children about animal care. This teaches children compassion for animals, a value that they should carry throughout their entire lives. Stella’s source of power is her determination. No matter what challenges life throws at her, she never stops caring for animals. Her husband describes her as a positive person. When Stella was diagnosed with breast cancer, she chose to do a photoshoot with dogs from the shelter, one of who is a breast cancer survivor. She believes that this photoshoot will inspire others to stay strong. Stella is inspiring because she has compassion for all. She believes that all animals should be treated equally to humans. She is incredibly strong and constantly remains positive and determined to help more animals. Greta Thunberg is a sixteen-year-old environmental activist who has gained international recognition. Greta began an ongoing school strike in 2018, calling on the government for stricter environmental protection policies. She has Asperger’s syndrome, is vegan, and lives a low-carbon life. Greta has made a huge impact on the world. Her strike has inspired over 100 000 schoolchildren to do the same and fight for their futures. She traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-carbon yacht, to attend a climate summit at the United Nations. Her appearance at the summit went viral, due to her questions on why a teenager has to drop out of school to get adults to listen. She has created awareness about the ongoing climate crisis. With Greta’s determination, she is likely to make a huge impact on people’s attitudes towards climate change in the future. Greta is a great example to children, as her protests teach them that they too can make a difference. Greta’s source of power is her passion. She is not afraid to fight for what she believes in, and despite the negativity she receives, she carries on pushing for change. She is not afraid to speak her mind, even in front of thousands of people. Greta does not let negative comments bring her down. She says that when people mock her, it does not bother her, and she sees being different as a superpower that she can use to improve the world. Greta inspires me as she proves how one small person can make a huge difference. She has taught me the importance of taking care of our planet. Greta is an inspiration to everyone, especially those who feel that they are “different”, as she believes we should all embrace our differences to make a change. Greg Bank is the youth rabbi of Linksfield synagogue (shul) and a Jewish Studies teacher at King David Linksfield. He coordinates shul events involving the youth, and he gives weekly Torah lessons and prayer services on the Sabbath (Shabbat). He is married with two children and is shortly moving to Manchester to start up a new congregation in the area. Greg has made a huge impact on my life. I was never interested in going to shul and would only go occasionally until I listened to him talk one Shabbat. His passion for Judaism kept me interested the whole time and made me want to hear more. Thanks to Greg, I now attend shul every Shabbat and I am part of his children’s service team. Not only has Greg impacted my life, but also many other teenagers and young adults. The Linksfield Shul youth group now consists of over forty members thanks to Greg. With Greg’s enthusiasm, he is going to make a big impact in Manchester in the future. He has inspired many of us in Linksfield to become better Jews and is likely to do the same for the youth in Manchester.

I believe that Greg’s source of leadership is his passion for what he does. He has the ability to keep everyone interested in his talks, because of his enthusiasm about Judaism. He is a kindhearted person who cares deeply for the youth of the shul and has formed close bonds with each and every single one of us. I find Greg inspiring as he has taught me the importance of Judaism and getting involved in the community. He treats every person, no matter their age, gender, or religion with the utmost respect, and he always helps others before himself.