Compare and contrast the narrative techniques used in three or more of Edgar Allan Poe’s tales Essay

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19th 1809. He became a writer unlike many others at that time, writing stores of crime or horror literature. Several people say his disturbing and unusual stories were the result of his own life and situations he had been through, and although he was an American, his writing strongly followed in the examples of European gothic stories. During his life he wrote many of the finest representations of gothic literature, these stories include many essentials that differ them from original stories, such as a melodramatic plot, themes of terror and torture, sinister locations, heightened emotions, and can they also be based on old superstitions or fears. Another example of gothic literature in the 19th century was â€Å"Dracula† wrote by Bram Stoker (1897), this genre of horror and torment has remained to be popular until the present day, with modern authors such as James Herbert and Stephen King. â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is a short gothic story wrote by Edgar Allan Poe, about the narrator named Montresor, describing how his friend Fortunato has offended him repeatedly in the past, and how he is now planning to seek revenge upon him. Using a vintage amontillado as bate he guides him down to the catacombs below his house where a space in the wall has been created as a tomb. Locking the padlock, which strapped Fortunato who is now in a drunken state to the catacomb wall, he uncovers a pile of cement and bricks from beneath a mound of bones lying nearby, and row-by-row he begins to bury him alive, taking great amusement and satisfaction out of his crying. â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† is again another famous piece of gothic literature wrote by Edgar Allan Poe, it shows a defensive man proclaiming that he is not insane, however has a fascination with destroying what he believes to be an â€Å"evil eye†. The beginning of the story begins with a flashback of when the old man was killed, immediately from this point we become aware that the narrator is actually mad, even though he continuously challenges the fact that this is not true. As the story continues the events are in chronological order as there is build up of suspense, and the mad man exposes that he has to murder the old man because of the threat from his eye, therefore every night he slowly places his head round the bedroom door allowing a tiny sliver of light to shine through upon the old mans sleeping face, searching for the eye which he greatly despised. However for seven nights the eye was closed, and since the eye was not visible, there was no reason to commit the violence, as it was not the old man he wanted to destroy, but it was instead this â€Å"evil eye†. On the eighth night he does kill the old man, but is soon terrified by hearing the old mans heart beat grow louder and stronger under the floorboards that he cannot cope with the pounding and madness any longer, so he screamed aloud his confession to the police. â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum† starts with the unnamed narrator recounting hearing his death sentence from individuals clothed in black robes. Fainting after listening to this news, he awakens later in the darkness as the man finds himself disorientated about where he is. He cautiously explores the room, staggering because his body is so weak, expressing the fear that it could be a tomb where he has been buried alive. From this point he is subjected to mental and physical torture and great torment of not knowing when he is going to die. Above him hangs a swinging pendulum becoming gradually closer to his body with every swing, eventually near to death, he begins his escape plan, and is rescued by General Lasalle and his French army in an unanticipated conclusion to the story. The setting in gothic literature is very important factor for the success of the story, for example the settings used in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories set the readers mood, and adds to the theme creating the correct atmosphere for the subject matter. The setting of the gothic literature â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† plays an important role with the development of horror and tension necessary for the reader to feel. The story is ideally set in catacombs under the main character Montresor’s house; the walls are covered with human bones, which immediately sets the scene for a gothic story. They are below in his house deep underground, and no one will be able to hear them because of the carnival going on above. In order to maintain that they were alone Montresor had tricked his servants into going to the carnival, â€Å"I had told them I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure there immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned†. The intense description of the setting in this story is very suspenseful and eerie. Edgar Allan Poe describes the men passing through â€Å"walls of piled bones, with casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of the catacombs†. The catacombs of death in this story provide an appropriate setting for the story’s suspense and inevitable ending. The overall mood of the story is one of impending evil, this mood is significantly helped by the description of the location and phrases that have been purposely chosen by the author such as, â€Å"the drops of moisture trickle among the bones† and â€Å"its walls had been lined with human remains†. â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† is another story also wrote by Edgar Allan Poe, it is set in a different era as the author describes the character using lanterns and they have no electricity in the house, â€Å"I put in a dark lantern†. We also know that they are in a remote old house, from midnight to four in the morning. It is dark in the bedroom as the shutters are closed from fear of burglars â€Å"his room was as black as pitch with thick darkness (for the shutters were closed fastened, through fear of robbers)†. It is not clear but the setting for this story is probably European, as at the ending of the story Edgar Allan Poe describes â€Å"officers of the police† that appear knocking on the door; policemen are generally associated with England and Europe. Another example of a sinister setting in one of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic stories is â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum†. The story is set in Spain during the Spanish inquisition at some point in the sixteenth century, and begins in a courtroom where the protagonist is listening to his death sentence by black robed judges. This is where the character first realises his fate, and Edgar Allan Poe uses simple words and phrases to illustrate his foreseeable fate, â€Å"I trace these words – and thin even to grotesqueness; thin with the intensity of their expression of firmness – of immoveable resolution – of stern contempt of human torture†. For the remainder of the story the location is in a cell or prison underground, the narrator is in pitch black â€Å"the blackness of eternal night encompassed me†, he is isolated in the cell, being tormented and under examination by the Spanish army. The setting in this story shows the conditions the character is subjected to, the pit in the middle of the floor was intended for his death, though he tripped and exposed the ditch. Now subject to more torture, he is beneath a swinging pendulum, gradually moving closer towards his body. The floor is covered in rats as Poe portrays them as â€Å"fresh troops, hurriedly, with ravenous eyes†, which again adds to the disturbing setting of this story, which in turn helps the reader understand the situation the character is in. In all of these gothic stories wrote by Edgar Allan Poe, he has chosen to use a sinister setting, frequently in an isolated place such as the catacombs or a prison cell. As each story changes and develops, so do the surroundings, becoming more dark and threatening. In these three short stories Edgar Allan Poe uses certain characters to build up and develop the story. The main character in each story is called the protagonist, and the antagonist is the character who usually fights against him. In â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, the protagonist in Montresor, as he is the main character and also the narrator, he forms most of the story with the theme of his revenge. During the story Montresor explains what happened the night Fortunato was killed. Montresor is also perceived through the tale to be very intelligent, since he premeditated the murder so that no one would discover his plans, we can also tell of his intelligence by what he spoke to Fortunato. He asked for assistance in wine tasting, but says if he is busy he will ask Luchesi , this causes Fortunato want to help even more as Montresor is now using reverse psychology on him, â€Å"as you are engaged, I am on my way to see Luchesi. If anyone has a critical turn, it is he. He will t ell me†. Montresor knew that burying him alive would give the best reward in form of revenge, and the greatest satisfaction and fulfilment for him. Since the story is wrote in first person the author does not give a detailed description of Montresor as it is though the author is retelling the story. We are told however his feelings and emotions and the reader is then left form their own opinions on this character through studying their attitudes and actions. For example it is very clear to the reader Montresor’s hate towards Fortunato plus his determination for vengeance. The antagonist in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is Fortunato, as he fights for his life and is the opposition of the protagonist. The audience’s perception of the character has to be again determined from Montresor’s thoughts and feelings. Montresor’s opinion at the start of the story is evil and wicked towards him as he has offended him in the past, although the reader may agree with this at the beginning, near the end we begin to sympathise with Fortunato for being under torture. Much like the â€Å"Cask of Amontillado†, the story â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† has both a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist in this story is the narrator, we do not know his name but he is a servant in the house for the old man. From the opening of the story the character is seeking to persuade the audience that he is not insane, because he believes he is exceedingly intellectual for slaughtering the â€Å"evil eye†. Later on in the story it comes apparent to the audience that this man is in reality insane, proof of this comes at the end when he believes he can hear the old mans heartbeat, â€Å"It was a low, dull, quick sound – much a sound a watch makes when enveloped in cotton†. From the description in the tale we can understand the narrator’s fear of the eye as he gives a detailed portrayal; he describes it as â€Å"one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture – a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees – very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever†. Edgar Allan Poe does not give a in depth description of the antagonist, however we do know that he is an â€Å"old man† and that he has cataracts on his eyes, this is what is making the narrator think that they are evil. We are left with our own interpretation of what the man is like. We are however given a clue, which is that, we now that he is a pleasant man from the quote â€Å"He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult†. Again like the â€Å"Cask of Amontillado† the story is wrote in first person and is although the autho r is retelling the story. In â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum† there is only one main character, this is the man who has heard his death sentence and is now being tortured in the prison, and he is also the narrator recounting what has happened to him. The only other characters in the story are the Spanish army who are torturing the man. The protagonist begins the story with a recollection if a previous trial in which he now finds himself in a dungeon room being held capture. Throughout the story the character is faced with many situations for example mental and physical torture also facing death many times until eventually he is saved and released by the French army. Again like â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart†, the Pit and the Pendulum is wrote in first person, and therefore gives the effect of the author retelling the story. All three of these stories share the same pattern of how the characters are used and represented in the gothic stories. Edgar Allan Poe has firstly chose to wrote all of the tales in first person achieving the effect of him retelling the story as if it has actually happened before to him, undertaking this has left the reader to make their own analysis and judgements about the characters, leaving uncertainties about the characters never actually knowing who they are and what they are like. Themes are very important in creating the right mood for a gothic story; they are used in all three of the short gothic stories by Edgar Allan Poe. It is very common of this genre to have themes of good versus evil, and light versus dark. â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† is a powerful tale of revenge. Montresor, the sinister narrator of this story, pledges revenge upon Fortunato for a past insult. At this time we also see many other themes projected to the reader by using Montresor, for example death, satisfaction and horror. He wanted to be satisfied that he had full revenge upon Fortunato; we know this from the choice of torture which was slow and thorough, watching him suffer. The themes in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† are also shown using the setting of the story. When the two characters enter the catacombs, the setting represents the theme of death and horror as the tombs are described with key adjectives as being â€Å"lined with human remains† and â€Å"t he drops of moisture trickle among the bones†. In â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart†, Edgar Allan Poe has used very strong themes of murder, fear and insanity. The main theme in this gothic story is fear and this is mostly presented through the protagonist. The protagonist has been used to show his fear for the eye, which is often described through the way he talks and describes it as evil, â€Å"one of his eyes resembled that of a vulture†. Other main themes in this story are insanity and madness, immediately at the beginning of the story the narrator challenges that he isn’t mad â€Å"How, then, am I mad?†, nevertheless as the story continues we begin to see more of his mental illness awaiting the end of the story when the protagonist is drove exceedingly mad by the old mans heartbeat that he confesses his crime. The themes in this story are also presented though the characters, setting and actions. The theme of fear is shown through actions in the story; the main action taken place is murdering the old man, and the dissection of his body. From this we are able to see that the man feared the eyes so much, that he has to rid himself of the eye forever and take the old mans life. Fear is also represented through symbolism in the story, the author has made sure that the eye is illuminated in a wicked and fearful way, making sure that the audience understands the protagonists fear for the eye, and is also why the author chooses to keep his main focus on the description of the eye. There are also many themes in â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum† however the main one being the theme of torture. This is presented through the key character in the story as he is the one being subjected to the suffering. We see his distress throughout the story when he is being put through mental and physical torture. The theme of torment can also be represented through the setting in the tale. The depressing atmosphere of an old, dark damp dungeon in Toledo helps towards the general theme of the story significantly. The writer uses words such as â€Å"damp† and â€Å"cold†, all of these helping to establish the theme, as many of them are associated with evil and horrific situations. After reading this story you are left with a message never to give up, this is clear in the story as the protagonist by no means hands over his life to death even in the situations he is under. Edgar Allan Poe has used the same techniques for representing the theme in all three of these stories. In each of them he has used the characters, setting, actions and symbolism to illustrate and help the audience recognize the different themes. An additional similarity between these three stories is that they all include a theme of death. By using a range of narrative techniques in all three of these short gothic stories Edgar Allan Poe has been able to make the reader aware of the circumstances the characters are in, being able to do this also makes the story more realistic and enjoyable for the reader. By using first person in all three of these stories it grabs the reader’s attention pulling them straight into what is happening in the story, making them feel involved. The language in a story is a very important narrative technique used in most gothic literature, and is carefully selected to construct a successful use of imagery and to build tension; this can also be done with various vocabulary and sentence structure. The â€Å"Cask of Amontillado† uses language techniques to build suspense and to generate an imagery of the deep dark catacombs. There is use of commas which make pauses is in the text, building up anticipation and adding to the tension, an example of this is when Edgar Allan Poe is describing the passage to the tombs â€Å"We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descended again, arriving at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame†. The author also uses the effect of imagery in his stories; this is used to illustrate the setting that the characters are in. An example of this is â€Å"Walls had been lined with human remains†, which produces a dim and wicked atmosphere. Phrases such as these are essential for the readers imagination, it also helps build up the tension amongst the reader as it reminds them of the death that is soon to come later on in the story. Another story, in which Edgar Allan Poe uses language to build the effect of tension and to make the audience more cautious of the situation in the tale, is â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart†. Instantly at the opening, there are short sentences that make the audience slow down with their reading, which in turn builds up the tension in the story â€Å"Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.† Another technique to develop suspense is by using lots of hyphens for long pauses. These have been used numerous times throughout the â€Å"Tell Tale Heart†, particularly when the author has to increase anxiety of when the character enters the chamber on the eight night, † I undid the lantern cautiously – oh, so cautiously – cautiously – I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye†. Imagery has also been used in this story for the description of the eye, the effect this has on the reader makes them wary of the eye as it is described as â€Å"evil† and â€Å"vulture like†. The author has also used imagery when the man enters the bedroom on the eight night, he describes the room and every action by the character, â€Å"His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing on steadily, steadily†.. The â€Å"Pit and the Pendulum† also has the use of imagery in the language, which is essential for the tale to be appreciate by the reader. The primary focus in the story is describing the setting; this has been done by using many powerful adjectives and adverbs. During the story Edgar Allan Poe has used a list of three commas to slow the text down, for example â€Å"then silence, and stillness, and night were the universe†. Yet again similar to the other stories wrote by Edgar Allan Poe, the â€Å"Pit and the Pendulum† uses imagery to build up the tension; an example of this is when the character first begins to see the pendulum swinging â€Å"down steadily down it crept†. By repeating the word â€Å"down† it represents the repetitive and continuous swinging of the pendulum from side to side. There is repetition in the â€Å"Pit and the pendulum† to emphasize the point that he is now free from the swinging pendulum, â€Å"For the moment, a t lest, I was free. Free! – and in the grasp of Inquisition!† There is also alliteration of â€Å"sidelong, shrinking, and slow – I slid from the embrace of the bandage†. To identify a gothic story from a normal tale there are certain factors which you recognize that can tell you the story is going to be of a gothic genre. â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† has telling features so that the reader knows it is a gothic story, the first of these being is that it has both a protagonist and an antagonist, this is the main character and someone who fights against him. It also includes a subconscious fear that the man has of the â€Å"evil eye†, which continues through the story with heightened emotions, lots of terror and suspense. There is a sinister location of an old house isolated at night, and a theme of life versus death. In the â€Å"Cask of Amontillado† much like the â€Å"Tell Tale Heart† there is also both an antagonist and a protagonist, Fortunato and Montresor. The story is also based on an old superstition of being buried alive, as this is what happens to Fortunato in the catacombs. During the story there is heightened emotions and build up of terror and tension, there is a melodramatic plot and a sinister location of deep underground where no one can hear them in the family tomb. The protagonist in the â€Å"Pit and the Pendulum† is the man who is being tortured, heightened emotions are shown in this story through the terror and fear of death. There is lots of melodrama like in the other two stories as the torture is being dragged out. Once again like in many of Edgar Allan Poe stories the setting is very sinister, as he is in a damp black room containing a pit in the middle, covered in rats. There are themes of good versus evil and life versus death in this story. All these factors of the gothic genre are used to recognize and understand these stories, based in selective features which they contain. By looking at the three stories wrote by Edgar Allan Poe, â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum†, â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† and the â€Å"Cask of Amontillado†, I can see that there are many similarities between them. The main resemblance is that they have all been wrote in first person, the effect of this is that it draws you into the story and gets the reader involved, I think Edgar Allan Poe has chose to use this on all three of these gothic stories as the reader then has an advantage to understanding what is happening in the tale. Another similarity between all three of these stories is the setting. In a gothic story the setting is usually sinister and dark as this helps to the overall effect the story has on its audience, in each story the location is isolated and usually in a dark room. The use of language is also very similar in these three stories, in each of them there is use of hyphens and short sentences all to build up suspense and tension.

Placing criminals in prison benefits everyone

In early times, prisons served an entirely different purpose from the one it does today.   While it was basically still for the enforcement of the law, it was used as a holding area for people accused of crimes and in the process of trial, and for those accused of lesser crimes as non-payment of debts.   Back then, the only two penalties for crimes were death and banishment.Over the years, imprisonment for crimes has considerably changed.   The cause for imprisonment and the conditions of prisons have changed depending on the norms and capability of societies.   However, there still stands one common reason for imprisonment of persons convicted of crimes and that is basically to keep them away from society.   It is for the purpose of keeping the public safe from criminal elements such as them and to prevent them from committing crimes again.There are four major social benefits of incarceration that must be considered in measuring the cost effectiveness of imprisonment:   retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation or incapacitation.   (Catherine Bucci, 2005).Society believes that offenders must be penalized.   This belief is as old as time.   The difference is the penalties imposed on crimes, which are markedly different from society to society, from era to era.   Serving time in prison is the convicts’ retribution for the crime they committed. Putting criminals behind bars serves to warn others of similar fate and hopefully prevent them from committing crimes also.   Imprisonment of convicts is a deterrent to potential criminals.   While serving time in prison, the convict may receive intervention to curb criminal mentality.   They are made to do activities that will take their minds off from their negative side and bring out the positive in them.   While in prison the criminal is not able to commit crime under the watch of law enforcement agents.   All these ultimately benefits society as they all focus on the control and prev ention of crime.There are four morally justified purposes for punishment.   (Ryan Kummamer, 2007).To Protect Society.   Imprisonment will keep the offender away from the public.   This is to ensure that the public will be safe and protected from further threats from criminals.  Ã‚   Society is assured that the criminal is under police custody and could do no harm again.   If the criminals are allowed to roam the streets unchecked and uncontrolled they pose a great threat to the peace and order of the community.To Reform the Offender.   Prisons are not just penitentiaries but also reformatory institutions.   While serving time, convicts are provided with opportunities that will help them to be contributing and productive members of society when they are released from prison.   These opportunities are made available to them thru skills training and rehabilitation and therapy sessions.   If prison changed the offenders, it will a better and welcomed change.As a Deterr ent to Potential Criminals.   The threat of imprisonment and serving long prison term should serve as a strong warning to potential criminals.   The threat which brings fear deters persons from committing crimes that would surely send them to jail.   Studies even show that a prison term is more feared than the death penalty.   This reinforces the assumption that imprisonment is an effective deterrent for potential offenders to keep away from committing crimes.Penalty and Pay Back.   Justice calls for penalty to be imposed for the commission of crime.   An offender commits a crime for which society wants him to pay.   The penalty of imprisonment serves as the punishment.   Imprisonment brings back order, paying back of what was taken away or restoration to the proper order and condition of a community before the incident of crime.   When the offender is put behind bars, a sense of peace once more prevails in the community that once was shaken by the crime.All four r easons justified the means to an end.   Imprisonment will have served its purpose if in the end, a reformed convict integrates to mainstream society and does not turn into a recidivist.There are several basic theories regarding criminal justice and its relation to individual rights and social control; Restorative Justice, Retributive Justice, and Transformative Justice.   (Raymond E. Foster, 2006, 2007).Imprisonment is likewise justified if the ends of justice were met and served.Restoration.   Justice calls for the restoration of what has been taken away from society because of the crime committed.   At times there were chaos, anger, disruption from normalcy and confusion.   When a criminal is confined in prison, he is taken away from the community.   This becomes the time for the community to pick up the pieces to start over.   The condition of the community before the incidence of the crime is brought back.Retribution.   The offender suffers what the victims had i n essence suffered as well.   Since time in memorial, every part in history made offenders pay up for the crimes against persons, society and humanity.   This age is no different, so that people would realize that crime definitely pays.Transformation.   Everybody deserves second chances, including convicts serving prison terms.   Their confinement in penal institutions must bring something good and purposeful.   Convicts are given the means to reform within the walls of prison.   When they are released they are hoped to become changed from the criminal that was committed to the facility to a reformed person who would re-join society.Today, unlike in the 50’s when families provide the backbone of society, many factors like broken homes cause the high incidence of crimes.   Without strong societal support and an equally effective criminal justice system crimes would be hard to control.   Given all the avenues to pursue criminal justice, deterrence must still be the first measure sought.   Deterrence from the commission of crimes is effective to fight crime.   If there is a big threat to criminals like fear of being incarcerated, that would be deterrence enough to prevent further commission of crimes.The recorded low crime rate in the 80’s up to the 90’s has been due mainly to the high possibility of   prison sentence and increased prison time for serious offenses.   Legislation to these ends had a big impact on the downward trend of crime rate.   Laws raised the odds of imprisonment and made crimes unattractive to would-be criminals.Imprisonment is a more acceptable option to a society that frowns upon capital punishment.   Church groups, civil society and human rights advocates are all against the death penalty.   In many other countries, they deplore the conditions of jails as unfit for humans giving due concern over the rights of accused.   These groups tend to see   the other end of the scales of justice .   However, prison conditions and intervention approach done and extended to convicts serving time make imprisonment the just alternative to capital punishment.Somehow justice must be carried out in a situation where a crime has been committed.   The scales of justice must be equally in favor of the perpetrator of the crime and the victim, and society in general.Imprisonment satisfies all ends of justice.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The convict must pay for the crime committed against persons and society.   Society in turn demands that justice be served thru commensurate penalty.   As penalty for a crime committed, retribution is met.   A compassionate society could find it to forgive a convict who has served time in prison for a crime committed.   Giving second chances to convicts, reformation is satisfied.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Separating the convict from society until he has repent, done time and is deemed ready to re-join society.   Public protection is assured.  Ã‚   Imprisonment scares people away from crime, then crime prevention is guaranteed.Sources:Bucci, Catherine.   (09 Jan 2005).   Rising Sanctions for Repeat Offender.Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, from  http://www.ecoon.unconn.edu/Bucci_internshippaperexample.docCrime Fighters:   Justice.   (16 Jan 2006).   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, from  http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/fighters/prisonservice.shtmlPrison Reform. (13 Jan 2007).   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_reformCrime and Punishment in Americ:1999.   NCPA Policy Report No. 229.   (Oct 1999)Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.ncpa.org/studies/s229/s229.htmlStrategic Goal Six:   Protect American Society by Providing for the Safe, Secure & HumaneConfinement of Persons in Federal Custody.   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.usdoj.gov/ag/annualreports/pr2001/Section06.htmlKummamer, Ryan.   (2007).   On Capital Punishment.   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, from  http://www.newcitizenship.net/2006/12/on-capital -punishment.htmlFoster, Raymond E.   (2006-2007).   Criminal Justice.   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.hitechcj.com/criminal-justice-degree-online/ Placing criminals in prison benefits everyone In early times, prisons served an entirely different purpose from the one it does today.   While it was basically still for the enforcement of the law, it was used as a holding area for people accused of crimes and in the process of trial, and for those accused of lesser crimes as non-payment of debts.   Back then, the only two penalties for crimes were death and banishment.Over the years, imprisonment for crimes has considerably changed.   The cause for imprisonment and the conditions of prisons have changed depending on the norms and capability of societies.   However, there still stands one common reason for imprisonment of persons convicted of crimes and that is basically to keep them away from society.   It is for the purpose of keeping the public safe from criminal elements such as them and to prevent them from committing crimes again.There are four major social benefits of incarceration that must be considered in measuring the cost effectiveness of imprisonment:   retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation or incapacitation.   (Catherine Bucci, 2005).Society believes that offenders must be penalized.   This belief is as old as time.   The difference is the penalties imposed on crimes, which are markedly different from society to society, from era to era.   Serving time in prison is the convicts’ retribution for the crime they committed. Putting criminals behind bars serves to warn others of similar fate and hopefully prevent them from committing crimes also.   Imprisonment of convicts is a deterrent to potential criminals.   While serving time in prison, the convict may receive intervention to curb criminal mentality.   They are made to do activities that will take their minds off from their negative side and bring out the positive in them.   While in prison the criminal is not able to commit crime under the watch of law enforcement agents.   All these ultimately benefits society as they all focus on the control and prev ention of crime.There are four morally justified purposes for punishment.   (Ryan Kummamer, 2007).To Protect Society.   Imprisonment will keep the offender away from the public.   This is to ensure that the public will be safe and protected from further threats from criminals.  Ã‚   Society is assured that the criminal is under police custody and could do no harm again.   If the criminals are allowed to roam the streets unchecked and uncontrolled they pose a great threat to the peace and order of the community.To Reform the Offender.   Prisons are not just penitentiaries but also reformatory institutions.   While serving time, convicts are provided with opportunities that will help them to be contributing and productive members of society when they are released from prison.   These opportunities are made available to them thru skills training and rehabilitation and therapy sessions.   If prison changed the offenders, it will a better and welcomed change.As a Deterr ent to Potential Criminals.   The threat of imprisonment and serving long prison term should serve as a strong warning to potential criminals.   The threat which brings fear deters persons from committing crimes that would surely send them to jail.   Studies even show that a prison term is more feared than the death penalty.   This reinforces the assumption that imprisonment is an effective deterrent for potential offenders to keep away from committing crimes.Penalty and Pay Back.   Justice calls for penalty to be imposed for the commission of crime.   An offender commits a crime for which society wants him to pay.   The penalty of imprisonment serves as the punishment.   Imprisonment brings back order, paying back of what was taken away or restoration to the proper order and condition of a community before the incident of crime.   When the offender is put behind bars, a sense of peace once more prevails in the community that once was shaken by the crime.All four r easons justified the means to an end.   Imprisonment will have served its purpose if in the end, a reformed convict integrates to mainstream society and does not turn into a recidivist.There are several basic theories regarding criminal justice and its relation to individual rights and social control; Restorative Justice, Retributive Justice, and Transformative Justice.   (Raymond E. Foster, 2006, 2007).Imprisonment is likewise justified if the ends of justice were met and served.Restoration.   Justice calls for the restoration of what has been taken away from society because of the crime committed.   At times there were chaos, anger, disruption from normalcy and confusion.   When a criminal is confined in prison, he is taken away from the community.   This becomes the time for the community to pick up the pieces to start over.   The condition of the community before the incidence of the crime is brought back.Retribution.   The offender suffers what the victims had i n essence suffered as well.   Since time in memorial, every part in history made offenders pay up for the crimes against persons, society and humanity.   This age is no different, so that people would realize that crime definitely pays.Transformation.   Everybody deserves second chances, including convicts serving prison terms.   Their confinement in penal institutions must bring something good and purposeful.   Convicts are given the means to reform within the walls of prison.   When they are released they are hoped to become changed from the criminal that was committed to the facility to a reformed person who would re-join society.Today, unlike in the 50’s when families provide the backbone of society, many factors like broken homes cause the high incidence of crimes.   Without strong societal support and an equally effective criminal justice system crimes would be hard to control.   Given all the avenues to pursue criminal justice, deterrence must still be the first measure sought.   Deterrence from the commission of crimes is effective to fight crime.   If there is a big threat to criminals like fear of being incarcerated, that would be deterrence enough to prevent further commission of crimes.The recorded low crime rate in the 80’s up to the 90’s has been due mainly to the high possibility of   prison sentence and increased prison time for serious offenses.   Legislation to these ends had a big impact on the downward trend of crime rate.   Laws raised the odds of imprisonment and made crimes unattractive to would-be criminals.Imprisonment is a more acceptable option to a society that frowns upon capital punishment.   Church groups, civil society and human rights advocates are all against the death penalty.   In many other countries, they deplore the conditions of jails as unfit for humans giving due concern over the rights of accused.   These groups tend to see   the other end of the scales of justice .   However, prison conditions and intervention approach done and extended to convicts serving time make imprisonment the just alternative to capital punishment.Somehow justice must be carried out in a situation where a crime has been committed.   The scales of justice must be equally in favor of the perpetrator of the crime and the victim, and society in general.Imprisonment satisfies all ends of justice.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The convict must pay for the crime committed against persons and society.   Society in turn demands that justice be served thru commensurate penalty.   As penalty for a crime committed, retribution is met.   A compassionate society could find it to forgive a convict who has served time in prison for a crime committed.   Giving second chances to convicts, reformation is satisfied.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Separating the convict from society until he has repent, done time and is deemed ready to re-join society.   Public protection is assured.  Ã‚   Imprisonment scares people away from crime, then crime prevention is guaranteed.Sources:Bucci, Catherine.   (09 Jan 2005).   Rising Sanctions for Repeat Offender.Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.ecoon.unconn.edu/Bucci_internshippaperexample.docCrime Fighters:   Justice.   (16 Jan 2006).   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/fighters/prisonservice.shtmlPrison Reform. (13 Jan 2007).   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_reformCrime and Punishment in Americ:1999.   NCPA Policy Report No. 229.   (Oct 1999)Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.ncpa.org/studies/s229/s229.htmlStrategic Goal Six:   Protect American Society by Providing for the Safe, Secure & HumaneConfinement of Persons in Federal Custody.   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.usdoj.gov/ag/annualreports/pr2001/Section06.htmlKummamer, Ryan.   (2007).   On Capital Punishment.   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.newcitizenship.net/2006/12/on-capital-punishment. htmlFoster, Raymond E.   (2006-2007).   Criminal Justice.   Retrieved 17 Jan 2007, fromhttp://www.hitechcj.com/criminal-justice-degree-online/

The Sociology of Consumption

The Sociology of Consumption The sociology of consumption is a subfield of sociology formally recognized by the American Sociological Association as the Section on Consumers and Consumption. Within this subfield, sociologists see consumption as central to daily life, identity, and social order in contemporary societies in ways that far exceed rational economic principles of supply and demand. Modern Context Due to its centrality to social life, sociologists recognize fundamental and consequential relationships between consumption and economic and political systems, and to social categorization, group membership, identity, stratification, and social status. Consumption is thus intersected with issues of power and inequality, is central to social processes of meaning-making, situated within the sociological debate surrounding structure and agency, and a phenomenon that connects the micro-interactions of everyday life to larger-scale social patterns and trends. The sociology of consumption is about far more than a simple act of purchase and includes the range of emotions, values, thoughts, identities, and behaviors that circulate the purchase of goods and services, and how we use them by ourselves and with others. This subfield of sociology is active throughout North America, Latin America, Britain and the European continent, Australia, and Israel, and is growing in China and India. Research Topics How people interact at sites of consumption, like shopping malls, streets, and downtown districtsThe relationship between individual and group identities and consumer goods and spacesHow lifestyles are composed, expressed, and slotted into hierarchies through consumer practices and identitiesProcesses of gentrification, in which consumer values, practices, and spaces play a central role in reconfiguring the racial and class demographics of neighborhoods, towns, and citiesThe values and ideas embedded in advertising, marketing, and product packaging;Individual and group relationships to brandsEthical issues tied to and often expressed through consumption, including environmental sustainability, the rights and dignity of workers, and economic inequalityAnd, consumer activism and citizenship, as well as anti-consumer activism and lifestyles Theoretical Influences The three â€Å"founding fathers† of modern sociology laid the theoretical foundation for the sociology of consumption. Karl Marx provided the still widely and effectively used concept of â€Å"commodity fetishism,† which suggests that the social relations of labor are obscured by consumer goods that carry other kinds of symbolic value for their users. This concept is often used in studies of consumer consciousness and identity. Émile Durkheim’s writings on the symbolic, cultural meaning of material objects in a religious context have proved valuable to the sociology of consumption, as it informs studies of how identity is connected to consumption, and how consumer goods play an important role in traditions and rituals around the world. Max Weber pointed to the centrality of consumer goods when he wrote about the growing importance of them to social life in the 19th century, and provided what would become a useful comparison to today’s society of consumers, in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. A contemporary of the founding fathers, American Historical Thorstein Veblen’s discussion of â€Å"conspicuous consumption† has been greatly influential to how sociologists study the display of wealth and status. European critical theorists active in the mid-twentieth century also provided valuable perspectives to the sociology of consumption. Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s essay on â€Å"The Culture Industry† offered an important theoretical lens for understanding the ideological, political, and economic implications of mass production and mass consumption. Herbert Marcuse delved deeply into this in his book One-Dimensional Man, in which he describes Western societies as awash in consumer solutions that are meant to solve one’s problems, and as such, provide market solutions for what are actually political, cultural, and social problems. Additionally, American sociologist David Riesman’s landmark book, The Lonely Crowd, set the foundation for how sociologists would study how people seek validation and community through consumption, by looking to and molding themselves in the image of those immediately around them. More recently, sociologists have embraced French social theorist Jean Baudrillard’s ideas about the symbolic currency of consumer goods, and take seriously his claim that seeing consumption as a universal of the human condition obscures the class politics behind it. Similarly, Pierre Bourdieu’s research and theorizing of the differentiation between consumer goods, and how these both reflect and reproduce cultural, class, and educational differences and hierarchies, is a cornerstone of today’s sociology of consumption. Notable Contemporary Scholars and Their Work Zygmunt Bauman: Polish sociologist who has written prolifically about consumerism and the society of consumers, including the books Consuming Life; Work, Consumerism and the New Poor; and Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers?Robert G. Dunn: American social theorist who has written an important book of consumer theory titled Identifying Consumption: Subjects and Objects in Consumer Society.Mike Featherstone: British sociologist who wrote the influential Consumer Culture and Postmodernism, and who writes prolifically about lifestyle, globalization, and aesthetics.Laura T. Raynolds: Professor of sociology and director of the Center for Fair and Alternative Trade at Colorado State University has published numerous articles and books about fair trade systems and practices, including the volume Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization.George Ritzer: Author of widely influential books, The McDonaldization of Society and Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Continuit y and Change in the Cathedrals of Consumption. Juliet Schor: Economist and sociologist who has written a series of widely cited books on the cycle of working and spending in American society, including The Overspent American, The Overworked American, and Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth.Sharon Zukin: Urban and public sociologist who is widely published, and author of Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Spaces, and the important journal article, â€Å"Consuming Authenticity: From Outposts of Difference to Means of Exclusion.† New research findings from the sociology of consumption are regularly published in the  Journal of Consumer Culture  and the  Journal of Consumer Research.

How to Name Ionic Compounds

How to Name Ionic Compounds Ionic compounds consist of cations (positive ions) and anions (negative ions). Ionic compound nomenclature or naming  is based on the names of the component ions. In all cases, ionic compound naming gives the positively charged cation first, followed by the negatively charged anion. Here are the principal naming conventions for ionic compounds, along with examples to show how they are used: Roman Numerals in Ionic Compound Names A Roman numeral in parentheses, followed by the name of the element, is used for elements that can form more than one positive ion. There is no space between the element name and the parenthesis. This notation is usually seen with metals since they commonly display more than one oxidation state or valence. You can use a chart to see the possible valences for the elements. Fe2 Iron(II)Fe3 Iron(III)Cu Copper(I)Cu2 Copper(II) Example: Fe2O3 is iron(III) oxide. Naming Ionic Compounds Using  -ous and -ic Although Roman numerals are used to denote the ionic charge of cations, it is still common to see and use the endings -ous or -ic. These endings are added to the Latin name of the element (e.g., stannous/stannic for tin) to represent the ions with lesser or greater charge, respectively. The Roman numeral naming convention has wider appeal because many ions have more than two valences. Fe2 FerrousFe3 FerricCu CuprousCu2 Cupric Example: FeCl3 is ferric chloride or iron(III) chloride. Naming Ionic Compounds Using  -ide The -ide ending is added to the name of a monoatomic ion of an element. H- HydrideF- FluorideO2- OxideS2- SulfideN3- NitrideP3- Phosphide Example: Cu3P is copper phosphide or copper(I) phosphide. Naming Ionic Compounds Using  -ite and -ate Some polyatomic anions contain oxygen. These anions are called oxyanions. When an element forms two oxyanions, the one with less oxygen is given a name ending in -ite and the one with more oxygen are given a name that ends in -ate. NO2- NitriteNO3- NitrateSO32- SulfiteSO42- Sulfate Example: KNO2 is potassium nitrite, while KNO3 is potassium nitrate. Naming Ionic Compounds Using hypo- and per- In the case where there is a series of four oxyanions, the hypo- and per- prefixes are used in conjunction with the -ite and -ate suffixes. The hypo- and per- prefixes indicate less oxygen and more oxygen, respectively. ClO- HypochloriteClO2- ChloriteClO3- ChlorateClO4- Perchlorate Example: The bleaching agent sodium hypochlorite is NaClO. It is also sometimes called the sodium salt of hypochlorous acid. Ionic Compounds Containing bi- and di- Hydrogen Polyatomic anions sometimes gain one or more H ions to form anions of a lower charge. These ions are named by adding the word hydrogen or dihydrogen in front of the name of the anion. It is still common to see and use the older naming convention in which the prefix bi- is used to indicate the addition of a single hydrogen ion. HCO3- Hydrogen carbonate or bicarbonateHSO4- Hydrogen sulfate or bisulfateH2PO4- Dihydrogen phosphate Example: The classic example is the chemical name for water, H2O, which is dihydrogen monoxide or dihydrogen oxide. Dihydrogen dioxide, H2O2, is more commonly called hydrogen dioxide or hydrogen peroxide.

Germanys Capital Moves from Bonn to Berlin

Germany's Capital Moves from Bonn to Berlin Following the fall of the Berlin Wall  in 1989, the two independent countries on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain⠁  - East Germany and West Germany⠁  - worked toward unifying after more than 40 years as separate entities. With that unification came the question, What city should be the capital of a newly united Germany⠁  - Berlin or Bonn? A Vote to Decide the Capital With the raising of the German flag on October 3, 1990, the two former countries (the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany) merged to become one unified Germany. With that merger, a decision had to be made about what would be the new capital. The capital of pre-World War II Germany had been Berlin, and the capital of East Germany had been East Berlin. West Germany moved the capital city to Bonn following the split into two countries. Following unification, Germanys parliament, the Bundestag, initially began meeting in Bonn. However, under the initial conditions of the Unification Treaty between the two countries, the city of Berlin was also reunified and became, at least in name, the capital of reunified Germany.   A narrow vote of the Bundestag on June 20, 1991, of  337 votes for Berlin and 320 votes for Bonn, decided that the Bundestag and many government offices would ultimately and officially relocate from Bonn to Berlin. The vote was narrowly split, and most members of parliament voted along geographic lines. From Berlin to Bonn, Then Bonn to Berlin Prior to the division of Germany following World War II, Berlin was the capital of the country.  With the division into East Germany and West Germany, the city of Berlin (completely surrounded by East Germany) was divided into East Berlin and West Berlin, divided by the Berlin Wall. Since West Berlin could not serve as a practical capital city for West Germany, Bonn was chosen as an alternative. The process to build Bonn as a capital city took about eight years and more than $10 billion.   The 370-mile (595-kilometer) move from Bonn to Berlin in the northeast was often delayed by construction problems, plan changes, and bureaucratic immobilization. More than 150 national embassies had to be constructed or developed in order to serve as the foreign representation in the new capital city.   Finally, on  April 19, 1999, the German Bundestag met in the Reichstag building in Berlin, signaling the transfer of the capital of  Germany  from Bonn to Berlin. Prior to 1999, the German parliament had not met in the Reichstag since the Reichstag Fire of 1933. The newly renovated Reichstag included a glass dome, symbolizing a new Germany and a new capital. Bonn Now the Federal City A 1994 act in Germany established that Bonn would retain the status as the second official capital of Germany and as the second official home of the Chancellor and of the President of Germany. In addition, six governmental ministries (including defense) were to maintain their headquarters in Bonn. Bonn is called the Federal City for its role as the second capital of Germany. According to the New York Times, as of 2011, Of the 18,000 officials employed in the federal bureaucracy, more than 8,000 are still in Bonn. Bonn has a fairly small population (over 318,000) for its significance as the Federal City or second capital city of Germany, a country of more than 80 million (Berlin is home to nearly 3.4 million). Bonn has been  jokingly referred to in German as Bundeshauptstadt ohne nennenswertes Nachtleben (Federal capital without noteworthy nightlife). Despite its small size, many (as evidenced by the close vote of the  Bundestag) had hoped that the quaint university city of Bonn would become the modern home of reunified Germanys capital city.   Problems With Having Two Capital Cities Some Germans today question the inefficiencies of having more than one capital city. The cost to fly people and documents between Bonn and Berlin on an ongoing basis costs millions of euros each year. Germanys government could become much more efficient if time and money were not wasted on transportation time, transportation costs, and redundancies due to retaining Bonn as the second capital. At least for the foreseeable  future, Germany will retain Berlin as its capital and Bonn as a mini-capital city. Resources and Further Reading Cowell, Alan. â€Å"In Germanys Capitals, Cold War Memories and Imperial Ghosts.† The New York Times, 23 June 2011.

Read article and answer these, ( businuss communications) Case Study

Read article and answer these, ( businuss communications) - Case Study Example He also shows him a copy of a memo, does not listen to Dan’s explanations, and dismisses him. Ed is using these tactics to show Dan that John Green was not running the marketing department in the correct way. Ed achieves his intention. Ed Harley communicates as much information on the marketing department as required in the context. Dan is not eager to meet him. This is because of his perceived role of sacking employees in the corporation. His purpose of communication to Dan is to convey the flaws of the marketing department so that Dan can comprehend the anticipated meaning of his words and actions. Moreover, Ed’s action and words convey just enough to highlight his intention. He relies on Dan to translate the details of what he does not openly convey. His utterances give Dan the chance to deduce meaning of his intention. Ed provides a clue of his intention to Dan through his words and action. Dan submits, this is evident on his

Spreading Democracy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Spreading Democracy - Essay Example This is not a situation that people and nations are likely to outgrow in the foreseeable future – perhaps not ever (Andersen, Seibert and Wagner). The end product of this mistrust that has grown over time has been the hostility leading from suspicion against the West. The reaction of the populations of the Middle East should however not be thought to always be at a consensus; far from it. There has been support by some regimes for the West which includes the United States seen as the â€Å"heir of the British imperialism† (Richman 3). The united states has been involved in the political situation in the Middle East since World War II in order to ensure that the oil rich fields stay within friendly arms and also in a bid to fending off competition especially from the then soviet union. It is this interests that have amassed a story of triumph and tragedy for the US in that region. The relationship with Iraq was born out of the desire to reign on the threat posed by Iran and this underwent a metamorphosis into a relationship jointly between Iran, Syria and the United States against Iraq in recent years. The action of President Bush to intervene in the Persian Gulf War with the aim of restoring the feudal monarch of Kuwait, which he viewed as the legitimate one, was not an abrupt decision. It had been the culmination of US foreign policy in the region for a long time that had spun for many administrations. It was as a deterioration of the relationship between the US and Iraq, which had started as far back as during the Baghdad pact that was aimed at making Iraq the capital of NATO which was a strategy against the soviets. The then government was overthrown by Abd al-Karim Qasim who accused it of being pro-Western. Qasim led the country from 1958 to 1963 when he was driven out in a coup by Abd al-Salam Arif who was said to have received help from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Earlier, in an attempt to overthrow Qasim, Saddam Hussein had be en involved in a failed coup in 1959, however, with the help of the CIA which had been accused of being his sympathizer, he overthrew the government of Arif in 1968 (Battle 2). This proves that the US has been involved in the political landscape of Iraq even before the advent of World War II. In 1979, when Saddam became prime minister, there was a concerted effort by him and his close family members in conjunction with people of his hometown to establish a dictatorship. Jimmy Carter, who was the president of the United States during the Iran-Iraq war, chose to be â€Å"neutral† when the war initially broke out (Lenczowski 8). Secretly though, the US was accused of aiding the Iraqis in a bid to undermining the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. The tilt in the US policy of neutrality was born out of the hostage situation that occurred when Iran held 52 Americans. However, records show that the US was involved in funding Iraq through Saudi Arabia. The US was hoping that by pro pagating the war, the Iranians would eventually run out of supplies and would need spares. Here, they anticipated that the Iranian resolve would have been eroded and they could secure their hostages. The US did no however anticipate that the Iranians would turn to Vietnam where they themselves had left enough spares during their invasion there. The US deliberately exposed the weaknesses that the Iranians had in a bid to inciting the Iraqis into the war. This collaboration of the US with Iraq born out of the common enmity with Iran was aimed at serving the purpose of quelling the opposition that the Iranian administration had of the West and of retaining Iraq as a strategic partner in the continued inhabitation in the region. However, the US only looked at the areas that they were to gain, did not see the actions