The Woman Who Watches Over The World English Literature Essay

The Woman Who Watches Over The World English Literature Essay Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw meaning she belongs to a group of Native Americans who migrated in to east of Mississippi river, Oklahoma. She is a poet and a novelist writer and has contributed much in this field. In her book, The Woman Who Watches over the World: a Native Memoir, she brings about different themes some of which are associated with her difficult past and those of her people painful history. She assumes the position of a Clay Woman named The woman who watches over the world, and uses her to view the worlds problem and that of her tribe in that perspective. The title is derived from a sculpture figure made of clay which she bought and which became broken on the way to being delivered to her. It is from the figure that she realizes the comparison to human beings life which gets hurt; just as it is with her personal life. From the many fragments in this anecdote, we can piece them together to see the whole history and current status of the Native Americans have undergone. History, survival and healing are the major themes in this book. The book is a journey from childhood to adulthood and the various problems one encounters. Healing is supposed to be understood from the power derived from words and also the natural healing. The history of physical and emotional suffering she inherited from her people contributes to the way she reacts in life. The Natives Americans are presented with their many problems and are reflected on Hogans hard and painful life. The Native Americans or the American Indians had a traumatizing history. They were deeply religious and most of their beliefs were connected with nature. Land, water and animals became to them a symbol of gods gift to mankind. This made it possible for them to practice collective ownership especially of land. Their relocation from their land in 1837 was met with caution since they had to pay allegiance to the USA government. Despite their effort to keep their ancestral land they nevertheless got evicted and trading posts established in their land. The tribal leaders were forced to sell the land and move away to Indian territories. In the new Oklahoma area, where they finally got relocated, the adaptation was not easy bearing in mind that they had to struggle to get food. By the turn of 19th century, the United States government foresaw the dissolution of the Natives tribal government and a division of their land. Missionaries were established which were taxed with the job of educating the Indians in the American way. Ironically, such an education proved worthless because the girls returned to their world afterwards. Poverty and lack of important physical amenities was the order of the day. The Chickasaws had endured such a life for many decades and it is this life that Hogan addresses. She wants to stress the important aspect of healing from the past so that the people can move forward. Hogan was born in German and grew up under her father who was a sergeant in the American army and a neurotic mother. Her earlier life saw her move to many places and eventually ended up in Oklahoma. Hogan relationship with her mother was depressing and mostly neglectful in nature. She never experienced love and this fact left her to seek it from other sources. Although, her mother did her duties like any other mother, Hogan asserts that she could not love. The rest of her life is spent in pursuit of love so as to heal her wounds she experienced when young. As a young child, she was susceptible to diseases and infection common to young children. In addition, clinical depression and poor mental health would lead her to alcoholism in later life to an extent of committing suicide. These physical and mental ailments caused her much trauma and she was to live with it in to adulthood. Her mother rarely provided details about her childhood life but remained silent perhaps in line with her ancestors to bury the painful past. To heal from this trauma she was to adopt two daughters and who had similarly undergone a difficult life as her own, in order to connect with that experience. At only the age of 12 years, she became involved romantically to a man twice her age and they stayed as married. They would later part with Robert and she in turn move from Germany to the USA. This episode hurts her so much that she reminisces it as having been a child but responsible for an adult. Hogan yearned to heal from the trauma she faced of being in school yet married at a young age. The gap she felt would later lead to her adopting two daughters in order to fill the love void she dearly missed. Both daughters, Jeannette and Marie, also had their own share of hard life, but Hogan felt that love could heal almost anything in this world. Despite her trying to live with the adopted daughters, it proved very difficult for them to heal completely to an extent where Marie denied her own children. We observe that Hogan tried to heal from her loveless childhood by playing motherhood to these two adopted daughters. The silence she experienced about her past could now be replaced by a history of her daughters which she knows. Luckily enough, they have a terrible past just like her own and it helps to connect with her lost past. Both daughters are then a reflection of a past and a future for the Natives especially Jeannette who heals to become a purposeful mother. Hogan on the other hand contracted a horrible disease called fibromyalgia. The disease caused her much trouble leaving her weak and unable to sleep. The desire to sleep and dream about emotional healing was too affected. She sought a physical healing which initially became elusive and later even though medicine helped, she never became what she was originally. This was the time she lost faith in medicine world when she reckoned that money was being used in search of a cure yet none came her way. Waiting and hoping was all that was left for her. Through medicine which is extracted from nature in terms of plants and naturally occurring substances dug from the earth, she later in life received her treatment from physical ailments. A horse named Mystery became to her a close companion. Hogan was able to draw parallel in the horses life and hers. Mystery dies in the process of giving birth that was characterized by pain. She likens this pain to her experiences in life and the yearning to heal from it. Another relationship with a horse, the Big Red Horse, also leads to fate as she falls while trying to ride. She suffered numerous injuries leading her to experience short term memory loss. Hogan attempts self healing by indulging in a number of hobbies. She embarks on horse breeding, because in it she finds joy and contentment but it becomes tragic to her. Both of these two occurrences fueled the pain in her life in as much as the desire to heal was multiplied. Hogan was addicted to alcohol when she was young. The addiction came about as she experimented to find a solution to her troubles. In the search for her self, she ends up drinking in order to forget her woes and sleep. The pain and confusion she felt would so many times lead to drinking so as to drown them. History and the ability to remember the past is a disease. Our ancestors underwent much trouble which after we learn it becomes a burden too hard to bear. It is under such an illusion that Hogan just like many Native Americans sought drink to escape the memories from the past and present. As she says falling was the answer to a broken heart, as a reference to the attitude she had towards alcohol. She eventually conquers drinking once she became an adult albeit this leaves a scar in her life. It is by extending love to other humans and animals where she finds a healing. Under all the above traumas, she stood hard to see the healing take place. Hogan just like her ancestors found solace in nature and the environment. Of her doctors she says, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦they became earth, water, light, and air. They were animals, plants, and kindred spirits. It was not healing I found or a life free from pain, but a kind of love and kinship with a similarly broken world. The sickness and suffering she felt can also be identified with the Native Americans fight for their survival. Such thoughts also reflect nature which if left alone tends to heal by itself. To be what she is, Hogan had to get changed by pain and events and diseases and she did it with courage and honesty which are vital values in the world today. Personal survival depends on history and by examining hardships undergone so as to find power to refresh ones spirit. Nature also plays a role in this healing by providing elements that can be used to cure a disease for example. Hogan is able to overcome and find strength over the many obstacles that stood her way in the course of self-actualization. An interesting parallel is drawn in relation to different natural elements like woman to land and bird to water. Love is the connecting element since each needs the existence of the other in order to survive. In conclusion, Hogan lays down the many problems faced by people not only in America but in every part of the world. Each people and nation has a history that was faced by problems such as land and identity. Some have even become extinct if their war to survive got worse. In all these stories, it is important to learn from their duel and get insight which in turn should be applied in our day to day lives. Problems are inevitable and it is the way we appreciate and deal with them that counts. Healing as a process should be core in life, whether personally or as a society. If people look for solutions they will always find a way to overcome their pain.

Angels Demons Chapter 113-117

113 Something was wrong. Lieutenant Chartrand stood outside the Pope's office and sensed in the uneasy stance of the soldier standing with him that they shared the same anxiety. The private meeting they were shielding, Rocher had said, could save the Vatican from destruction. So Chartrand wondered why his protective instincts were tingling. And why was Rocher acting so strangely? Something definitely was awry. Captain Rocher stood to Chartrand's right, staring dead ahead, his sharp gaze uncharacteristically distant. Chartrand barely recognized the captain. Rocher had not been himself in the last hour. His decisions made no sense. Someone should be present inside this meeting! Chartrand thought. He had heard Maximilian Kohler bolt the door after he entered. Why had Rocher permitted this? But there was so much more bothering Chartrand. The cardinals. The cardinals were still locked in the Sistine Chapel. This was absolute insanity. The camerlegno had wanted them evacuated fifteen minutes ago! Rocher had overruled the decision and not informed the camerlegno. Chartrand had expressed concern, and Rocher had almost taken off his head. Chain of command was never questioned in the Swiss Guard, and Rocher was now top dog. Half an hour, Rocher thought, discreetly checking his Swiss chronometer in the dim light of the candelabra lighting the hall. Please hurry. Chartrand wished he could hear what was happening on the other side of the doors. Still, he knew there was no one he would rather have handling this crisis than the camerlegno. The man had been tested beyond reason tonight, and he had not flinched. He had confronted the problem head-on†¦ truthful, candid, shining like an example to all. Chartrand felt proud right now to be a Catholic. The Illuminati had made a mistake when they challenged Camerlegno Ventresca. At that moment, however, Chartrand's thoughts were jolted by an unexpected sound. A banging. It was coming from down the hall. The pounding was distant and muffled, but incessant. Rocher looked up. The captain turned to Chartrand and motioned down the hall. Chartrand understood. He turned on his flashlight and took off to investigate. The banging was more desperate now. Chartrand ran thirty yards down the corridor to an intersection. The noise seemed to be coming from around the corner, beyond the Sala Clementina. Chartrand felt perplexed. There was only one room back there – the Pope's private library. His Holiness's private library had been locked since the Pope's death. Nobody could possibly be in there! Chartrand hurried down the second corridor, turned another corner, and rushed to the library door. The wooden portico was diminutive, but it stood in the dark like a dour sentinel. The banging was coming from somewhere inside. Chartrand hesitated. He had never been inside the private library. Few had. No one was allowed in without an escort by the Pope himself. Tentatively, Chartrand reached for the doorknob and turned. As he had imagined, the door was locked. He put his ear to the door. The banging was louder. Then he heard something else. Voices! Someone calling out! He could not make out the words, but he could hear the panic in their shouts. Was someone trapped in the library? Had the Swiss Guard not properly evacuated the building? Chartrand hesitated, wondering if he should go back and consult Rocher. The hell with that. Chartrand had been trained to make decisions, and he would make one now. He pulled out his side arm and fired a single shot into the door latch. The wood exploded, and the door swung open. Beyond the threshold Chartrand saw nothing but blackness. He shone his flashlight. The room was rectangular – oriental carpets, high oak shelves packed with books, a stitched leather couch, and a marble fireplace. Chartrand had heard stories of this place – three thousand ancient volumes side by side with hundreds of current magazines and periodicals, anything His Holiness requested. The coffee table was covered with journals of science and politics. The banging was clearer now. Chartrand shone his light across the room toward the sound. On the far wall, beyond the sitting area, was a huge door made of iron. It looked impenetrable as a vault. It had four mammoth locks. The tiny etched letters dead center of the door took Chartrand's breath away. IL PASSETTO Chartrand stared. The Pope's secret escape route! Chartrand had certainly heard of Il Passetto, and he had even heard rumors that it had once had an entrance here in the library, but the tunnel had not been used in ages! Who could be banging on the other side? Chartrand took his flashlight and rapped on the door. There was a muffled exultation from the other side. The banging stopped, and the voices yelled louder. Chartrand could barely make out their words through the barricade. â€Å"†¦ Kohler†¦ lie†¦ camerlegno†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Who is that?† Chartrand yelled. â€Å"†¦ ert Langdon†¦ Vittoria Ve†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Chartrand understood enough to be confused. I thought you were dead! â€Å"†¦ the door,† the voices yelled. â€Å"Open†¦!† Chartrand looked at the iron barrier and knew he would need dynamite to get through there. â€Å"Impossible!† he yelled. â€Å"Too thick!† â€Å"†¦ meeting†¦ stop†¦ erlegno†¦ danger†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Despite his training on the hazards of panic, Chartrand felt a sudden rush of fear at the last few words. Had he understood correctly? Heart pounding, he turned to run back to the office. As he turned, though, he stalled. His gaze had fallen to something on the door†¦ something more shocking even than the message coming from beyond it. Emerging from the keyholes of each of the door's massive locks were keys. Chartrand stared. The keys were here? He blinked in disbelief. The keys to this door were supposed to be in a vault someplace! This passage was never used – not for centuries! Chartrand dropped his flashlight on the floor. He grabbed the first key and turned. The mechanism was rusted and stiff, but it still worked. Someone had opened it recently. Chartrand worked the next lock. And the next. When the last bolt slid aside, Chartrand pulled. The slab of iron creaked open. He grabbed his light and shone it into the passage. Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra looked like apparitions as they staggered into the library. Both were ragged and tired, but they were very much alive. â€Å"What is this!† Chartrand demanded. â€Å"What's going on! Where did you come from?† â€Å"Where's Max Kohler?† Langdon demanded. Chartrand pointed. â€Å"In a private meeting with the camer – â€Å" Langdon and Vittoria pushed past him and ran down the darkened hall. Chartrand turned, instinctively raising his gun at their backs. He quickly lowered it and ran after them. Rocher apparently heard them coming, because as they arrived outside the Pope's office, Rocher had spread his legs in a protective stance and was leveling his gun at them. â€Å"Alt!† â€Å"The camerlegno is in danger!† Langdon yelled, raising his arms in surrender as he slid to a stop. â€Å"Open the door! Max Kohler is going to kill the camerlegno!† Rocher looked angry. â€Å"Open the door!† Vittoria said. â€Å"Hurry!† But it was too late. From inside the Pope's office came a bloodcurdling scream. It was the camerlegno. 114 The confrontation lasted only seconds. Camerlegno Ventresca was still screaming when Chartrand stepped past Rocher and blew open the door of the Pope's office. The guards dashed in. Langdon and Vittoria ran in behind them. The scene before them was staggering. The chamber was lit only by candlelight and a dying fire. Kohler was near the fireplace, standing awkwardly in front of his wheelchair. He brandished a pistol, aimed at the camerlegno, who lay on the floor at his feet, writhing in agony. The camerlegno's cassock was torn open, and his bare chest was seared black. Langdon could not make out the symbol from across the room, but a large, square brand lay on the floor near Kohler. The metal still glowed red. Two of the Swiss Guards acted without hesitation. They opened fire. The bullets smashed into Kohler's chest, driving him backward. Kohler collapsed into his wheelchair, his chest gurgling blood. His gun went skittering across the floor. Langdon stood stunned in the doorway. Vittoria seemed paralyzed. â€Å"Max†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she whispered. The camerlegno, still twisting on the floor, rolled toward Rocher, and with the trancelike terror of the early witch hunts, pointed his index finger at Rocher and yelled a single word. â€Å"ILLUMINATUS!† â€Å"You bastard,† Rocher said, running at him. â€Å"You sanctimonious bas – â€Å" This time it was Chartrand who reacted on instinct, putting three bullets in Rocher's back. The captain fell face first on the tile floor and slid lifeless through his own blood. Chartrand and the guards dashed immediately to the camerlegno, who lay clutching himself, convulsing in pain. Both guards let out exclamations of horror when they saw the symbol seared on the camerlegno's chest. The second guard saw the brand upside down and immediately staggered backward with fear in his eyes. Chartrand, looking equally overwhelmed by the symbol, pulled the camerlegno's torn cassock up over the burn, shielding it from view. Langdon felt delirious as he moved across the room. Through a mist of insanity and violence, he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. A crippled scientist, in a final act of symbolic dominance, had flown into Vatican City and branded the church's highest official. Some things are worth dying for, the Hassassin had said. Langdon wondered how a handicapped man could possibly have overpowered the camerlegno. Then again, Kohler had a gun. It doesn't matter how he did it! Kohler accomplished his mission! Langdon moved toward the gruesome scene. The camerlegno was being attended, and Langdon felt himself drawn toward the smoking brand on the floor near Kohler's wheelchair. The sixth brand? The closer Langdon got, the more confused he became. The brand seemed to be a perfect square, quite large, and had obviously come from the sacred center compartment of the chest in the Illuminati Lair. A sixth and final brand, the Hassassin had said. The most brilliant of all. Langdon knelt beside Kohler and reached for the object. The metal still radiated heat. Grasping the wooden handle, Langdon picked it up. He was not sure what he expected to see, but it most certainly was not this. Angels & Demons Langdon stared a long, confused moment. Nothing was making sense. Why had the guards cried out in horror when they saw this? It was a square of meaningless squiggles. The most brilliant of all? It was symmetrical, Langdon could tell as he rotated it in his hand, but it was gibberish. When he felt a hand on his shoulder, Langdon looked up, expecting Vittoria. The hand, however, was covered with blood. It belonged to Maximilian Kohler, who was reaching out from his wheelchair. Langdon dropped the brand and staggered to his feet. Kohler's still alive! Slumped in his wheelchair, the dying director was still breathing, albeit barely, sucking in sputtering gasps. Kohler's eyes met Langdon's, and it was the same stony gaze that had greeted Langdon at CERN earlier that day. The eyes looked even harder in death, the loathing and enmity rising to the surface. The scientist's body quivered, and Langdon sensed he was trying to move. Everyone else in the room was focused on the camerlegno, and Langdon wanted to call out, but he could not react. He was transfixed by the intensity radiating from Kohler in these final seconds of his life. The director, with tremulous effort, lifted his arm and pulled a small device off the arm of his wheelchair. It was the size of a matchbox. He held it out, quivering. For an instant, Langdon feared Kohler had a weapon. But it was something else. â€Å"G-give†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Kohler's final words were a gurgling whisper. â€Å"G-give this†¦ to the m-media.† Kohler collapsed motionless, and the device fell in his lap. Shocked, Langdon stared at the device. It was electronic. The words SONY RUVI were printed across the front. Langdon recognized it as one of those new ultraminiature, palm-held camcorders. The balls on this guy! he thought. Kohler had apparently recorded some sort of final suicide message he wanted the media to broadcast†¦ no doubt some sermon about the importance of science and the evils of religion. Langdon decided he had done enough for this man's cause tonight. Before Chartrand saw Kohler's camcorder, Langdon slipped it into his deepest jacket pocket. Kohler's final message can rot in hell! It was the voice of the camerlegno that broke the silence. He was trying to sit up. â€Å"The cardinals,† he gasped to Chartrand. â€Å"Still in the Sistine Chapel!† Chartrand exclaimed. â€Å"Captain Rocher ordered – † â€Å"Evacuate†¦ now. Everyone.† Chartrand sent one of the other guards running off to let the cardinals out. The camerlegno grimaced in pain. â€Å"Helicopter†¦ out front†¦ get me to a hospital.† 115 In St. Peter's Square, the Swiss Guard pilot sat in the cockpit of the parked Vatican helicopter and rubbed his temples. The chaos in the square around him was so loud that it drowned out the sound of his idling rotors. This was no solemn candlelight vigil. He was amazed a riot had not broken out yet. With less than twenty-five minutes left until midnight, the people were still packed together, some praying, some weeping for the church, others screaming obscenities and proclaiming that this was what the church deserved, still others chanting apocalyptic Bible verses. The pilot's head pounded as the media lights glinted off his windshield. He squinted out at the clamorous masses. Banners waved over the crowd. Antimatter is the Antichrist! Scientist=Satanist Where is your God now? The pilot groaned, his headache worsening. He half considered grabbing the windshield's vinyl covering and putting it up so he wouldn't have to watch, but he knew he would be airborne in a matter of minutes. Lieutenant Chartrand had just radioed with terrible news. The camerlegno had been attacked by Maximilian Kohler and seriously injured. Chartrand, the American, and the woman were carrying the camerlegno out now so he could be evacuated to a hospital. The pilot felt personally responsible for the attack. He reprimanded himself for not acting on his gut. Earlier, when he had picked up Kohler at the airport, he had sensed something in the scientist's dead eyes. He couldn't place it, but he didn't like it. Not that it mattered. Rocher was running the show, and Rocher insisted this was the guy. Rocher had apparently been wrong. A new clamor arose from the crowd, and the pilot looked over to see a line of cardinals processing solemnly out of the Vatican onto St. Peter's Square. The cardinals' relief to be leaving ground zero seemed to be quickly overcome by looks of bewilderment at the spectacle now going on outside the church. The crowd noise intensified yet again. The pilot's head pounded. He needed an aspirin. Maybe three. He didn't like to fly on medication, but a few aspirin would certainly be less debilitating than this raging headache. He reached for the first-aid kit, kept with assorted maps and manuals in a cargo box bolted between the two front seats. When he tried to open the box, though, he found it locked. He looked around for the key and then finally gave up. Tonight was clearly not his lucky night. He went back to massaging his temples. Inside the darkened basilica, Langdon, Vittoria, and the two guards strained breathlessly toward the main exit. Unable to find anything more suitable, the four of them were transporting the wounded camerlegno on a narrow table, balancing the inert body between them as though on a stretcher. Outside the doors, the faint roar of human chaos was now audible. The camerlegno teetered on the brink of unconsciousness. Time was running out. 116 It was 11:39 P.M. when Langdon stepped with the others from St. Peter's Basilica. The glare that hit his eyes was searing. The media lights shone off the white marble like sunlight off a snowy tundra. Langdon squinted, trying to find refuge behind the faà §ade's enormous columns, but the light came from all directions. In front of him, a collage of massive video screens rose above the crowd. Standing there atop the magnificent stairs that spilled down to the piazza below, Langdon felt like a reluctant player on the world's biggest stage. Somewhere beyond the glaring lights, Langdon heard an idling helicopter and the roar of a hundred thousand voices. To their left, a procession of cardinals was now evacuating onto the square. They all stopped in apparent distress to see the scene now unfolding on the staircase. â€Å"Careful now,† Chartrand urged, sounding focused as the group began descending the stairs toward the helicopter. Langdon felt like they were moving underwater. His arms ached from the weight of the camerlegno and the table. He wondered how the moment could get much less dignified. Then he saw the answer. The two BBC reporters had apparently been crossing the open square on their way back to the press area. But now, with the roar of the crowd, they had turned. Glick and Macri were now running back toward them. Macri's camera was raised and rolling. Here come the vultures, Langdon thought. â€Å"Alt!† Chartrand yelled. â€Å"Get back!† But the reporters kept coming. Langdon guessed the other networks would take about six seconds to pick up this live BBC feed again. He was wrong. They took two. As if connected by some sort of universal consciousness, every last media screen in the piazza cut away from their countdown clocks and their Vatican experts and began transmitting the same picture – a jiggling action footage swooping up the Vatican stairs. Now, everywhere Langdon looked, he saw the camerlegno's limp body in a Technicolor close-up. This is wrong! Langdon thought. He wanted to run down the stairs and interfere, but he could not. It wouldn't have helped anyway. Whether it was the roar of the crowd or the cool night air that caused it, Langdon would never know, but at that moment, the inconceivable occurred. Like a man awakening from a nightmare, the camerlegno's eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright. Taken entirely by surprise, Langdon and the others fumbled with the shifting weight. The front of the table dipped. The camerlegno began to slide. They tried to recover by setting the table down, but it was too late. The camerlegno slid off the front. Incredibly, he did not fall. His feet hit the marble, and he swayed upright. He stood a moment, looking disoriented, and then, before anyone could stop him, he lurched forward, staggering down the stairs toward Macri. â€Å"No!† Langdon screamed. Chartrand rushed forward, trying to reign in the camerlegno. But the camerlegno turned on him, wild-eyed, crazed. â€Å"Leave me!† Chartrand jumped back. The scene went from bad to worse. The camerlegno's torn cassock, having been only laid over his chest by Chartrand, began to slip lower. For a moment, Langdon thought the garment might hold, but that moment passed. The cassock let go, sliding off his shoulders down around his waist. The gasp that went up from the crowd seemed to travel around the globe and back in an instant. Cameras rolled, flashbulbs exploded. On media screens everywhere, the image of the camerlegno's branded chest was projected, towering and in grisly detail. Some screens were even freezing the image and rotating it 180 degrees. The ultimate Illuminati victory. Langdon stared at the brand on the screens. Although it was the imprint of the square brand he had held earlier, the symbol now made sense. Perfect sense. The marking's awesome power hit Langdon like a train. Orientation. Langdon had forgotten the first rule of symbology. When is a square not a square? He had also forgotten that iron brands, just like rubber stamps, never looked like their imprints. They were in reverse. Langdon had been looking at the brand's negative! As the chaos grew, an old Illuminati quote echoed with new meaning: â€Å"A flawless diamond, born of the ancient elements with such perfection that all those who saw it could only stare in wonder.† Langdon knew now the myth was true. Earth, Air, Fire, Water. The Illuminati Diamond. Angels & Demons 117 Robert Langdon had little doubt that the chaos and hysteria coursing through St. Peter's Square at this very instant exceeded anything Vatican Hill had ever witnessed. No battle, no crucifixion, no pilgrimage, no mystical vision†¦ nothing in the shrine's 2,000-year history could possibly match the scope and drama of this very moment. As the tragedy unfolded, Langdon felt oddly separate, as if hovering there beside Vittoria at the top of the stairs. The action seemed to distend, as if in a time warp, all the insanity slowing to a crawl†¦ The branded camerlegno†¦ raving for the world to see†¦ The Illuminati Diamond†¦ unveiled in its diabolical genius†¦ The countdown clock registering the final twenty minutes of Vatican history†¦ The drama, however, had only just begun. The camerlegno, as if in some sort of post-traumatic trance, seemed suddenly puissant, possessed by demons. He began babbling, whispering to unseen spirits, looking up at the sky and raising his arms to God. â€Å"Speak!† the camerlegno yelled to the heavens. â€Å"Yes, I hear you!† In that moment, Langdon understood. His heart dropped like a rock. Vittoria apparently understood too. She went white. â€Å"He's in shock,† she said. â€Å"He's hallucinating. He thinks he's talking to God!† Somebody's got to stop this, Langdon thought. It was a wretched and embarrassing end. Get this man to a hospital! Below them on the stairs, Chinita Macri was poised and filming, apparently having located her ideal vantage point. The images she filmed appeared instantly across the square behind her on media screens†¦ like endless drive-in movies all playing the same grisly tragedy. The whole scene felt epic. The camerlegno, in his torn cassock, with the scorched brand on his chest, looked like some sort of battered champion who had overcome the rings of hell for this one moment of revelation. He bellowed to the heavens. â€Å"Ti sento, Dio! I hear you, God!† Chartrand backed off, a look of awe on his face. The hush that fell across the crowd was instant and absolute. For a moment it was as if the silence had fallen across the entire planet†¦ everyone in front of their TVs rigid, a communal holding of breath. The camerlegno stood on the stairs, before the world, and held out his arms. He looked almost Christlike, bare and wounded before the world. He raised his arms to the heavens and, looking up, exclaimed, â€Å"Grazie! Grazie, Dio!† The silence of the masses never broke. â€Å"Grazie, Dio!† the camerlegno cried out again. Like the sun breaking through a stormy sky, a look of joy spread across his face. â€Å"Grazie, Dio!† Thank you, God? Langdon stared in wonder. The camerlegno was radiant now, his eerie transformation complete. He looked up at the sky, still nodding furiously. He shouted to the heavens, â€Å"Upon this rock I will build my church!† Langdon knew the words, but he had no idea why the camerlegno could possibly be shouting them. The camerlegno turned back to the crowd and bellowed again into the night. â€Å"Upon this rock I will build my church!† Then he raised his hands to the sky and laughed out loud. â€Å"Grazie, Dio! Grazie!† The man had clearly gone mad. The world watched, spellbound. The culmination, however, was something no one expected. With a final joyous exultation, the camerlegno turned and dashed back into St. Peter's Basilica.

Annonated Bibliography Composition Ii

Lindsay Shipman Annotated Bibliography Composition 122S Richards, Sara. â€Å"The building blocks of a healthy diet. † Practice Nurse 38. 3 (2009): 12-17. Academic Search fComplete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Aug. 2011. This article explains which foods to eat and which foods we should ‘stay away’ from or eat in moderation. This article reminds that the human body is complex and it’s important to eat a healthy diet. The author goes into great detail about the complexity of food and the effects they have on the human body. It builds a foundation of knowledge for achieving and maintaining a balanced-healthy diet.It gives great detail about macronutrients and the effects they have on your body. The clear descriptions of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and water give a the reader a great understanding of what is good for the body and what is bad for the body. The authors’ purpose is to prepare a nutrition guideline for a healthy diet. Although it is written more for n urses’ or dieticians it is a good guideline that everyone can follow to create a healthy diet for themselves. It was written in 2009 so it is still an excellent guide to follow today. This main author of this article is a practicing nurse with RGN credentials.She uses many well-known and reliable health organizations as sources for this article. This article gives us the answer to which foods and how much should we eat for a healthy balanced diet. Although it goes into a little more detail than the average person may need to decide which foods are best for you, it gives you a clear guideline for choosing the right foods. For instance, I plan to incorporate more whole grains, vegetables and fruit into my diet and reduce the foods with animal fats, processed foods and refined foods. â€Å"Keeping portions in proportion. (Cover story). † Harvard Women's Health Watch 15. (2007): 1-3. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 Aug. 2011. This article gives very precise sugges tions for changing the amount of food one consumes. It has a nice chart detailing exactly how big a serving should for every food group in the food pyramid. The chart uses everyday items for comparison so everyone can envision the correct size. The authors suggest training your eye for serving sizes so when you are eating out portions do not get out of control. Another suggestion is while eating out divide the portion in half when it is served and take half of it home to eat at another meal.The article brings to our attention that portion sizes have increase 100% over the years. For example: fountain drinks used to be 7 ounces but now can be up to 42 ounces. Eating filling foods such as whole foods that will keep you feeling full longer will cut down on snacking between meals. The purpose of this article is to remind the human race how much a serving of food really is and just because a huge plate of food is set in front of you, you do not have to eat it all in one sitting. It clear ly places the blame for overeating on the individual.The article was really written for the general audience even though the title suggests it is written about women’s health. The authors included sources from the American Health Association and the USDA. It was written by affiliates of Harvard Medical School which is an accredited institute whom I believe thoroughly check out articles they publish. Harvard was established in 1636 and since then they have been educating our medical professionals. The article included survey results from a variety of Universities concluding that people ate more based on the amount they were served.Other resources used for this article include the United States Dept. of Agriculture and Centers for Disease Control, both are highly respected agencies. I will use this information in my research paper by knowing the correct serving size for foods, especially my favorites that are high in calories. It will help to know what a serving size looks like and applying a few of the other suggestions for portion control. I like the following ideas: Using smaller dishes while eating at home; fix your plate then sit down and do not go back for seconds. The First Line of Defense: Portion Control. † Running & FitNews 28. 2 (2010): 6-8. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 Aug. 2011. This article reminds us that more does not mean better when it comes to mealtime. We all know to lose weight we have to consume fewer calories and move more. According to this article it is harder today than it was twenty years ago because portions of food offered to us are much larger than they were then. Being able to visualize a recommended serving size is your first line of defense in controlling your calorie intake.There is a chart included in this article which relates serving sizes to everyday objects. The author reminds us that caloric intake is not one size fits all. An active man may require 2200 calories a day and an active woman may only require 1800 calories per day. The purpose of this article is to help the average person realize and visualize a recommended serving size set forth by the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. The article brings out a few common mistakes people make when sitting down to a meal and gives us a clear idea of what a well-proportioned meal should look like.It tells us that making small changes in the amount we eat can lead to significant weight loss over time. The article is written by staff members of Running and FitNews. The Running and FitNews editorial board is made up of many medical professionals. There are mainly M. D. ’s on board but also a scattering of PH. D’s. Knowing so many medical professionals comprise the board for this publication makes it reliable in my opinion. The information in this article will help me visualize and strive toward correct portion size in the future.It will help to know that your size, age and how active you are determines your caloric intake per day. I had no idea a recommended serving size of pasta is one half cup or as the chart displays, half of a baseball. This is good to know since the average person tends to steadily gain weight as we age. Young, Lisa. The Portion Teller: Smartsize Your Way to Permanent Weight Loss. Random House, 2005. Barnes and Noble Online. 13 Aug 2011. http://my. barnesandnoble. com/ebooks/ebookslibrary. html This book starts out telling us that our national weight problem can be attributed to how much we eat not what we eat.The serving sizes have grown by leaps and bounds since the 1960’s. The author conducted her own research providing many charts throughout the book stating many portion shockers and comparisons of sizes Chart: portion shockers; stadium size went from 82k 1920 remodeled to 49k top selling women sz 8 to 14 in 20 yrs, queen sz bed 6 in lg than in 1970. Bus seats are 18 in up an inch fr 1997. Europe serv sz smaller than us. By reviewing the charts clearly americans r being served twice as much as before . 5 c of spag = 32 strands 302 strand = 2lbs Given more we eat more 000-2600 calores a day Sedentary women and young child shld eat less Active men and teen boys more Many experiments by experts performed. U cant tell amt of calories by looking at dish Down with diets they don’t wk, the do not address the larger sizes of food portions or lack of understanding what a recommended portion is. Author teaches us to understand food groups. To make Healthy choices from each food group and to estimate portions. Charts consistently reinforce the expanding sizes of everything from drinks to desserts. Cheesecake 14 oz @ 1560 cals.Solo cups were 7 oz in 1950, now they sell 46 oz. Author was a mgr weight loss ctr then nutrition counselor for weight loss programs. This book teaches us standard serv sz, how many serv to eat per day fr each grp She teaches us how to learn to eat correctly not to diet by cutting out our favorites. She gives us an eating plan. Helps us to understand food labels and calorie and nutrient content. 6th ed. Of dietary guideline e for americans emphasizes c and oz. 2005. Usda differs fr fda serv sz, differ criteria. Fda pasta sz= 2 cups uncooked which = 1c cooked, usda . 5 c cooked pasta. Pg 33

Essay about Updating the Setting of Shakespeares Othello

Along the crowded streets of Philadelphia the cars rush by and people are always in a hurry, but the poverty of the people that live in the neighborhoods can never be hidden. The name, the City of Brotherly Love, is almost ironic as crime and hate fill the streets of the city. There is a division between the people that can not be hidden, but only exaggerated by people’s interactions. This is the setting in which the Shakespearian play â€Å"Othello† will be interpreted. This modernization of this classic tragedy will be more appealing to the youth of today, who will be able to relate more to the characters and the setting of the play. The changes to the plot and the language of the play are minimal, but the changes to the setting†¦show more content†¦A bullys abuse is abrasive and wears down a victims self-esteem. A childs distress about an attack fuels a bullys sense of importance and can act as a catalyst for future instances of abuse.† (Walls, 2004 )) These feelings are the basis and the driving force behind the play, which makes this school setting appropriate. By placing the action of the play into inner city Philadelphia where minority populations are growing while white populations are decreasing, it allows for the film’s racial twist from the original version of the play. Instead of having Othello as an African-American, he is portrayed as white boy who finds himself in a neighborhood and school that is predominantly African-American where he is struggling for acceptance. The origin of Othello was never clearly stated, â€Å"We can merely suspect its vast difference from his present condition† (Bell, 2002). The setting allows an insecure Othello to be thrown in a society with which he was unfamiliar, where someone from the majority is now in the role of the minority. Racial issues can be found in the original play and in other films that have been made of the play. Despite being a member of the majori ty population in the United States, Othello, now living in a Philadelphia inner city neighborhood feels the insecurities of being a minority. The high school which they attend is located in a violent section of SouthwestShow MoreRelatedA Comparison of the Two Film Versions of Romeo and Juliet1789 Words   |  8 Pagesdirector Franco Zeffirelli, born February 12th 1923, was a designer and producer of opera, theatre and television. He was renowned for films productions of Shakespearean plays such as Romeo and Juliet in which he received four awards, Othello and Hamlet. On the other hand, Baz Luhrmann was producing films much later and offered a new version of Romeo and Juliet, which sparkled as brightly as any Shakespeare play had ever done on stage. His first three films, StrictlyRead MoreFigurative Language and the Canterbury Tales13472 Words   |  54 PagesBecket in Canterbury. The band passes the time in a storytelling contest. The framed narratives are the individual stories told by the pilgrims who participate. Frankenstein is a frame narrative. 37. framing method: Using same features, wording, setting, situation, or topic at both the beginning and end of a literary work so as to frame it or enclose it. This technique often provides a sense of cyclical completeness or closure. This is also called an envelope structure or circular structure.Read MoreGp Essay Mainpoints24643 Words   |  99 Pagescolumn lists the top 10 newsworthy stories posted on the site †¢ Mainstream media embrace the Internet as an alternative platform to share news reports with their readers †¢ Respond to growing demand for less lag time in relaying information by setting up websites that complement their publications (constantly updated round the clock) †¢ Shows on television frequently uploaded onto video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Hulu, showing surging demand for mainstream shows †¢ Recent nielson