Short Story Essay Example for Free

Short Story Essay It is tonight, tell them all to meet after the guards have retreated to their quarters. Tell them to be swift, we do not have time to worry about the injured, Seeing Johans inquisitive gaze, the prisoner expressed a bitter scowl and added: the conceited or the cowardly. THE ESCAPE As soon as night fell, Johan set out into the lonely darkness. He knew they were not expecting him. Since the death of his father, Johans fellow prisoners thought of him as a ghost, refusing to acknowledge his presence whenever he entered a room, and treating him as if he were the cause of their sorry condition. He did not care anymore. He was nothing a nobody. Creeping silently through the black night that aided in disguising his feeble body, Johans mind was busy going over every last contingency that might arise and all sorts of new circumstances which could call for some sort of quick thinking and determination; sentiments which were all a blur to him now. After reaching the barbed fence at the far end of the camp, Johan disappeared behind a guards waste shed and waited. The icy wind stung his withered face and made it almost impossible for him to remain still. Johan was experiencing a mixture of nervous irritation and controlled calm that often besets a man whose long awaited moment has come. Steadily, one by one they started to appear. Once gathered, the fifteen or so members of the escape entourage exchanged brief glances of tense apprehension. Sensing a wave of unwanted scepticism, one prisoner murmured, Alright men, come on, lets get out of this hell hole. Immediately the group stirred into movement, forming a silent hive of motion as they hurriedly tunnelled themselves through a tiny hole in the ground. The prisoners began to leave as they had come: like bare windswept shadows. At that moment, from a short distance behind Johan, the booming voice of a German officer shouted. The words came from a faceless shape, approaching rapidly from the path that led to the guards quarters. COME OUT YOU BASTARDS! COME OUT NOW AND YOUR DEATH SHALL BE SWIFT! With not a second to lose, Johan had to make a decision. If he were to remain concealed, the six or so prisoners that hadnt yet escaped would undoubtedly be shot dead, if not cruelly tortured. The voice of reason in Johans conscience urged him to self-preservation, to forget about the prisoners who had only ever shown him disdainful contempt, to turn away. But the voice of compassion was louder and Johan did not heed reason instead he leapt to his feet and ran. GO! QUICK, GO NOW! Sprinting past the bewildered remaining prisoners and heading in the direction of the faceless voice, Johans whole body and manner had been suddenly transformed. He had adopted the air of an unquestioning attacker and had allowed the adrenalin that pulsated through his delicate veins to engulf his entire body. The whole world was gliding past him his lost hope, his charred past, his soon-to-be extinguished future. He ran as if he would never run again; straight into the face of death. Stopping himself in front of the prison officer, Johan struggled to catch his breath as he took a one last moment to gaze at the heavens. He inhaled a deep breath and smiled. Johan was whole again. The snow continued to fall in thick flakes over his corpse.

Madness in College Athletics Isnt Confined to March :: Sports Basketball Essays

The basketball arena is packed with a sellout crowd of over 13,000 cheering fans. The television cameras capture the game for the entire nation. A horn blares, and the game, which was supposed to be a blowout, is now in overtime. The pressure is huge, because if the underdog wins, it would make history. Both teams are anxious, but focused, knowing that one misstep, misjudgment, or misfire could make or break the season, and everything they have worked for all year. Such was the scene during the recent ‘March Madness† game, between #4 seeded Syracuse, and #13 seeded Vermont, a.k.a. the ‘Cinderella Story,’ of this year’s NCAA tourney. The Catamounts, who were not expected to make much noise during the tournament, opened it with a bang, after securing a win over powerhouse Syracuse in the final seconds of overtime. Now imagine, a player on Vermont’s super squad. He has spent the past few years working nonstop to get to this point in his basketball career, and it has finally arrived. However, after the cheering, congratulations, and celebrations, he must go back to school, and finish studying for midterms, which happens to coincide with the post-season schedule. When fans watch March Madness, or any other college sporting event, it is safe to say that most don’t look at their TVs, and think about how the athletes will spend the bus ride home trying to catch up on the schoolwork they missed so they could compete in the away game. However, this is the reality of a college student-athlete. There are constant obligations to fulfill, and expectations to be met, on every level, and most of the time, the reality is stressful. â€Å"Athletes have additional time constraints, and pressure to perform not only academically, but athletically†¦.and then there’s the stress that their body undergoes,† said Lauren Haas, director of student-athlete support services at Northeastern University. Haas also pointed out that student-athletes face a strain to try and lead the life of a normal college student, even though they have additional requirements. Student-athletes often have similar obligations to the average student, in the classroom, and in the workforce. Academically, athletes must complete the same amount of schoolwork as their peers, although they have less time to complete it, and they miss classes to participate in scheduled competitions. Most professors do not offer an extension on the workload. Financially, many athletes have jobs to offset tuition costs, which they must juggle into a busy schedule.

Itchy and Scratchy cartoon Essay

The purpose of this study is to discuss the extent to which The Simpsons is representative of American family and social values. I will discuss how each member of the Simpsons family behaves, as well as highlighting what may be socially expected of them. Secondly, I will examine how the Simpsons family interacts with the surrounding community, concentrating particularly on the images that they portray. In order to do this, I will examine the regular codes and conventions of the series to show how the characters work together in the whole scheme of things Introduction Set in the north-western Illinois town of Springfield, The Simpsons is an animated sit-com about the day-to-day tribulations of a disfunctional lower-middle-class family. The main family itself consists of the father, Homer, his wife Marge, son Bart, and daughters Lisa and Maggie. Other family members include Homer’s father, Abraham Simpson, as well as Marge’s sisters, Patty and Selma. Occasionally, Marge’s mother, Mrs Bouvier, makes an appearance, and on one occasion, Homer discovered that he had an adopted older brother, Nigel. Since its official launch in 1989, The Simpsons has become one of the world’s most popular animated series, and has been enjoyed the world over by children and adult’s alike. Originally, the show occupied a space on the Tracey Ullman Show between 1987 and 1989, and was then called The Bart Simpson Show. Its immense popularity proved so great that Twentieth Century Fox decided it would be worthwhile to launch The Simpsons as a show in itself. In this format, the first episode was broadcast in 1989, and in this season there were thirteen episodes. In fact, the show was so immediately popular that a huge wave of cross-media production and merchandising took place, and this culminated in the release of a single, â€Å"Do The Bartman†, in early 1991. Other examples include toys, comics, and computer games But what is it about The Simpsons that continues to make it so popular? Is it Homer? Is it Bart? Or is it just the culmination of the shows different elements? These are some of the ideas I hope to cover in the course of this study. To this day, The Simpsons is still largely rated as the greatest of all the animated sit-coms. Since its release there has been a whole trail of subsequent cartoon impersonations, such as King of the Hill, South Park, Daria, and Beavis and Butthead. Unlike most cartoons, the comedy in The Simpsons is not based solely on situational comedy and site gags. The characters themselves make the comedy, with their personalities, their uniqueness, and their own personal points of view. Having such strong characters means that the writing can practically do itself, and that is one reason that The Simpsons has been able to endure for so many years. Innovative comedy, including the lack of a laugh track, makes The Simpsons one of the funniest shows on television. As well as this, a continual supply of hilariously stupid jokes also helps to keep the comedy running smoothly. For example, when Bart asked why he thought he was receiving money for nothing, Grandpa Simpson replied, â€Å"I just figured the democrats were back in office†. Also, when the zoo director is asked if he’s going to save Ned Flanders from baboons, he replies, â€Å"Ooh, I’d like to, but if they don’t kill the intruder, it’s really bad for their society. † These are just a few examples of Simpsons humour. Simpson family analysis Homer From the shows beginnings, Homer has been portrayed as a well-intentioned, yet moronic person. Homer’s virtually disabling stupidity is what makes him so funny. His job in the powerstation often provides much of the humour, as do his experiences at home and in Moe’s bar. In one episode, when Homer takes on a student from Albania as part of Bart’s foreign exchange programme, he takes him on a tour of the powerstation, unsuspicious of why a 10-year-old would show interest in such a tour. Later we find out through F. B. I. agents that the boy was actually a communist spy and Homer had unwittingly given him detailed plans of the station’s nuclear reactor as well as several sticks of plutonium. In another episode, Homer and Bart adopt a new son and brother respectively. In a subsequent fight scene with Bart’s new brother, Homer was punched in the face, and he fell and bent his back over a fire hydrant. To this he said, â€Å"This is even more painful then it looks†. Another facet of Homer’s persona is his love of food and beer. At work, Homer consumes unending amounts of donuts, whilst at home his passion is pork, whether it be pork-rinds, pork-steaks or pork-chops. Homer also has a famous passion for ‘Duff’ beer, which at one point became so extreme that Marge challenged him to give up alcohol for a month. And he did. In another episode, Homer sneaked out of work half-an-hour early just so he could take a tour around the ‘Duff’ factory. Here he managed to consume one casket each of several varieties of beer, just to find out the difference in taste. Thus, his stupidity, combined with an amazing luck, forms the basis for one of the funniest characters on television. Homer will manage to find the only way to completely ruin a situation and then, through sheer luck, he will find the only way to repair it. Indeed, he always manages to â€Å"pull a Homer. † Marge Marge is portrayed as the most straight-minded, straight-thinking member of the family. Past episodes, namely the one where Marge and Homer tell the children how they met, portray Marge as an intellectual, linguistically gifted student with great career prospects. At least that was the case until she met Homer. However, it cannot be said that Marge has not used her linguistic skills to her advantage. In one episode, â€Å"Marge vs. the Monorail†, Marge single-handedly battles to stop the building of an unsafe, fraudulent rail line around Springfield. In the end she wins the battle, and the citizens of Springfield are grateful to her for saving their lives. In another episode, she becomes board with her housewife role and she decides to open up a business, choosing a pretzel franchise to make her fortune. As well as this, Marge is the pillar that keeps the Simpson family standing. She is always the one who maintains the sanity and keeps the family going. She is the only voice of reason in the household, as evidenced when she goes away and the household nearly collapses. No sooner had she left for her healthfarm weekend then the family began telephoning her to ask her all manners of questions, such as Bart’s question, ‘where do you keep my socks’? Her answer, ‘In the sock draw’. Another example can be seen in her crusade to ban the violent Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. This came about after she witnessed Maggie trying to stab Homer with a knife after she saw the same thing on TV. She continued her crusade, despite the fact that she knew Bart and Lisa were getting bullied at school, and eventually she won. Marge provides the reference on which the rest of the family is based, so the audience can see just how bizarre everyone else is when in immediate juxtaposition with Marge. It would be strange to imagine what the show would be like if this were not the way of things, as much humour is born out of the family’s dependence on her.

Fast Food An Staple Of American Culture - 894 Words

Jessica Seraphin Professor Benham English 2 20 January 2016 Fast Food in School Cafeterias Fast food has become a significant staple of American culture and has increased dramatically over the past three decades. In the most recent years, fast food chain’s growth has skyrocket. An industry that begun as a simple hot dog and burger stand has spread to any location paying customers can be spotted. Having a healthy diet have long term benefits such as weight loss, better sleep pattern, a lower risk of diseases†¦etc. For most people fast food has become a necessity due to their fast paced lives. Although food is an essential part of our dietary system and gives us energy and fuel our bodies need, it also has a down fall. Food has been responsible for countless deaths and diseases because of the manipulation that fast food companies has made to their menu items. The manipulations and developments of fast food companies has not only increased obesity rate amongst children but has cause those children to suffer from lifelong health prob lems. Although fast food grants our desire for instant gratification, Grade school should eliminate the regular consumption of fast food diet from lunch menus to prevent health issues among children such as obesity, heart disease, behavioral problems. Childhood obesity is at its all-time high due to behavioral and dietary changes. The Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) writes â€Å"In 2012 more than one third ofShow MoreRelatedAsian Cuisine1338 Words   |  6 Pagesamazes me to see some of the things they eat and how they eat it. In their tradition, it is polite to slurp your food while eating. It lets the chef know you are enjoying it or they prepared it just right. 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ThereRead MoreEtiology of Pediatric Obesity776 Words   |  3 PagesFast food, as an aspect of our cultural identity, alone, cannot be responsible for the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States, as the behavior of children is largely reliant on the influences of their parents. Home and social environments, parenting styles, family-feeding practices are the primary influences on early childhood nutritional behaviors. Obesity is a serious and widespread health problem in only certain kinds of societies characterized by economic modernizations, food surplusRead MoreBlack Men And Public Space1609 Words   |  7 Pages According to Brent Staples, in his book, â€Å"Black Men and Public Space†, he articulates about his experience as a young black man, moving from his small hometown to Chicago, to attend the University of Chicago. He shared that one late evening, walking on a deserted street in Hyde Park, which was an upscale neighborhood in the impoverished section of Chicago. While walking alone on the street, he saw a white, well dressed young lady, walking alone on the same street. He was a distanceRead MoreThe Typical Asian Diet Essay example538 Words   |  3 PagesThe Asian food diet is among one of the healthiest cultural diets in the world. A majority of their meals consist of fresh fruits, vegetables, and rice. As far as meats go, people of the Asian culture do not typically eat as much as other cultures, however when they do eat meat it is usually fish. Food is prepared stir-fried, deep fried, steamed, or just plain raw. Meats are rarely the main dish in any of their meals and are more of a side dish. In most of the Asian cultures there diet revolvesRead MoreHow does Sushi reflect Japanese culture? Essay1183 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿How Does Sushi Reflect Japanese Culture? Japanese people show great pride in their heritage and they use their food as a form of expression in order to show their cultural heritage. 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