Walker Percys The Moviegoer Essay -- essays research papers

In the novel, The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy, the narrator, Jack Bolling, believes that everyone has a role to play and that their happiness is predicated upon how well they play their given role. He also believes that people get trapped in â€Å"everydayness† and become â€Å"dead†. Jack Bolling’s decision to marry Kate Cutrer is partly based on these beliefs of his, but it is also based upon the discovery that Sharon is engaged herself. Kate Cutrer has some mental problems of her own, and, being Jack Bolling’s cousin, he learns about them and observes them. As he goes throughout his days, Jack Bolling tries to avoid the typical roles of people; the â€Å"everydayness†. When he thinks about falling into a pattern, it makes him physically sick. He is afraid to be normal, to be just another person in the world. It seems as if he wants to â€Å"insert himself into the world†, but he is afraid to because he also wants to play the roles that people want him to play, such as his aunt. His aunt thinks that she knows him pretty well, but discovers in the end that she didn’t know him at all because he was always trying to be what she wanted him to be. Kate Cutrer, on the other hand, wants to be someone who just blends in with all around her and doesn’t have to worry about making herself known or standing out. But with her problems, she can’t seem to do that. One reason for Jack Bollin g and Kate Cutrer getting married could be that the other is what they secretly desire to be themselves. When Kate Cut... Walker Percys The Moviegoer Essay -- essays research papers In the novel, The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy, the narrator, Jack Bolling, believes that everyone has a role to play and that their happiness is predicated upon how well they play their given role. He also believes that people get trapped in â€Å"everydayness† and become â€Å"dead†. Jack Bolling’s decision to marry Kate Cutrer is partly based on these beliefs of his, but it is also based upon the discovery that Sharon is engaged herself. Kate Cutrer has some mental problems of her own, and, being Jack Bolling’s cousin, he learns about them and observes them. As he goes throughout his days, Jack Bolling tries to avoid the typical roles of people; the â€Å"everydayness†. When he thinks about falling into a pattern, it makes him physically sick. He is afraid to be normal, to be just another person in the world. It seems as if he wants to â€Å"insert himself into the world†, but he is afraid to because he also wants to play the roles that people want him to play, such as his aunt. His aunt thinks that she knows him pretty well, but discovers in the end that she didn’t know him at all because he was always trying to be what she wanted him to be. Kate Cutrer, on the other hand, wants to be someone who just blends in with all around her and doesn’t have to worry about making herself known or standing out. But with her problems, she can’t seem to do that. One reason for Jack Bollin g and Kate Cutrer getting married could be that the other is what they secretly desire to be themselves. When Kate Cut...

Determinism in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand Essay -- Nella Larsen Quicksan

Determinism in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand During the Harlem Renaissance, many literary works concentrated on celebrating African American heritage. However, many other writers also began concentrating on the darker theme of naturalism. Nella Larsen’s Quicksand illustrates many elements of this movement. These include a biological determinism, where man is conceived of as controlled by his primitive animal instincts and a sociological determinism, whereby the weak are destroyed and the strong survive in a world of struggle and chance. Helga Crane, Larsen’s protagonist in Quicksand, illustrates the elements of both biological and sociological determinism in her inability to suppress her natural animal instinct to flee uncomfortable situations, and to comfortably conform in either of her opposing communities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Helga cannot suppress her desire to flee from uncomfortable situations in any city that she lives in. In Naxos, she convinces herself that she is leaving a place that has â€Å"grown into a machine† (4). Although the conforming nature of the institution contributes to Helga’s desire to leave, she is also stirred with â€Å"an overpowering desire for action of some sort† (4). Instead of staying in Naxos and fighting a battle against the institute’s conservative attitudes, Helga chooses to flee an unpleasant reality. This exemplifies the â€Å"fight or flight† animal instinct that is said to control behavior in situations that become overwhelming. Instead of fighting, Helga time and time again chooses to leave what becomes unbearable to her. Once the decision is made to leave Naxos, Helga feels â€Å"like a person who had been for months fighting the devil and then unexpectedly had turned around and agreed to do his bidding† (5). Helga knows deep down that leaving Naxos is wrong, but the instinct to flee is so strong that she is powerless to deny it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In New York, Helga is also consumed by the animal instinct of flight. When Dr. Anderson calls on her after a chance meeting at a nightclub, Helga â€Å"had no intention of running away, but something, some imp of contumacy, drove her from his presence, though she longed to stay† (51). Once again, Helga succumbs to her overwhelming desire to leave an uncomfortable situation. Later she realizes with a â€Å"sense of helplessness and inevitability†¦that the weapon she had chosen had been a boomerang, for she herself had felt... ...at the advice she offers these women is looked upon with contempt. She begins to adapt to her life after Sary Jones advises her to â€Å"make de bes’ of et† but her efforts falter during her next pregnancy (125). Instead of making the best of her life, Helga hands over this responsibility to God which eventually leads to the same feeling of â€Å"dissatisfaction [and] asphyxiation that she felt in Naxos, New York and Copenhagen† (134). After all of her experiences, her inability to conform leads her right back to the same place she started from. It is obvious that Helga Crane will never truly be able to â€Å"fit in† in any society. It is apparent that Nella Larsen’s Quicksand is concerned with the naturalistic element of determinism. Helga Crane illustrates both a biological and sociological determinism in her animal instinct for â€Å"flight† and her inability to conform in any of her environments. Larsen’s ability to integrate these themes into the character of Helga proves that the Quicksand is not only representative of the Harlem Renaissance, but also of the naturalistic movement. Work Cited Larsen, Nella. Quicksand and Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1986.

Frederick Busch :: Frederick Busch Literature Essays

Frederick Busch When someone asked Emmanuel Sià ©yà ¨s what he'd done during the Reign of Terror, he replied, "I survived."Though the characters in the stories of Frederick Busch's latest collection don't have to contend with quite the same adversities as Monsieur Sià ©yà ¨s, nevertheless they encounter revelations which are, in our modern context, just as terrifying.And more often than not, they survive them. These revelations usually involve the acquisition of knowledge--the sort of knowledge we frequently already possess, but pretend that we don't: parents have lives entirely secret from their children; there is a point beyond which damaged love cannot be repaired; people use other people even when (and as) they love them.The families in these stories create stories of their own, stories about who and what they are as entities--stories which are often at odds with reality, but which help them to deal with the disappointments and tragedies of that reality.Clearly, the title's allusion to Hansel and Gretel invites reading these as stories of innocence lost; and most of the reviews of this oft-reviewed and much-praised collection (it was short listed for the 1995 Pen-Faulkner award) make much of this connection.But these are also stories of the terrifying darkness of adult responsibilities recognized and faced, though not always triumphantly. In "Bread" two children try to put their parents' house together (or perhaps take it apart) after their parents' accidental death; one seeks refuge in sarcasm and denial, while the other makes bread which will never be eaten and thinks on various kinds of "debris": the "still-smoking rubble" of his two-year marriage, the pile of clothes which has "nothing to do with how my mother wore my father's flannel shorts on Sunday to cook in..."In the stylistically innovative "Bring Your Friends to the Zoo," a couple (these are nearly always duets of longing) awkwardly try to dismantle (or remember?) their affair, while being directed by the narrator about how to move, what to see: "Once through the gate, face right.The Deer House, the Camel House ... As you face your right you see a path before you.Take it."The zoo would seem at first neutral ground, but we discover there is no neutrality, no one is the innocent bystander, the one-day tourist.In "Is Anyone Left This Time of Year?" tourism of another kind is explored when a recently widowed man visits a town where there are no more tourists, and once there, shell-shocked with grief, he merely repeats everything said to him, thus becoming an echo of his previous visits; absolutely passive, he is the compleat tourist, merely and only "seeing" the sights.

Curious Incident of a dog in the nighttime“ †Mark Haddon Essay

In the â€Å"Curious Incident of a dog in the nighttime† from â€Å"Mark Haddon†, the author is trying to bring us nearer to the life of an autistic child by showing us his realm of thinking and behavior  Haddon creates in his book a story that actually stands more in the background. The story talks about the autistic ï ¬ fteen-year-old narrator, Christopher John Francis Boone, who ï ¬ nds the dog of a neighbour dead in the garden. He wants to ï ¬ nd out who killed the dog and wishes to write a book about it. He is standing in front of many problems to ï ¬ nd out what really happened, because his father doesn’t like the idea that he is meddling in the business of others. In trying to ï ¬ nd his book his father took away from him, he ï ¬ nds letter from his mother, who seemed to be dead at the beginning when in actuality she is still alive. After that, he is convinced his father is a liar and the murderer of the dog, and he runs away to his mom in fear that his own dad wants to kill him. At the end of the book they are showing the difï ¬ culty to get conï ¬ dence back from an autistic child. In the foreground is the behavior of the autistic Christopher Boone. Directly from the beginning we notice that something is different with Christopher Boone. The book never directly talks about autism, but several aspects let us know this. The capitals in the book are counted as prime number; this language technique lets us directly go in the mind of Christopher Boone. His thinking is that prime numbers are acting like life: logical, but impossible to fully comprehend. This missing of comprehension of human being is lined throughout the whole book, for example that he has difï ¬ culty determining people’s emotions from their facial expressions, but he can name each country in the world, their capitals and every prime number up to 7057. Christopher recognizes his social limitations, and he focuses instead on the extraordinary intelligence he displays in other regards. His complex brain is shown in the book with mathematical forms and information about space and physics.  Christopher Boone is the only one in his class who is making the A-level in mathematics, with the wish to ï ¬ nish it in physics too and when he is adult he would like to be an astronaut.  These inputs, whether we understand them or not, are helping the reader to get more and more into the way of thinking of this autistic child. We are reading the  entire book through the eyes of Christopher, the narrator, showing us just what he is seeing and feeling. This technique is extremely important for the story and the message of the book.  Christopher’s poor social skills are shown from the beginning to the end of the Book. He quickly feels overwhelmed and his social deï ¬ cits lead to misunderstandings and conï ¬â€šicts. He doesn’t let people touch him, when an ofï ¬ cer tries to touch him he assaults him and has to go to the jail. But even during that incident, he enjoyed the fact that his cell has perfect dimensions and he feels secure. Christopher’s obsession with the physical details of his surroundings, particularly aspects of color, number, and time†¦serves as a great asset to him in his investigation. When his father arrives, even he is allowed to touch him, other than with his hands spread like a fan. The truth is one of the most important things for him as an autistic child, because his logical brain may explode with a lie because there are going to be a million new possibilities. This difï ¬ culty with an autistic child is also shown in the role of the parents. His mother, who is thought to be dead at the beginning, was running away because she couldn’t handle the relation with her own child. The father as well, who was always calmer and had a better relation with his child, is coming to a point of desperation. Christopher wants to ï ¬ nd out who killed the dog, the investigation into which he tries to stop because of his own guilt. However, his child is special and he doesn’t want to hear what his dad is saying and changing the words in his mouth. The dad also is unable to be honest with his child, and invents the story of the dead mother to protect him. Christopher has a strong desire for order, and he works to remove any sense of disorder from his life. For instance, his system for determining how good the day will be, despite its apparent illogicalness, provides him with a  sense of control over the ambiguities and uncertainties he encounters every day. The difï ¬ culty of a normal day with an autistic child is shown well at the beginning. The farther we go into the book; it loses a bit of consequence. The author is giving us several different aspects of an autistic child. What makes the story so special is that at the end Christopher is over breaking his fears in running away from his father because he killed the dog and lied to him. Another problem that is shown in the book is the difï ¬ culty in creating friendships. Christopher is going to a special school; he’s calling the other children stupid and dumb because nobody has his level of logical thinking. He has no friends, the only person he is talking with and trusting is Siobhan. At the beginning we don’t know who this person is, which lets us think he has a friend in his age that he can communicate with. At the end we realize it is his teacher and it is really interesting to see the methods and the ideas that the teacher is giving or training with Christopher. The book tries to show the world what is going on in a child with autism. Of course, it is not a guide on how to handle autistic children, it is just a tale intended to help non-autistic people to understand better the thinking of this child. The author himself worked in preparation for his book with autistic children. In my opinion the book is really well structured and successfully brings the message that it should bring. Myself as a total beginner in this arena of thinking, now know more about this illness and about the rules and regulations that thinking in the head of such a child seem to follow. The difï ¬ culties surrounding this illness are really well represented in the role of the parents. We are just seeing the thoughts of him and his feelings, but the story is really good at creating just enough clues to see more between the lines. The mother who is running away because of her failure to cope raising her own child, the dad who is trying to handle this struggle all alone and who is just able to do that by constantly lying to his own child. The book was published in two versions, one for children and  once for adults. In my opinion, the title and the story of the book seems more for children than for adults. However, when you take a look at the message and the background of this boy, and let the story be a side issue, it is a really sensible and informative book about the life of a child with special issues. It seems that the end is a just a little bit thin and it seems that the author was not that careful enough at wrapping up the ending with the fears and consequen ces of autism. The book was criticized with the idea that the author is giving inaccurate descriptions about a child with autism, although the novel never mentions autism. Seeing as Christopher displays several of the symptoms that are included in this illness, they take the logical conclusion. I would recommend this book to everybody who wants to read a funny, informative and lovely story about a boy with special needs. The logical thinking presented which also teach a little bit about math and physics is what makes this ï ¬ ctional book really interesting.

Student name Chiu Man HeiA number

Worldwide Contractors Interoffice Memo Date: To: Subject: August 28, 2014 Jason Corp., Senior Development Officer Marcia Murphy, Office Manager My New Assignment Thankful for your letter! I can go to Japan to work, I feel very excited but there are a lot of aspects to worry about. Next, I will tell you frankly. And thank you gave me good advice and experience, which Is very helpful for me. When I know I assigned to the Japanese company the time, I'm really excited, reverse, because I never thought I could be assigned to here.In the others, I did not stay long in this country, for me, it would make me feel my work environment is very unfamiliar, so I afraid cannot have a good work ability. And I know that the company has been very hope to develop and expand the market in Asia. Although this is a very long-term plan, but I know company reuse me, this trip will take me to complete the mission. Although this will give me a lot of pressure, I will try hard to complete. I will deal with th e details of each work, contract regulations and I will work to address the difficulties. I hope we can give a better development and profits for the company.This time, allocation countries is Japan, of course, I am most worried about the language barrier problem is, I know if I want to have a better development for the company, I have to learn Japanese, I'm going to work in the rest of the time. , to learn Japanese. Also, thankful taught me to understand the communication can be solved with a smiles, this is a very good way. Also, I will learn listening skills. Also, I would learn the local culture, because I know that Japanese culture Is very rotational, I have to learn vigilant, not to offend the local culture.Also, I know my colleagues are Japanese. So, I have to get along with them well. Thank you for your remind. I look forward to your reply. Student name Chic Man He number By Chic-Joyce A number: A01985385 Interoffice Memo From: Thank you for your letter! I can go to Japan to work, I feel very excited but there are good advice and experience, which is very helpful for me. Japanese. Also, thank you taught me to understand the communication can be solved Also, I would learn the local culture, because I know that Japanese culture is very

A Letter from the Trenches

I had attended to write earlier, however the Germans had us covered with the constant rain of shells falling, we had to stay on Guard duty to make sure they did not get here. On the way back, Zack got caught in a mudslide after one of the bombs hit the nearby hill. He went out like the others. My company just acquired some new novices to fight and obviously they hadn’t seen rats before, consequently they were scared and it wasn’t helped by our stories of how the brown rats ripped through the Germans brains and was still hungry. In fact, he got scared so much, we tried to hide in No Man’s Land to get away but their snipers shot through him quite literally.By the time it was safe, we had finished breakfast from the last of our uncontaminated supplies. And just after that we got on ‘Lice Duty’, picking out all those eggs was futile, as there were some hidden in the seams of the clothing. Those slugs and beetles were worse than ever, crowding the walls o f the little area for themselves. Just got a haircut so I am bald again so I have avoided the new nits problem.During when I am free, I like to do loads of stuff but I decided to make a war poem, I mean everyone else does. How does it sound? (Extract from Jesse Pole, ‘The Cole’)Who's for the trench– Are you, my laddie? Who'll follow French– Will you, my laddie? Who's fretting to begin? Who's going out to win? And who wants to save his skin– Do you, my laddie?What I am not going to include, is that rat problem. It is just to insensitive in my opinion as they killed 1.7million people so far because of their diseases and their extremely high fertility rate makes it almost impossible to get rid of them. Them are like a swarm of bees they will constantly annoy you. You know that trench foot I had, I finally got rid of it, I am cured no more shall those fungi on the side of the wall get the better of me.Stand to and Morning Hate wasn’t any differen t, repairing those bayonets. Those 3 hours of peace while breakfast was just amazing, the relief of not having to be in a trench, but there is Guard duty. You know, when someone out of each company waits behind at the machine guns, it’s yet to be me, but I’ve leaving the front line soon thankfully it’s been 70 days and the whole trench cycle thing will take over and I’ll be free for a year.Our platoon is quite lucky in my opinion as we are being provided free rum for our duty along with breakfast, because some of the others don’t get anything. Breakfast is during stand to and morning hate. Just cause the guns stopped firing, doesn’t mean there is rest, I mean if you come here, you will find yourself scurrying across like a mouse, because of the cleansing and checking of equipment. Both of the sides unofficially declare a truce I think, I mean at the time we are most off-guard; there is no gunfire. Just wait until a SO, senior officer, finds out that it happened again, he will send out one company to the German’s trenches through No Man’s Land and deserters were just killed.The kind of things we have to do after breakfast can be tiring I mean it is fun refilling sandbags and repairing duckboards but the amount of time it takes is forever. We would normally find out what we do by our NCOs. They’d assign us each a chore everyday just to try and make it more comforting to stay. After another heavy storm last night, I suspect we have to spend at least 2 hours reshaping the walls of the trenches to the correct shape because what usually happens is that the rain deforms the walls and makes the floor super muddy and almost impossible to work in. But that is not as hard as it seems, the equipment here is actually quite good compared to back out at home. The pumps functioned and all the muddy water was taken away without all the hard labour. There were a few other small roles that the NCOs would give us, tha t is to repair the trenches from yesterdays shelling  for todays and also to prepare all the ammunition.The main problem out here is boredom, the snipers on the Germans side look out over the 500 yard gap between us and them so it is almost impossible to move during daylight, otherwise you would be ‘moving’ ducks. Whilst stand to and morning hate was going on, if you finished your chores you do personal stuff like reading or writing letters back home. Most of them are censored, luckily being an Officer, I can write these types of things.Today I’m on patrol duty so I’ve been training in hand to hand combat skills such as knifing and boxing because whilst patrolling if we find a German patrol, we would have to either fight or run, and to me, running is not an option. Out on No Man’s Land, there is a variety of things to do such as repairing barbed wire and going to listening posts. However the most gruesome thing you could possibly do out there is r etrieve the dead bodies,, I mean that is gross.When you see dusk coming, you know you have to get ready for a big fight or probably a small battle, you would know it’s coming cause the general will launch a special cannon into No Man’s Land just to tell you to get ready. During these times supplies are normally shipped over because you would be likely to see enemy and friendly movement, and also that crawling over long grass to repair barbed wire can make a lot of sound and theoretically, get you killed Sometimes, lucky men would be sent to the supply trenches to pick up rations and ammo, whilst we are all on firing duty.During these times there is some one normally operating a machine gun for 2 hours. Any longer and they’d fall asleep. If they did, the penalty of risking the lives of everyone, is getting killed by the firing squad, but I don’t see how that is fair, I mean we are all sleep-deprived.Men were relieved form their roles as marksman and ground troops at night as well, these men would then cross the maze of networks to get back to safety. It once took an hour or two, because our equipment is heavy and it takes forever to actually get anywhere.Something you’ll have to get used to around here is that horrid smell. When something dies, it rots away and if not disposed of, it can really stink. Once, I heard this story that at the Somme Line, approximately 200 000 men were killed and it stank out the entire place, I mean dead corpses and noses just don’t go together well. The smell of creosol in the morning is OK now but when I first came, I almost killed myself.Well that’s all I can think of on the top of my head right now, got to go and do morning hate soon you know. Writing whilst I am meant to be sleeping doesn’t exactly help my sleeping problems but it does comfort in me knowing I’ll have the time to write it. You could come and help out one day, I mean they don’t ‘need†™ you back home working with the land girls and business men to grow and sell the food that you are making on mom’s farm.You’re sincerelyChristopher, your dear Brother A Letter from the Trenches My Dear BrotherI had attended to write earlier, however the Germans had us covered with the constant rain of shells falling, we had to stay on Guard duty to make sure they did not get here. On the way back, Zack got caught in a mudslide after one of the bombs hit the nearby hill. He went out like the others. My company just acquired some new novices to fight and obviously they hadn’t seen rats before, consequently they were scared and it wasn’t helped by our stories of how the brown rats ripped through the Germans brains and was still hungry. In fact, he got scared so much, we tried to hide in No Man’s Land to get away but their snipers shot through him quite literally.By the time it was safe, we had finished breakfast from the last of our uncontaminated supplies. And just after that we got on ‘Lice Duty’, picking out all those eggs was futile, as there were some hidden in the seams of the clothing. Those slugs and beetles were worse than ever, crowd ing the walls of the little area for themselves. Just got a haircut so I am bald again so I have avoided the new nits problem.During when I am free, I like to do loads of stuff but I decided to make a war poem, I mean everyone else does. How does it sound? (Extract from Jesse Pole, ‘The Cole’)Who's for the trench– Are you, my laddie? Who'll follow French– Will you, my laddie? Who's fretting to begin? Who's going out to win? And who wants to save his skin– Do you, my laddie?What I am not going to include, is that rat problem. It is just to insensitive in my opinion as they killed 1.7million people so far because of their diseases and their extremely high fertility rate makes it almost  impossible to get rid of them. Them are like a swarm of bees they will constantly annoy you. You know that trench foot I had, I finally got rid of it, I am cured no more shall those fungi on the side of the wall get the better of me.Stand to and Morning Hate wasnâ₠¬â„¢t any different, repairing those bayonets. Those 3 hours of peace while breakfast was just amazing, the relief of not having to be in a trench, but there is Guard duty. You know, when someone out of each company waits behind at the machine guns, it’s yet to be me, but I’ve leaving the front line soon thankfully it’s been 70 days and the whole trench cycle thing will take over and I’ll be free for a year.Our platoon is quite lucky in my opinion as we are being provided free rum for our duty along with breakfast, because some of the others don’t get anything. Breakfast is during stand to and morning hate. Just cause the guns stopped firing, doesn’t mean there is rest, I mean if you come here, you will find yourself scurrying across like a mouse, because of the cleansing and checking of equipment. Both of the sides unofficially declare a truce I think, I mean at the time we are most off-guard; there is no gunfire. Just wait until a SO, seni or officer, finds out that it happened again, he will send out one company to the German’s trenches through No Man’s Land and deserters were just killed.The kind of things we have to do after breakfast can be tiring I mean it is fun refilling sandbags and repairing duckboards but the amount of time it takes is forever. We would normally find out what we do by our NCOs. They’d assign us each a chore everyday just to try and make it more comforting to stay. After another heavy storm last night, I suspect we have to spend at least 2 hours reshaping the walls of the trenches to the correct shape because what usually happens is that the rain deforms the walls and makes the floor super muddy and almost impossible to work in. But that is not as hard as it seems, the equipment here is actually quite good compared to back out at home.The pumps functioned and all the muddy water was taken away without all the hard labour. There were a few other small roles that the NCOs w ould give us, that is to repair the trenches from yesterdays shelling  for todays and also to prepare all the ammunition.The main problem out here is boredom, the snipers on the Germans side look out over the 500 yard gap between us and them so it is almost impossible to move during daylight, otherwise you would be ‘moving’ ducks. Whilst stand to and morning hate was going on, if you finished your chores you do personal stuff like reading or writing letters back home. Most of them are censored, luckily being an Officer, I can write these types of things.Today I’m on patrol duty so I’ve been training in hand to hand combat skills such as knifing and boxing because whilst patrolling if we find a German patrol, we would have to either fight or run, and to me, running is not an option. Out on No Man’s Land, there is a variety of things to do such as repairing barbed wire and going to listening posts. However the most gruesome thing you could possibly do out there is retrieve the dead bodies,, I mean that is gross.When you see dusk coming, you know you have to get ready for a big fight or probably a small battle, you would know it’s coming cause the general will launch a special cannon into No Man’s Land just to tell you to get ready. During these times supplies are normally shipped over because you would be likely to see enemy and friendly movement, and also that crawling over long grass to repair barbed wire can make a lot of sound and theoretically, get you killed Sometimes, lucky men would be sent to the supply trenches to pick up rations and ammo, whilst we are all on firing duty.During these times there is some one normally operating a machine gun for 2 hours. Any longer and they’d fall asleep. If they did, the penalty of risking the lives of everyone, is getting killed by the firing squad, but I don’t see how that is fair, I mean we are all sleep-deprived.Men were relieved form their roles as ma rksman and ground troops at night as well, these men would then cross the maze of networks to get back to safety. It once took an hour or two, because our equipment is heavy and it takes forever to actually get anywhere.Something you’ll have to get used to around here is that horrid smell. When something dies, it rots away and if not disposed of, it can really stink. Once, I heard this story that at the Somme Line, approximately 200 000 men were killed and it stank out the entire place, I mean dead corpses and noses just don’t go together well. The smell of creosol in the morning is OK now but when I first came, I almost killed myself.Well that’s all I can think of on the top of my head right now, got to go and do morning hate soon you know. Writing whilst I am meant to be sleeping doesn’t exactly help my sleeping problems but it does comfort in me knowing I’ll have the time to write it. You could come and help out one day, I mean they don’t ‘need’ you back home working with the land girls and business men to grow and sell the food that you are making on mom’s farm.You’re sincerelyChristopher, your dear Brother

Loch Ness Monster

I have always been interested in mystery creatures such as the Sasquatch, Chupacabra, and Nessie or more universally called the Loch Ness Monster. Although there has been no official capture of one of these creatures, I believe there has to something to the mass sightings by people and the circumstantial evidence that is out there. My focus here is the Loch Ness monster. The Loch Ness Monster is a mythical creature that is said to inhabit Scotland's Loch Ness in Great Britain. In the following paragraphs I will discuss the mystery of Loch Ness and provide examples of some eye witness accounts. My exploration of this mystery is intended to at the very least open the reader's eyes to the possibility that the Loch Ness Monster does exist or at least it needs to be investigated further. Location of the Loch Ness Monster  The Loch Ness Monster or otherwise known as Nessie by the ancient Celts gets its name from its location in Scotland. It is located in the Great Glen in the Scottish highlands to be exact. The Great Glen in the Scottish highlands is a rift valley 60 miles long and contains three famous lochs, Lochy, Oich and Ness. The most famous of these lochs is Loch Ness because of the monster said to live in its deep waters. It is deeper than the North Sea and is very long and very, very narrow. The Scottish Highlands have long been home to mystery and belief in the supernatural. People of Scotland believe that the Loch Ness is home to Druid powers. The Celts of pre-Roman Britain also believed in a type of creature they called kelpies, water spirits that would appear to children in the forms of horses or bulls, enticing them into the water where they would drown them(â€Å"Loch Ness Monster†, 1998). Eyewitness accounts The earliest known sighting by humans that I could find documented was that in the written word â€Å"Life of St. Columba† by Adamnan and was written sometime in the 7th century. The story goes that the main character Columba saved the life of a the life of a Pict, who was being supposedly attacked by the monster. Columba repelled the monster with a cross. For centuries there have been reported sightings of the beast. Some of these accounts have the Loch Ness Monster seen on land. How credible the sources are can never be known, especially when these sightings happened so long ago. However in more modern times technology has aided in spreading the eyewitness accounts and given those sightings some legitimacy. An early purported sighting in modern times occurred July 22, 1933 when Mr. and Mrs. Spicer of London drove across a new road alongside Loch Ness. Their car nearly struck a huge, black creature with a long neck. They reported a â€Å"prehistoric animal† shambled across the road, slithered through the undergrowth and splashed in the Loch(Chorvinsky, n.d.). Perhaps the most famous purported sighting was in1934 by Colonel Robert Wilson a British surgeon, said that he noticed something moving in the water and took a picture of it. He happened to be urinating at the time, according to one version of what he shared later. The picture he took shows a creature with a long neck rising out of the water of the loch. â€Å"The Surgeon's Photo† as its formally known was distributed all over the world. For many years this photo was considered to be the best evidence that â€Å"Nessie† was real. It must be noted however that the photo Robert Wilson took and his eyewitness accou nt is now deemed as a hoax. Scientific Evidence There have been many eyewitness accounts, film footage, and sonar contacts of something strange in the Loch. That does not prove in the existence of Nessie but according to many Crypto zoologists this evidence shows that Nessie could exist and should be investigated until its existence is one hundred percent disproven. There is even an official scientific name for the creature â€Å"Nessiteras Rhombopteryx.†(Learning And Teaching In Scotland, n.d.). Some scientists believe that the Loch Ness monster could be a thought to be extinct marine reptile called a plesiosaur. This is plausible considering there have been many discoveries of thought to be extinct animals still very much alive. An example of a once thought to be extinct animal that is very much alive would be Coelacanth. Coelacanth fish were believed to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period some 65-plus million years ago. However in 1938, one was discovered off the east coast of South Africa near the mouth of the Chalumna River(â€Å"Lazarus species: 13 ’extinct’ animals found alive†, 2010). What should also be noted is that Loch Ness is not the only location where there are sightings of marine creatures. In many of the same geographical and topographical areas there are reports. These are usually in lakes and river systems that are deep, cold, and flow to the sea. Not only that they were all once home to migratory fish. Conclusion  Loch Ness is home to something strange and mysterious. I believe that there probably is something living in the loch that has yet to be discovered. I do not know whether it's a new species or some thought to be extinct species of marine animal that still exists. I think based on the evidence and the many sightings it cannot be disproven. Yes, there are skeptics as with any mystery, however, with all the accounts and circumstantial evidence there should be more investigation of Loch Ness. Only time will tell but I truly believe with better technology and more time the world will solve the mystery of the Loch Ness monster. That will be a great day in history. References http://www.strangemag.com/nessie.home.html http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Loch_Ness_Monster?oldid=946274