Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Essay Example for Free

Psychiatric Disorders, Diseases, and Drugs Essay In the time span of only one year, roughly seven percent of Americans suffer from some form of a mood disorder (Mood Disorders, n. d. ). The typical person is able to experience moods on all levels but those that suffer from mood disorders get â€Å"stuck† into a certain mood (Mood Disorders, n. d. ). There are different mood disorders and each one can have differing levels of how much one suffers from it. Anxiety disorders are when anxiety is the predominant feature or the avoidance of the anxiety causes abnormal behavior (Morris, 2010). Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorder. There are many categories, or subdivisions, of anxiety disorders including specific phobias and panic disorders (Morris, 2010). Schizophrenic disorders are very serious disorders in which the individual experiences a disturbance in thoughts, emotions, communications, and can also experience hallucinations and delusions (Morris, 2010). Bulimia nervosa and tourettes syndrome are also psychological disorders that can be helped through medication. Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which the individual is experiencing bouts of both mania and depression in an alternating cycle (Morris, 2010). There can be bursts of normal feelings interspersed between these bouts of mania and depression. Studies have shown that bipolar disorder affects both men and women equally unlike depression which favors the women. Studies have also shown that bipolar disorder is not as common as depression (Morris, 2010). While depression and mania on their own can be linked to outside factors, bipolar disorder is certain to be a biological disturbance, usually genetic, and therefore medication is most likely needed to treat it (Morris, 2010). To treat this form of depression there are four classes of medication that can help (Pinel, 2009). Monoamine oxidase inhibitors, such as Iproniazid, increase the levels of monoamines in the body, alleviating the mood of the patient (Pinel, 2009). The problem with medications such as these is that there are many side effects and some can be quite serious. The most serious being the deactivation of tyramine in the body which can lead to surges in blood pressure which, in turn, cause a stroke in the patient (MAOI’s: Side Effects, n. d. ). Tricyclic antidepressants are another medication route that those suffering from bipolar disorder can take. These medications are much safer than monoamine oxidase inhibitors (Pinel, 2009). Tricyclic antidepressants may, in the beginning of taking the medication, cause the individual to have problems with sleeping, to feel tired more than usual, and can cause nausea (United States National Library of Medicine, 2012). Up until recently, the medication of choice to help those with bipolar disorder was lithium (Pinel, 2009). Lithium is not an antidepressant but rather a mood stabilizer that aids in the transition between mania and depression (Pinel, 2009). Unfortunately there are many side effects that can come from taking lithium which can include loss of appetite, indigestion, swollen lips, hair loss, stomach pain, joint and muscle pain, and many other minor side effects (United States National Library of Medicine, 2012). There are also many serious side effects that may occur. Loss of coordination, seizures, slurred speech, blackouts, hallucinations, and crossed eyes are only some of the more serious side effects that may occur when using lithium (United States National Library of Medicine, 2012). Selective monoamine-reuptake inhibitors are a fourth type of medication that those who suffer from bipolar disorder may use. These types of medication aid in raising serotonin levels in the body. Side effects from these types of drugs include nausea, tremors, drowsiness, dizziness, sexual side effects, and, in rare cases, cardiovascular problems may arise (Ferguson, 2001). Panic disorder is a branch out of anxiety disorder and those who suffer from it have recurring panic attacks where they experience sudden and unreasonable extreme fears or terrors (Morris, 2010). When having a panic attack the individual may experience chest pains, sweating, fainting or dizziness, difficulty breathing and swallowing, feelings of something horrible about to happen or of losing control, and can even fear that they are dying (Morris, 2010). Medications that can be used to help those suffering from panic disorders include benzodiazepines, serotonin agonists, and antidepressant drugs (Pinel, 2009). Benzodiazepines help by relaxing the individual but do carry side effects like tremors, nausea, sedation, problems in motor activity (Pinel, 2009). Serotonin agonists are not fully understood how they help but it is known that anti-anxiety feelings without causing a rebound anxiety episode (Pinel, 2009). Common side effects of this drug include nausea, insomnia, headaches, and dizziness (Pinel, 2009). Antidepressants, as described earlier, can also help with panic disorders and carry the same side effects in the individual as when taken for depressive disorders. Schizophrenic disorders are very serious disorders in which the individual experiences a disturbance in thoughts, emotions, communications, and can also experience hallucinations and delusions (Morris, 2010). Disorganized schizophrenia is when an individual shows signs of often bizarre and childlike behaviors (Morris, 2010). The cause of this disorder is still unknown but it is known that it typically begins before the age of twenty-five (Schizophrenia-Disorganized Type, 2010). There are many symptoms of this disorder and they include difficulty feeling pleasure, speech that does not make any sense, any motivation, delusional beliefs, hallucinations, committing strange and sometimes silly behavior, and inappropriate or bizarre emotional responses (â€Å"Schizophrenia-Disorganized Type, 2010). Treatment is limited but when experiencing an episode of disorganized schizophrenia it is imperative that the individual is hospitalized for the safety of his or herself and the safety of others. Treatment can consist of antipsychotic medications, clozapine medication, and support groups or programs (United States National Library of Medicine, 2012). Those who suffer this disorder suffer from it for life. Bulimia nervosa is when an individual will binge eat and then force themselves to rid of the intake by forcing themselves to vomit. While there is no specific known cause of bulimia nervosa there are some theories of what may cause this disorder in an individual including culture, families, life changes, stress, personality, and even biological factors. To treat bulimia nervosa there has been only one drug approved by the Unites States Food and Drug Administration and that is the use of some antidepressants as this has shown to aid in reducing binging and purging as well as aid in improving eating habits (Bulimia Nervosa Fact Sheets, 2009). Tourette’s syndrome is a fairly common disorder that has the individual suffering from it having uncontrollable tics such as blinking, coughing, and, on rare occasions, blurting out inappropriate words (Pinel, 2009). There is no known cause for this syndrome and, while it usually forms in childhood, many individuals will outgrow it over time (United States National Library of Medicine, 2012). Treatment can include antipsychotics which can help in reducing the tics. However, side effects of this include developing tardive dyskinesia, a movement disorder that affects the lower part of the face (Treatment, 2011). While there are thousands of individuals that suffer some sort of psychological disorders all over the world, there is help out there for those in need. While most medication carries some side effects it is up to both the individual and the prescribing doctor to determine if the benefits of using the medication outweigh the side effects that might occur.

Virginia Woolf | Femininity, Modernity And Androgyny

Virginia Woolf | Femininity, Modernity And Androgyny Showalter, Elaine, Virginia Woolf and the Flight into Androgyny, in A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontà « to Lessing (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977), pp. 263-297. In A Literature of Their Own, Elaine Showalter discusses the female experiences and their creative processes in British fiction. She shows how womens literature has evolved, starting from the Victorian period to the Modern one. She has written notes on the descriptive life of Virginia Woolf in this particular book. Showalter described the female literary tradition in the English novel and the social backgrounds of the women who composed it. Chapter 10 of the book, under the title: Virginia Woolf and the Flight into Androgyny, is devoted to the literary genius of Virginia Woolf albeit the maniac depression. This chapter conveys information about Showalters concerns beyond women writers and looks at the contradictions and tensions that shape womens social, psychological, and sexual development. It is bound to provoke disagreement, if only because it raised so many questions related to womens position in the literary world. Showalter criticizes their works for their androgynistic nature s. For all its concern with sexual connotations and sexuality, the writing avoids actual contact with the body, disengaging from people into a room of ones own. In the light of this, Showalters well-known critique of Woolfs founding of an aesthetic upon the ideal of androgyny should itself be critically reconsidered. Showalter argues throughout the chapter that Woolfs androgyny represents an escape from the confrontation with femaleness or maleness, and that her famous definition of life as a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope is another metaphor of uterine withdrawal and containment. The false transcendence of sexual identity, or in Showalters phrase, the flight into androgyny amounts to evasions of reality and of the female experience, and this is presumed to result in Woolfs progressive technical inability to accommodate the facts and crises of day-to-day experience, even when she wanted to do so.  [1]  What is posited in Showalters stress on confrontation, sexual ide ntity or experience is what we might term a Lukfsian concept of a unified autonomous subject which is the sole agent of its own development in confrontation with the environment. The chapter analyses the androgyny, in general, as an escape of their (women) sexual identity as a woman or/and even as a return to heterosexuality which makes the world go round as Marcus pointed out,  [2]  differently of what many other critics in general say that Woolfs androgyny was subversive and feminist in nature and not as Showalter described as. Gilbert, Sandra A, Costumes of the Mind: Transvestism as Metaphor in Modern Literature. In Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminist Criticism. Ed. by Judith Spector (Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1986), pp.70-98. Susan Gilbert argues that most modernist male writers in English were concerned with reasserting, in a profoundly conservative sense, the dominance and superiority of masculine sexuality, as well as mans prior claim to masculinity. The post-war assertion of masculinity constituted a male intervention into a broad general field of language and culture rather than the nationalist linked militancy of earlier periods. The readings by Gilbert shape a convincing argument that a number of fictional episodes sometimes regarded as liberating and innovatory were concerned with the reassertion of conventional gender roles and heterosexuality rather than sexual revolution. Men represent an attempt to close off the possibilities for the change in womens roles opened up by the events of the First World War, Gilbert claims. The problem is that Gilberts mode of criticism assumes a direct link between the sex of the author and the text. Rather than investigating the way in which writing reveals an in conclusive ambivalence about sexual identity, Gilbert insists on assigning a single position to male modernist writers. Women writers were, for the most part, with the exception of Virginia Woolf, omitted from the modernist canon constructed by literary critics in the nineteen fifties and sixties. Literary production functioned as a framework in which issues about the rights of women were foregrounded, at the same time as they explored the gains and losses experienced by women during that time. On the other hand, the fictions of Virginia Woolf, in particular, depict the difficulties of achieving a sense of female identity, and beyond that, the impossibility of finding any final, stable identity for the subject. Her texts represent the fears, and reconstruct the problematic issues of being a woman, as well as the pleasures of femininity and masculinity, in such a way as to bring into question celebratory and empiricist theories of feminist criticism. Whitworth, Michael, Virginia Woolf and Modernism, in The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf. Ed. by Sue Roe and Susan Sellers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 146-63. Throughout her fiction and criticism, Woolf expresses a preference for a reality which is semi-transparent, combining the solidity of granite and the evanescence of rainbow. Though many critics have seen in modernism an irrationalist rejection of science in favour of myth, in the case of Woolf at least, the situation is more complex. (2000:151) In his essay, Michael Whitworth discusses the significance of issues such as science, politics, and contemporary culture which are discussed in relation to modernist writings. It is pointed out that critics have long neglected the significance of Virginia Woolf in such contexts. The kind of insight into dual reality that Whitworth notices in Woolf attracts more critical attention in recent studies of Modernism, especially knowing that it was not only Woolfs case that the situation was complex but also that many artists, writers, and thinkers of different disciplines, scientific or artistic, of the era shared a strong interest in various fields of science such as life science, eugenics, physics, psychoanalysis, and so on. Moreover, his text delineates the custom to make a modern writing, Modern. The text draws, quite precisely, the use of science in the narratives of fiction of early twentieth century including with a long analyses over Virginia Woolfs works. Farwell, Marilyn R, Virginia Woolf and Androgyny. Contemporary Literature, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Autumn, 1975), 433-451. For Virginia Woolf, androgyny was inseparably linked with a nostalgic wish to evade sexual difference even as she made the affirmation of sexual difference the basis of a radical sexual politics. Androgyny represents, in Woolfs writing, ambivalence and contradiction: if it could be used to redress the imbalance of patriarchal accounts of history, then the invocation of the female body as an answer to that imbalance only affirms constructions of sexual difference. Farwells essay, Virginia Woolf and Androgyny discusses Woolfs theory of androgyny. He debates the relation between the etymology of androgyny and its institutionalization into the narrative frame of Modernism. Giving examples from the novel A Room of Ones Own, Farwell points out that androgyny appears to be either an inter-play of separate and unique elements or a fusion of one into the other [] ad, unfortunately, most critics implicitly choose one side or the other trying not to see the important distinction which is crucia l. His essay brings together various instances of critical thought that have problematised an understanding of androgyny by interrogating the assumptions about gender which many critics and scholar are dealing with. Johnson, Reginald Brimley, Some Contemporary Novelists (Women), (London: Leonard Parsons, 1920), pp. 140-160. Virginia Woolfs essay Modern Novels, which under its later title Modern Fiction became so famous as a manifesto of literary modernism and which constitutes the prelude to Woolfs own most distinctive artistic achievement, was not a sudden revolutionary argument with no wider literary context. In Some Contemporary Novelists (Women) published in 1920, in a chapter dedicated to Virginia Woolfs writing, Johnson discusses an emerging trend among the female novelists of the early twentieth century: [She] has abandoned the old realism She is seeking, with passionate determination, for that Reality which is behind the material, the things that matter, spiritual things, ultimate Truth. And here she finds man an outsider, wilfully blind, purposely indifferent. This trend he called New Realism. The text refers mainly to Dorothy Richardson and it is not clear whether or not Brimley Johnson had read Woolfs Modern Novels, but clearly states Richardson account of this New Realism which searches for a new vision or truth behind the veil of masculine materialism institucionalized in the Modern era. It also states Woolfs demand for a new literature. But for Woolf herself at this stage, this new literary vision pertains to a new generation; it is not gender-specific. She periodizes literary history by the reign of monarchs spiritual Georgians against crassly materialistic Edwardians not by the difference between sexes. Johnsons text clearly illustrates the transience that happened inside out Modernism, expressing the most valuable analysis on Woolf and Richardson in their own right. Williams, Raymond. The Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists (London, 1989), (The Found Era: London, 1972), pp.45-53. Women writers were, for the most part, with the exception of Virginia Woolf, omitted from the modernist canon constructed by literary critics in the nineteen fifties and sixties. Raymond Williams in his intriguing but well written paper remarks that [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] there is still a radical difference between the two generations: the struggling innovators and the modernist establishment which consolidated their achievement. (51) He suggests that there was a distinct time gap between the production of primary texts and academic and commercial institutional responses, although he does not investigate the extent to which this gap was distributed in terms of the gender of writers. While womens participation in literary productivity in the nineteen twenties and thirties increased, it did so in the context of extensive social and political debate about the rights of women to education (including sexual education), to political power, and to earn a living of their own and in which Woolf wa s far ahead off. Literary production functioned as a framework in which issues about the rights of women were foregrounded, at the same time as they explored the gains and losses experienced by women during that time. On the other hand, the fictions of Virginia Woolf, in particular, depict the difficulties of achieving a sense of female identity, and beyond that, the impossibility of finding any final, stable identity for the subject. Her texts represent the fears, and reconstruct the problematic issues of being a woman, as well as the pleasures of femininity and masculinity, in such a way as to bring into question celebratory and empiricist theories of feminist criticism. Williams discusses the subversive female desires in which most of Woolfs novels are intrinsically focused in a clearly and well presented way. Abel, Elizabeth. Virginia Woolf and the Fictions of Psychoanalysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London, 1993), pp. 1-29. Virginia Woolf is now usually thought of as a feminist author. Yet the term feminist has a number of meanings, and it is worth considering in what ways the word applies to Woolf. In both her own creative practice and her essays, she shows herself to be a keen advocate of women as writers and of a womens literary tradition. Her literary politics are certainly feminist. In terms of content, it is also clear that Woolf asks questions about womens art, the nature of female consciousness, and the means of literary presentation that must be developed to make the nature of a feminine consciousness visible. Abel pinpoints Woolfs interest in the fictional shapes narrative project on which women were present. Disclosing Woolfs discourse on gender and history, Abel contextualizes it with the idea of psychoanalysis in mid-1920s, opening up discourse over the subject much awaited. This particular chapter treats the progress of psycho-analytic studies, womens position in England during 1920s and w hat is meant to be a woman in such a society. It also reveals Freuds idea of the Oedipus complex and so forth. Connected with the idea that if the male writer suffers self-consciousness as an aspect of the general experience of modernity, with its dissolution of tradition, its skeptical, even nihilistic testing of old sanctities and pieties, then clearly the woman writers sense of the injustice of womens position in society, with its temptations of bitterness, denunciation, resentment, reinforces the danger, Abel is exploring what was Woolfs second dissatisfaction with the modernist texts and what is worth reading. The chapter (En) Gendering History, is slightly complex but precise in what modernism versus history and psychology regard to.

Effects of Social Media on Young People

Effects of Social Media on Young People In modern life, social media is developing fast. It is used by many people all over the world. Social media is especially very popular among the young. However, there are many young people who cannot control themselves and are addicted to social media. Addiction to social media has many serious effects, including poor study habits, living away from reality and bad health. First, addiction to social media makes the youth have bad grades in studies. Because of social media, many students who were excellent students have become bad students. Every day, these students come to class, but they do not focus on studying. While their professors are teaching, they are using cellphones to surf Facebook, Instagram or chat with friends on Messenger. They always check their cellphones every five minutes to see what is going on on social media. If the young use social media in classes, how can they listen to the professors and understand what professors are saying? Moreover, not only at school but also at home these young students who are addicted to social media do not do exercise or read the new lesson before going to school, because they are busy with social media. For example, Khanh, a young girl from Vietnam, is addicted to social media. In the past, she was a hard-working student. She always did all homework and prepared for new lessons, so she got A grades. H owever, everything has changed since she started using social media too much. In classes, instead of listening to the professor, she always posts selfies on Facebook and Instagram. At home, with the attraction of social media, she continues using her cellphone and does not study or do assignments. As a result, in the mid-term exam and final exam, she only got C and D grades. Addiction to social media causes a bad habit in studies. It can change a young person from an excellent student to a bad one. Secondly, young people who are addicted to social media can live far away from reality. Because of using a cell phone all day, they will not have time for outdoor activities such as playing sports or camping. Instead of going out to meet friends or talk to their parents, these people love chatting with friends on social media. They will just stay at home and update their news on social media. They post status or photos to share with their friends on social media. Gradually, they will only live in a virtual world. Amanda, a teenager in America, is a clear example. When her mother bought her a cell phone for her 18th birthday, she became a person addicted to social media. She did not go swimming with her friends during weekends. She rarely talked with her parents. During family vacation, she always took photos of food and places she visited and notified her friends on Facebook or Instagram. Now, she posts her feeling status with a photo on social media everyday. Her life is updated fre quently on social media. Social media is regarded as the world she lives in, the world in which we only communicate through icons, comments and likes. And last but not least, using social media too much will have a serious impact on health. Because the young are addicted to social media, they will go to bed late to read news on Facebook or chat with friends. Staying up late is really harmful to the health, especially, the brain. If the young do not sleep enough, their health will be affected seriously by losing weight or always feeling tired. Their brains also will not work effectively and they will be in sleepy condition. Moreover, addiction to social media can cause depression in the young. When the young use social media, they will see other people on social media. If the young see other people who are better than them in appearance or talent, they can feel inferior. These young people can envy the people who are more famous or intelligent than them, and they also feel ashamed of themselves. They always wonder why they cannot be excellent, talented or beautiful like others. Therefore, they feel under pressure, stressed and depre ssed. These mental problems are very dangerous to the young people because these mental problems cause the young people lose their minds and eventually, choose death. In conclusion, although using social media has many benefits in our lives, addiction to social media is not good. It will have awful influences on studying, make us live way from reality and have bad effects on health. In order to avoid being addicted to social media, young people should spend more time playing sports, studying and taking part in activities in schools.

Acid Rain :: Free Essay Writer

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Acid rain is a form of precipitation that contains high levels of sulfuric or nitric acids. In simple terms, acid rain is hail, rain, snow, or sleet that is more acidic than normal. Precipitation naturally is a little acidic but when the pH level drops below a set standard it is acid rain. In general, acid rain is a very complicated problem that is caused by many factors. In this paper, I will discuss how emissions caused by humans effect pH level in precipitation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, I will define, in detail, what acid rain is. Acid rain is precipitation that has a pH less than 5.6. The pH scale is a scale that measures if a compound is acidic, basic, or neutral. Neutral is in the middle which has a pH of 7. Basic has a pH between 7.1 and 14 and acidic has a pH between 6.9 and 0. For example, vinegar is acidic with a pH reading of 2.4. Normal precipitation has a pH between 6.9 and 5.9.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Acid rain is formed when sulfur dioxide and various nitrogen oxides combine with atmospheric moisture. Sulfur dioxide is produced by the emissions of electric utilities, industrial companies, commercial and residential heating, smelters and diesel engines. Sulfur dioxide produces sulfuric acid, which will produce acid rain. Nitrogen oxides are produced mostly by transportation (cars, trucks, planes, etc.). Nitrogen oxides produce nitric acid, which will also produce acid rain. The main contributor to acid rain is sulfur oxides (SO2 and SO3). Sulfur oxides are produced naturally but not in the concentration that humans produce. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, can be largely blamed for the production of sulfur oxides. The process of acid rain starts when photons from the sun hit ozone molecules (O3) to form oxygen (O2). Next, the O2 molecules react with water (H2O) to form a negatively charged hydroxyl radicals (OH-). It is the hydroxyl radicals that are responsible for oxidizing sulfur dioxide. This will produce sulfuric acid. Oxidation occurs in clouds mostly above cities with heavily polluted air. These clouds contain ammonia and ozone that can catalyze the reaction. This means that the ammonia and ozone will produce more sulfuric acid fast and the ammonia and ozone will not be consumed in the reaction. Nitrogen oxides are produce from power plants and exhaust fumes from automobiles. The reactions to make nitric acid are similar to the reactions to make sulfuric acid.

South African Diamond Trade: Enforcement and Perpetuation of Apartheid

South African Diamond Trade: Enforcement and Perpetuation of Apartheid, Past and Present I. Introduction South Africa was a rich country with a beautiful landscape and a rich culture. There were tremendous natural resources in South Africa and spectacular beauty. South African society was fluid and accepting, allowing people to move from one tribe to the next, without discrimination. This accepting and truly benevolent moral system, perhaps turned out to be a fatal flaw, manipulated and abused by European colonists who arrived in 1652 and have left an indelible legacy on the nation of South Africa (Thompson, 33). Upon their arrival, the Dutch and then the English systematically exploited black South Africans, taking advantage of their welcoming demeanor. Blacks began to be pushed off their land and natural resources monopolized by whites. Then on a fateful day in 1866, a new discovery by Erasmus Jacobs took the manipulation and exploitation of South Africa to all new heights. On this day, the Eureka diamond was discovered on the banks of the Orange River. The Eureka was 21.25 carats rough and confirmed earlier rumors of diamonds in South Africa and ignited the diamond rush (debeers.com). With this rush came the advent of large mining corporations such as Anglo American Corporation and DeBeers, who created an intricate system that kept the Africans they employed in poverty, while destroying traditional African society, all the while earning tremendous amounts of money. These companies, De Beers in particular, are depicted today as the benevolent liberal foreign company, but in reality they systematically exploited South Africans and their resources. They are applauded throughout the world for their cu... ...ngering presence of the stark inequalities that curse South Africa. However, if this is recognized and acknowledged, perhaps South Africa can take a critical step towards true equality, not just with words, but with economic opportunity. Works Cited De Beers Group. De Beers History. 5 March 2005. www.debeersgroup.com/debeersweb/About+De+Beers/De+Beers+History/. Ferguson, James. â€Å"Introduction to Humanities: Encounters and Identities.† Stanford University. Stanford. 14 February 2005 and 3 March 2005. Mathabane, Mark. Kaffir Boy. Free Press (Simon & Schuster): New York, 1986. Moodie, T. Dunbar. Going for Gold. University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, 1994. Summa, John. â€Å"Anglo-American Corporation.† Multinational Monitor. Vol. 9: 9. September 1988. Thompson, Leonard. A History of South Africa. Yale Nota Bene: New Haven, 2001.

My Response to the play Rainbows Ending Essays -- Drama

My Response to the play Rainbow's Ending. I quiet enjoyed reading the text "Rainbow's Ending". Here is a brief summary of the play: The story is about two giants, the world is peaceful, quiet and happy, until the giants have an argument over who is bigger, and have an eating competition. They eat anything and everything they can find, as they eat their way through the country. The rest of the country becomes helpless, dirty and noisy. Until one day the giants return and everything becomes a better place again! The group, in which I was in, came up with many imaginative ideas, for the particular scenes in which we worked on. I very much liked the idea of the superpowers of the two giants in the story, which the author Noel Greig wrote. We used his ideas from the text to create our own ideas. In scene 1 we used a lot of Physical theatre. We had the Sun, Empire State Building, Post Office Tower, trees, and the river. I particularly liked the way which we had four people being the river when it came to the lines "it was a sunny day the trout were almost queuing up to get themselves hooked" at this point we had the little old fisher woman with her fishing rod, by the river bank. The river was made by the four people, they were making wavy movements together, and the trout were two of the people quickly kneeling up towards the fisher woman, begging to get hooked. Then when it came to the next line " one giant lay down and started to lap up the wate...

Bible Defines Human Nature Essay

                    According to the book of Genesis, man was created in the image of God. â€Å"God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.† Genesis 1:27   This means that man’s nature is godly. Because our almighty God is a holy God, man is also expected to be blameless before Him. But how come sin became inevitable to human nature? Isn’t it that man by nature is greedy and self centered? Other than that, the New Testament says that all have fallen short to God’s standard. Does it mean that the bible contradict itself?                  Meanwhile, western philosophers believe in the concept to tabula rasa. It’s a thesis that says that human beings are born without an inborn personality. Human personality is just a product of pile of experiences and is influenced by his surroundings. If a man doesn’t grow up in a good environment, it follows that his nature is not that good too. In other words, man was born as innocent creature without any sense of morality. We can say that being innocent is close to being blameless. Does it mean that the idea of tabula rasa supports the famous idea taken from Genesis?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When we look at the Christian concept of salvation, we can conclude that the Gospel presents a clear explanation regarding this long time debate. Although the bible gives a seemingly contradicting explanation regarding the nature of human beings, still it supports each other when view it from Christian perspective.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When we were born, we can’t deny the fact that we are innocent. Just like Adam and Eve, we don’t have any knowledge of sin. And as we look back on the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve became aware that they were naked when sin entered their life. Therefore we can conclude that our sinful nature starts when we lose our innocence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As we grow old, our values are being by our family, community, church and media. Other than that, our personalities were shaped by our experiences. For those people who experienced rejection, they are more likely to develop pride and insecurities. It is also inevitable for them to hold grudges and bitterness. As we look at the bible, we can see that pride and bitterness are sin. Like pride and bitterness, greed is also a product of life experiences as well as family background and community involvement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It means that sin is an inevitable part of life. As we grow old, they more we can acquire sin which is too far from having a godly nature. But the good news is that God made a way so that human can return to their blameless nature. He sent Jesus for us to be like his image again. Because of Jesus’ blood that was shed on the cross, we are forgiven of our sin and purified to become new creations. â€Å"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.†Ã‚   2 Corinthians 5:17  Ã‚   This idea of Christ’s way of salvation supports the concept of sanctification.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But sanctification is not a one time experience for Christians. They are experiencing a lifetime of sanctification as they grow in their relationship with Christ. If experiences can cause us to sin, our experiences can also be used by God to mold our characters. Our life is a preparation of our character, a way of sanctification until we meet Christ. It is the reason why the bible always compares Christ and church relationship with that of a groom and a bride. Bibliography The Bible League. The Devotional Study Bible. USA: Zondervan Corporation, 1987.