The title of the book I read was 1491 Essay Example for Free

The title of the book I read was 1491 Essay New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. It was written by Charles C. Mann. Other books by this author include Noahs Choice: The Future of Endangered Species and The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics. 1491 is based around Native Americans and how they really lived before European settlers came to the Americas. This is a very interesting, as well as extremely informative book that gives unbiased and well-thought-out information about on the peoples about which that the author writes. about. I personally found this book to be a very good read. Charles Mann is a fantastic writer, and he makes everything about this book interesting. He knows how to put things so that he really grabs the readers attention and keeps you interested to learn more. He is very descriptive and words things in a way that is understandable for me, the reader. He also has a very extensive vocabulary, which makes the reading even more interesting. Mann also uses tons of information that he has gathered. He makes very good points to his topics, as well, and he makes these points very clear. Because of this, I did not find anything that I really disagreed with him on. The book mostly speaks of how much false information is widely believed in the world today about early Americans before Columbus and the Europeans settled in the New World. Many scholars in the past have made false assumptions on about the Native Americans because of their own ethnocentric opinions. For example, today most people view the early Americans as being very nature-oriented, but not very intelligent people who live in small, isolated tribes scattered across the country, who also never did anything to change their environment. However, these assumptions are not true. The Indians actually had a huge impact on their land, mostly for the better. They cleared land to plant more nut and fruit trees, they grew tons of crops, they even created maize. One group in particular, the Beni, was exceptional in the area of purposing land for their its benefit. They built huge mounds in an area that was constantly being flooded. By doing so, this allowed them to grow crops and trees on the mounds. They even made traps below the mounds to trap fish when the area did flood. Overall, I found the book to be very memorable. I really enjoyed reading this book and I will remember a lot of the information that it has taught me for a long time. I cant think of anything that I disagree with the author on, since Charles Mann does make very good points, and he is impressively convincing. I think that the information given in 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus will open the eyes of many people and teach a lot of people more about the history of the Native Americans. This is a very good and informative book that gives unbiased and trustworthy information about the early Americans before and after Europeans settled in the Americas.

embalming fluid the new high :: essays research papers

A chemical used to preserve the dead is becoming an increasingly popular drug for teenagers and young adults looking for a new and different high. Amp, clickem, crazy eddie, drank, fry, illy, purple rain, wack, wet, and wet daddy known to the average person as embalming fluid is the newest drug craze that is hitting the streets in the United States.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Embalming fluid’s main purpose is to slow the decomposition of the dead. Mainly found in morgues and funeral homes. The fluid involves the injection of chemicals into the body through the blood vessels for preservation of the body. The following compounds are found in embalming fluid, formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol or ethyl alcohol. In embalming fluid products, the percentage of formaldehyde can range from 5 to 29 percent; ethyl alcohol content can vary from 9 to 56 percent. Ethyl alcohol is also a central nervous system depressant.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The drug can be sold on the street from twenty dollars to thirty-five dollars. Users are buying the fluid and dipping their marijuana joints or blunts in the fluid, letting the joint or blunt dry then smoking it . Most of the users don’t know that somewhere along the dealing process that the embalming fluid is being laced with PCP. So while most users think they are smoking marijuana dipped in embalming fluid they are getting an extra high from the unknown PCP. It is important to note that the PCP is not a normal compound in embalming fluid. Embalming fluid is generally consumed in small groups of three to five and smoked. The embalming fluid may enhance absorption by slowing the rate at which the marijuana burns.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It has been reported that the actual smoking of embalming fluid is not very pleasant. It has been said that it taste like rubbing alcohol and smells like gasoline. The high last between six hours to thirty hours and the acute symptoms of intoxication usually subside in twenty-four to thirty-six hours depending of the half-lives of the drugs used in a particular mixture. The drug can be stored in fats and then released, causing recurrence of symptoms .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The short term effects of using embalming fluid are as follows; blurred vision or impaired vision which is a symptom that begins at the high and endures into the next day. Headache that follows the day after consumption. Increased forgetfulness, vomiting, depression or sadness, facial or bodily edema, anger, frustration, hallucinations, delusions, increase in women’s sexual appetites, paranoia, physical violence and sleepiness.

Life and Death as Portrayed in Edgar Allan Poe’s Essay

Notwithstanding the fact that life and death is a recurring and typical theme in most literary genres, famous American poet Edgar Allan Poe successfully depicted this theme through his creative and inventive literary techniques present in the poems The Bells and The Haunted Palace. Poe’s The Bells depicts a representation of life from youth to the pain of age as time passes by. The four kinds of bells which are described in details in the poem can be associated to the four seasons or stages in the life of an individual (Bell 83). The silver bells represent spring, birth and beginning which entails happiness in the life of a person. This stage in the life of people usually occurs during the 20s or 30s. The golden bells on the second stanza could also represent happiness and joy to a person. This commonly takes place during weddings when two people are bounded by their enduring love and commitment. The brazen bells on the third stanza, on the other hand, portray the fall season within the individuals where mid life crisis seems to engulf their whole life. This season also indicates that winter is near that is why the third stanza sounds very different from the two first stanzas. The last stage refers to the winter which was depicted by the iron bells. This season entails death as winter is the time when leaves, flowers and trees wither and die. Likewise, this poem is also much associated to the author’s mourning over his lost wife whom he courted in sledge, married and then killed in fire in the end of the story. In real life situation, Poe lost his wife which caused him a great misery in his own life. The last stanza of this poem had many other implications in the real life of the author itself. The portrayal of this poem about the different stage in the maturation of individuals, in addition, becomes very successful since Edgar Allan Poe has the incredible ability to use sounds and images to concretize the ideas and emotions in his works. The different metal sounds, for instance, which were portrayed by the four kinds of bell, give the concrete justifications to the description of the different stages of human development. Each bell in the poem perfectly represents distinct tone and sound to every stage in the life of an individual. Poe, in this poem, indeed shows how meter, rhyme scheme, diction and syntax create sensory images for the literary works. Looking carefully at the overall structure of the poem, furthermore, anyone will find that death composes the major idea of the poem. Death is greatly discussed through the dominating tone and mood of the speaker in the poem. The bells, the objects used to personify the theme of the poem, also signify death and even described to experience death through the words moaning and groaning in the last part of the poem. Just like the poem The Bells, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Haunted Palace is also considered to discuss the theme death through its images and personifications. This poem was incorporated by Poe in his short story entitled The Fall of the House of Usher as a poem written by Roderick Usher, the main character in the story. This poem is a metaphor about a king who is afraid of evil forces that greatly threaten him and his palace. In this poem, the theme death is also very dominant just like the poem The Bells. The king, as described in the poem, is very doomed to face death in his life. This occurrence is sometimes true to most of the people since many treat death as the end of everything. The use of figurative treatment in this poem, moreover, illustrates how death comes to people and how most individuals react about death. The evil spirits in the palace serve as the metaphor of the thoughts of people about death which drive and lead individuals to insanity. Just like the king, many people are very afraid to face their own death. It is like the evil spirits in the poem which make a person out of his or her mind. Poe’s The Haunted Palace becomes a great poem of our time because of its perfect use of symbolism and imagery to justify and concretize the dominating theme of the poem. The palace in the poem which was haunted by the evil spirits represents a man in our society. The evil spirits portray the crazy thought of every man to death and its consequences. The poem illustrates that the palace is being hunted by the evil spirits just like a man who is being haunted by the frightening thought of death that may come in his life anytime of the day in his or her life. In the above discussions, it is very clear that the two poems, which are carefully crafted by literary symbolisms and imagery, are discussing the theme death which has something to do with the personal life of the author itself. Critics argue that Poe’s literary works mostly discuss death since they are the perfect reflection of his imperfect life. As a child, Poe had a very scary and sad experience as he was left in a room with the dead corpse of his mother for three days. As a student and youth, he suffered from a gambling addiction and other bad activities. At twenty-seven, Poe married his thirteen year old cousin. After the death of his wife, Poe became alcohol and drug abuser since he received less wealth and fame in his entire life (Gill 20). His life ended two years after the death of his wife as he was found drowned in his own vomit. In this sense, the theme death and suffering, which are indeed dominating in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, are somehow justified in the real life situation of the author itself. These works can be considered to inspirations based from the experiences of the author. It is also a writing style from Poe which became a significant topic for debates for as long period of time (Zimmerman 3). In total, Edgar Allan Poe’s The Bells and The Haunted Palace are literary works that perfectly tackle issues about death coupled with great literary devices such as symbolism and imagery. The Bells’ distinctive and creative sounds heard in each bell of the four stanzas intensify the discussion of the poem about the four stages of life of an individual with emphasis on death as the final stage of life. The Haunted Palace’s figurative and symbolic tools, on the other hand, perfectly discuss the fear of every man to face death in his life. The two poems are truly worth to consider as among the many literary classics of the world that will never die in the heart and mind of the people since they are indeed a creative and inventive fruits of the perspiration and labor of a good literary artist. Works Cited Gill, William Fearing. The Life of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: BiblioBazaar, 2009. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1. New York: BiblioBazaar, 2008. Zimmerman, Brett. Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and style. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.

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