Identifying The Day We Were Dogs Essay -- Day We Were Dogs Essays

Identifying The Day We Were Dogs      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Whether or not "The Day We Were Dogs" (1993) is a magical realist story is questionable. Often stories are misidentified because of the closeness of literature such as magical realism, the fantastic, and the sublime. The story leaves a lot to one's imagination instead of presenting it in the text. Elena Garro blends two days and two completely different worlds together in this story. The magical elements depend on how one uses his or her imagination throughout this story. The girls could either be pretending to be dogs or they could have actually become dogs. If they are in fact real dogs, they are able to talk, and their dog Toni also talks. Also, magic numbers are used throughout the story. The main magical element is the blending of the two days. The story jumps back and forth between the two and never distinguishes between them. The realistic elements include Toni's actions. He shows how dogs spend their days lying under a tree and eating all day. Another realistic element depends on how one accepted the events that happened within the two parallel days. If the girls were not actually turned in to dogs but were just pretending, then this fact is another realistic element. Children often pretend they are animals, expecially dogs. In magical realism, "the text contains something we cannot explain according to the laws of the universe as we know them" (Faris 167) and the "descriptions detail a stong presence of the phenomenal world" (Faris 169). These quotes explain why one might think that this story is magical realism due to the two different worlds that are going on at the same time. Also, one "experience[s] the closeness or near-merging of two realms, two worlds" (Fari... ...l Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 249-263. Garro, Elena. "The Day We Were Dogs." Latin American Writers: Thirty Stories. Ed. Gabriells Ibieta. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1993. 206-212. Faris, Wendy B. "Scherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. Sandner, David. "Romanticism and Transcendence in Nineteenth-Century Children's Fantasy Literature." The Fantastic Sublime. Westport, C.T.: Greenwood Press. 45-65, 142-147. Theim, Jon. "The Textualization of the Reader in Magical Realist Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 235-247.   

Altruism: Research perspectives from Current psychology Essay

Altruism which can also be termed as selflessness is a principle of practice that concerns the welfare of others. This is one of the traditional virtues that were upheld by several cultures, secular views and religious traditions. This is a malleable notion that is understood differently in many disciplines although the common denominator of all the definitions is the ideology of unidirectional helping character. Within the clinical setting, altruism is a value that nurses as professionals poses. Despite the enormous changes within the society and the ways in which training and education for nurses is delivered, nursing is highly underpinned by the beliefs and values of the profession. The values that have been evaluated as altruistic include care for others, academic performance and self-control. Altruism is the key characteristic that all nurses and the health professionals are expected to have (Puka, 1994). The definition of altruism biologically is the behavior that individual poses and increases fitness of another person while at the same time decreasing the fitness of the actor (Pallone, 1999). In this particular sense, it is totally different from the philosophical perspective whereby an action is only said to be altruistic if it was done with a conscious intention of helping another person. Within the nursing and health care fraternities, there are no restrictions to an altruistic act which is just but an act of helping an individual who as a problem or caring for others (Puka, 1994). The nursing and healthcare professionals possess the responsibility of being altruistic. This means that as professionals they have an ethical obligation give others what they need without any form of self-interest (Johnson, Larkin, & Saks, 1995). Most nurses who are altruistic will always make decisions totally that are in the best interest of the concerned patient. By being altruistic the nurses and healthcare professionals are being patient advocate, hence they will be practicing good ethics of nursing. During a moral code situation, the adrenaline of the nurses and healthcare professionals and in a life-saving mode. At this particular point they feel good being a nurse who can save the world as an individual, but when things doesn’t go right this particular feeling is put into a test and one keep asking him or herself questions(Johnson, Larkin, & Saks, 1995). Many new nurses have very hard time while making decisions concerning life and death. In most cases it takes a lot of maturity to get wisdom, knowledge and certitude. Ethics in the healthcare and nursing profession is what it always drives the process of making decisions whether good or bad. Altruism as one of the most critical code of ethics should always be involved in any other decision that is made (Johnson, Larkin, & Saks, 1995). Nurses are also put in a fix that they have to always respect the cultural beliefs and the values of others. Just because nurses sometimes think they know the right thing to do, does not actually make it totally right. It is altruistic for the nurses and other health care professionals to honor and respect the wishes and beliefs of the patients. It is unfortunate that they decisions that are made by the patients and their families are mainly driven by either grief of total lack of understanding (Puka, 1994). Conclusion                      Altruism as part of ethics practiced by nurses encompasses the interpretation of an individual. It is based totally on the values and morals that individuals possess. Although the Nurse Practice Act have very good guidelines for how individuals should act it does not absolve individuals from making personal decisions concerning the issues at hand. References Pallone, N. J. (1999). Altruism, narcissism, comity: Research perspectives from Current psychology. New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers. Johnson, T., Larkin, G., & Saks, M. (1995).  Health professions and the state in Europe. London: Rutledge. Bailey, P. A., Carpenter, D. R., & Harrington, P. A. (1999).  Integrating community service into nursing education: A guide to service-learning. New York, NY: Springer Pub. Co. Puka, B. (1994).  Reaching out: Caring, altruism, and prosocial behavior. New York: Garland. Source document

The World s Columbian Exposition - 1944 Words

The World’s Columbian Exposition, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World, occupied the streets of Chicago in 1893. With the crowding of people, tourists have a high demand for a place to stay during their visit. A young man by the name of H.H. Holmes decides to open up a large hotel during the Columbian Exposition to bring in extra money. Little did his customers know that the man they are staying with would soon become one of the first documented serial killers. Many aspects throughout Holmes’s life formed him into the kind of person he turned out to be. Influences from his childhood, his greed for money and power, and his intelligence gave him the ability to construct his â€Å"Murder†¦show more content†¦Knowing that the first five years of life are the most important in shaping the personality and interests of people, the isolation, violence, and deaths Holmes experienced as a young child had a great effect on his later life. Holmes started school at the age of six, but this was not an easy experience for him. Constantly bullied by the older kids who were jealous of his great intelligence, Holmes began to shy away from many people. He came to feel worthless and that he did not belong because of the combination of violence at home and harassment at school. One day, his bullies made him touch a real skeleton his school owned. Scared at first, Holmes finally gave in to the bullies. He recalled feeling very fascinated as his hand was caressing the skeleton. This spark in Holmes led to the fire that was going to explode inside of him in the years to come. Having this close contact with a dead body is a foreshadow to the murders he would commit later in his life. After the encounter with the skeleton, he started to become more and more obsessed with death and dead things. Holmes was known to dissect dead, and even alive, animals as a hobby. As he grew into his teens, he became a bully, too. Younger children were afraid of him, but Holmes saw his actions almost as payback for what he had to endure as a young child. Some could say that these encounters with dead animals, bullying classmates, and his obsession with death should have been