The Role of Superstition Essay Example for Free

The Role of Superstition Essay Superstition is a recurring theme in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Superstition is defined in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition as â€Å"a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance. † Mark Twain effectively uses superstition to both foreshadow events and to contrast the personalities of the characters in the book. The â€Å"more sivilized† characters of the book do not believe in superstition, but the less educated characters, such as Huck and Jim, often make decisions based on their belief in superstition. While several of the lesser characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn believe in superstitions, it is Huck and Jim, the two main characters of the novel, who reveal that they live according to their superstitions. For example, in Chapter 4, Huck, who is then staying at Widow Douglas’ house, sees a spider crawling up his shoulder. He flicks the spider and it lands in a burning candle, shrivels up and dies. â€Å"I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge, it was all shriveled up. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that was an awful bad sign† (p. 3). According to Huck, killing a spider can bring bad luck. In an effort to reverse the bad omen, Huck turns around three times, each time crossing his breast, and then ties up a little lock of his hair to keep the witches away. Huck isn’t even sure this ritual will work for killing a spider, as it was intended for another bad omen, but he feels compelled to try to do something, so strong are his superstitious beliefs. Huck encounters another superstition Chapter IV of the novel. Huck, who is living with the Widow Douglas, spills the salt and immediately tries to reverse the bad luck by tossing the salt over his left shoulder. Miss Watson, who has recently come to live with her sister, the Widow Douglas, stops him, however, and this causes Huck to worry because he cannot finish his ritual. â€Å"I reached over for some of it as quik as I could to throw over my left shoulder to keep off the bad luck†¦feeling all worried and shaky, and wondering where it was going to fall on me, and what it was going to be† says Huck (p. 13). Miss Watson, along with Widow Douglas, along with many of the more civilized people of the novel do not believe in superstitions the same way as do slaves and less civilized people. Miss Watson will not let Huck toss the salt over his shoulder because she is trying to provide him with a good civilized and educated upbringing. According to Jim, one of the worst things you can do is touch a snakeskin. Huck does just this after faking his death at the cabin and discovering Jim at Jackson Island. The first sign that the snakeskin is actually causing bad luck is when Huck decides to play a trick on Jim. Huck takes the dead rattlesnake that he has killed and put it near where Jim will be sleeping in the cave to scare him. Huck forgets that a snake’s mate curls up beside its dead mate. When Jim got into bed that night the dead snakes mate bites Jim on the heel, causing Jim to be unable to walk for a time. Touching a snakeskin is supposed to be so bad that Jim says that he would rather look at a new moon a thousand times over his left shoulder than touch a snakeskin. â€Å"I awluz ‘spected dat rattlesnake-skin waren’t done wid it’s work† (p.90) says Jim after his and Huck’s raft is torn apart by the steamboat. Jim, who tends to be more superstitious than Huck, introduces Huck to many superstitions he had never heard before. According to Jim, †¦you mustn’t count the things you are going to cook for dinner, because that would bring bad luck. The same if you shook the tablecloth after sundown. And he said if a man owned a beehive and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sunup next morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die (p.39). When Huck decides to catch some young birds â€Å"flying a yard or two at a time and lighting†(p. 39), Jim will not let him because he says it will bring death. â€Å"He [Jim] said his father laid mighty sick once, and some of them catched a bird, and his old granny said his father would die, and he did. † (p. 39). It is generally believed that many of the superstitions found in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn originated with the slaves and then spread throughout the South. Through his writing, Mark Twain infers to the reader that mainly the slaves, the uneducated, and the unreligious believed in the superstitions. Huck, being poor and uneducated, believed in them because his Pap, who was found with a cross in his boot to keep the witches away, raised him to believe that way. Likewise, Jim, who was a slave, also believed in superstitions. The theme of superstition in the book by Twain serves two purposes – it makes the reader wonder what will happen next and also accurately portrays the various levels of society of the time.

Fire And Ice - Compared To 4 Other Poems Essay -- essays research pape

Five Great Pieces of Thought I think Robert Frost is a understandable, but yet an unconventional poet. Frost wrote in his own style, and as a result, he took quite a bit of heat from the critics of his period. Frost has an elegant style of writing descriptive and understandable poems. I am going to tell you about the five best pieces he has ever written. First off, "A Considerable Speck" is a unusual poem about Frost noticing a tiny speck on his paper. Upon further observation, Frost notices that the speck is actually a extremely tiny mite, struggling to avoid being crushed by Frost’s pen. Frost appreciates the insect’s battle to stay alive and leaves it on his paper. Frost allows the mite to sleep on his paper because he values any intelligence, even one that is small as a bug’s. This poem is told directly from Robert Frost’s mouth. It shows how much the poet appreciates the little things in life. Regardless of size Frost understands that a life is a life, and all lives are important. The imagery in this poem is very clear to me. I can picture an old man trying to blow a piece of dirt off the paper. Then the piece of dirt starts moving, as he sees what he believes to be a dot on the paper but really to be a mite. The old man then starts to think about the value of life. The theme of the poem is that there is no such thing as an insignificant speck. Everything and everyone has a purpose for being here. This poem is filled with alliteration. Some examples I found are: cunning crept, tenderer-than-thou, and breathing blown (Silberner 98). Mind is repeated three times in the final stanza. Also there were two instances in which Frost used assonance room for and living mite. The rhyme scheme of the first stanza of "A Considerable Speck" is AABBCCDADEEFGFGHH, but there is no pattern throughout the poem (Silberner 99). Next I would like to tell you about is "Ghost House". It is an remarkably descriptive poem illustrating an aged, haunted house. The imagery in this poem is marvelous. This poem allows the reader to see the house as if he were standing on the front porch. You can picture an old decrepit house, covered with vines and wild raspberries. There is a dying tree in the front yard, with only one vital branch on it. Beneath the tree there are two gravestones so covered in moss that the names cannot be... ...uching poem to me because I was always taught to be my own person and I thank my parents for that. Robert Frost’s life started out quite different than most people. He never had any formal schooling until he was the age of twelve years old. This wasn’t the way you would think a famous writer would start off his life. The even awkward part of this story is that he graduated Lawrence High School as co-valedictorian of his graduating class. When I saw that I was very struck. I realized that changing is all up to one person and that one person is you. Robert Frost’s life took drastic changes and as a result of this his poetry varies quite a bit (Silberner 192). At the time he was writing his more depressing poems, he was having trouble getting his poems published, and he was doing oddball jobs to make ends meet (Gioia and Kennedy 522). His more upbeat poems were not created until after magazines began printing his work. Robert Frost is a simple, yet powerful poet. He uses small, understandable words, which show very powerful meanings. The main reason why I appreci ate Frost’s work is because I can understand it, which is more than I can say for the majority of poetry that I have read.

Ifrs Adoption in Spain and the United Kingdom: Effects on Accounting Numbers and Relevance

Tutorial questions for Topic 6 Reading exercise Read Gaston et al (2010) article â€Å"IFRS adoption in Spain and the United Kingdom: Effects on accounting numbers and relevance† and find out the answer for the following questions: Q1 What are the research objectives? (the last 5 paragraphs of section 1) The main purpose of this research is to compare and contrast the quantitative impact of the IFRS adoption on financial reporting in Spain and the UK.There are two main research objectives. First it explores the economic and financial effect of the IFRS adoption for companies in the two countries. The second objective is to examine whether or not the IFRS will improve the usefulness of financial reporting. It is expected that companies’ market value and book value will increase under the IFRS adoption in both countries (Gaston et al, 2010). If you use direct quotation instead: The first objective of our study is to analyse the impact of IFRS on financial reports issued b y companies in Spain and the UK† (Gaston et al, 2010, p306). Q2 What is the research sample size? (section 3. 1 in page 306) 100 companies from the Madrid Stock Exchange General Index (IGBM) and 74 companies from the Financial Time Stock Exchange Index 100 (FTSE 100) (excluding financial institutions, holding companies and insurance firms) are used for this research.Q3 How many hypotheses are proposed, and what are they? (section 3. 3, p306-308) There are three hypotheses are proposed in this study and they are: â€Å"H01: There are no significant differences in the value of accounting figures and financial ratios determined under local GAAP and IFRS† â€Å"H02: There are no significant differences in the relative impact of IFRS on the value of accounting figures and financial ratios in the UK and Spain† â€Å"H03:There are no significant differences in the book values (per local GAAP and IFRS) and market value of firms† â€Å"H04: There are no significan t differences in the Gap(spainlocal), Gap(uklocal) and Gap(spainifrs), Gap(ukifrs) (Gaston et al, 2010, p307). Q4 What are the research findings? (section 5, page 312) â€Å"H01: There are no significant differences in the value of accounting figures and financial ratios determined under local GAAP and IFRS† H01 is rejected (not true) in both Spanish and British companies because: After IFRS adoption, Spanish firms showing (p308):Increases in fixed and total assets, long-term liabilities, short-term liabilities and indebtedness. Decreases in current assets, current ratio and solvency After IFRS adoption, UK firms showing (p309): Increases in fixed and total assets, long-term liabilities, short-term liabilities, operating income, net income, indebtedness and return on equity. Decreases in current assets, equity and solvency H02: There are no significant differences in the relative impact of IFRS on the value of accounting figures and financial ratios in the UK and Spain† H02 is rejected (not true) in both Spanish and British companies because: â€Å"the relative impact of IFRS has been statistically different in Spain and the UK on fixed assets, current assets, long-term and short-term liabilities, operating and net income, solvency, indebtedness, return on assets and return on equity (Table 8, p309) H03: There are no significant differences in the book values (per local GAAP and IFRS) and market value of firms† H03 is rejected (not true) in both Spanish and British companies because â€Å"the market value of firms is statistically different from the book value calculated with both local standards and IFRS† (Table 11, p311). H04: There are no significant differences in the Gap(spainlocal), Gap(uklocal) and Gap(spainifrs), Gap(ukifrs) H04 is rejected (not true) in both Spanish and British companies because there are â€Å"significant differences between accounting and market values†¦ these results are the same both in Spain and U K, as well as they apply local or international standards†¦the market value is significantly higher than the book value in all cases† (p312)

The Functions Of Dna And Protein Synthesis - 974 Words

The Functions of: DNA, RNA and Protein Synthesis DNA replication: Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a chain of molecules that hold the genetic code for all living things. â€Å"This genetic code is the instructions for growth, hair color, eye color, shapes of the body’s structures, and every little detail that is inside of a living organism† (Bhatt). A complete set of genetic instructions is a genome and every cell has two copies of genomes, one from each parent, making a full chromosome. DNA is composed of four different types of nucleotides: Adenine ( A ), Guanine ( G ), Cytosine ( C ), and Thymine ( T ). Thymine is only found in DNA. These four nucleotides come together in pairs for form nucleic acids. Adenine and Thymine are a pair as Guanine and Cytosine are a pair. These pairs of nucleotides are â€Å"glued† via hydrogen bonds onto a nitrogenous base forming a double helix structure. This double helix can grow to be very long, millions, even billions of base pairs long. â€Å"When cells go under mitosis, the DNA in the nucleus must replicate as well. The daughter cells have the exact same DNA as in its original parent cell. When replication begins, hydrogen bonds that hold the DNA structure together break, thus unwinding and exposing their nitrogenous bases. Enzymes called DNA polymerase then come and bring complementary nucleotides to the pairs that were initially there. One new strand of complementary bases forms with an old one and now you have two separate completed strands,Show MoreRelatedDna And Protein Synthesis Essay1332 Words   |  6 PagesDNA and Protein Synthesis One of the most fundamental properties of any and all living organisms is that of reproduction. As we all have learned, organisms inherit their genetic information defining their structure and functions from their parents. 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