Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby, Chapter 9

Best Summary and Analysis The Great Gatsby, Chapter 9 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Just as The Great Gatsbybegan with Nick’s father reminding him about his upbringing, so it ends with Gatsby’s father reminding us about the childhood of James Gatz (Gatsby's real birth name). As one of the few mourners at Gatsby’s very sparsely attended funeral, Mr. Gatz worships his son’s achievements in the way that no one whom Gatsby wanted to impress ever did. The Great GatsbyChapter 9ends with one of the most famous last lines in all Western literature. Read on to see how Fitzgerald connects Gatsby’s story with theuniversal human hope for a better future. Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. The Great Gatsby: Chapter 9 Summary The police investigation reduces what happened to the simplest possible terms: that Wilson was deranged by grief and killed Gatsby at random. Myrtle’s sister doesn’t tell the police about Myrtle having an affair. Rumors again swirl around Gatsby, and uninvited people again come to his mansion to gawk at where the murder-suicide happened (just like when they came to gawk at his parties).Nick is the only person who is still interested in Gatsby as a human being, and becomes a kind of representative for him - both about the rumors, and also about the logistics of dealing with his body and effects. Daisy and Tom have already left with no forwarding address by the time Nick tries to call them about Gatsby’s death. Nick tries to find Wolfshiem, but can’t get in touch with him. Wolfshiem sends a perfunctory-sounding letter, but at least agrees to come to Gatsby’s funeral. Nick answers the phone at Gatsby’s house, expecting it to be Daisy, but instead it is someone associated with Gatsby’s criminal enterprise. We get a quick idea that Gatsby was indeed doing something bigger than bootlegging - something to do with stolen or counterfeit bonds. The man hangs up without another word when Nick tells him that Gatsby is dead. Three days later, Nick gets a telegram from Henry C. Gatz - Gatsby’s father. He read about Gatsby’s death in a Chicago newspaper and is coming to the funeral from Minnesota. When Mr. Gatz shows up, it’s clear that he is still pretty poor. He is in awe of what his son has been able to accomplish, and clearly loves him very much. Gatz is clearly all in on the idea of the American Dream, comparing Gatsby to a famous rags-to-riches railroad magnate. When Gatz asks Nick to identify himself, Nick calls himself Gatsby’s close friend. That night, Ewing Klipspringer, the guy who crashed at Gatsby’s for most of the summer, calls. Nick assumes that he’ll be coming to the funeral, but Klipspringer is only calling to get back a pair of shoes he left behind. The day of the funeral, Nick goes to see Meyer Wolfshiem in person. Wolfshiem’s secretary lies and says that Wolfshiem is Chicago, but when Nick mentions Gatsby’s name, he’s shown into Wolfshiem’s office. Wolfshiem fills in some more details about Gatsby’s past. After Gatsby got out of the army, he met Wolfshiem at a pool hall and asked for a job. Wolfshiem saw the potential in Gatsby’s good looks and his â€Å"Oxford man† aspirations. Gatsby used these qualities to make connections in places where Wolfshiem himself couldn’t get in. Wolfshiem explains that he can’t come to Gatsby’s funeral - he doesn’t want to be anywhere near a crime scene. Back at the mansion, Mr. Gatz shows Nick a picture of the Gatsby’s mansion that Gatsby had sent back home. He also shows him a western that Gatsby had loved to read. The back page has a schedule Gatsby had written for himself to follow, and a list of self-improvement initiatives he had undertaken. No one seems to be coming to the funeral, and it starts to rain, so Nick, Mr. Gatz, and the minister drive to the cemetery.The man with the owl-eyed glasses (the one who had been marveling at Gatsby’s library of unread books in Chapter 3) suddenly shows up to mourn with them. Nick doesn’t know either his name or how he knew to be there. Nick flashes back to a childhood memory of coming home from boarding school. He compares the Midwest that he (and Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy) come from to the East coast where they each made so many mistakes. Nick decides that he is fundamentally a Midwesterner and needs to go back. Nick goes to hash things out with Jordan. When she tells him that she’s engaged (which seems unlikely, since it’s only been one week since they broke up), he suddenly wants to get back together, but thinks better of it. She does tell Nick that she felt very hurt when he broke up with her, but she seems completely over it. Jordan calls Nick out on his self-satisfaction with being scrupulously honest - was he dishonest with her about his feelings? Several months later, Nick sees Tom in Manhattan and refuses to shake hands with him. Nick asks Tom what Tom told Wilson in the garage the night Myrtle was killed. Tom fesses up that he told Wilson whose car ran over Myrtle (which answers the mystery of how Wilson was able to find Gatsby). Tom argues that telling Wilson the truth would have put Tom in danger, since Wilson had a gun. Nick is horrified - after all, it wasn’t Gatsby who ran over Myrtle. It was Daisy. But he realizes that Tom is a spoiled child and tries to let his anger go. Gatsby’s mansion goes to seed. Before he leaves New York for good, Nick scrapes an obscene word off itsstairs, and then goes to the dock to think about the green light on Daisy’s dock and Gatsby’s hopes and dreams. Nick thinks about what this island looked like to Dutch sailors who crossed the Atlantic, and thinks about how we live in the perpetual hope of a better future with a total disregard for the past. Despite his lavish parties, despite all the outlandish rumors about him, Gatsby never really earned the respect of anyone except Nick. Key Chapter 9 Quotes I found myself on Gatsby's side, and alone. From the moment I telephoned news of the catastrophe to West Egg village, every surmise about him, and every practical question, was referred to me. At first I was surprised and confused; then, as he lay in his house and didn't move or breathe or speak hour upon hour it grew upon me that I was responsible, because no one else was interestedinterested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which every one has some vague right at the end. (9.3) Just like during his life, after his death, rumors swirl around Gatsby. Usually, death makes people treat even the most ambiguous figures with therespect that’s supposedly owed to the dead. But Gatsby’sdeathonly invites more speculation, gawking, and a circus-like atmosphere. Note that even here, Nick still does not acknowledge his feelings of friendship and admiration for Gatsby. Instead, he claims to be the point person for Gatsby is funeral because of a general sense that â€Å"everyone† deserves someone to take a personal interest. But of course, there is no such right, as evidenced by the fact that Nick is the only person who cares about Gatsby as a human being rather than a sideshow. After a little while Mr. Gatz opened the door and came out, his mouth ajar, his face flushed slightly, his eyes leaking isolated and unpunctual tears. He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendor of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride. (9.43) Gatsby’s father is the only person who has the kind of response to this mansion that Gatsby could have hoped for. Everyone else has found it either gaudy, vulgar, or fake. Perhaps this shows that for all his attempts to cultivate himself, Gatsby could never escape the tastes and ambitions of a Midwestern farm boy. After that I felt a certain shame for Gatsbyone gentleman to whom I telephoned implied that he had got what he deserved. However, that was my fault, for he was one of those who used to sneer most bitterly at Gatsby on the courage of Gatsby's liquor and I should have known better than to call him. (9.69) Gatsby was unable to parlay his hospitality into any genuine connection with anyone besides Nick, who seems to have liked him despite the parties rather than because of them. This highlights a clash of values between the new, anything-goes East and the older, more traditionally correct West. The East is a place where someone could come to a party and then insult the host - and then imply that a murdered man had it coming! Compare this to the moment when Gatsby feels uneasy making a scene when having lunch with Tom and Daisy because "I can't say anything in his house, old sport." (7.102). "When a man gets killed I never like to get mixed up in it in any way. I keep out. When I was a young man it was differentif a friend of mine died, no matter how, I stuck with them to the end. You may think that's sentimental but I mean itto the bitter end†¦.Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead," he suggested. "After that my own rule is to let everything alone." (9.95-99) Wolfshiem’s refusal to come to Gatsby’s funeral is extremely self-serving. He is using this quasi-philosophical excuse in order to protect himself from being anywhere near a crime scene. However, in a novel which is at least partly concerned with how morality can be generated in a place devoid of religion, Wolfshiem’s explanation of his behavior confirms that the culmination of this kind of thinking is treating people as disposable. It also plays into the novel’s overriding idea that the American Dream is based on a willful desire to forget and ignore the past, instead straining for a potentially more exciting or more lucrative future. Part of forgetting the past is forgetting the people that are no longer here, so for Wolfshiem, even a close relationship like the one he had with Gatsby has to immediately be pushed to the side once Gatsby is no longer alive. I tried to think about Gatsby then for a moment but he was already too far away and I could only remember, without resentment, that Daisy hadn't sent a message or a flower. Dimly I heard someone murmur "Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on," and then the owl-eyed man said "Amen to that," in a brave voice. (9.6) The theme of forgetting continues here. For Nick, Gatsby the man is already â€Å"too far away† to remember distinctly. Perhaps it is this kind of forgetting that allows Nick to think about Daisy without anger. On the one hand, in order to continue through life, you need to be able to separate yourself from the tragedies that have befallen. But on the other hand, this easy letting go of painful memories in the past leads to the kind of abandonment that follows Gatsby’s death. When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air. We drew in deep breaths of it as we walked back from dinner through the cold vestibules, unutterably aware of our identity with this country for one strange hour before we melted indistinguishably into it again. That's my middle westnot the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns but the thrilling, returning trains of my youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family's name. I see now that this has been a story of the West, after allTom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life. (9.124-125) All along, the novel has juxtaposed the values and attitudes of the rich to those of the lower classes. However here, in this chapter, as Nick is starting to pull away from New York, the contrast shifts to comparing the values of the Midwest to those of the East. Here, the dim lights, the realness, and the snow are natural foils for the bright lights and extremely hot weather associated in the novel with Long Island and the party scene. They were careless people, Tom and Daisythey smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . . (9.146) Nick’s summary judgment of Tom and Daisy seems harsh but fair. They are people who do not have to answer for their actions and are free to ignore the consequences of what they do. This is one of the ways in which their marriage, dysfunctional as it is, works well. They both understand that they just don’t need to worry about anything that happens in the same way that everyone else does. It is interesting to consider how this cycle will perpetuate itself with Pammy, their daughter. On the last night, with my trunk packed and my car sold to the grocer, I went over and looked at that huge incoherent failure of a house once more. On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight and I erased it, drawing my shoe raspingly along the stone. Then I wandered down to the beach and sprawled out on the sand. (9.150) It’s fitting that Nick feels responsible for erasing the bad word. His whole project in this book has been to protect Gatsby's reputation and to establish his legacy. Otherwise, without someone to notice and remark on Gatsby’s achievement, nothing would remain to indicate that this man had managed to elevate himself from a Midwesternfarm to glittering luxury. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no mattertomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (9.153-154) Check out our very in-depth analysis of this extremely famous last sentence, last paragraphs, and last section of the book. Think about the amount of effort involved in this process of constantly sailing against the current. Maybe this is the fundamental mismatch between Gatsby and Daisy. She is a creature of passivity, and he is a swan - gliding gracefully above the water, while paddling furiously just below it to stay afloat. The Great Gatsby Chapter 9 Analysis Let's now consider how the novel's key themes are addressed in this chapter. Themes and Symbols The American Dream. Gatsby’s dreams might be over, and Nick might be so disillusioned that he goes back home, but the American Dream persists unabated. On the one hand, the boys who cluster around Gatsby’s mansion are a new generation who are starting to buy into the cult of celebrity and the greedy ambition that propels many of the novel’s characters. On the other hand, Jordan’s ability to wave off the past without a second thought seems to be spreading - Wolfshiem and even Nick himself talk about quickly forgetting Gatsby. Mutability of Identity. Conversely, the inability to escape the past also plays a part in this chapter, as we learn that for Nick, this has been a story of Midwesterners trying to go east and failing. Most importantly, the last line of the novelsays that despite the fact that we struggle to move upstream, the current of our past is always working against our forward progress. Plot-wise, too, the last chapter is full of callbacks to the past. We meet up with characters who we thought were gone for good (Tom and Jordan), we get yet one more digressive explanation of Gatsby’s youth from Wolfshiem, and of course Gatsby’s actual past shows up in the figure of his father, Henry Gatz. Mr. Gatz is floored by what his son has made of himself. Very importantly, he is the only person who has the reaction that Gatsby would have wanted to his mansion, and he is the one who comes with a relic of Gatsby’s youthful dreams (the schedule and list of self-improvement resolutions). Symbols: The Eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. The return of the man with owl eye glasses links this chapter to the novel’s obsession with eyes and seeing. Like Tom, Owl-Eyes immediately saw through Gatsby at the party - but crucially, Owl-Eyes perceived Gatsby’s false front as an example of a genius bit of theater rather than a lie. Like the giant billboard of disembodied eyes that haunts the ashheaps, Owl-Eyes seems to be able to see more than the average - but, importantly, he is actually able to render a judgment since he is sentient. At Gatsby’s funeral, this clear vision is clouded, as Owl-Eyes is constantly wiping fog off his glasses. And the fact that the man comes to mourn Gatsby seems to indicate that his judgment is a merciful, excusing one. Do the glasses make him wise like an owl? Predatory? All-seeing? Or does the fact that they are glasses mean that he doesn’t actually have any wisdom or clear sight? Crucial Character Beats Nick tries to find anyone at all to come to Gatsby’s funeral, but fails. Not even Wolfshiem will come. Daisy and Tom have left town for good, with no forwarding address. Henry Gatz, Gatsby’s father, hears about Gatsby’s death and come to the funeral from Minnesota. He is in awe of his son’s accomplishments. No one except the owl-eyed glasses man that Nick had met at one of Gatsby’s parties comes to the funeral. Nick reconnects briefly with Jordan, who tell him that she is engaged. Nick runs into Tom, who admits telling Wilson that it was Gatsby’s car that hit Myrtle. Nick decides to go back to the Midwest. What’s Next? Solvethe final pieces of the puzzle of Gatsby’s pastwiththe novel’s timeline. Consider the way this last chapter discusses the existence of the American Dream. Is the kind of hope and optimism that this ideal promotes worthwhile, or does it result in self-delusions and disappointment? Imagine the rest of Nick’s life by analyzing his character, motivations, and attitudes. Has this whole novel in reality been a coming-of-age story about him? Revisit the summary of Chapter 8or wrap back around to see how the novel began. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

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The Role of Higher Education People view higher education from many different perspectives. For some, it is a pathway to a career. For others, it is an opportunity to learn more about oneself. I believe that the purpose of higher education is to facilitate intellectual growth that will enable the individual to become an active citizen of the world and to prepare the learner for success in a chosen profession.. Therefore, I think teachers are here to teach, but also to dedicate themselves and their resources to assisting students in achieving the ultimate success as inquisitive learners, engaged and thoughtful citizens, and caring and competent professionals. The first step in the journey toward intellectual wisdom through higher education requires the critical examination of oneself. No one perspective offers the answers to questions that face us in the twenty-first century. Broad cultural and intellectual perspectives presented through the arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences are the pathways to understanding the complexities of our world, our professions, and our communities. Developing a broad perspective of the world relies on an exchange of ideas from a variety of sources that are not strictly related to one's profession. I believe most university campuses strive to unite the wisdom of general education and the knowledge of professional preparation into an integrated process of true learning through higher education.... Free Essays on Higher ED Free Essays on Higher ED The Role of Higher Education People view higher education from many different perspectives. For some, it is a pathway to a career. For others, it is an opportunity to learn more about oneself. I believe that the purpose of higher education is to facilitate intellectual growth that will enable the individual to become an active citizen of the world and to prepare the learner for success in a chosen profession.. Therefore, I think teachers are here to teach, but also to dedicate themselves and their resources to assisting students in achieving the ultimate success as inquisitive learners, engaged and thoughtful citizens, and caring and competent professionals. The first step in the journey toward intellectual wisdom through higher education requires the critical examination of oneself. No one perspective offers the answers to questions that face us in the twenty-first century. Broad cultural and intellectual perspectives presented through the arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences are the pathways to understanding the complexities of our world, our professions, and our communities. Developing a broad perspective of the world relies on an exchange of ideas from a variety of sources that are not strictly related to one's profession. I believe most university campuses strive to unite the wisdom of general education and the knowledge of professional preparation into an integrated process of true learning through higher education....

Employee Motivation in the Management Field of Google Inc Case Study

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Module 5 BHS427 Health Care Finance (AUG2014-1) Capital Budgeting Essay

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Essay about Makkah

Essay about Makkah Mecca is a holy place of Muslims in Saudi Arabia where it is believed that the prophet Muhammad lived and taught more than 1,300 years ago. Mecca is the holiest city in Islam. Mecca had become an important place in the history by the time when Prophet Mohammed (peace is upon him)  was born in about 570 AD. Mecca, the holy place has fallen with yearly ebb and flow of pilgrims as a result of growing Muslim community in the World and eventually the spread of Islam. The economic status of the city greatly depends on the large number of pilgrims visiting every year and their accommodation, feeding and transportation. (Ahmed Z.U. 1992). Prophet Mohammed (peace is upon him) was born in Makkah and was descended with the Holy Quran, and since then the propagation for Islam was launched. In the heart of the city is the Holy Mosque in the centre of which the Holy Kaaba is located, The Maqam of Prophet Ibrahim, his son Ismaiels stone (May God bless them), Zamzam well in which water has been pouring from hundreds of years, and Safa and Marwah where Muslims make Saie. There are other holy shrines of Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat near Makkah. Arafat is located at the Mount Arafat where pilgrims perform the main ritual of Hajj as the day of Arafat. Hajj is scheduled according to the lunar calendar and so moves 11 days earlier each year on the Gregorian calendar. Due to seasonal variation over time, the Hajj occurs at different times each year (Yamin M. et al 2009). It becomes difficult in summers as the temperatures in Saudi Arabia are very high. Unlike other Saudi Arabian cities, Mecca retains its warm temperature in winter, which can range from 17  Ã‚ °C at midnight to 25  Ã‚ °C in the afternoon. Summer temperatures are considered very hot and break the 40  Ã‚ °C mark in the afternoon dropping to 30  Ã‚ °C (86  Ã‚ °F) in the evening. Rain usually falls in Mecca in small amounts between November and January. Tourism at Mecca Mecca, the holy city in Saudi Arabia is believed to be the centre of the Islamic world. The journey to Mecca as the Hajj is popular to the Muslims all over the world but the Mecca travel is forbidden for non-Muslims. There are billions of people coming to Mecca for Hajj from all over the world. The Hajj in Mecca is the largest pilgrimage in the world. The Mecca city is Saudi Arabia is increasingly called Makkah. It is similar to the pronunciation of the Arabic word than does the English translation called Mecca. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the premises of Mecca, Saudi Arabia at any time of the year due to the fact that the Mecca travel and the Hajj are only intended for Muslims. It has happened in the past that several non-Muslims have entered Mecca; the penalties of it are quite harsh including deportation and jail time. Tourism in Mecca involves some advance planning. There is a special visa required by every Muslim who wishes to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. There is a valid visa required to enter the Hajj grounds. In case of Saudi citizens, permission is necessary. The foreign pilgrims intend to perform Hajj applies for a visa by furnishing information and undergoing some medical examination. The visa is granted by Saudi government by approval of the Hajj management in Saudi Arabia. Each pilgrim is assigned to a group of Hajj management called Munazzim once their visa is granted. Munnazim is responsible for their travel and accommodation arrangements in the Hejaz (Yamin M. et al 2009). In addition, a letter from the local mosque stating that the person is a Muslim is also required. Women who are under 45 years of age must travel with a male or a mahram considered being the head of the family. There should be a proof of their relationship. On the other hand, women over 45 years of age must carry a permission letter from her husband or her father along with the proof her being a part of the Mecca tourism group. The visa to travel Mecca does not permit to travel outside of Mecca and if anyone wants to travel other cities, they must apply for additional visa. The pilgrimage to Mecca commence at the Jeddah airport, a large city in Saudi Arabia. As the tourism in Mecca is very popular during the Hajj month, there are two special terminals for the people arriving to Mecca. There are direct bus services from the airport to Mecca Saudi Arabia. On arrival to the city of Mecca, the Muslims have to follow traditional rituals, called Umrah. These traditions should be followed by all the pilgrims. The rituals that are acted out in the incidents of the Quran are relatively hard to perform or rather complex and takes about a week. It is important that the pilgrims must wear the traditional pilgrimage clothing followed by a walk in the region of the Kaaba in a counter clockwise direction several times. After this ritual, next comes Saey which factually means run whereby the pilgrims walk back and forth between the hills of Safa and Marwah, the region where the wife of Prophet Abraham ran recklessly in search of water for her son. It has been written in Quran that there is a fountain that appears between the hills (Ahmed Z.U. 1992). Other rituals during the Hajj include going to Arafat. This is the the place where Mohammed gave his final sermon. The ritual is followed by drinking water from the Zamzam well which is inside the Great Mosque. It is believed by all the Muslims that their God provided water to Hajar and Ismail at this well when they were strolling in the desert. These two people are the central figures of Islam. Mecca travel is a meaningful once-in-a-lifetime experience for all the Muslims. Tourism issues There have been many tourism issues in Mecca that arise during the Hajj period. Many incidents have happened during the past years causing loss of hundreds of lives. It is estimated that there are 1.4 billion Muslims in the World and each one must visit Mecca for pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime if they can. It is all the way very hard to manage millions of people in Mecca during the month of Hajj. Crowd Stampede Stampedes are likely to occur at the Hajj because of the huge crowd and an extraordinary pressure. The individuals may stumble thereby precipitating an entire stampede. Massive crowds walking from one place to the other place of the pilgrimage, cause a stampede. There is a panic when the pilgrims jostle to avoid being trampled resulting in hundreds of deaths. For example, the ceremony of stoning the Devil is very crowded and dangerous and so can result in serious crowd accidents. The following incidents occurred due to massive crowding at the Hajj. 2nd July, 1990 Arafat plains of Hajj: A stampede inside a pedestrian tunnel leading out from Mecca towards Mina, Saudi Arabia and the Plains of Arafat led to the deaths of 1,426 pilgrims. 23rd May, 1994 270 pilgrims were killed in crowd during the stoning of the Devil. 9th April, 1998 Incident at Jamarat Bridge where 118 pilgrims died and 180 were injured. 5th March, 2001 During the ritual of stoning the Devil, 35 pilgrims were trampled to death. 11th February, 2003 14 pilgrims died in a rush during the stoning of the Devil ceremony. 1st February, 2004 251 pilgrims were killed and 244 people were injured in a stampede during the stoning ceremony in Mina. 12th January, 2006 346 pilgrims were killed and more than 289 were injured in Mina on the last day of the Hajj while performing the ritual ramy al-jamarÄ t. Diseases Disease spread is also a tourism issue in Mecca. This could be explained on the fact that there are millions of people from many countries visiting Mecca, of which some of them may have poor health systems, leading to the spread of epidemics. If there is a disease outbreak during the Hajj, this could make the problem worse when they returned home and passing the infection on to others. There have been such incidents in the past where the disease has spread among the pilgrims causing severe health problems. One such disease, called meningitis has been given a prompted response from the Saudi government. There were many concerns about the disease after its international outbreak at Hajj in 1987. Due to these global outbreaks of certain types of meningitis in previous years, it is now a visa requirement to be immunised with the ACW135Y vaccine before arrival. Every year, the Saudi government publishes a list of required vaccines for pilgrims, which for 2010 also includes yellow fever, p olio, and influenza. Trauma and other fatal events The word Hajj defines movement. There is a lot of chaos in transportation during the Hajj. The pilgrimage moves on foot in dense traffic for hours at a time. During the Hajj season in Mecca, there is inordinate traffic congestion. Other issues in tourism are fire incidents that happened in previous years. December 1975 Fire due to explosion a gas cylinder in a tent resulted in the death of 200 pilgrims. 15th April, 1997 Fire in a tent in Mina killing 343 pilgrims and 1,500 injured. In order to prevent such dangerous incidents, the kingdom has replaced all the tents and the tents are now fireproof with a variety of which are made up of aluminium frames with fibreglass. The risk of fire is now considered much lower (Memish Z.A. et al 2002). Tourism management Management in Mecca during the Hajj, handling millions of people during a specific month is not an easy task. The officials of the government of the Saudi Arabia should have done more to prevent such catastrophes. It is claimed by the government of Saudi Arabia that such massive crowd are very dangerous and difficult to manage, and that they have taken a number of steps to prevent problems. There are improvements of touristic facilities at Jeddah, Mecca and Madinah. There have been number of steps undertaken to overcome the hurdles and the incidents in the past. One of the controversial significant steps in action inculcates new system of registrations, passports, and visas to control the mass flow of pilgrims. This system intends to encourage and accommodate visitors travelling for the first time to Mecca, while restricting repeat visits. Such a system was protested by the pilgrims who have the desire and wishes to perform the Hajj several times and they have been biased about this system, but the Hajj Commission has stated that they see no substitute if further incidents and disasters are to be prevented. As a result of the stampede in 2004, there have been concerns and considerations by the Saudi authorities. The authorities have aboard a big construction work in and around the Jamarat Bridge area. Additional access ways, footbridges, and emergency exits were built, and concrete walls were designed to replace the three cylindrical pillars allowing more pilgrims to have a simultaneous access to them without fighting for position and deprived of crowd. A multi-million-dollar project has been designed and put into action by the government to expand the bridge to five levels. For crowd management, many organizations are using RFID chips to track and monitor people and products. This high technology is an effective way of identifying and helping people in urgent situations (Yamin M. et al 2009). These RFID carry some PDA (readable data) which can be used for medical emergencies and for reporting lost pilgrims with their groups. The device should be linked to the event database so as to facilitate the retrieval and updates as and when required. The disease spreads and recent outbreaks of H1N1 virus (swine influenza and bird flu) have made the crowd management more challenging. For the management of diseases, as mentioned earlier, there are set of medical examinations and immunizations to be undergone by the pilgrims to be registered in the event database. Therefore, the management of Hajj can be sum up in three phases. Phase one is about the necessary planning to organize Hajj and to intend pilgrims before departure to Saudi Arabia. Second phase refers to the Hajj process whereby different management steps are undertaken to control the issues in way of the Hajj process and the last phase directs to the measures undertaken to facilitate smooth return of pilgrims to their respective destinations.

Humor in War Movies Essay

There is more than one way to get a point across in the movies. Movies based on actual events, movies made using actual facts but not always about true events, documentary films and those films that use humor or satire to get their point across. I think the three films that I chose fall into the last category. The first film (released in 1953) is Stalag 17, a film about American prisoners of war being held in a German prison camp. This film seems to follow the typical war movie theme, group unity for a common cause and no single hero. The movie stars William Holden who as Sergeant Sefton, a wheeler-dealer who doesn’t hesitate to trade with the guards and who has acquired goods and privileges that no other prisoner seems to have is accused of being a German spy by his fellow prisoners. The Germans always seem to be forewarned about escapes and in the most recent attempt the two men, Manfredi and Johnson, walked straight into a trap and were killed. For some in Barracks 4, especially the loud-mouthed Duke, the leaker is obvious. An officer is passing though on the way to another camp, tells of how he sabotaged an ammunition train by luck using matches. The Germans find out and now he has to hide so he can escape to avoid being shot. The director Billy Wilder created a popular film loaded with subversive subtexts, his signature cynicism and humor (although it’s sometimes a feeble attempt at humor it is humor just the same). WW II wasn’t even a decade old yet and maybe it wasn’t the right time to make a movie depicting the conditions of the German prisoner camps in such a realistic manner, but there seem to be a goldmine of possibilities within that setting for the directing genius of Wilder. By today’s standards it may be difficult to appreciate Stalag 17 as a classic film due to the TV show Hogan’s Heroes that it inspired. Wilder’s directing style, wit and perception are lost in the interpretation, but the films humor still remains. Another reason for lack of appreciation the basics of the Stalag 17’s plot have become the staple in terms of wartime incarceration and general prison-break films. Still, it is interesting to see the matter-of-fact style in an escape film. Most focus on the details of the laborate plan, but Stalag 17 follows the most practical route make a run for the fence while the guards are diverted which, when you think about it, is a more likely scenario besides how easy do you think it is to lay your hands on a pair of wire cutters in a prison camp. Broadly played, the humor, serves as a good method for getting away with the more subtle subversive aspects of the film. As Wilder once was quoted â€Å"that if one was going to tell the truth, be funny or they’ll kill you. † There is a long musical scene as one of the POWs sings while the rest celebrate Christmas by dancing with each other. The men are nice and toasted after having raided Sefton’s booze and Animal is desperately pining over Betty Grable. When Shapiro stuffs yellow straw under a bonnet as a gag, Animal thinks his dream girl has come to life and starts to dance and come on to Shapiro as he thinks Shapiro is Betty Grable. You can’t say that Sgt. Sefton is the hero of the movie, even Holden sited the unlikeability of the character, but his vicious, sharp and charismatic demeanor was enough for you to forgive him and root for him anyway. Holden’s character doesn’t change his wheeling and dealing ways at the end of the movie and one of his fellow prisoners remarks as Sefton is escaping â€Å"Maybe he just wanted to steal our wire cutters. You ever think of that? † Wilder had little use for such sentimentality and it is reflected in Stalag 17 because it’s an examination of the human condition not a moral tale. Such a cynical perspective in the depiction of actual combat would have to wait another twenty years and the dismal aftermath of two unpleasant wars to have the American audience fully ready for it. While a number of novels about World War II were able to capture such themes, Wilder was ahead of his time. Film critic Richard Corliss once suggested that, Wilder may have been â€Å"less a cynic than a premature realist. † Stalag 17’s dramatic scenes seem to hold up much better than the comedic scenes, considering many of people in the original audience had fought in the WWII and that American POWs were then being held in the current military conflict going on in Korea. It seems that the extensive comic segments might have been a used to defuse scenes that would have hit home more then than it would now. Back then I don’t think that many Americans audiences would have been willing to sit through an insistently grim POW drama. The bit about the soldier, his wife, and the baby on the doorstep must have made a few people in the audience very uneasy. It’s important to remember that this film was made and released in the early 1950’s. It is no mistake that the real traitor to American values was the head of â€Å"security† Price. At the time of the films release the congressional members of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was busy protecting American security by depriving citizens of their right to be different in very much the same ways as those depicted in the film. Like Sefton, however, Wilder is no hero. It can be argue that this is very much the film’s real message, Wilder cleverly hides it under enough comedy and plot that he runs no risk of offending Sen. McCarthy’s communist hunters. The next film Mister Roberts released in 1955 is about life on a Navy supply ship the â€Å"Reluctant† dubbed the â€Å"Bucket† by its crew. The Reluctant is commanded by an oppressive Captain Morton, who takes sadistic pleasure in undermining the crews’ morale. Lt. Doug Roberts (aka Mister Roberts) intervenes on the crew’s behalf as much as possible and watching him butt heads with the captain seems to lift the crew’s spirits while providing most their entertainment. This film doesn’t seem to follow the war movie theme. The main character Mister Roberts seems to be out for himself, with the war drawing to an end he wants to see some action. His weekly requests to be transferred are always turned down by Capt. Morton, who according to Roberts is using Roberts to promote himself. The fact that the crew is not happy with their situation is secondary to Roberts’ problem. One of the more sympathetic and insightful films from the 1950s to deal with World War II was Mister Roberts. It was an indication of the distance the public as well as filmmakers had come from the war. This distance would allow for a more sophisticated and dramatic treatment of the conflict and the people involved. Of all the films during this time that also reflect the new maturity, Mister Roberts was the most successful of them all, though getting it made properly took real work. Director John Ford was perfect for the project; he retired from the reserves as a rear admiral. Ford may have been too close to and slightly too old to do justice to the script to this subject, also he was up against the competing personality of star Henry Fonda. Fonda had scored a huge hit with the Broadway version of Mister Roberts and he had given up any hope of ever doing the movie version since he hadn’t been on-screen in eight years. Ford insisted on Fonda to star as a condition to directing the film, but the two were at odds from the beginning over the production, mostly over the director’s tendency to inject rough-house comedy into his movies. Ford used such an approach to breathe life into some of his other movies like Fort Apache. However, Mister Roberts was a character-driven film with very little real action and Fonda thought the Fords’ emphasis on laughs would destroy the integrity of the material. Ford’s demanding dictatorial directing style combined with his excessive drinking created tension between the two. Ford left the production, he was replaced by director Mervyn LeRoy who basically asked the cast to use their best judgment and make the kind of movie Ford would’ve made. The result is a finely textured character study that captured the best dramatic moments of the play. Some of the comical scenes in the movie were when the sailors discover that they can have a clear view of the nurses’ shower room in a hospital on the nearby coast by looking through binoculars. This provides them with their first release from drudgery in over a year. The ship’s morale officer, young Ensign Pulver, is also aware of the nurses and finagles a trip to the hospital to pick up aspirin for Doc. While there, he convinces head nurse, Lt. Ann Girard, to come to the ship later by promising to share a bottle of scotch with her. Back on board, Pulver is distressed to learn that Roberts, the owner of the scotch, has used it to bribe an official to send the Reluctant to a liberty port. Roberts and Doc mix up simulated scotch, called â€Å"jungle juice,† from alcohol, Coca-Cola, iodine and hair tonic for Pulver to use in place of the scotch. When the nurses appear, Pulver, With Roberts’ permission, pretends to be the ship’s cargo officer and shows them around. The nurses, who are undeceived by his pretensions, discover the sailors’ view of their quarters and leave immediately to hang curtains. Another humorous point happens during a night onshore, the men unleash all their pent-up energy, they crash an Army dance, fight with soldiers, terrorize women, steal an admiral’s goat and mistake the French Colonial governor’s mansion for a bordello. Roberts hopes the night will give them strength for the â€Å"miserable, endless days ahead of them. The next day, the ship is banished from the port. Mister Roberts also made two appearances as a TV series, once in 1965 and again in 1984. As far as public was concerned enough time had passed that most Americans were able to laugh at some of the kookier aspects about military life and Hollywood provided just the right amount of seriousness and irreverence with this 1955 hit. The third film I chose is M*A*S*H released in 1970. The movie is about a mobile army surgical hospital set in the Korean War conflict (1950-1953). This movie breaks from the traditional war theme movies. It not about any one person at any given time but it’s not about the unit as a whole either. The plot in M*A*S*H is not defined; instead the unusual characters are involved in a sequence of darkly comic episodes. M*A*S*H is a black comedy about life in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit located only three miles from the front lines. The mission of any MASH unit is to provide immediate medical treatment to those wounded in combat, and the young surgeons are always up to their elbows in blood and guts for long periods of time. When they’re off duty, the MASH unit personnel keep their sanity by pursuing a wacky, irreverent lifestyle that leads to some hilarious adventures. Some of the hilarious scenes in the movie are; they sneak a microphone under the bed of Major â€Å"Hot Lips† Houlihan, and broadcast her lovemaking to the entire camp, a tent that is pulled away from the showering Major Houlihan an attempt to settle a bet about her being a natural blonde, they drug a general and photograph him in a brothel, a Last Supper parody where a man whose impotency has made him despondent is duped into a faux suicide and a rather lengthy football game sequence. The way they present humor in â€Å"M*A*S*H,† is almost metaphysically cruel, there is something about war that inspires practical jokes and the heroes (if you can call them heroes (Donald Sutherland (Hawkeye), Elliot Gould (Trapper John) and fellow camp members) are inspired and utterly heartless. We laugh because it is so true to the sadist in all of us. There is perhaps nothing so wonderful as achieving sweet mental revenge against someone we hate with particular enthusiasm. And it is the flat-out, poker-faced hatred in â€Å"M*A*S*H† that makes it work. Most comedies want us to laugh at things that aren’t really funny; in this one we laugh because they’re not funny. We laugh, so that we do not cry. This movie depends upon timing and tone to be funny. Hawkeye, Trapper John and the members of their merry band of pranksters are offended because the Army regulars Major Burns and Houlihan who don’t feel deeply enough. They are only concern is with Army protocol and not with war. Hawkeye and Trapper John dancing on the brink of crack-ups, dedicate themselves to making them feel something. Their facade offends them; no one could be that unaffected by the work of this hospital. And so if they can crack their defenses and reduce them to their own level of dedicated cynicism, the number of suffering human beings in the camp will go up by two. Even if they fail, they have a hell of a lot of fun trying and of course, it’s a distraction to the war. Although the movie is set in Korean War, no one seeing â€Å"M*A*S*H† in 1970 confused the film for anything but a sarcastic comment on the Vietnam War. This is one of the counterculture movies that exploded into the mainstream at the end of the ’60s. Altman wanted his 1970 audience to think in terms of Vietnam, where another unpopular war was still in progress. Altman’s style of cruel humor, overlapping dialogue, and densely textured visuals brought the material to life in an all-new kind of war movie (or, more precisely, antiwar movie). Audiences had never seen anything like it: vaudeville routines played against spurting blood, fueled with open ridicule of authority. The film’s huge success spawned the long-running TV series, a considerably softer take on the material. The concept of war comes in three parts, the training, the actual combat and the repair of the casualties of the combat. Each part has it’s critics and it’s supporters, both championing for their side. Not seen in the earlier combat films was the concept of why we fought. Those wars before the Korean War were world wars with many countries involved being fought in many different countries. The Korean War and all those that followed up to the present were mostly two sided with the Americans at the spearhead of each. Yes, the United Nation forces were involved in many of these wars, but it was the Americans leading the way. After such a history, Americans could very well sustain their unity against the Axis Powers during WW II, but they could not readily accept a limited war such as the Korean War, in which negotiations with the enemy to bargain for objectives far short of his destruction accompanied the very fighting of the war. Dissents against the Korean War also were encouraged by an uneasy political atmosphere troubling the United States in 1950. WW II had produced not a satisfactory peace but an ongoing Cold War with communism led by the Soviet Union, to which the United States held out the prospect of no more triumphant but an outcome of containment. Such a change in the ways of war was perceived by Americans were truly visible in a lot of modern day war films. Reference http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359 http://www.amazon.com/Mister-Roberts-Henry-Fonda/dp/6305225761 http://www.fandango.com/misterroberts_v64788/summary http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066026 http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19700101/REVIEWS/40812002/1023

Analysis And Comparison Of 2 Sonnets Essay

How Soon Hath Time, by John Milton, and Mutability, by William Wordsworth are two excellent examples of a well-written sonnet. They have their similarities between one another, and also their differences. In the end, however, each is a quality piece of literature. How Soon Hath Time has a rhyme scheme of â€Å"a, b, b, a, a, b, b, a, c, d, e, d, c, e’. Therefore, this is a Petrarchan sonnet. The syntax of this sonnet is very regular. There are major punctuation marks after the fourth and eight lines, in this case periods. These periods effectively divide the octet into two equal quatrains. The sestet is then divided into two sections, the first one being four lines long, followed by a colon. After the colon are the last two lines, concluding both the poem and the sestet. The meter of this poem is also quite regular, it has a smooth rhythm, and flows out of the mouth nicely, for example â€Å"How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth† (accented syllables in italics). This poem is about Life, and Death. It is about how time affects out lives, in particular the life of the author, John Milton. I believe that this poem is partly about how fast time goes by, without us ever fully realizing it. A quote that reinforces this belief is â€Å"How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, / Stol’n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!†. There is also the theme of â€Å"Time the destroyer’ in this poem, a fairly common theme for sonnets from this era. John Milton reinforces this by personifying time, by capitalizing the â€Å"T’. This poem also refers to how inevitable death is. A quote that reinforces this is â€Å"Yet it be less or more, or soon or slow†Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã‚ ¦.Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heav’n†. Overall, this is an interesting sonnet, to say the least. It definitely got me thinking about its meaning, which I think was the author’s intent. Mutability has a rhyme scheme of â€Å"a, b, b, a, a, c, c, a, d, a, c, d, c, a’. Therefore, it is a Petrarchan sonnet, although somewhat different than the rhyme scheme of How Soon Hath Time. The syntax of this sonnet is very  irregular, it does not fit the typical structure of a petrarchan sonnet. The first major punctuation break comes at the end of the third line, in the form of a semi-colon. The second major punctuation break comes at the end of the sixth line, in the form of a period. Therefore, this sonnet begins with its sestet, instead of its octet. The octet is divided into two sections by the semi-colon in the middle of the tenth line. However, it’s not divided equally, it’s divided into one that is three and a half lines long, and one that is four and a half lines long. The meter in this poem is fairly normal, with no major irregularities. This poem is about how all things are affected by the chaos in this world. It goes through the different things of this planet that are affected by chaos, including humans, Truth, and Time. The quotes to support this are â€Å"From low to high doth dissolution climb†, â€Å"Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear the longest date do melt like frosty rime† and â€Å"Some casual shout that broke the silent air, Or the unimaginable touch of Time.†. The broader theme is that bad things affect everything. These are two quality sonnets, and have their similarities and differences. They are similar in that they are both Petrarchan sonnets, with a similar rhyme scheme. They are also similar in that the meter is relatively regular in both of them. They are also similar in that they both have an octet and a sestet, although they are arranged in a different order. One important theme that I believe they have in common is that they both involve in something being destroyed. In How Soon Hath Time, it is life itself that is slowly being destroyed by time. In Mutability, it is everything that is essentially being destroyed by chaos. These two sonnets also have their differences. For example, the arrangement of the octets and sestets is different between the two. Also, the themes are different in that the â€Å"destroyer’ and the â€Å"destroyees’ are different. The syntax in Mutability is also much different than it is in How Soon Hath Time. The syntax in Mutability is much more irregular. Although these sonnets do have their differences, they are both great in that they capture the readers’ attention, and make the reader think. John Milton and William  Wordsworth both obviously knew what they were doing.