Investigation Of An Antitrust Violation Involving Google,...

The purpose of this assignment is to research a recent case of an antitrust investigation. I chose to research a current case ongoing in the European Union regarding the investigation of an antitrust violation involving Google, an extremely popular online search engine. As per the assignment instructions, the following paragraphs will address and answer the specified questions. Google is an extremely popular search engine on the internet. In case you’ve lived in a cave for the past fifteen (15) years or so, a search engine is something a user inputs information into in order to find specific information or web sites. The resulting â€Å"answers† will yield web sites that are relevant to the inquiry. In February 2010, the European Union (EU) began investigating Google for antitrust violations due to complaints received from three competitors: a British price comparison site Foundem; a French legal search site ejustice.fr; and from Microsoft’s Ciao, by Bing (Alaz raki, 2010). Google’s competitors allege that Google â€Å"stacks† its search algorithm so that sites that are sponsored by or affiliated with their competitors are â€Å"ranked† in a low position. That is, their results are listed after Google’s preferred sites (Lardinois, 2013). Currently, Google has a 90% market share in the EU, so the vast majority of the population is using their engine. If they are indeed â€Å"stacking† their algorithm to ensure that only their preferred sites are displayed in the prime selections, thenShow MoreRelatedManaging Information Technology (7th Edition)239873 Words   |  960 PagesDigital Signals 63 Speed of Transmission 64 Types of Transmission Lines Transmission Media 65 65 Topology of Networks Types of Networks Network Protocols 70 72 86 The Exploding Role of Telecommunications and Networking 88 Online Operations Connectivity 88 89 Electronic Data Interchange and Electronic Commerce 89 Marketing 89 The Telecommunications Industry 90 Review Questions 92 †¢ Discussion Questions 92 †¢ Bibliography 93 Chapter 4 The Data Resource Read MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 Pageswould have thought that interest in mistakes would be so enduring? Many of you are past users, a few even for decades. I hope you will find this new edition a worthy successor to earlier editions. I think this may even be my best book. The new Google and Starbucks cases should arouse keen student interest, and may even inspire another generation of entrepreneurs. A fair number of the older cases have faced significant changes in the last few years, for better or for worse, and these we haveRead MoreNokias Human Resources System144007 Words   |  577 Pagesinformation included in our annual reports and proxy materials, at www.nokia.com. This annual report on Form 20 ­F is also available at www.nokia.com as well as on Citibank’s website at http://citibank.ar.wilink.com (enter â€Å"Nokia† in the Company Name Search). Holders may also request a hard copy of this annual report by calling the toll ­free number 1 ­877 ­NOKIA ­ADR (1 ­877 ­665 ­4223), or by directing a written request to Citibank, N.A., Shareholder Services, PO Box 43124, Providence, RI 02940 ­5140, or by

Why Do Managers Plan Free Essays

string(61) " added to what is commonly referred to as a â€Å"pick-list†\." Why do Managers Plan 1 Why do Managers Plan? Management 301 Distance Learning December 07, 2011 Why do Managers Plan 2 Why do Managers Plan? Strategic Planning This seems like a very cut and dry topic to discuss, but there is no single reason that a manager makes plans in the work environment. I will cover several areas in which managers use planning, and why it is an essential part of accomplishing tasks, and how it streamlines processes necessary for an organization to be successful. First, I will discuss strategic planning: strategic planning can also be referred to as â€Å"charting the course† for a business or organization. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Do Managers Plan? or any similar topic only for you Order Now A central part of strategic management is performance measurement (Public Administration Review, December 2010). Unlike private sector business organizations, many government and public agencies have developed performance measurements without developing strategic plans. I think that this is primarily due to the infrastructure that is set in place in most government or public agencies, and the amount of red-tape that accompanies government ran agencies. Regarding the private sector, I believe that having a strategic plan to guide managers and leaders in the decision making process allows them to identify alternative steps or measures to take in the event that something in the business process changes that they have no direct control over. Managers who develop a strategic plan also are likely to recognize that the end result cannot be their only concern, but they identify milestones that must be met along the ay, or during the process to use as a measurement tool to determine if they are making positive progress or if they need to examine â€Å"glitches† that will delay or have a negative impact on the business process. One tool to measure performance is a â€Å"Balanced Scorecard†. It is grounded in the idea that the measurement Why do Managers Plan 3 of an organization’s performance ought to take into account the processes and resources needed to produce outcomes, as well as the outcomes themselves. In some ways, its emphasis on inputs and outputs is a step back in performance measurement, but that step is designed to help organizations fulfill the results promised. (Public Administration Review, December 2010). I believe that this is a vital step, if not the first step in planning that will help ensure a business or organization has a set path that will enhance their possibilities of success. Knowledge Management in Organizational Planning is the next area that I want to discuss. When people talk about managers making plans for operations or processes in a business or organization it is likely that they are referring to plans that include forecasts. This type of planning is appropriate if the future of or in the business environment is stable; however, this is not always the case with many businesses because they face business environments that are complex and unstable (Knowledge Management in Organizational Planning, January 1987). With this being the case in most business environments today, the leadership of these businesses continue to pursue planning and forecasting tools and technology that will help them when they are developing strategic and organizational plans. Knowledge management might also be referred to as Management Information Systems (MIS). This is a computer program or network that was developed for management and leadership members to use for the purposes of planning and may have examples of past planning events or projects that the current managers can use to aid them in the planning and decision making process. One significant advantage of this type of system is that it can provide historical data that allows good planning to be done from the beginning, and this might improve the probability of success of a project or production process Why do Managers Plan 4 based on the past lessons learned that are taken into consideration when developing the current plan. The MIS was developed to assist managers in gathering information, generating ideas and alternatives and also for analyzing this information and choosing from among the competing alternatives. This MIS is just another tool to emphasize why managers plan. Another area that planning is important for managers is multi-project planning and resource control. This area is also related to the area of enterprise resource planning (ERP). Both of these areas require the use of business planning tools to make the manager’s job of planning for needed materials and resources much easier to manage through the use of technology and computer programs. One of the most challenging aspects of a manager’s job is to ensure that he/she effectively manages projects or production processes without exhausting the organization’s limited resources (Multiproject Planning and Resource Controls, December 2006). When we talk of managers, I think it is important to realize that managers are in all industries including retail, production, manufacturing, and construction to name a few, and the one common link that they all share is planning. Planning is the bedrock or foundation that managers must establish as a starting point no matter the industry which they work. The important parts of planning that are related to multi-project and ERP management are identifying the resources needed to start and sustain work processes to eliminate loss time due to a shortage of resources, and how the ERP system works together with other internal business systems to enhance the planning of management. An example of this could be that the ERP system interfaces the maintenance projects that are being actively worked with the supply or requisitioning process to ensure that needed resources such as materials and tools are being ordered to meet the project or job requirements. The ERP system Why do Managers Plan 5 can be programmed to recognized or identify items needed based on job number or serial numbers related to specific aspects of the job that were identified during the initial planning phase of the job or project. The items that would be ordered due to this planning would be added to what is commonly referred to as a â€Å"pick-list†. You read "Why Do Managers Plan?" in category "Papers" This part of the ERP system is known as the interaction between structure and human action and is called the â€Å"duality of structure, which simply means (in this case) the interaction between the ERP system (usually managed by a materials manager), the ordering of resources (between materials manager and vendors), and communication between the project or production manager and the system (actual input into the system) (business benefits from ERP systems, Staehr, 2008). The ERP systems ability to identify this process in only possible due to the initial planning that was performed by the manager in charge of the projects or processes, and communicated and planned with the materials manager to ensure the system was interfaced to the processes. I have actually used an ERP system called SAP, and these types of systems require a lot of training and â€Å"hands on† work because they can be very complex to use. Another extremely important and relevant planning tool that managers can use is the Production Planning Model. This PPM might also be referred to as Material Requirement Planning (MRP). The MRP is a vital tool for managers who work as maintenance managers, production managers, or operations managers. Managers use the MRP to identify the amount of spare parts that need to be either â€Å"on hand† or quickly procured to ensure there is limited or no equipment down-time due to the lack of parts to make needed repairs for process equipment. It is important that managers who work in these types of environments are the not just the process manager, but the planning manager. I make the Why do Managers Plan 6 previous statement because the manager who develops the operational or process plans should use the equipments historical data to identify operational and down-time trends. They should also use Bills of Materials (BOMs) to identify parts that will be more likely to fail due to the amount of use, or are more susceptible to wear from continuous use in the operation or process. This topic is important to discuss because many plants or facilities might have the capability to manufacture parts in their own machine shops, and this can be a cost savings measure as well as a time saving measure. This is why it is important that the planning manager identify this as a possibility or a preference during the planning phase of the job to be performed. Using MRP helps manufactures and managers determine precisely when and how much material to purchase and process based on a time phased analysis of sales orders, production orders, current inventory, and forecasts (Production planning model, April 2009). MRP determines material requirements based on master production and planning schedules which are used in conjunction with one another to ensure an efficient work process. A primary reason that managers use the production planning model is to reduce the levels of parts or goods on hand. In other words, if proper planning is performed prior to starting the job or production process the manager will be able to determine the parts needed/required from start to completion of the process and save inventory costs by only having the required parts on hand with no excess. Once it is determined how much product will be produced it makes it much easier to determine the amount of parts or spare parts that will be needed. When managers are planning for a production run it is important for them to be aware of any future product orders that might follow closely after the production Why do Managers Plan 7 process or run that they are planning for, so they can consider having more spare parts on hand to aid the planning process of the following project or product run. Good communication among the management team is crucial to the overall success in the planning phase of all work processes. The advantage of using the MRP to assist in the planning stage of projects or production processes is that it allows the planning manager to use historical equipment data, and maintenance data to develop a trend analysis and determine the appropriate amount of parts required during a specific production process. In summary, I have used several different examples to emphasize and support why managers plan. I know that some of the examples that I used to illustrate my points might be broad, and even complex with regards to using ERP and MRP as tools to aid in planning, but I feel they were essential elements for me to use to stress that planning is often difficult and requires the use of technology to properly forecast outcomes etcetera. I have worked as a manager in charge of maintenance planning processes in a manufacturing environment, so I know from firsthand experience the importance of planning. I have used a management information system program (SAP Plant Maintenance Module) to integrate and implement plans and procedures, and it can be very time consuming and complex, but if we had not used a system such as this to help develop plans we would not have been able to effectively perform maintenance procedures and the company could have suffered catastrophic equipment failures. I know that we have probably all heard the old saying that â€Å"failing to plan is like planning to fail†, well in the case of â€Å"Why do Managers Plan? I would have to say that I agree with that old Why do Managers Plan 8 saying, and that managers plan to ensure their efforts are successful, and to ensure the success of the organization as a whole. Why do Managers Plan 9 References: Professional Article: Strategic Planning and Balanced Scorecards: Charting the Course to Policy Destination, Edward T. Jennings, Jr. , University of Kentucky. Public Administration Review, dated: December 2010. Professional Article: Knowledge Management in Organizational Planning, Lynda M. Applegate, Tsung Teng Chen, Benn R. Konsynski, and Jay F. Nunamaker, Jr. Twentieth Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Honolulu, Dated: January 6-9,1987 Multiproject Planning and Resource Controls for Facility Management, E. William East and Liang Y. Liu, dated: December 2006. Understanding the role of managerial agency in business benefits from ERP systems, Lorraine Staehr, La Trobe University, Dated: 2008. Production planning model with simultaneous production of spare parts, P. Cyplik, L. Hadas, and M. Fertsch, Poznan University of Technology, Poznan, Poland, Dated: April 2009. How to cite Why Do Managers Plan?, Papers

Little Things Big Things Grow for Analysis - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theLittle Things Big Things Grow for Analysis. Answer: The essay analyses the various aspects of the song From Little Things Big Things Grow. The song represents the story of Vincent Lingiari, the famous aboriginal rights activist and his struggle for acquiring land rights. This is a song of protest of the indigenous Australian who were demanding for land rights. It was written by Paul Kelly, Kev Carmody and The Messengers for their album Comedy in 1991. The lyrics of the song introduces the struggle of the Gurindji people with the world. The song discloses that their fight is not a physical one but psychological yet existing one. The lyrics celebrates the eight yearlong psychological war the Gurindji people headed by Vincent Lingiari. The lyricist has written the song with a story tellers voice and used aboriginal music instruments that Lingiari used to play like didgeridoo to enhance the acceptability of the song. The structure of the song is rhythmic with a storytelling tone. The speaker is urging for successful reaching of the story he is about to convey Gather round people, I'll tell you a story/ An eight-year long story of power and pride The chorus repeats the name of the song after every second stanza. It emphasises to convey the main idea or theme of the song. The term little refers to the typical idea of powerlessness of the aboriginal Gurindji people. Eventually the term big conveys the message that their protest will be successful to get their land back. The language of the song is simple yet overwhelming. In this aspect also the audience can feel the presence of the story teller who tells the story of the conflict between lord Vestey and Lingiari. The language clearly establishes the story of power and pride. The first two stanzas record the background and from there on the speaker draws a picture of deprived people who worked for nothing. They were deprived of the land they once cultivated as well as mined Where once they had gathered the wealth of the land. Towards the end the story teller brings the audience on the favour of the exploited people by describing their righteous claim for land and finally their victory. The language has appropriately described the theme of the song. Despite the fact that the song falls in the genre of rock, the melody as well as rhythm overwhelm the listeners. Again the style of narration connects the listeners with the central idea that is the conflict between the white and blacks regarding equal pay as well as land rights. The dynamic structure of the song reveals the impact of the actions of Vincent Lingiari to seize the land rights back to the aborigines. The wonderful texture weaves the incidents chronologically and reflects the ultimate objective of the theme. Therefore, it can be concluded that the song by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody responses the governments first big push regarding the aboriginal land rights as well as equal payment. From Little Things Big Things Grow demonstrates how Lingiari stood up for Commonwealth Aboriginal Land Rights and changed the Australian history.

Many Economists Agree That There Is A Significant Imbalance Between Th

Many economists agree that there is a significant imbalance between the growth of global economy and the development of a free society. One of these economists who agrees with this point is George Soros. Soros bases his dilemma mainly on the Thai crisis that hastened the currency meltdown in Asia. Also the Russian collapse inflicted temporary chaos on the Western financial system, and most recently, the volatility of the world's stock markets has caused most investors much tremor. George Soros argues that in the last 20 years, the emergence of market fundamentalism, that is the idea that markets need only be regulated by the forces of profit and competition, has distorted the role of capital to the extent that it is today a greater threat to open society than any totalitarian. Soros argues that capitalism, when completely unregulated tends to swerve out of control, like a car taking a curve too fast. Decision by markets are amoral but not immoral. Soros believes that capitalism can be effectively mediated by and open society. He does not define precisely what this means, but he suggests that society needs to be able to experiment with cultural value systems. Standards of right and wrong may change with technology and with social process; however, the involvement of the state in resolving conflicts, and in a democratic society, he sees as inevitable. According to Soros' opinion too, to be able to stabilize and regulate a truly global economy, the world will need a global system of political decision-making. In short, a global society is needed to support the global economy. A global society does not mean a global state. What makes Soros' claims interesting is that the greatest opposition to this idea is coming from the United States. Nevertheless, there has never been a time when a strong lead from the United States and other like minded countries could achieve such powerful and benign results. With the right sense of leadership and with clarity of purpose, the U.S. and it's allies could help to stabilize the global economic system and to extend the uphold universal human values.

Psychoanalytic-Feminist Study of American Slasher Film

Psychoanalytic-Feminist Study of American Slasher Film Free Online Research Papers Woman as castrator: A psychoanalytic-feminist study of the castrating mother and Final Girl in the American slasher film. This dissertation will explore how the woman is portrayed as castrator in the American slasher film using the critical approach of psychoanalytic-feminism. This will be achieved by analysing the female character as castrating mother and Final Girl. Gregory Waller states that the landscape of the modern American horror film is characterised by displaying pornographic violence against women (Waller, 1987: 8). For example, one of the most emblematic modern American horror sub-genres is the slasher film. The slasher film promotes sexual violence against women by categorically portraying the patriarchal male monster who subjects women to a subordinate and misogynistic position by butchering sexually promiscuous females with his phallic knife, punishing sexually active women who participate in pre-marital intercourse and other transgressive sexual activities (Neale in Schneider, 2004: 4). Thus, a character such as Michael Myers from the Halloween series personifies that ideology of patriarchal masculinity associated with male power, dominance and aggression, perpetuating the primordial patriarchal unconscious governed by the desire to subdue ‘woman’ and the feminine (Neale in Grant, 1996: 342). Thus, the male monster is represented as the sadist who unconsciously releases sexual repressed desires and castrates the female victim with his phallic weapon. However, the sexually active female victim or ‘bad girl’ could be argued to occupy a masochistic position. Thus, her castration implies that she receives sexual pleasure from unconscious fantasies of domination and torture from the sexually repressed slasher (Williams in Grant, 2004: 150). Nonetheless, the rise of psychoanalytic-feminist film criticism during the second stage of feminist film theory between 1975 and 1983 (Hayward, 2000: 115), attempted to suggest that women throughout the horror film were not represented as castrated; on the contrary, women were fundamentally empowered and portrayed as castrators. For instance, Barbara Creed challenged the archetypical view that the monsters throughout the modern American horror film were gendered as male. Creed argued that female monsters have populated the horror film since the 1940s including the woman as an animal in the Cat People (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1942), the mature female psycho (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? dir. Robert Aldrich, 1962), the female witch in Carrie (dir. Brian De Palma, 1976) and woman as the bleeding gash in Dressed to Kill (dir. Brian De Palma, 1980) (Creed, 1993: 1). The slasher film illustrates the castrating woman by portraying the female monster as the castrating mother and female heroine known as the Final Girl. The mother’s castrating monstrosity is centred on Xavier Mendik’s suggestion that through Julia Kristeva’s notion of abjection, it is the evil castrating mother who presents an unconscious castrating threat to patriarchal superiority (Kristeva-Mendik in Chandler, 2000). This is echoed by Mark Jancovich’s notion of how at the nucleus of horror cinema is the unconscious patriarchal apprehension of woman’s ‘difference’ and her monstrous and unsettling active and castrating sexuality (Jancovich, 1992: 10). Although Creed’s argument expresses that the monster is not invariably gendered as male, the adolescent male spectator participates in a sadistic pleasurable experience. This is where the male viewer identifies with the male slasher through the subjective cinematography of the killer and acquires the slasher’s sadistic-voyeuristic ‘controlling gaze’ (Mulvey in Chandler, 2000). Nonetheless, this sadistic-voyeuristic relationship between the male slasher and spectator is essentially sabotaged when the male audience are encouraged to identify with the other manifestation of the castrating woman: the Final Girl. Unlike her sexually promiscuous and castrated companions, she is signified by her independence, survival instincts and the active female, yet masculine gaze. The passive, asexual woman essentially manifests into an active and powerful phallic female, releasing her unconscious sexually repressed desires and symbolically castrates the male slasher in an angry fashion (Williams in Grant, 2004: 151). Thus, the gender relationship between the male monster, Final Girl and implied male spectator is confusing and ambiguous. This is where the male audience are essentially encouraged to identify across genders and to adopt, however temporarily, both sadistic and masochistic positions in the horror scenario. The two particular character types representing the woman as castrator that will be unpicked in the following investigation will be how the woman is portrayed as the castrating mother and Final Girl. The castrating mother The discourse of the villainous castrating mother arose throughout the post-war period in American society as a response to the loving and nurturing relationship between father and daughter. This disturbing image of the mother was a prelude to the representative figure of the ‘Mom’ (Gant, 2006: 82). Momism was released into the American public consciousness with the 1943 publication of Philip Wylie’s misogynistic essay of American society entitled Generation of Vipers. Wylie’s central argument was how the depiction of Momism in post-war films was symptomatic of a failure of masculinity and paternalism (Wylie in Gant, 2006: 82). This corresponds to Gorer who recognised that the phobic Mom was illustrative of the ‘clinging mother,’ symptomatic of how American men have a clear fear and uncertain attitude towards American post-war mothers (Gorer in Gant, 2006: 89). After the Second World War, the fabric of American family life was heavily damaged. Academic commentators including Marynia Farnham and Ferdinand Lundberg describe the change in family attitudes as a result of the fathers at war in the military and the resulting convergence of mother-child relationships. This produced oedipal and disconcerting maternal undertones, contributing to a loss of positive paternal family values through the absent father and the abject Mom (Gant, 2006: 93). Kenneth Phillips argues that during the 1950s and 1960s, the American suburban Dream was underpinned by maternal separation and the domesticated mother. This ultimately led to the mother’s frustration and loneliness over the child’s health and wealthfare. Thus, the apparent absence of the father and mother’s domestic dominance was reflective of the over-protective nature of Momism (Phillips, 2005: 66-67). This maternal threat of Momism was exacerbated by other 1970s political events including the reduction of male capitalism as a result of de-industrialisation, the rise of feminism and the decrease in American masculine dominance. Thus, American middle-class motherhood became more actively threatening and unsettling (Genter, 2006: 3). It is this particular alarming representation of motherhood that underpins the portrayal of the castrating mother in the modern slasher film. The image of the castrating mother throughout the slasher film is rooted in two particular Freudian critiques entitled Little Hans and the Wolf Man. Freud discovered that it was the unconscious mother who acted as the castrator and punished sexually promiscuous women. Melanie Klein expands Freud’s notion of the unconscious mother by theorising two perceptions of the mother. One perspective is the way that the child’s encounter with the mother’s breast is symbolised as the â€Å"phallic† and evil unconscious mother (Freud-Klein in Kaplan, 1992: 107). This dominating image of the mother corresponds to her â€Å"monstrous† symbolic threat, theorised by Julia Kristeva as the child’s profound abject fear. This monstrosity centred on maternal melancholy is reflective of Hitchcock’s image of mothers, disrupting the unconscious patriarchal order in a violent and disturbing fashion (Kristeva in Kaplan, 1992: 117). The Hitchcock horror film that encapsulates the unconscious threat of the castrating mother is his masterpiece, Psycho. Psycho (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) is simply the ‘quintessential’ horror film (Modleski in Creed, 1993: 140), described by Adam Rockoff as the grandfather of all slasher films (Rockoff, 2002: 26). Psycho was the very first cinematic slasher film, which inspired the American horror film landscape in the late 1970s and early 1980s to become inundated with visceral and violent slasher films (Dika in Waller, 1987: 86). Psycho is also an exemplary slasher film that explicitly illustrates Freud’s notion of the monstrous, castrating mother known as Mrs. Norma Bates. The threat of the castrating mother is presaged in Psycho’s opening title sequence. Christopher Palmer states that the music ‘inform(s) the audience that something traumatic is going to happen’ (Palmer in Sullivan, 2006: 253). This is emphasised by Spellbound’s composer Miklos Rozsa who suggests that the ‘stark, jagged music, so redolent of Bartà ³k and Stravinsky, is sufficient to grip the spectators in their seats, filling them with a nightmarish apprehension of the terror to come’ (Rozsa in Sullivan, 2006: 253). Thus, Palmer and Rozsa are expressing the appropriateness of the terrifying soundtrack that effectively foreshadows and conveniently interpellates the narrative’s initial equilibrium with a dramatic sense of horror. This prefigures the future arrival of the castrating mother in a shocking and unsettling fashion. The castrating power of Mrs. Bates is exemplified by her dominating and possessive psychic control over her son, Norman Bates. The omnipotent threat of Norman’s psychological torture from his castrating mother is a perpetual unconscious fear (Modleski, 2005: 109). This is symptomatic of the powers of the horror genre, relating to masculine fears of maternal abjection. Thus, the fear is not just of castration, but of the loss of total self (Kristeva in Modleski, 2005: 109). However, in order to prevent complete castration, Norman becomes mother. Thus, he essentially manifests into the castrator, rather than being castrated (Creed, 1993: 140). Norman’s transformation from the conscious Norman Bates to his unconscious evil mother is symptomatic of mother’s psychological attachment to Norman. American psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler argues that the unconscious attachment of the mother to Norman carries oedipal undertones, where: ‘The boy considers himself the innocent victim of a witch who is capable of starving, devouring, poisoning, choking, chopping to pieces, draining, and castrating him’ (Bergler in Genter, 2006: 1). Although Bergler’s statement is centred on the pre-oedipal child’s over-attachment to the castrating threat of the mother, Robert Genter suggests that this specific psychoanalytic situation of the infant is applicable to the psychotic behaviour of Norman Bates, centred on the victimisation from his castrating mother (Genter, 2006: 1). Moreover, what is particularly verbally castrating to Norman is mother labelling him as ‘boy,’ even though Norman is now an adolescent. This infantilises Norman and also expresses that he will always remain a child from mother’s perspective (Creed, 1993: 142). In one of the initial conversations between Norman and ‘his’ first victim Marion Crane, Norman informs her that ‘we’re all in our private trap. We scratch and claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it we never budge an inch’ (Wood, 2002: 145). Norman is subliminally describing his traumatic, psychotic attachment to his deceased mother, Norma Bates. This produces his psychotic behaviour and a clear sense of converging to the psychoanalytic notion of the Oedipus complex. However, Freud associated the Oedipus complex with ‘falling in love with the mother and jealousy of the father’ (Freud in Mitchell, 2000: 61). Thus, the mother-child relationship that is depicted in Psycho is not totally indicative of the Oedipus complex, since Norman’s father is fundamentally absent. This creates an omnipotent maternal relationship between Norman and mother. Thus, the oedipal metaphor is only realised through mother’s a ttachment to Norman, an entrapment where there is no escape for Norman. The castrating Mrs. Bates is illustrated in a variety of ways. For example, she is explicitly portrayed as a rotting skeleton corpse that surveys and watches Norman from the window on the top floor of the Victorian mansion. Thus, Mrs. Bates embodies Kristeva’s notion of mother as abject, fearful object (Kristeva in Kaplan, 1992: 117). This demonstrates that Norman is somewhat trapped in the Oedipus complex and also expresses mother’s evil and apprehensive power over Norman. This also symbolises the inferior and apparently absent paternal role of the father. Mother’s dominance is also symbolised by the large, gothic, Freudian-like mansion that towers and essentially gazes down on the smaller Bates’ motel. The motel symbolises Norman, which is the location of promiscuous sexual activity. Norman is the proverbial voyeur, peeping through a tiny hole in the wall to spy on the naked bodies of his next victims. However, the walls of his office are filled with a range of stuffed birds of prey. The birds act as the voyeuristic ominous mother, featuring their piercing, threatening eyes. They have also been conveniently murdered by Norman at the precise moment of attack. This symbolises mother’s alert, observant presence and her perpetual internal attack on Norman’s psyche (Creed, 1993: 143). Furthermore, the beak of the black crow in Norman’s office is also symbolic of the evil castrating mother. The projection of the crow’s shadow and stabbing the picture on the wall is illustrative of mother’s demonic phallus. This is symbolic of mother’s phallic, castrating and devouring power (Creed, 1993: 144). These mummified birds of prey also represent the predatory castrating mother, ready to strike, where Norman and mother are voyeuristically spying on their prey. Thus, this could suggest that mother punishes Norman by forcing him to dress up as mother and kill with the phallic knife, for gaining scopophilic sexual pleasure from peering at sexually active women (Creed, 1993: 146). However, Elizabeth Bronfen suggests that the character of Norman Bates: ‘Is and is not mother, both is and is not dead, is neither masculine nor feminine, mother nor son, fetish, corpse, nor living body. Rather it is all these states amalgamated into one phantastic body, into whose presence Hitchcock has drawn us’ (Bronfen in Wells, 2000: 74). Thus, Bronfen is arguing that Norman Bates is a paradoxical character, whose psychotic behaviour as mother and the domesticated male who manages the Bates’ motel produces a character of contradictions, mystification, sudden horror and extreme rage (Wells, 2000: 76). The first instance of Norman’s sudden intense fury as the castrating mother is during the shower scene, described by Frederic Jameson as the most ‘horrific and immediate scene in motion picture history’ (Jameson in Creed, 1993: 148). The way that Bernard Herrman’s non-diegetic soundtrack functions is particularly significant to Hitchcock’s divergence from classic cinema sound conventions of placing music in the background and instead using it beneficially in the foreground (Sullivan, 2006: 244). When the shower curtain is pulled back, the non-diegetic soundtrack bursts into a violin screech bird-like sound. This high pitched screech intensifies the atmosphere and enhances the image of Norman as the castrating mother with even more phallic power and terror. Thus, the ‘beaked’ mother has arrived with her phallic knife, as a fetishistic phallic mother (Bellour in Creed, 1993: 147). Marion’s symbolically sexual enjoyment of the hot cleansing water mirrors the initial sexual intercourse scene at the beginning of Psycho. Thus, mother punishes Marion for performing unconscious sexual activity whilst in the shower (Bellour in Creed, 1993: 146-147). However, Roger Dadoun argues that the all-powerful and controlling castrating power is explicitly realised at the film’s finale. The penultimate scene occurs in the cellar. Lila has apparently discovered the location of the mummified Mrs. Bates. However, when she turns the chair around, it reveals the hideous, rotting skeleton face with piercing black holes that is essentially captured in close-up shot. Thus, Hitchcock’s cinematography illustrates mother’s devilish, castrating omnipresence, expressing her invulnerability and abject undying nature (Dadoun in Creed, 1993: 150). This also reveals Psycho’s sexist subtext of what happens to mother when she is left alone without father. This is her failure to exert appropriate moral and wise maternal authority towards Norman. When Norman attacks Lila dressed as his mother in the cellar, the camera jump cuts to a close-up shot of mother’s grinning yet lifeless skull. Thus, Norman’s attempted assault is symbolic of mother’s psychic active participation with the castrating attack. This also conforms to Norman’s schizophrenic conflict as associated with life and death: the conscious, sexually repressed mind of Norman and the psychotic, unconscious phallic power of his mother (Creed, 1993: 150). Nevertheless, the closure of Psycho confirms that Norman’s contradictory and conflicting character manifests into one defining persona, a metamorphosis into the unconscious castrating mother. Mrs. Bates’s symbolic castration of Norman strips him of all sense of patriarchal masculinity. Gorer expresses that Norman ‘carries around, as it were, encapsulated inside him, an ethical, admonitory, censorious mother (Gorer in Gant, 2006: 91). Thus, Norman essentially manifests into mother, a severe psychological disease that eventually devours and pollutes all areas of his conscious mind. When Norman-mother utters ‘It’s sad when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son’ (Williams, 1996: 77), it implies that mother has supernaturally internalised her evil, devouring spirit inside Norman. This signifies her spiritual and psychic possession of Norman’s mind, dominating his internal psychological structure and influencing his castrati ng behaviour. This is externally portrayed by the momentary superimposition of mother’s perturbed smile over Norman’s face. This theory of mother’s total unconscious possession of Norman is echoed by Michael Chion, suggesting that the threatening disembodied voice of mother has finally found what he labels its acousmatic (Chion in Zizek, 1992: 233-234). Thus, the abject spirit of mother has located a body, which is conveniently her son Norman. The perturbing smile from Norman-mother confirms the attachment of mother’s voice to Norman’s body. This manifests Norman into a definite Other, where the terrifying voice of mother emanating from Norman’s body creates a zombified figure. This symbolic zombie is the production of the superego. The unconscious maternal power of mother has magically entered the conscious mind of Norman. Thus, he has essentially become the unconscious castrating mother to prevent his own castration (Zizek, 1992: 234). The closure of Psycho II (dir. Richard Franklin, 1983) also indicates the dominating presence of the castrating mother. Norman murders his supposedly real mother, Norma Bates’ sister Emma Spool. He carries her upstairs acting as a substitute for Norma’s body, which was buried in a coffin at the end of Psycho. The final image is a long empowering shot of the Victorian house with a silhouette image of mother looking down at Norman as he looks up to her, waiting for the next visitors. The cloudy and thundery conditions and the chilling non-diegetic soundtrack not only create a horrifying closure; however, this also symbolically reveals a deep cultural view of American suburban mundanity, centred on the oedipal relationship between Norman and mother. Mother’s castrating presence is also portrayed by the cinematography. For instance, the dominating house and mother looking down at Norman on the left side of the frame juxtaposes with just Norman standing outside to the right side of the frame. Symbolically, Norman is still just a ‘boy,’ belittled, infantilised and essentially dominated by his watchful, castrating mother. Mother’s castrating threat is still apparent throughout the dà ©nouement of Psycho III (dir. Anthony Perkins, 1986). Upon discovering from a journalist that Emma Spool was actually Norman’s aunt who killed Norman’s father in a jealous frenzy since Norman’s mother intercepted Norman’s father, Norman, dressed as mother, was about to butcher the reporter when he instead castrated the mummified corpse of Emma Spool with his butchers knife. Norman’s sexually phallic actions psychoanalytically suggest his release of sexual energies from his repressed sexuality and liberation from his oedipal relationship with his mother. Thus, Norman is re-phallicised and his castration of mother deems patriarchy as victorious. However, this patriarchal victory is only temporary. Mother’s castrating threat is realised in the final scene where Norman is taken back to prison. In the back seat of the police car, he pulls out mother’s arm and begins stroking her hand. Simultaneously, he stares into the camera with a perturbed grin, which is a clear intertextual echo to the end of the first Psycho. Thus, this portrayal of the castrating mother is not as visually threatening as the end of Psycho and Psycho II. However, although mother has been castrated, she returns unconsciously as re-phallicised. Thus, this is still significantly suggestive of Norman’s entrapment within the Oedipus complex and his perennial psychological attachment to the castrating mother. The symbolic incestuous desire of their relationship is represented during Psycho IV: The Beginning (dir. Mick Garris, 1990). One particular scene features young Norman Bates and mother on a hot summer’s night. Mother suddenly asks Norman to block her with skin oil. She instructs Norman to begin at the legs and slowly work his way up. This is symbolically sexually stimulating for mother as she receives satisfaction, releasing repressed sexual gratifications. Unexpectedly, she pushes Norman to the floor and they frolic and roll around together. Whilst this may denote innocent adolescent love, mother’s actions connote her sexual domination of Norman. Thus, mother is unconsciously using and imagining Norman as her fantasised boyfriend or sexual ‘toy boy.’ Her sexual desires also correspond with Freud’s theory of ‘mother-in-love-action,’ an illustration of an incestuous perversion of normal instinct (Freud in Kaplan, 1992: 115). However, mother’s unconscious incestuous sexual desires for Norman are disrupted when Norman is inadvertently lying on top of his mother, positioned symbolically for sexual intercourse. This phallically stimulates Norman. At the point of incest, mother is immediately angry and recognises his erection. Thus, she instantly acts to castrate Norman by forcing him to wear her clothes, putting on her make-up, claiming that his phallus is restricted only to urination and calls him Norma. This is the ultimate masculine insult, symptomatic of mother’s castrating control and dominance over Norman. However, the narrative closure of Psycho IV: The Beginning signifies the psychoanalytic significance of the American dream. The finale begins in an unsettling fashion when Norman instructs his fiancà © Fran to meet him at his mother’s house. Norman’s castrating thoughts return as he threatens to stab her because he wishes not to become a father. In the cellar, Norman attempts to kill Fran with his phallic knife. However, for the very first time, his conscious feelings of love and compassion overpower his unconscious thoughts of the menacing evil mother. Norman eventually relinquishes the knife and hugs Fran, confirming his personal liberation from his castrating mother. Nevertheless, Norman is determined to completely exorcise his castrating mother. Thus, he decides to burn the old Victorian house. He manages to escape and utters â€Å"I am free.† His new heterosexual relationship with Fran not only signifies the American Dream and a new chapter in Norman’s life, it also conforms to the positive new equilibrium associated with classical narrative cinema (Blandford et al, 2001: 47), an uplifting resolution from his oedipal anxieties. This sense of positivity is finally confirmed with a baby’s scream, a crucial aural signifier that expresses a new era in Norman’s life. This new relationship liberates Norman from the spirit of his dominating, castrating mother. Thus, the closure of Psycho IV: The Beginning represents Kristeva’s statement where ‘that other sex, the feminine, becomes synonymous with a radical evil that is to be suppressed’ (Kristeva in Kaplan, 1992: 117). Kristeva’s notion of the suppressed feminine evil monster applies to the closure of Psycho IV: The Beginning as the evil mother is ultimately suppressed to the unconscious. The fact that Norman burned the house symbolically sentenced mother to an eternal imprisonment in the evil depths of hell. Patriarchal masculinity is finally restored and paternalism is also victorious over motherhood. Thus, Norman has fundamentally become the one entity that has been absent throughout the entire Psycho series: a father. Although the central figure of evil in Halloween (dir. John Carpenter, 1978) is the implied male monster Michael Myers, Steve Neale argues that Myers is also unconsciously indicative of the castrating mother, reasserting the fantasy of the mother-child relationship. However, the concrete absence of the maternal figure throughout Halloween’s opening sequence suggests that the relationship between Michael and mother is essentially fragmented. This sense of detachment manifests the image of mother into an unconscious object of threat and menace (Neale in Grant, 1996: 345). Thus, the horrific symbolic image of the mother is inherently internalised into Michael as he has been endowed with castrating supremacy. This positions the infantile Michael as an overtly aggressive and all-powerful slasher, modelling is new omnipotence from his mother. Myers’ image as unconscious castrating mother mirrors the character of Norman Bates, due to his phallicisation with the butcher’ s knife to prevent his own castration. Thus, Michael’s castrating and phallic power originates from the locus of all abject phallic power, the castrating mother. The alien mother in Alien (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979) is portrayed as the dehumanised castrating mother. The metaphor of the ‘mother alien’ inscribed into the alien has the indiscriminating killing power of destroying humanity and producing alien offspring (Creed, 1993: 22). This castrating power is apparent when Dallas experiences the alien in the womb-like air corridors, where the alien’s razor-sharp teeth and oceanic, over-domination, creates an ‘all-incorporating’ phallic, fetishistic power; a metaphor of the all-dominant mother. The mother is also portrayed by the life-support voice of the Nostromo ‘mother’ ship and appropriately ignores Ripley’s instructions of deactivating the ship’s self-destruct system, during the climax. This results in Ripley shouting at mother saying ‘mother, you bitch!’ (Kavanagh in Kuhn, 1990: 76-77). Thus, the mother figure that is signified through the images of the alien and compu ter voice represents a deviant, mechanised and somewhat evil castrating figure that is devoid of humanised emotions. In A Nightmare on Elm Street (dir. Wes Craven, 1984), Marge Thompson acts as the castrating mother, where upon participating in the burning of the child murderer Freddie Krueger, she stole and is now the owner of Krueger’s metallic fingered glove. Marge is symbolically phallicised and has thus castrated Krueger. Marge also infantilises and somewhat castrates her daughter Nancy by providing her with warm milk, ironic tender mother care and also imprisons Nancy and herself in their house, placing iron bars across the windows and front door. This connotes a possessive maternal relationship between mother and daughter (Genter, 2006: 3). During the dà ©nouement of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Krueger castrates Marge and she is subsequently transformed into a corpse that descends symbolically into the unconscious. Moreover, the mummified carcass of Leatherface’s mother is symbolically positioned as a threatening castrating presence, crowned on the chair at the family’s house in Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II (dir. Tobe Hooper, 1986). The tombstone of Judith Myers also acts metaphorically as an abject dead corpse, after her murder by her brother Michael Myers in Halloween (Genter, 2006: 3). The male monster throughout the Friday the 13th series is the psychotic madman named Jason Voorhees. However, the slasher in Friday the 13th Part I (dir. Sean S. Cunningham, 1980) is his mother Mrs. Voorhees, where Jason is permanently psychically attached to his castrating mother. Richard Genter states that Mrs. Voorhees is the embodiment of traditional Freudian psychoanalysis in Friday the 13th Part I. For instance, she alleviates her own penis envy through phallicising herself with various phallic weapons such as screwdrivers and a butcher’s knife. She also suppresses her own acceptance of losing her son Jason by allowing his spirit to speak to her through her mouth (Genter, 2006: 4). However, the representation of Jason’s deceased and castrating mother Mrs. Voorhees is depicted in an abject horrifying manner in Friday the 13th Part II (dir. Steve Miner, 1981). When Ginny is being chased by Jason and approaches his lair, the non-diegetic piano refrained soundtrack is disconcerting and eerie. Thus, the soundtrack enhances the representation of the isolated, derelict and death-like rural hut as the central location of unconscious threat and terror. When Ginny arrives at the hut in an attempt to escape from the slasher, she inadvertently arrives in an area far more terrifying. The image of the decaying head of Jason’s castrating mother is symbolically illustrated as a shrine, with Mrs. Voorhees’s head depicting an unholy object of abjection and evil, surrounded by candles. This demonstrates the demonic castrating power of Mrs. Voorhees. When Ginny slashes Jason on his shoulder with the machete, she perceives that he is dead. However, his dramatic crash through the window at the film’s closure not only restores Jason’s patriarchal masculinity, but also indicates a symbolic victory for the castrating mother. This is highlighted by the final close-up shot of Mrs. Voorhees’ putrid head, revealing her subliminally active and castrating participation. Thus, this is also an allusion to the revengeful castrating spirit of Mrs. Bates, the quintessential castrating abject mother (Genter, 2006: 4). The Final Girl The woman is also portrayed as castrator in the American slasher film as the Final Girl. She is denoted as the female survivor who usually does not die. Throughout the era of the slasher film, there have been numerous Final Girls including Sally from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Marti (Hell Night), Valerie (Slumber Party Massacre), Laurie (Halloween) and Nancy (A Nightmare on Elm Street) (Humphries, 2002: 150). Reynold Humphries explains that one theory suggesting her invariable survival from the menacing slasher is because she is asexual and not sexually active (Humphries, 2002: 150). Marti, the female sole survivor in Hell Night (dir. Tom DeSimone, 1981) has a high degree of feminine honour and is also a car mechanic that connotes her as a masculine female. This is juxtaposed by one of the sexually active females who actually invites the slasher to kill her, where the victim’s promiscuity is denoted by her erotic lingerie (Clover, 1992: 151). Thus, she is positioned as masochistic. The victim’s masochism is signified by her symbolic orgasmic screech. This aural diegetic element not only demonstrates her submission to unconscious fantasies of pain and torment; it also reveals the occurrence of the slasher’s sexual sadistic attack, where the adolescent male spectator engages in sadistic-voyeuristic participation. Thus, through her masochistic depiction, she is also the misogynistic object of the slasher’s sadistic-voyeuristic gaze, encouraging his phallic threat (Chion in Conrich and Woods, 2004: 58). While it is clearly the sexually active females who are murdered, the Final Girl is also subject to misogyny by being chased, stalked and even injured by the slasher. Thus, although the Final Girl survives the slasher’s murderous rampage, it could be argued that the Final Girl’s emotional victimisation and her embodiment of abject terror towards the slasher is just as misogynistic as the death of the promiscuous women (Clover, 1992: 35). However, the Final Girl’s victory over the slasher indicates a triumph for feminism. This could be coded as masculine, where the slasher’s inability and lack of masculine determination to kill the final female throughout the dà ©nouement depicts the slasher has castrated and somewhat feminised. This is due to the Final Girl’s courage to survive the slasher’s onslaught. Her implied masculinity is also indicated by her boyish name such as Stevie, Marti, Laurie, Stretch and Max (Clover, 1992: 40). Thus, the Final Girl’s masculinised nature could also be symptomatic of the male spectator identifying with the Final Girl’s masculinity. This is due to the male audience’s unconscious refusal of accepting the social stereotypical view of passive, inferior females and active, responsible males. Rather, the adolescent male spectator is diverging from the sadistic-voyeuristic relationship between the slasher and male viewer, participating with the Final Girl in a desirable shared experience of masculinity and self-importance (Clover, 1992: 151-152). An example of the Final Girl’s implicit masculinity is Alice’s heroism during the finale of Friday the 13th Part I. Although Alice is traditionally a feminised name, her symbolic castration of the castrating mother Mrs. Voorhees could be coded as a masculine victory. She is phallicised through being armed with the phallic pick axe and decapitates the mother, punishing her as the conscious mass murderer and unconsciously for acting in a masculine fashion. Thus, these actions could be symptomatic of masculinity, especially as afterwards Alice returns to her usual role in society as a typical feminine female (Clover, 1992: 152). Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street also conforms to the masculinised Final Girl. She acquires the ‘active investigating gaze,’ searching for the killer Freddy Krueger with initial trepidation and ultimately bringing him aggressively back into reality, where she can castrate Krueger at the films finale (Clover, 1992: 48). The dà ©nouement of A Nightmare on Elm Street begins when Nancy sets various phallic booby traps around her house for Krueger. These include a sledgehammer that she ties to the door, so that when Krueger opens it, the phallic hammer will symbolically castrate him. She has her alarm set to go off at a particular point and envisages that in her dream, she can successfully bring Krueger back into reality and ultimately kill the slasher. Whilst in her dream, she acquires the active investigating gaze of the Final Girl, searching for Krueger in his boiler room. Although primarily the subjective cinematography indicates Krueger’s omnipresence, her locating gaze signifies focus and determination. Eventually she discovers Krueger and with only seconds remaining until the alarm goes off; she expresses no fear and launches herself on him in an animalistic fashion. This symbolically releases her sexually repressed desires on Krueger, as she manages to transfer him from the unconscious b ack into reality. Once Krueger returns to reality, the chase begins between Nancy and Krueger. However, he is struck in the lower abdomen by the sledgehammer, acting as symbolic castration. Nevertheless, she finally castrates Krueger by not being terrified and denying his existence. However, Krueger still attempts to butcher Nancy. He is unsuccessful and instantly disintegrates, symbolically returning to the depths of the unconscious. Thus, the active investigating gaze emitting from the Final Girl contravenes the characterisation of the typical male gaze and manifests it into an active female gaze. This also flouts the notion from traditional cinema that it is not the man that maintains narrative direction and pace; it is the Final Girl who drives the narrative resolution to its cathartic new equilibrium (Mulvey in Clover, 1992: 60). However, the slasher invariably returns as re-phallicised and masculinised at the film’s closure. Thus, the Final Girl’s victory is only temporary. Either the slasher returns in the sequel and is unsuccessful in killing the Final Girl such as the survival of Laurie in Halloween II (dir. Rick Rosenthal, 1981) or the demise of the Final Girl in another film including Alice, the Final Girl of Friday the 13th Part I, who is instantly murdered by Jason at the beginning of Friday the 13th Part II, the killing of Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part III: Dream Warriors (dir. Chuck Russell, 1987), Ripley’s death in Alien III (dir. David Fincher, 1992) and Laurie’s eventual demise in Halloween Resurrection (dir. Rick Rosenthal, 2002) (Pinedo, 1997: 86). Thus, this initially suggests that the image of the Final Girl is a positive portrayal of feminism. However, this sense of positivity is only momentary and could even be symptomatic that her emotional and physical misogyny is no less misogynistic than the victimisation of the sexually promiscuous females. This may also state that it does not matter whether you are promiscuous or asexual; you are still eventually going to be subjected to misogyny and ultimately murdered. However, although the Final Girl’s masculine victory is only temporary and somewhat misogynistic, her implied masculine character expresses that the female heroine symbolically manifests into the masculine hero. Thus, the equation of feminine equal’s heroine has been fundamentally replaced with hero equals masculine. For example, Ripley, the Final Girl from Alien is appropriately titled as Lieutenant. Her ability to survive and blast the Alien into space implies masculine skill, courage and determination. This demonstrates that Ripley’s victory is a triumph for feminism. However, her heroism also implicitly indicates a fundamental convergence with masculinity (Clover, 1992: 152). Ripley’s masculine character is also highlighted significantly throughout the Alien sequels. For instance, the dà ©nouement of Aliens (dir. James Cameron, 1986) begins with Ripley’s quest to kill the alien queen and locate Newt before the space station explodes. Ripley is coded as overtly masculine as the other male character is wounded and unable to fight. Her masculinity is phallicised as she is equipped with many large guns and also adopts the active investigative gaze. This indicates her determination to discover Newt and destroy the alien queen. However, after saving Newt, Ripley’s masculinity is visually emphasised in spectacular fashion during the final battle between Ripley and the alien queen. She confronts and eventually kills the alien wearing a metallic robot costume. Thus, Ripley has manifested from the implied masculinised Final Girl into an explicitly aggressive, powerful and robotised masculine hero. John Carpenter states that the killer and the Final Girl also have a symbolic sexually repressed connection (Carpenter in Clover, 1992: 49), complying with Carol Clover’s notion of a ‘shared masculinity’ (Clover, 1992: 49). However, it is clear during the dà ©nouement that the slasher’s inherent masculinity begins to diminish as the Final Girl’s masculinity, phallic threat and unfeminine behaviour increases. The complete phallicisation of the survivor is when the horror of the slasher ceases to exist, with a cathartic closure. For example, Stretch, the Final Girl from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre II escapes from the evil maniacs of Saw, Knife and Hammer. The concluding battle between Stretch and the final antagonist ensues only momentarily as she tears open his lower abdomen with her chain saw and throws him off the cliff’s edge. Thus, Stretch acquires potent phallic masculinity acting as an explicit form of castration to the antagonists (Clo ver, 1992: 49). Thus, the Final Girl’s internalised masculinity within a female body expresses a convergence between masculinity and femininity, where the identities of male and female are amalgamated into one figure. The Final Girl is unconsciously coded masculine for her active gaze and castrating thwarting strength of the slasher. This creates a phallic killer. However, she is still consciously physically feminine, which is indicated by her screaming and abject fear of the slasher (Clover, 1992: 58). Furthermore, her characteristics of masculinity and femininity create an oppositional character. For instance, she is subordinated and portrayed as vulnerable whilst being chased by the monster. However, the Final Girl is empowered by either surviving or killing the slasher. The stabbings and injuries she suffers connote her anger and frustration; however, this also simultaneously displays fear and apprehension. Thus, she is what Clover labels the ‘characterological androgyne’ (Clover, 1992: 63). She is neither entirely masculine nor feminine. She is a combination of both genders. This also partly conforms to Marc O’Day’s notion of the ‘action babe heroine’ (O’Day in Tasker, 2004: 205). Although the Final Girl is fundamentally asexual, her combination of both masculine and feminine elements mirrors the hyperbolic-heroine representations of, for example, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider (dir. Simon West, 2001) and Sarah Conner from Terminator (dir. James Cameron, 1984). This creates a symbolic masculine killer essentially emanating from a female body (O’Day in Tasker, 2004: 201, 204). Her gender during the final battle between the survivor and slasher is thus ambiguous, contradictory and continually in dynamic flux. The final conflict between the masculine Final Girl and feminised slasher is clearly a battle between two separate characters. However, Vera Dika describes the opposition between the heroine and killer as ego/id (Dika, 1987: 92). The ego demonstrates the controlled and judicious conscious mind of the female survivor and the id represents the slasher’s instinctive and unconscious desire to kill (Arrowsmith, 2001). Thus, Dika suggests that this combat between heroine and slasher is symbolically a Freudian-charged internal battle between one single self. For example, the dà ©nouement of Halloween H20 (dir. Steve Miner, 1998) features the killer Michael Myers and the Final Girl Laurie Strode. Michael and Laurie are involved in a van accident that sends the van falling off a cliff with Michael and Laurie inside. Laurie survives and Michael unfortunately lands on a tree and the van crashes onto his back. The close-up shot of Michael and Laurie stretching their hands to barely touch each other signifies the intimate convergence of the conscious ego and unconscious id. However, Laurie is armed with an axe and castrates Michael by beheading him. Thus, the Final Girl’s invariable success demonstrates the cathartic resolution of the ‘masculine’ conscious mind over the ‘feminine’ unconscious instinct. Nevertheless, if the assumption is made that the image of the masculinised Final Girl is an appropriate way of describing her gender identity, Clover also suggests that future slasher films should also feature Final Boys and Final Girls. For example, Scream (dir. Wes Craven, 1996) initiated the postmodernist cycle of the slasher film and also represents the progressive representation of the Final Girl. Sidney as the Final Girl is not only sexually attractive; she also experiences sexual intercourse with one of the killers, her boyfriend Billy. During the finale, Sidney becomes aggressively masculine and kills the other killer Stu by pushing a television on his head. She also symbolically transforms into the slasher by wearing the mask and black gown to castrate Billy with the phallic umbrella rod. Sidney ultimately castrates him when he magically resurrects and shoots him in the forehead. However, Sidney is not the only Final Girl. The television reporter Gail Weathers also survives with the Final Boys named Sheriff Dewie and Randy. This particular multiple survival pattern is intertextually echoed in future slasher films. For example Scream 2 (dir. Wes Craven, 1997) also features two Final Boys and Final Girls, where Sidney, Gail, Dewie and Cotton all survive. In Scream 3 (dir. Wes Craven, 2000), both Dewie and Gail survive along with the ultimate Final Girl Sidney. Ray and Julie survive in I Know What You Did Last Summer (dir. Jim Gillespie, 1997), Carla, Julie and Ray all remain alive in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (dir. Danny Cannon, 1998) and there is a Final Boy and Final Girl in Jason X (dir. James Isaac, 2001), Freddy Vs. Jason (dir. Ronny Yu, 2003), Halloween Resurrection, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (dir. Sylvain White, 2006) and the remake of Friday the 13th (dir. Marcus Nispel, 2009). Although there are two physical Final Girls in Alien Resurrection (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1997), it could be argued that Ripley’s masculine portrayal symbolises one Final ‘B oy’ and Final Girl. Thus, this confirms that Clover’s suggestion of the masculine Final Girl and future Final Boys was correct. Since Scream, the slasher film has progressed within the postmodern era. There have been multiple survivors of both girls and boys. Thus, there has been a progressive explicit convergence to a masculinised vision of the final female survivor. This would seem appropriate as in order to survive, you have to be tenacious and determined not to die, which is a cultural masculine trait. The Scream trilogy also encapsulates the postmodernisation of the slasher film by breaching the generic conventions associated with the traditional slasher narrative formula (Phillips, 2005: 166). Initially, Scream features two adolescent killers named Billy and Stu instead of one chief male monster. Billy is the primary implied slasher, who is seeking revenge on Sidney because her sexually promiscuous mother had an affair with his father, which led Billy’s parent’s marriage to fragment. Billy claims that he murdered Sidney’s mother and now intends on killing Sidney to complete his vengeance. Thus, this could suggest that Sidney’s sexually active phallic mother is the central catalyst that initiates the unsettling relationship between Sidney and Billy, and also influences the psychotic behaviour of Billy, which reaches terrifying heights at the film’s closure. Another example of the postmodern fashion of Scream is the sadomasochistic representation of the two teenage slashers (Genter, 2006: 11). Throughout the finale, Billy and Stu stab and symbolically castrate each other to provide the impression that it was Sidney’s father who victimised them in a violent and bloody attack. However, their unconscious sadomasochistic desires overthrow their conscious commitment of surviving and not losing copious amounts of blood. Rather than the archetypal portrayal of the sadistic male slasher, Billy and Stu are collectively the postmodern emblem of not just experiencing pleasure when stabbing other individuals; they are also slashers that are victims of their own castration and masochistic fantasies of torture and self-suffering. Thus, the masochistic position and the castrating threat of the sexually promiscuous female has fundamentally shifted to the sadomasochistic and self-castrating postmodern slasher. Another exemplary example of the progressive and postmodern representation of the Final Girl is depicted throughout the climax of Scream 3. Although Scream demonstrates Sidney’s aggressive and phallic power when she metaphorically becomes the slasher and castrates both Billy and Stu, her portrayal during the closure of Scream 3 is far more visually significant. It is realised during the dà ©nouement of Scream 3 that the slasher is discovered as Sidney’s brother Roman, claiming to be disowned by Sidney’s mother. When she initially shot Rowan after tricking him to believe that she only possessed one gun, Sidney only shot him in the chest. It was later revealed that he was wearing a bulletproof vest. Thus, because of Roman’s survival, the fight continues between Roman and Sidney. Just as it seems that Sidney is going to castrate Roman with her phallic knife, he shoots her twice. Nonetheless, he only shoots her in the chest. When Rowan believes that Sidney is dead, his celebration is interrupted by the other two survivors, Gail and Dewie. However, when he stares back at the fallen Sidney, she has mysteriously disappeared. Thus, this empowers the position of Sidney and subordinates the role of Roman, who is now the object of Sidney’s and the male spectator’s sadistic-voyeuristic gaze. Sidney has now symbolically manifested into the all-powerful castrating masculine slasher and Rowan is now the feminised victim. The cinematography also indicates the castrating power of Sidney by presenting a close-up shot of Sidney’s hand slowly grabbing another phallic knife. She ultimately castrates Roman by stabbing him numerous times and once more in the heart. She reveals to Roman that she tenaciously acted in reciprocal preservation by also wearing a bulletproof vest when she was shot twice in the chest by Roman. Sidney’s hyperbolic and symbolic and transformation into the phallic, castrating slasher implies an amalgamation of the character types of the Final Girl and male slasher. However, this may also indicate the unconscious maternal presence of the monstrous castrating mother. This is where the deceased and ultra liberated spirit of Sidney’s active phallic mother Maureen Prescott becomes internalised in Sidney’s psyche, which influences her castrating and evil behaviour over Rowan. Thus, Sidney as a blend of Final Girl and castrating mother represents a powerful postmodern representation of the female masculine survivor. This injection of the castrating mother is also a revolutionary way of portraying feminine masculinity in order to provide a positive, cathartic and essentially closed narrative closure. Thus, unlike the ending of the vast majority of slasher films, the slasher has finally departed. Thus, the postmodern slasher film depicts a progressive portrayal of the Final Girl with the addition of Final Boy(s) and the Final Girl. Her masculine and phallic power is further emphasised by the sadomasochistic, feminine slasher and is also enhanced by amalgamating her masculine aspects with the unconscious castrating mother-slasher. Conclusion In conclusion, this psychoanalytic-feminist critique of the American slasher film demonstrates that the woman is not the masochistic, castrated victim and object of the sadistic, patriarchal slasher’s and male spectator’s voyeuristic, predatory gaze. The woman is fundamentally positioned as a powerful castrating entity and this is illustrated by the dominating image of the castrating mother and the masculinised hero known as the Final Girl. Thus, this demonstrates that the representation of the castrating mother and Final Girl in the slasher film contravenes the widespread notion of the victimised and castrated female in the modern American horror film and portrays the woman as castrator. However, this notion of woman as castrator is essentially contradicted by the devious and conniving nature of the patriarchal unconscious. The image of the castrating mother reveals a profound ‘dark side’ of the patriarchal unconscious (Creed, 1993: 165-166). This is where patriarchy represents an intense unconscious fear of the phallic mother. The slasher film responds to this unconscious patriarchal peril by abjectifying the woman in a misogynistic fashion as the ‘monstrous-feminine,’ in order to maintain patriarchal power and restore the patriarchal unconscious (Creed, 1993: 166). The patriarchal unconscious relating to the Final Girl is centred on gender power warfare between the male slasher and Final Girl throughout the archetypal slasher film. The patriarchal dominance of the slasher is portrayed at the beginning of the film, which is usually governed by an unconscious maternal, castrating menace. However, during the dà ©nouement, the patriarchal masculinity and symbolic castrating maternal power of the slasher fundamentally shifts to the Final Girl. She is represented symbolically as the male castrating Other; phallicised and masculinised through her investigative and active masculine gaze and competent and successful use of various phallic weapons to either survive or ‘kill’ the slasher herself. However, the male slasher’s patriarchal superiority is restored at the film’s finale. Although the Final Girl’s ego castrates the slasher’s id and subliminally indicates a feminist triumph, her victory is only momentary. The patriarchal unconscious is ultimately re-established at the film’s closure when the slasher magically returns from the unconscious as re-phallicised and reveals his devilish terror and masculine dominance. The Final Girl is thus represented as the terrified feminine female once again. Thus, the castrating mother and Final Girl throughout the slasher film may essentially express the woman as castrator. However, lurking underneath these powerfully castrating images is the deceitful notion of the patriarchal unconscious; centred on subordinating feminism by ultimately restoring patriarchy as a symbolic misogynistic counterattack and anti-feminist backlash to the phallic threat of the castrating mother and Final Girl. Bibliography Arrowsmith, A (2001) Critical Concepts some literary/cultural theory keywords. Available at: http://royal-holloway.org.uk/ltsn/english/events/past/staffs/Holland_Arrowsmith/Critical%20Concepts%20edit.htm. Date accessed: 2nd March 2009. Blandford, S et al (2001) The Film Studies Dictionary (London: Hodder) Chandler, D (2000) ‘Notes on The Gaze: Laura Mulvey on film spectatorship.’ Available at: . Date accessed: 23rd April, 2009. Clover, J.C (1992) Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (London: BFI) Conrich, I and Woods, D (2004) The Cinema of John Carpenter: the technique of terror (London: Wallflower Press) Creed, B (1993) The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (London: Routledge) Dika, V ‘The Stalker Film, 1978-81’ in Waller, A.G (1987) American Horrors: Essays on the modern American horror film (Chicago: University of Illinois Press) Gant, C.M (2006) Hollywood genres and post-war America: Masculinity, Family and Nation in Popular Movies and Film Noir (London: I.B. Tauris) Genter, R (2006) ‘Imagining murderous mothers: male spectatorship and the American slasher film.’ Available at . Date accessed: 2nd April, 2009. Hayward, S (2000) Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts 2nd Edition (Oxon: Routledge) Humphries, R (2002) The American Horror Film: An Introduction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) Jancovich, M (1992) Horror (London: B.T. Batsford Ltd) Kaplan, A.E (1992) Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama (London: Routledge) Kavanagh, H. J ‘Feminism, Humanism and Science in Alien’ in Kuhn, A (1990) Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema (London: Verso) Modleski, T (2005) The women who knew too much 2nd edition: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory (Oxon: Routledge) Mitchell, J (2000) Psychoanalysis and Feminism: A Radical Reassessment of Freudian Psychoanalysis (London: Penguin Books Ltd) Neale, S ‘Halloween: Suspense, Aggression and the Look’ in Grant, K.B (1996) Planks of reason: Essays on the Horror Film (London: Scarecrow Press) O’Day, M ‘Beauty in Motion: Gender, spectacle and action babe cinema’ in Tasker, Y (2004) Action and Adventure Cinema (Oxon: Routledge) Pinedo, C.I (1997) Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing (Albany: State University of New York Press) Phillips, R.K (2005) Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture (Westport: Praeger) Rockoff, A (2002) Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986 (London: McFarland Company Inc) Schneider, J.S (2004) Horror film and Psychoanalysis: Freud’s worst nightmare (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Sullivan, J (2006) Hitchcock’s Music (London: Yale University Press) Waller, A.G (1987) American Horrors: Essays on the modern American horror film (Chicago: University of Illinois Press) Wells, P (2000) The Horror Genre: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch (London: Wallflower Publishing) Williams, L ‘Film Bodies: gender, genre and excess’ in Grant, B.K (2004) Film Genre Reader 3rd Edition (Austin: University of Texas Press) Williams, T (1996) Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film (London: Associated University Press) Wood, R (2002) Hitchcock’s Film’s Revisited: Revised Edition (New York: Columbia University Press) Zizek, S (1992) Everything you’ve always wanted to know about Lacan: But were afraid to ask Hitchcock (London: Verso) Research Papers on Psychoanalytic-Feminist Study of American Slasher FilmWhere Wild and West MeetHip-Hop is ArtAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyMind TravelEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionThe Fifth HorsemanResearch Process Part One

A Woman of No Importance, Final Act

Wilde uses many dramatic effects throughout the play to shock and amuse the audience and many of them can be seen in this final scene. The fact that this conversation between Mrs Arbuthnot and Lord Illingworth takes place in Mrs Arbuthnot’s house, her personal space and territory puts her at an advantage and it shows that Lord Illingworth is surrendering his usual control over his situations By Lord Illingworth referring to Mrs Arbuthnot as ‘Rachel’ we are again made aware that we are listening to two people who have a strong past relationship. She calls him ‘George Harford’ while he uses her name far less often that in the persuasive Act 2. During this scene, Lord Illingworth speaks with awareness of the legal situation, he knows he can never make Gerald legitimate but he is willing to leave him property â€Å"What more can a gentleman desire in this world? † and Mrs Arbuthnot’s response of â€Å"Nothing more, I am quite sure† turns this in to a class confrontation. When Mrs Arbuthnot says â€Å"I told you I was not interested, and I beg you to go. † this is a threat to conventional society and the audience would have been shocked by this. She treats Lord Illingworth as he once treated her, in purely financial terms and she tells him that Gerald no longer needs his money, â€Å"You come too late. My son has no need of you. You are not necessary. † She then goes on to explain to him that Gerald and Hester are in love and they don’t need his money because Hester already has money of her own. Lord Illingworth asks where they will go and Mrs Arbuthnot’s reply â€Å"We will not tell you, and if you find us we will not know you. You seem surprised. What welcome would you get from the girl whose lips you tried to soil, from the boy whose life you have shamed, from the mother who dishonor comes from you? † is very melodramatic and it also relives the fact that Lord Illingworth tried to kiss Hester and this is when Gerald found out that he was his father, â€Å"Lord Illingworth you have insulted the purest thing on Gods earth†. This leaves Lord Illingworth to admit that he wants Gerald, â€Å"Rachel, I want my son. † Wilde uses many props in this scene, the main one being the letter Gerald has written to Lord Illingworth imploring him to marry his mother. The audience know what is written in the letter before Lord Illingworth does and this adds drama and tension because the audience are waiting for the big reveal and to see what happens. This letter also links back to the letter that Lord Illingworth sees in Act 2 and says â€Å"What a curious handwriting! It reminds me of the handwriting of a woman I used to know years ago. † and his dismissal of it so simply. The stage direction of ‘Mrs Arbuthnot watches him all the time’ is very important because she wants to see his reaction. Ironically his proposal of marriage after reading Gerald’s letter uses similar language to Mrs Arbuthnot’s when explaining to Gerald why she would refuse him, for her marriage would be a ‘sacrifice’ and for Lord Illingworth it would be a ‘surrender’. For Mrs Arbuthnot to say this at this point in the play would have been very uncommon for the time because the audience would be expecting a happy ending, for the fallen women to marry the father of her child or for it to end like a melodrama, in tragedy. For the first time, Mrs Arbuthnot is triumphant against Lord Illingworth with the repetition of his own words when she says, â€Å"Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely if ever do they forgive them. † Lord Illingworth is clearly surprised at this response and then resorts to cruelty. His parting speech creates an exciting climax as the censorship of the time wouldn’t allow anyone to say the word ‘bastard’ on the stage. Wilde’s stage direction of Mrs Arbuthnot’s use of the glove â€Å"Mrs Arbuthnot snatches up glove and strikes Lord Illingworth across the face with it† is a very good use of a prop because in the time this play was written a glove was a very masculine item and being hit with one was a sign of violence and confrontation. The audience is allowed a shock, due to the word about to be spoken and then they get a relief as the taboo is maintained by Mrs Arbuthnot cutting Lord Illingworth off before he can finish his sentence because she will not let him say the word because she doesn’t want to hear him say this about her beloved son. The villain is punished and Mrs Arbuthnot’s respectability is ma intained. All of this is typical of a melodrama and we the audience now feel something has been accomplished. Wilde’s use of stage directions are very well placed and are very dramatic, especially the last few lines of this scene when Mrs Arbuthnot ‘falls sobbing on the sofa’ and it reinforces that this play is a melodrama because people are not usually this dramatic in normal everyday life. Gerald and Hester now return to Mrs Arbuthnot and we have the image of ‘a man and a woman in a garden’ which has been mentioned previously throughout the play and is a sign of sex and fertility and in this scene it shows the audience the image of a new family emerging. Due to Hester having changed her views from believing that women who have children outside of the laws of marriage should be punished, â€Å"A woman who has sinned should be punished, shouldn’t she? † And that the children should also carry this shame, â€Å"Yes, it is right that the sins of the parents should be visited on the children. It is a just law. It is God’s law. † to her now saying â€Å"I was wrong. Gods law is only love. † Because she is in love with Gerald and has managed to listen and understand all of the things that Mrs Arbuthnot has had to face to bring up Gerald alone. At the end of the play when Gerald sees the glove lying on the floor Mrs Arbuthnot picks up and changes the title line of the play and once again mirrors Lord Illingworth’s statement about seeing the letter from Mrs Arbuthnot, â€Å"Oh! o one. No one in particular. A Man of no importance. † Unmarried and defiant she enters into a fresh and better world although the 19th century attitudes to marriage are still upheld in a way because even though she has won against Lord Illingworth and she has managed to keep Gerald and now has the love and respect of Hester the audience are still left with the image of them being exiled to America, where they have less strict views on illegitimacy and have more freedo m.

A Task on Geotechnics Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

A Task on Geotechnics - Coursework Example Since in our case and , point L has such Figure 1. coordinates . At the same time, x coordinate of point M equals , while its z coordinate equals . Since in our case , , , and , point M has such coordinates . Points L and M are shown on Figure 1. We look for equation of the dam slope adjacent to the water reservoir in the form where and are constants. Since points L and M lie on this line, and can be found from the solution of the following system of equations (1) Solving the first equation of this system for we obtain the following . (2) Substituting the right hand side of equation (2) for in the second equation of system (1) we obtain the following . Therefore, . From equation (2) it follows that . Hence, the equation of the slope adjacent to the water reservoir has the following form:. The water level is equal to . Since and , the z coordinate of point A equals 43. Moreover, point A lies on line LM. Therefore, its x coordinate satisfies the following equation . Solving it for x we obtain that point A has such coordinates . In its turn, the difference between x coordinates of points L and A is the following:. Point F on the water surface at distance from point A has the following coordinates –. The difference between x coordinates of points F and O is the following: . ... Table 1. 0.2*H 0.4*H 0.6*H 0.8*H H x= -0,539 11,579 31,774 60,048 96,400 z= 8,600 17,200 25,800 34,400 43,000 Problem # 2 In the second problem we are supposed to correct the shape of the phreatic line in the vicinity of point A. Therefore, we draw a curve that intersects line LM at right angle and â€Å"meets the base parabola smoothly and tangentially at a convenient point say,† N (Vijayendra, 2010, p. 15). The final shape of the free surface is shown on Figure 2. Figure 2 Problem # 3 Curve KNA shown on Figure 3 is a free water surface. Hence, the pore water pressure along this line is constant and equal to the atmospheric pressure (Vijayendra, 2010, p. 11). We assume that the pore water is incompressible. The hydraulic head is given by such the expression where here and below is the water density, is the acceleration of free fall, is pressure of the pore water (Wikipedia, n. d.). Therefore, the head loss between any two points belonging to this curve is proportional to the difference in their vertical coordinates. Since curve KNA is a phreatic line, it is a flow line (Vijayendra, 2010, p. 11). Segment LO shown on Figure 3 is the interface between the soil and the impermeable boundary. Therefore, it is a flow line (Vijayendra, 2010, p. 4). We draw the equipotential lines that start at points , , , and N making smooth transitions between their â€Å"straight and curved sections† (Vijayendra, 2010, p. 5). These lines are perpendicular to flow lines LO and KNA, as it is shown on Figure 3. Segment LA shown on Figure 3 is the â€Å"soil and permeable boundary† interface. Therefore, it is an equipotential line (Vijayendra, 2010, p. 4). The toe drain is a pipe

ECG Interpretation of the Post Anaesthetic Patient Essay

ECG Interpretation of the Post Anaesthetic Patient - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that monitoring of patients who have experienced a postoperative or preoperative cardiac event is critical as it enables the nurse to respond to any abnormalities that the patient may display. In doing so, the nurse displays high standards of patient care and professional competence in a PACU setting. In the researcher’s department, the PACU uses an ECG to monitor and measure the electrical activity of the heart. 12-leads are used to provide a comprehensive view of the electrical activity of the heart. Monitoring of these values enables the nurse to respond to any abnormalities that may be revealed. These abnormal values in the electrical activity of the heart represent certain abnormalities on the heart that may require rapid intervention. For purposes of developing the researcher’s clinical practice, he got an opportunity to work at stage two PACU. At the beginning of the researcher’s clinical practice experience, his main objective was to learn how to interpret the ECG. Other objectives that he had to include developing the skills and competency required in order to recognize an abnormal ECG, and developing competency in observing and monitoring the cardiac activity of a patient during recovery. According to ACORN, a PARU nurse is expected to specialize in the clinical management and assessment of patients who are in the PARU. The PARU nurse is expected to conduct clinical monitoring and observation of the patients in PARU. The nurse must be fully aware of any clinical limitations and seek advice accordingly. The nurse must monitor, interpret and have the ability to respond to a patient’s clinical needs. It is important also that the PARU nurse optimizes the utilization of all available technologies in an effort to optimize the outcomes of the patient under their care. Among PARU patients, it is common for complications arising from coexisting diseases or anaesthesia surgery to occur. Th e PARU nurse is therefore expected to demonstrate vigilance in assessing and managing of patients while in PARU. Based on the patient’s history and or condition, it may be necessary to monitor the patient’s cardiac activity. ACORN (N6, 2011) statement 9 requires that nurses be working towards achieving knowledge on basic cardiac rhythm and arrhythmias that are life threatening. While working at PACU, I got an opportunity to gain relevant clinical practice experience with regard to the duties and responsibilities of the PACU nurse. I got an opportunity to monitor and observe one of the patients who was recovering in PACU after surgery. The patient was an 83-year-old female who had been admitted to the right cataract surgery. The patient had a medical history of AF, HTN, GORD, CCF, lung cancer and mild cognitive impairment. The patient had a permanent pacemaker inserted in her. The patient’s medication included Cardizem, Coumadin, Durogesic, Hydrea, Lasix, Movical, Nexium, Panadol Osteo and Oste Vit-D. The patient was allergic to Augmentin, Digoxin, Hiprex, Metopropl, Norspan, Oxycontin, Phenergan. The patient’s heart rate was 127 and other important values included QRDS 81, QT 338, QTcB 492, QTcF 434, and QRS 49. With regard to the patient’s observation and monitoring, I observed the patient and took the vitals. I was delighted that I w as proficient when it comes to monitoring and obtaining patient vitals. More importantly, I obtained the patient’s ECG and discussed with my facilitator the accuracy and significance of the ECG reading. The patient had given me the consent to obtain her information. On discussing with my facilitator the reading, I was delighted to be informed that my reading was accurate. Apart from obtaining the ECG reading accurately, my interpretation was also correct according to my facilitator. As a result of the reading that I had

The Indian Removal Period Essay Example for Free

The Indian Removal Period Essay The Indian removal period, just like the just and lawful wars fought against native tribes, was yet another attempt to acquire immense wealth and power over the American territories. Although this was much humane than the eradication of Indian populations, the removal in itself, both as a legal concept and its implementation, is debatable. It is unfair to take away or limit the Indians’ right to their property, as well as their way of life. The implementation of the Indian removal was based on fraudulent and fabricated assumptions and assertions regarding the tribes. It was baseless, and it steps on the culture and the traditions of the Indian tribes. The Indian removal was a way for the U. S. government to anchor the accomplishment of their goals for expansion and acquisition of natural wealth and resources, mostly concentrated in Indian territories. Moreover, Americans used the Indians as slaves, without some of them even knowing it. This is mainly due to the Indians’ loss of power to decide freely, for they were only given choices, and both were agreeable to the U. S. government. The Indian removal was implemented by the U. S. government because it is less risky when it comes to considering the predisposition of uprising. Perhaps the Americans wanted to avoid aggressive and forceful reactions from the Indian tribes; therefore, they initiated treaties with the tribes. The Indian population would also serve them purpose in order to achieve their goals, in terms of toil and labor. The Indian removal was successful in its efforts because most of the lands and territories were yielded to the government. Although the land and territorial exchange also provided for the demands of the tribe members, the result of the trade was more agreeable to the Americans because it paved way to the realization of their goals and objectives. For the Indians, the Indian removal cost them their land, their culture, and their identity. Indians who agreed to join the government suffered greatly as slaves or laborers without being provided rightful compensation. They were stripped off their right to become a valuable, notable, and contributory part of society. For those who entered the Indian country, they were not recognized nor respected as landowners. Either way, the Indians were cheated, persecuted, and tormented by the U. S. government.

Fossil Fuels Essay examples -- Energy, Environmental Essays, Natural R

Fossil Fuels Energy, whether it was sunlight or heat from a wood fire, has always been important to society. However, with the onset of the industrial revolution over 200 years ago, wood alone could no longer support the increasing energy demand. The world quickly turned to coal to satisfy its energy needs, and it has been reliant on fossil fuels ever since. Despite the inroads renewable and nuclear energies have made in recent decades, the vast majority of energy used by society still comes from the three main fossil fuels: petroleum, natural gas, and coal. As a result, it is important to know how these fuels were formed, the rates at which they are produced and consumed, and how much is economically recoverable for future use. The formation of petroleum and natural gas began hundreds of millions of years ago as energy from the sun in the form of light radiated toward the earth. Algae that were in the ocean during this time used the sun ¡Ã‚ ¯s radiant energy to produce energy of their own through the process of photosynthesis. Plankton, being unable to produce energy on its own, consumed algae to obtain energy. When the algae and plankton died, they fell to the ocean floor and accumulated in the mud. As accumulation continued, pressure and temperature were increased on the underlying layers of organic mud. When the pressure became great enough, the mud lithified into organic-rich shale that is referred to as the source rock. If this source rock is exposed to temperatures between 80 ¢Ã‚ ªC and 160 ¢Ã‚ ªC, the organic matter forms into oil. Natural gas will form if the source rock is exposed to temperatures between 80 ¢Ã‚ ªC and 225 ¢Ã‚ ªC(Marshak 431-2). The  ¡Ã‚ °gas window ¡Ã‚ ± overlaps the  ¡Ã‚ °oil window ¡Ã‚ ±, which means the formation of oil and ... ... which is having a tremendous impact on the environment. By burning these fossil fuels, the US releases five billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year(Ristinsen 333). This number will increase in the coming years, which will significantly affect the global climate of the future. Despite the limited amount of petroleum and natural gas, the addition of shale oil and tar sands to our energy reserves will increase the longevity of fossil fuel use in society. Alternative sources of energy must become more widely used, or else the earth will become uninhabitable due to the effects of global warming sooner than the fossil fuel reserves can be depleted. Works Cited Marshak, Stephen. Earth: Portrait of a Planet. W.W. Norton & Company; New York, 2001. Ristinen, Robert A; Jack J. Kraushaar. Energy and the Environment. John Wiley & Sons; New York, 1999.