A Short Story Essay Example for Free

A Short Story Essay During Maytag’s final surrender to Whirlpool, appliance parts are now in surplus. As a result, the warehouse has been shipped an overabundance of parts. The likes of which we rarely see. Because the market has gone down in flames, the demand for appliance parts is sky-high. Thus we have a beautiful supply and demand ratio between our suppliers and our customers. Since no one has the capital to go out and purchase a brand new washing machine or refrigerator, in spite of Obama’s Energy Star credit stimulus, more and more appliances are being serviced. This allows servicers to keep in business and increase profits. Their increase in business requires that they purchase more parts from us, of which we are consistently replenishing due to the business deals made by our suppliers. Thus the servicer is never thrown into hysteria over a lack of parts. Thus we keep in business. Thus we keep our jobs. We even manage to allocate overtime on occasion. I know all this because the warehouse hides nothing from me. The warehouse needs me. The warehouse is me. Or else I’d like to think. By the end of the shift we are all manifesting the last of the packages that are to be shipped out via UPS and FedEx. The trailers are closed. The semis drive off. The workers go home. I stay to close shop. I print the manifest reports and shut down the computers. I record our shipping quantities and turn out the lights. The doors are locked, the security enabled. I shut the last door before I stroll to the bus stop. The driver sees my monthly pass purchased online at the warehouse’s very own computer, addressed to my own PO box. The driver lets me on. There are a couple of folks onboard. One works at Chili Works not too far from the warehouse. The other is a Wal-Mart employee. We are all considered workers of the underclass. The only difference is that I have approximately ten grand in my savings. Most people are ten grand in dept. Of course, not too many take microeconomics as seriously either. When my girlfriend cheated on me and insurrected herself from our apartment, I decided to take control of my cash. I realized that I was spending nearly six thousand dollars a year in rent money. When the lease was up, I took the capital gained from the security deposit, including the five dollar interest they were required to give, and invested in a bicycle. Of course, I invested in the bicycle after I totaled my Pontiac grand prix. I did this because for the next year I would have to spend three thousand dollars in car payments and two-thousand dollars in gasoline. The insurance forked me four grand. At this point I was a bit of an alcoholic anyway so I decided that the car was an opportunity cost. If I wanted to continue to go to the bars each night and have my juicy burger and tray full of cigarette butts, I would need to sacrifice the Pontiac. This capital was generally inadequate when compared to my personal entrepreneurship. My taverns, my coffee and reading clubs, my model-crafting. I’m getting to the point at which I can sell World War II naval ship recreations for a profit. No one would know my storage cell housed the Battle of Midway. Then there are my books that I buy and sell later to used book stores. It may be cheaper to go to a library, but the city doesn’t give cards to homeless folk. Still, I manage. The only real resources I depend on is my own personal entrepreneurship, my labor, and the permanence of the land. The capital built up over the years is strictly a luxury. Since my supply of bar beverages is at a constant growth, the supply of such beverages usually comes at a low cost. More and more I see laid off engineers and factory machinists come night after night, drowning their miseries away. Winter approaches, so the construction jockeys are hitting Bourbon Street like an army from hell. Meanwhile, the bars are ordering more and more of their stock. More than probably necessary, as I feel they have built a surplus. Everyday I see trucks stocked with Miller products and Coors make dock. By Tuesday night the bartenders are giving drinks away, they have so much. If their bands of laid-off workers don’t make a buck soon, the bars will start to run into a massive deficit without having a stable consumer base. An unemployed man can only spend for so long. Still, I reap the benefits. And if ever there is a time when someone may ask me why it is I chose my life without shelter; perhaps an intrigued lady aroused by such mystery or a confused little boy who was always taught to work with what they got; I shall tell them both that I live in the market of the free. My entire essence is dedicated to what I want and how accessible it is to make such an acquisition. Everything else is simply an unnecessary expenditure.

The College Experience - Exploration and Self-discovery Essay -- Perso

The College Experience - Exploration and Self-discovery What do you want to do with your life? If only I had a nickel for every time I was asked that pesky question ... in particular, by some overly-concerned adult! I swear, if I hear it one more time, I'll launch into a screaming fit! It's right along the same lines as the annoying, "where do you see yourself in ten years?" As a student wrapping up my freshman year at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, even the question "what's your major?"can pose a bit of a problem. At this point in my life, I simply feel that such questions are too restrictive. Why is society fixated on categorizing everyone into neat little groups? I thought that college was meant to be a process of self-discovery, rather than a mere obstacle on the way to a career that's been predetermined since kindergarten! Yet you'd be amazed at the pitying stares you receive when you tell someone that you're undecided. You'd think that you'd just told them that you'd been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor! I'm here to reassure all those "lost souls" out there that there is nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do. My first year of college has been a veritable roller coaster of trying on and discarding various ideas of "what I want to be when I grow up." Like most people, I felt the overwhelming pressure to settle on a career before entering college, and so I arrived at USC as a declared broadcast journalism major. The only experience I had in this area was co-hosting my high school news program, which was more sketch-comedy than real news, and yet on the basis of that alone, I decided on my major... ...magazine, Palaver. And next year, in contrast to the small film company where I am now interning, my goal is to have a summer job at DreamWorks. All of this is an effort to cram as much into my four years as possible. And why not? There is something to be gained from every new experience, whether I stick it out for the duration or not. Maybe I'm flaky by nature, or maybe I'm just determined to get every bit of the well-rounded Liberal Arts education that my parents are shelling out big bucks for. Does it really matter? The point is this: don't ever let anyone tell you that there's something you can't do. If you have a yen for something, try it. You never know, you may discover some hidden talent that you didn't know you had. Or you may not. But hey, exploration and self-discovery is what the college experience is all about!

Compare Tom Regan, Carl Cohen and Peter Singer in Terms of Animal Rights

Animal rights are one of the most controversial issues today. There has been endless debate about whether or not animals have rights. Philosophers attempt to come up with the moral conclusions by taking in account the many different standpoints and presenting their related arguments. In his essay â€Å"The case of animal rights†, Tom Regan, a professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University, defends his view that the center of our moral concern should not bring the suffering on animal as well as treating animals in a certain way. In other words, we should treat animals as if they are our property. We should only use them to benefit us and hurting them is an action that is not morally justifiable. In addition, in his article â€Å"All Animal Are Equal†, Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, has many points which show us that we have responsibilities to protect animal rights. Singer’s argument in his essay gives us a great support to the argument that Reagan trying to discuss in terms of morally equal. In contrast, â€Å"The case of the use of animals in biomedical research† by Carl Cohen, a philosophy professor at University of Michigan Medical School, although he agrees with Regan’s idea in terms of moral rights as well as practices that essentially involve harming animals are morally unjustified, he strongly supports for the use of animal in medical research, and scientific experiments to avoid risking human lives. â€Å"The case of animal rights†, â€Å"all animal are equal† and â€Å"The case of the use of animals in biomedical research† introduce to us a new thinking about treating animals. In his essay, Tom Regan points out theories are deficient in animals. The author discusses â€Å"Indirect duty view† which humans should recognize that animals should have the same rights as humans and they have the duty to uphold these rights. Besides that, Regan states in the â€Å"Contractarianism† that humans have rights and can protect their rights under the terms of the contract they signed. However, he indicated that animals have no rights because they cannot sign the contract. We humans should have direct duties to all animals. Even the views including â€Å"Indirect duty view,† â€Å"Cruelty-kindness view,† and â€Å"Utilitarian view† fail to protect animal rights, he promotes the right view, which is the inherent value view. The author states that all individuals, including human and nonhuman animals, who are experienced the subject of life, should have equal inherent values and equal rights while being treated with respect. In addition, Peter Singer agrees with Regan that all animals are morally equal, at least with regard to their suffering. Peter Singer argues the point that animals and humans should be granted â€Å"equal consideration. Granting equal consideration means that humans and animals do not need to be treated exactly the same way, but that they need to be treated in an appropriate manner. Singer believes that suffering is â€Å"the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration†. If all beings are able to suffer, animals should be treat ed with consideration equal to humans in most circumstances. Moreover, in his essay â€Å"All animals are equal,† Peter Singer points out the case for women's rights and refers to similar arguments of animal’s rights. Since animal’s rights were absurd, the argument for women's rights must be mistaken. In contrast with both Regan and Singer’s views, Carl Cohen gives us strong evidences to demonstrate his standpoints why animals have no rights. He claims rights only exists within a community of moral agents who can make moral claims against each other and just human can exercise moral judgment. He thinks we must at least treat animals humanely, but this does not mean we need to treat them as if they have rights. He also compared the differences between animals with brain damaged persons, senile or young in terms of the ability to make claim which is essential to being a person. That’s why these people are still part of our moral community, but animals are not. Moreover, he strongly supports to the increasing in the use of animals for medical experiments. He agrees that we actually need to increase the number experiments to avoid risking human lives because the increase in longevity , decrease in pain , the significant numbers of lives saved , the quality of human life all depends on such those research or experiments.

The Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacob Essay - 1049 Words

In the novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacob’s writes an autobiography about the personal struggles her family, as well as women in bondage, commonly face while maturing in the Southern part of America. While young and enslaved, Harriet had learned how to read, write, sew, and taught how to perform other tasks associated with a ladies work from her first mistress. With the advantage of having a background in literacy, Harriet Jacobs later came to the realization that she would one day be able to tell her story about the tormented lives women endured while being white folk’s property. A repeating theme in the Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, is of her own reflections on how slavery is dehumanizing. Jacobs, referring to her slave-owner at the time, states â€Å"when he told me that I was made for his use; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will, must and should surrender to his, never before had my puny arm felt half so strong† (Jacobs pg. 29). Jacob’s continuously expresses her deep-rooted hatred of slavery, much like an immoral institution, so much that she frequently imagined that death would be a better alternative than living a life as a slave. It is almost as if slavery was a cancer, affecting black individuals and their families as they continuously suffered tragedies, yet there seemed to be no provided cure for any given freedom. It is impossible to exaggerate the depths of how extreme slavery actually was. It is much like an institution thatShow MoreRelatedThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs858 Words   |  4 PagesThe way that Harriet Jacobs describes slavery in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was not a surprise to me. I believed that slaves were treated poorly and often times were hurt, the way that I thought of slavery is just like it is described in the book if not worse. I will discuss what I believed slavery was like before I read the book, how slavery was according to the boo k using in text citations and examples and also explain my thoughts on why the treatment was not a surprise to me. FromRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1606 Words   |  7 PagesSlaves in the southern states of the United States were oppressed, beaten, and deprived of their natural human rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Which in turn caused many slaves to resist their ill fate that was decided by their masters. Through the story of â€Å"Incidents in the life of a slave girl† by Harriet Jacobs she wrote in her experience how she was resisting her masters and how many people helped her in her escape. And it wasn’t just black that resisted the slave systemRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1791 Words   |  8 PagesIn the slave narrative entitled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs also known as Linda Brent, is faced with a number of decisions, brutal hardships, and internal conflicts that she must cope with as an enslaved black woman. She opens the narrative with a preface that states: â€Å"READER, be a ssured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery†Read MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs Essay1316 Words   |  6 PagesIncidents in the life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, she talks about how her life changed while serving different and new masters and mistresses. I think that this narrative writing is an important text to help us understand the different perspectives of slavery in America. There are some slave owners that are kind and humane, and some slave owners that are cruel and abusive. Additionally, reading from a female slave’s perspectives teaches us that life on the plantations and life in the house isRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1198 Words   |  5 PagesIn her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs portrays her detailed life events on such an int ense level. Jacobs was born in 1813 in North Carolina. She had a rough life starting at the age of six when her mother died, and soon after that everything started to go downhill, which she explains in her autobiography. Her novel was originally published in 1861, but was later reprinted in 1973 and 1987. Harriet Jacobs presents her story using numerous detailed descriptionsRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1292 Words   |  6 Pagesslavery. I chose to focus on two texts: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In the personal narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, author Harriet Jacobs depicts the various struggles she endured in the course of her life as a young female slave and, as she grew older, a runaway escaped to the â€Å"free† land of the North, referring to herself as Linda Brent. Throughout this story, Jacobs places a heavy emphasis on the ways in which Brent andRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs928 Words   |  4 Pagesin the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs offers the audience to experience slavery through a feminist perspective. Unlike neo-slave narratives, Jacobs uses the pseudonym ‘Linda Brent’ to narrate her first-person account in order to keep her identity clandestine. Located in the Southern part of America, her incidents commence from her sheltered life as a child to her subordination to her mistress upon her mother’s death, and her continuing struggle to live a dignified and virtuous life despiteRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1335 Words   |  6 PagesHarriet Jacobs wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Incidents) to plead with free white women in the north for the abolition of slavery. She focused on highlighting characteristics that the Cult of True Womanhood and other traditional protestant Christians idolized in women, mainly piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. Yet, by representing how each of her characters loses the ability to maintain the prescribed values, she presents the strong moral framework of the African AmericanRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacobs1575 Words   |  7 Pagesncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Slavery, in my eyes, is an institution that has always been ridiculed on behalf of the physical demands of the practice, but few know the extreme mental hardships that all slaves faced. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs writes autobiographically about her families and her personal struggles as a maturing mullatto child in the South. Throughout this engulfing memoir of Harriet Jacobs life, this brave woman tells of many trying timesRead MoreThe Life Of A Slave Girl By Harriet Jacob993 Words   |  4 PagesHarriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, depicts a personal and true account of how woman were sexually and physically abused rather than just physically abuses as that of an enslaved man. Enslaved woman struggled tremendously to not only be considered equal to man though to be seen equal pure and virtuous identical to the white women. Jacob’s female slave narrative was a special kind of autobiography, were she not only used anothe r person to represent her, however, she wanted the reader