Television Violence has a Negative Effect on Society

     Nowadays, technology has been taken up a tremendous part of people’s daily lives. One of the most significant media is television. People watch movies, see commercials and listen to the news from the television. At the same time, people may see fierce programs in television which means the appearance of television violence. Although it is good to demonstrate violent events to people from television, sometimes it is beneficial to think about measure the effectiveness of television violence, especially when children are involved in it. The useless “safe-harbor” policies on banning TV programs and the accidents occurred on children give evidence of the negative effect on television violence among children.

       First of all, the uncertain policies produce errors for children to absorb violent materials and bring negative effects in the society. In order to prevent children and youth from watching indecent television, the U.S. Supreme Court has established “safe harbor” policy to distinguish adult programming in television from 22:00 to 06:00 on the next day. However, this policy is not as effective as people think. According to the book Children, Adolescents, and Media Violence, “as Potter (2003) points out, such “safe-harbor” policies are doomed for failure, for throughout the evening, even as late as 11:00 p.m., children and adolescents are watching television in large numbers. As evidence, Potter provides the following information: Immediately following the family hour, the number of children who continue to watch television drops by only 12%, leaving around 10.8 million youthful viewers. By 11:00 p.m., nearly 3.2 million children and 3 million adolescents are still watching television. (Kirsh 79)” As the book says, policy of banning adult programming has not worked much. As a result, children and youth may absorb indecent program in this period of time. The negative effects during these time periods may bring accidents among children.

       Moreover, by seeing violent actions children have the attempts to imitate violence and create tragic results. Bandura and his colleagues, who studied adolescents for a long period of time, had done some experimental studies with children. “A young child was presented with a film, back-projected on a television screen, of a model who kicked and punished an inflated plastic doll. The child was then placed in a playroom setting and the incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded. (Osofsky 79)” From the studies, Bandura claimed that “children who had viewed the aggressive film were more aggressive in the playroom that those children who had not observed the aggressive model”. Though this is an early study, the results from the study still stand today. The stimulus of violence among children is true. Parents should prevent their children from watching indecent materials because children may imitate the actions and bring tragic results.

       Last but not least, the aggressive behaviors children learnt from televisions are the cause of millions of tragedies. Children Who See Too Much, a book tells about lessons from the child witness to violence project, gives an evidence of youth accident. A fourteen-year-old boy who was an expert on TV video games was involved in the event. “An editorial in the New York Times pointed out that the fourteen-year-old boy who killed three people in the school shooting in Paducah, Kentucky, fired eight shots and hit eight people. (Groves 25-26)” This is one of a million accidents that happened before. A single child associated with eleven people’s lives because of playing video games in television. It is scary to imagine the terror impact on the society.

       Television violence does not only have negative effects on the society by unexpected accidents but may also through the psychological development throughout children’s growth and other behaviors. It is necessary to take television violence under control and maintain a healthy environment for children growth.

Works Cited:

Groves, Betsy McAlister. Children Who See Too Much. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2002. Print. (Pg. 25, 26)

Kirsh, Steven J. Children, Adolescents, and Media Violence. California: Sage Publications, 2006. Print. (Pg. 8)

Osofsky, Joy D. Children in a Violent Society. New York: The Guilford Press, 1997. Print. (Pg. 79)

Analysis of Utilization of Animals in Dante’s Infern

       As we can see, Dante uses much animal imagery for sinners in Inferno. From my perspective, there are several reasons by using animals to present the sins.

       First of all, having the punishments with animals is a way to attract the readers and emphasize on the sinners irredeemable guilt. In Canto XXV, the thieves in Bolgia Seven of the Eighth Circle were punished by transforming between monster-liked creatures and human. For example, Agnello comes in human form. He is merged with Cianfa, who looks like a six-legged lizard. The ugly and nasty imagery Dante used enlarges the pain of the sin and also refers to the sin of the sinner. In this case, the sinners took stuffs from others into their own from their lifetime. When they die, their bodies are taken out of themselves.

       Besides, animals give a better sense of the impersonality of those sinners. Human beings have a sense of logic in their minds; however, animals can do whatever they needed to survive. In another word, animals do not know how to control themselves. The endless desires from the animals imply to the sinners everlasting demands. They lost their sense of logic as human beings, so they are considered as animals without a difference.

       Last but not least, the animals are symbols from or main characters from the Bible and myths. Almost each of the animals in Inferno has a reference in mythology. For instance, the snakes on the thieves’ bodies are referring to the snakes from the Garden of Eden. Since the snake deceives Eve to eat the apple on the tree which made Eve a thief, the snake in the book represents for evil.

       There are many other reasons by using animal imagery in Inferno. In my view, for most parts animals are the best medium to transfer the characteristic of the sinners and to enrich the content in Inferno. 

Hamlet Act I Essay

     There are several ways that Prince Hamlet would not express his oppositions directly.

     First of all, acting directly will ruin his appearance toward his relatives. Since he is depressed right now, he might do some crazy things and people around him will just think he is a crazy person. Besides, his weakness will be shown directly to the pubic.

     Second of all, to make things more organized and planned, Hamlet has to be patient and wait for a good opportunity to kill Claudius. He needs time to plan ahead and does things step by step or everybody will know his revenge. Claudius will know and take "great care of" him.

     Last bu not least, his father's death is still not sure. He need to find something to prove that his father was killed by Claudius.

House in SC

     

     "Judy, I went to my old friend's house in Charleston, SC last Saturday!" I followed Judy and tried to get attention form her.
     "What? Really?" Judy looked at me with surprise, "that sounds like fun!"
     "Yes, Sure. It was super wired!" I started to refresh my memory of that night, "you know, the house was about two hundred years old! It's even older than my great-grandfather!"
     She caught my hands and started to be excited with her eyes opened up. We found a seat and sat down.
     "I promise you are going to be so amazed by what i am going to tell you!" I clear my throat and speak up." The city was getting dark when we got there. The plants on the roads were getting more and more crowded until we found the house with leaves wrapping around it tightly. My friend and I went into the small door by the side of the house."
     Judy whispered to me, "that does not sounds fun."
     "Wait till I tell you the whole story." I paused and then restarted. " The house looks normal in the inside, well, not with modern decorations though. It actually looked like a old and unused church with colorful windows around  the sides and a huge bell in the middle of the living room. Or I cannot even tell if it is a living room cause the first story was not divided into sections."
     "Tell me about the bell. You know I love bells."
     "Sure. Actually, this is the most weird part of the house. It was strange because the words on the bell were all written in ancient Chinese. What was even worse was people with Qing Dynasty clothes on their bodies gathering around the room."
     "That sounds like a scary movie." Judy held her shoulders.
     "Though it was scary, nothing serious happened. The flashes of people each held a candle and sang 'The Dawn' to us. Then the candles disappeared, and the flashes started to pray for us. At the end of their prayers, all the flashes faded away."
     "So did you guys run away after the flashes disappeared?"
     "There was a dramatic change in the house. Everything turned to be bright with neon colors. Just like Alice in Wonderland!"
     "What? What a bizzare world!"

Man in the Mirror

     "Are you awake?" A clear voice came in front of me. I stood still with my eyes closed and continued brushing my teeth. It was early in the morning.
     "Who care about it?!" I automatically responded to that question without thinking.
     "Cool, but are you awake?" The annoying voice came again.
     "You are so..." I opened up my eyes and saw hundreds of mirrors one within one. At the extreme end was another me.
     I blinked my eyes for several times, and the image appeared in front of me was exactly the same.
     "I guess I'm not awake yet." I had to say this.
     "I'll help you wake up! No worries!" She turned around, "Just follow me!"
     I was turning to the opposite way against hers, but a strong wind pulled me within the mirrors which made me feel even worse. I bet I was awake at that moment!
     After thirty minutes, or maybe even longer, I finally got to the end of it.
     "Welcome to the world of clone!" Thousands of my bodies gathered around me with the same voice which brought me serious headache.
     What is it? Is it a dream? I'd better wake up!!
     "You are the mother of all our sisters and brothers!" One started, "Greeting to your mother!"
     "Good morning, mother!" Again, the same voice with the same mouth.
     "Shut up!" I couldn't bear anymore. I ended up with punching their faces; however, the more I punched, the more disappeared.
     "What is it?! Somebody come here and tell me!" The fact that I was facing was driven me nuts.
     "Thank you for your participation, my roommate!" Audria walked to my side, "I finally finished my new invention!!"
     Are you kidding me? You just ruined my morning!!

FUN Target Trip

It was right before my Halloween Party. I went to Target with a group of friends and we were trying to find the best fitting costumes for the party.

     We were talking and laughing. One of us started telling horror stories. All the stories were so thrilling that everybody was focus on them and nobody realized the time.

     "What a shocking theme!" my friend Judy shouted.

     As soon as she finished her last word, the lights went off and people in Target were all locked in the doors.

     "What has just HAPPENED?!" people shouted and screamed. However, all of us were not prepared for what happened next.

     Skeletons and the costumes started moving and sounds were made when the costumes touched each other, just like the sounds of broken glasses. Then, the floor began to shake. To maintain our balance, we had to sit on the floor. The noise of baby crying started everywhere.

     By the time we sit down, three giant skulls with green eyes appeared on the ceiling.

     "Haha, you are ALL DEAD today, that is what makes the party FUN!!!" The kee-jerk voice came from the skull that sounded approaching to us. Our ears could hardly bear the sound. The echoes were so loud.

     "What? Are we dead?" I heard people crying helplessly. My hear was pumping out of my heart. I looked up and found monster eyes all over the ceiling.

     ...

     Perhaps this continued for hours. When I wake up, I found myself lying on the couch with my Asian Doll costumes on and bloods all over myself. Everyone else was enjoying the neon lights and music from the Halloween Party.

     "What a shocking theme!" Judy came one inch in front of me with her bloody eyes in her pale face and giggled away...

A Person Accompany with You

     If I plan to have a visit to the Hell, I would like to choose Buddha to be my ally.
     There are two Noble Truths that make me believe in the Buddha. The first one is that all suffering is caused by selfish craving. Craving in turn is rooted in ignorance, a distorted understanding of ourselves and the world. The second one is that by eliminating ignorance and craving we can overcome suffering and thereby attain true happiness and peace.
     Hell is a place where sinners suffers from their sins. Those sinners described in the Inferno are often impenitent. Though they go to the Hell and have all different sufferings on their bodies, those souls do not realize their actual sins and keep themselves like what they were without improvement. I'm thinking if I ask a Buddha to visit the Hell with me, we may help the sinners understand their sins and make progress in their inner minds so that one day they may have the opportunities to go to the Heaven.
     Another reason that I would like to invite Buddha to be my accompany is that Buddha has no fear in their minds and the peace inside out their body can encourage me to talk with those dead sinners.