Analysis of The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay -- Nathaniel Ha

Although â€Å"The Birthmark† by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in the mid-1800s, its themes and ideas are still a part of society today. The 19th century was a time of change, just as this, the millennium, is a time of great change. Hawthorne’s ideas about science, beauty, and life still play a major part in our lives, despite many improvements. Even today, people try to play â€Å"God† and change things that nature has put in place. It’s human curiosity; how much can be changed, how many things can be perfected? The themes in this short story-- religion, gender, and science--were relevant in Hawthorne’s day, and still are many years later. The theme of religion is hidden in the desire to erase the birthmark. In trying to â€Å"perfect† Georgiana, Aylmer is testing God’s creation. He doesn’t believe that how God created Georgiana is perfect, and he is obsessive about making her his idea of perfection. Aminadab, Aylmer’s servant, tries to tell his master to leave the birthmark alone. He tells Aylmer that if Georgiana were his wife, he wouldn’t worry about something so trivial. However, the scientific ideas on Aylmer’s mind won’t let him forget the birthmark. He believes he can remove it with the help of science. Even so, science has no part in creation, according to Hawthorne, and Georgiana’s death after the removal of the birthmark signifies that theory. Her death is Hawthorne’s way of showing that judgment and perfection are God’s duti...

Novel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Novel - Essay Example He does not know if loves or hates his daughter, in fact, it is that the extent of his love for his daughter is something that he does not want, something that he believes he does not deserve, thus, turning into hatred for the innocent girl. He has a very low opinion of himself – â€Å"What could his heavy arms and befuddled brain accomplish that would earn him his own respect, that would in turn allow him to accept her love?† – and he blames Pecola’s stupidity for loving him still (Morrison 161 - 163). The lack of faith in himself may be due to his harsh childhood but the fact remains that his thought processes are different than a normal person’s and continue to badly affect those around him. Seeing his daughter scratch â€Å"the back of her calf with her toe† reminds him of how his wife Pauline had once done the same thing (Morrison 162). It could have been the alcohol, that particular movement, the resemblance between the mother and daughter, the strange kind of love that he had for both or seeing Pecola do the task of washing the dishes which his wife used to do that triggered off his sexual thoughts, â€Å"filled him then with a wondering softness †¦ a tenderness, a protectiveness† (Morrison 162). He reminisced about Pauline and how had been successful in bringing a smile to her face. He wanted to show his daughter how much he loved her and, in his deluded state, he thought showing her physically was the right way to go. From his distorted point of view, he only wanted to please his daughter. The way Morrison writes this portrays Cholly as a predator and Pecola as the prey. In fact, he is even showed to be â€Å"crawling on all fours toward her† (Morrison 162). The girl slips and falls but Cholly turns into a protector and catches her which is a contradiction in itself. He wants to keep Pecola safe but does not have the right idea of how to do that. The girl is young, naà ¯ve and too shocked to protest. The

Introduction to Engineering - Truss Bridge Design Essay

Introduction to Engineering - Truss Bridge Design - Essay Example Introduction to Engineering - Truss Bridge Design This model successfully worked to hold desired load and effectively fulfilled the load resistance qualities that a practical bridge must have. Keywords Truss bridge, bridge competition, bridge model, bridge stability. Introduction Bridge design is the fundamental part of civil engineering and most critical as well. It is designed for transportation of heavy traffic; meanwhile, it is constructed to cope with environmental effects like storms. There are many types of bridges that are being used around the world, among them most common are arch bridges, girder bridges, truss bridges, cantilever bridges, cable stayed bridges, moveable bridges and suspension bridges(SWE, 2012). The type of bridge that we incorporated in our design is the truss bridge. These are the oldest and the most economical bridges found around the world with excellent weight bearing capacity(BuildingBig, 2010). Atypical truss bridge is shown below: Specialty of truss bridges is the triangular elements present in the structure to share the load applied on the bridge by the traffic(JHU). In a typical truss bridge design the horizontal members are responsible for bearing loads as a result of horizontal as well as dynamic compression. In our bridge design we made use of Popsicle sticks to create truss members as well as the base of the bridge. These sticks were joined together by making use of glue. Where required, the sticks were cut to the required lengths for making triangle structures of the bridge. For providing strength to the design, the sticks were stacked over each other in 3 to 4 layers and the whole structure was made which is shown below: Before finalizing the above bridge design, we tested a number of bridge structures before as well by making use of west point bridge design, but all those designs failed while testing. By making use of strategic techniques to design practical bridges based on load distribution errors were reduced and thickness of trusses and other members was increased. This gave stability to the bridge design. After that we started working in the structure of the bridge. For that purpose the first task was to select the appropriate material for constructing truss bridge which goes we ll with our dimensional requirements. Therefore, popsicle sticks were chosen as a preferred material. After that all the sticks were marked at the point of applying glue. Initial step was to design the the bottom frame of the structure in which three layers of sticks were used. Here is the view of one bottom structure. Total two rails were made for the bridge. After structuring the bottom next step was to structure the rectangular truss portion of the bridge. For that purpose first two steps of bottom design were used; to collect popsicle sticks and gluing them together. After that, triangular portions were structured and joined together. These trusses were then connected to the bottom rails as shown below: Last step was to connect the assembly of both the trusses and bottom rails to each other by making use of popsicle sticks and gluing them to the bottom. In this way the final structure was drawn. Results and Discussion In the design of first bridge, total 145 popsicle sticks were used and the resulting weight of the bridge was calculated to be approximately 198.3lbs. The designed bridge