Coming of Age in Mississippi Essay Example for Free

Coming of Age in Mississippi Essay â€Å"No one’s life is a smooth sail; we all come into stormy weather.† This statement has more truth to it than one may think. In life, everybody reaches a rough point, a point where the light at the end of the tunnel seems dim, or even nonexistent. But overcoming this adversity is what builds character. Accepting and prevailing over life’s obstacles are what separate strong, independent-minded and forward-thinking people from those who give up and avoid their problems. Anne Moody, author of Coming of Age in Mississippi, lived a life of great struggle in which she overcame adversity with great efforts and a dedicated heart and mind. As an African-American female, Anne Moody had one of the hardest battles to fight throughout her life. With limited rights as a woman and even further limitations due to race, she often found herself being subordinated by others. While in high school, she left her hometown of Centreville, Mississippi to spend the summer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. While there, she worked for a local woman, Mrs. Jetson, doing housework. After working for Mrs. Jetson for two weeks, Anne wished to collect her pay. When Anne found Mrs. Jetson’s house empty, she recalled â€Å"On Monday I did call the shoe store, and was told Mrs. Jetson had quit on Friday. I had never before felt so gypped in all my life. Out of all the women I had worked for this woman was the worst† (Moody 150). Anne had been cheated out of two weeks’ worth of pay. She was astonished at Mrs. Jetson’s audacity in failing to pay Anne what was rightfully hers. It was difficult to find jobs where she was treated with some dignity, and almost impossible to find ones where she was treated as her employer’s equal. Anne was forced to change jobs frequently on account of being disrespected and used. Although no scamming experience was as impactful on Anne as the one with Mrs. Jetson, Anne experienced similar situations in jobs she had prior and jobs she took afterward. The summer after being in Baton Rouge, Anne went back to Louisiana; this time she stayed in New Orleans. There, she managed to land a job in a chicken factory. What she expected to be a large, intricate, and somewhat clean workplace turned out to be a dreadful nightmare. To her shock, she found herself gutting freshly killed chickens for over ten hours a day  without gloves or proper sanitation whatsoever. Near the end of the day, Anne recollected her â€Å"face, arms, and clothes were splattered with blood and chicken shit. I got so disgusted at one point that I stood there and let about a dozen chickens half full of shit pass me by† (Moody 178). Along with the other factory workers, Anne is treated with the utmost disregard to dignity and sanitation. She is forced to work excruciatingly long hours for minimum wage, exposed to grotesque dead animals and susceptible to disease. Unfortunately, because the pay was better than most other jobs in the area, Anne was forced to stick with her factory work. She worked in the factory for a month, saving her money and gaining exposure to the various stations in the factory. Although she did make very good money under the circumstances, she was deeply affected by her work; for years she could not eat chicken and for the rest of her life she refused to eat boxed chicken. The challenge of going to work every morning knowing what she was going to endure was tough, but her willpower and need for money helped her push through. After high school, Anne applied to and attended Natchez College in Mississippi. During her second year, she was eating in the cafeteria on campus when she and a few other classmates found maggots in their food. Disgusted, she and her classmates stormed into the kitchen to find an explanation for the repulsive experience. She â€Å"knew exactly where the grits were kept from the time I had worked in the kitchen. I went straight to the pantry and saw that there was a big leak from the showers upstairs. The water was seeping right down onto the shelves† (Moody 256). Anne and her classmates boycotted the campus cafeteria and its food, refusing to yield until some sanitary fixes were implemented. The challenge here was finding other ways to stay fed. The students did not have enough money to last them more than a week or so, so eventually they all started back, one by one, to the cafeteria and its semi-sanitary food. Still repulsed, Anne refused to go back and began losing a lot of weight. She became so thin and hungry all the time that she resorted to writing her mother who brought her enough canned food to last the remainder of the semester. The challenge in staying fed with healthy, sanitary food was one which presented itself on a large scale for Anne at college and otherwise. Had she been unable to obtain food from  her family, she may have starved to the point of fainting or even death. Overcoming this challenge was just about a matter of life or death for Anne. One of Anne’s most prominent memories and experiences in her early life was during her college career when she participated in a sit-in in Woolworth. The idea of the sit-in was to sit calmly at a white lunch counter and ask for service; thus, blacks wanted to show they wished to be treated equally. Of course, doing such a thing drew a lot of attention in very little time, and soon after the sit-in began a large crowd formed in the restaurant. After the crowd of whites realized Anne and her fellow sit-in participants would not budge until they received service, â€Å"the mob started smearing us [sit-in participants] with ketchup, mustard, sugar, pies, and everything on the counter. Soon Joan and I were joined by John Salter, but the moment he sat down he was hit on the jaw with what appeared to be brass knuckles. Blood gushed from his face and someone threw salt into the open wound† (Moody 291). The violence that occurred at the sit-in that Anne and her friends had to endure is almost unimaginable. The absolute disrespect, degradation, and cruelty shown to blacks by whites is virtually unbelievable, yet Anne was faced with challenges like these almost every day. Amazingly, Anne was courageous, intelligent, and controlled enough not to fight back and to remain nonviolent no matter what violence was shown to her. Her ability to not fight fire with fire is remarkable, and helped her to overcome the adversity which she so often found herself facing.

Tsetse Fly :: essays research papers fc

Tsetse Fly African sleeping sickness is an infectious disease of tropical Africa. This infectious disease is caused by a protozoan organism that exists as a parasite in the blood of a number of vertebrate hosts. There are three variations of the disease that predominate in humans are transmitted by an insect vector: Two types of African sleeping sickness are caused by the following: Trypanosoma rhodesiense and T. gambiense, both transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly. Trypanosome, which early symptoms include fever, headache, and chills, followed by anaemia and joint pains. Later, the disease attacks the central nervous system, causing drowsiness, lethargy, and, if left untreated, death. The cycle of this deadly disease starts out with the tsetse fly and usually end in death if untreated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tsetse flies are classified in the phylum Arthropoda, class insecta, order Diptera, family Trypanosoma. Tsetse flies are unusual insects. The medium to large brown flies are between six to 14mm long, excluding its proboscis (which is the trunk-like process of the head). The wings are folded and scissor-like while at rest and extend a short distance beyond the end of the abdomen. Other flies have their wings projecting side-ways unlike the tsetse fly, which has overlapping wings. Tsetse flies are confined to Africa. There are 390 different species and four are found in Zambia. They are in the same family as the house and horse flies, they feed extensively on blood be it that of humans or animals. They are parasites that live in the blood or tissue of humans and other vertebrates. Egg and larval stages develop within the female. The female fly produces only one egg at a time. The larva hatches from the egg and is nourished during the growing period inside the body o f the parent. When the larva is full-grown, it is deposited on the ground, and it becomes a pupa. She gives birth every 9 to 10 days. Tsetse flies mate only once, but that mating provides enough sperm to fertilize the female throughout her 90 to 100 day lifespan. Female tsetses produce at most nine larvae and therefore have one of the lowest reproduction rates in the insect world. The single-celled trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness spend their time cycling between humans and tsetse flies. They linger in the gut of the fly, absorbing amino acids and other molecules that the fly gets by biting mammals. After about ten days the trypanosomes move into the fly's salivary glands.

Floods †A literature review Essay

Writer: Linber LewisSchool: President’s College, GuyanaIf one asks the question, what can floods do?, then the following may seem like fitting answers. During the summer monsoon season, heavy rains cause destructive floods in Southeast Asia. In China, the floods of the Huang He River have been so frequent and devastating that the river is called Chinas Sorrow. Likewise in the US, record spring and summer rains in 1993 caused the Mississippi Rover to overflow its banks, flooding farms and towns from North Dakota to Missouri, causing 10 billion dollars in damages and leaving 70, 000 homeless. These extracts attest to the destructive nature of floods. By contrast, Britannica Encyclopedia tells us that the success of the Egyptian Civilization was heavily dependent on the annual flooding of the Nile to replenish soil moisture and fertility, and also to supply to irrigation water. Since plants and animals are a part of human life, once can assume that if floods affect us they will affect them (plants and animals) also, whether positively or negatively. Research shows that domestic animals seem to suffer greatly during conditions of excess water. According to the book, Where there is no Vet; the infectious disease foot rot that attacks the hooves of animals, is prevalent during wet weather and in wet areas. It is known that floods bring a sharp increase in insect population. Consequently animals suffer from skin and eye irritations due to these insects. According to the Government Information Agency (GINA), during the 2005 flood, more than 2000 animals were treated during the early stages of the floods. They were treated for worms, diarrhea, nutritional deficiency, and respiratory and skin problems. The shortage of food had also affected animals. GINA also stated that feed and molasses were distributed. According to a Stabroek news article dated 05/02/16, farmers at Enterprise on the East Coast of Demerara had to place in excess of 1000 cattle on mud dams. In addition, many were stranded in flooded area, or stuck in mud. Many of these animals drowned due to cramps. Deaths of livestock were prevalent among cattle, swine, sheep and goat due to abortion or pregnancy complications. Animals on mud dams also fought amongst themselves resulting in many injuries that often resulted in  death. Ducks enjoyed the water but were made to prey to caimans. Other poultry sought refuge on roof tops. With regards to crops, information garnered from Biological Science 1 tells that terrestrial crops will not fare well during or soon after a flood, since excess water causes water logging that result in:Clogged air spaces leading to death of microorganisms in soil. Rotting of plan roots due to excess water. Leaching (washing away) of soil nutrients. A change in the pH of acidic soils. Surprisingly, Microsoft Encarta tells us that some varieties of rice grow with roots submerged in water, and that these varieties are more productive because their roots easily extract needed nutrients from water. But once rice starts to mature, water is drained or pumped out of fields since a dry field is needed for plants to mature and grains to ripen. In the same news article previously referred to rice, rice farmers in Enterprise lost over 300 acres of rice since the ripening grains were damaged by the excess water. However, when one looks at the response of the ecosystem to floods, the revelations that spring froth tell a different story. According to Nature Encyclopedia; most amphibians lead solitary lives, but for many species the need for water in which to mate, brings large numbers together at breeding pools. This exodus is dependent on factors such as daylength, temperature change and most importantly weather. The annoying croaking of male frogs to get the attention of a female occurs more frequently during the rainy season. Hence the rains (a likely cause of a flood) created an optimum condition for amphibian reproduction. The Nature Encyclopedia also tells us that some fishes take physical steps to  protect their offspring and thus build nests. The hassar nests, very common during rainy seasons are evidence that fishes also multiply in excess water. The sharp increases in mosquitoes during and after flood are due to the fact that their larvae mature in stagnant water. When an area is flooded, aquatic plants spread in the stop the flow of water and trap silt. Silt greatly aids in bringing more vegetation (such as reeds, lilies and grasses) to the flooded area. But a deluge can also have negative impacts on the natural ecosystems. An example given in the Nature Encyclopedia is the delay ion completion of metamorphosis in frogs. Tadpoles lose their gill for lungs, and lose their tail for legs provided that conditions are right, on their way to becoming mature frogs. But if environment is swamped, then the maturing frog will continue to grow but retain their gills and tails for longer periods in order to adapt to their surroundings. This delay in maturity means a longer elapse before reproduction. If this happens in large numbers (extreme cases) the frog population can be affected.

Violence in The Media Societys Regression to a Barbaric...

Violence in The Media: Societies Regression to a Barbaric State Violent behavior is something that is innate to the human brain. It has been an instinct of humans since the beginning of our creation or our evolution from a primal state in order to primarily survive and maintain our supremacy atop the hierarchy of all living organisms. We are naturally violent creatures, and this natural tendency for us to exhibit violent behavior isn’t helped by the extreme lack of shelter from and glorification of violent actions through mainstream or alternative news outlets as well as depictions of such actions through other forms of media such as: movies, entertainment television, cartoons, and video games. According to the professing of multiple studies the violence in today’s massive multimedia culture is to be blamed for much of the violence of which we witness on a daily basis within our country. The professing of these studies is reflective of the drastic increase in societal violence in the United States during 1965. A year that marke d the first time a generation raised on television would come of the average age of committing violent crimes. (Bushman, 2001, Media Violence and the American Public, pg. 478) These copious amounts of violence that are depicted in our cultures mass media outlets have negative effects on both adults and children. While we exercise our naturally violent minds through seeing and hearing such acts of violence on a daily basis, not only do weShow MoreRelatedCRM 1301 Midterm uOttawa Carolyn Gordon Essay10218 Words   |  41 PagesCandle-This book created a moral panic in society. Video Notes: The Burning Times After the roman times, women’s continued traditions of the old religion and were leaders, counsellors, visionaries and healers (a.k.a. wise women). The Christian Church and state branded them witches and condemned them as worshippers of the Devil. Idea of witches date back to the Renaissance and the period in history known as the witch craze. Taught to fear the witches but still drawn to their powers (Conical=knowledge, cauldron=origins