Mark Twains The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn :: Mark Twain Adventures Huck Finn Essays

Mark Twain's "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn"   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel about a young boy’s coming of age in the Missouri of the mid-1800’s. The main character, Huckleberry Finn, spends much time in the novel floating down the Mississippi River on a raft with a runaway slave named Jim. Before he does so, however, Huck spends some time in the fictional town of St. Petersburg where a number of people attempt to influence him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Before the novel begins, Huck Finn has led a life of absolute freedom. His drunken and often missing father has never paid much attention to him; his mother is dead and so, when the novel begins, Huck is not used to following any rules. The book’s opening finds Huck living with the Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. Both women are fairly old and are really somewhat incapable of raising a rebellious boy like Huck Finn. Nevertheless, they attempt to make Huck into what they believe will be a better boy. Specifically, they attempt, as Huck says, to "sivilize" him. This process includes making Huck go to school, teaching him various religious facts, and making him act in a way that the women find socially acceptable. Huck, who has never had to follow many rules in his life, finds the demands the women place upon him constraining and the life with them lonely. As a result, soon after he first moves in with them, he runs away. He soon comes back, but, even though he becomes somewhat comfortable with his new life as the months go by, Huck never really enjoys the life of manners, religion, and education that the Widow and her sister impose upon him. Huck believes he will find some freedom with Tom Sawyer. Tom is a boy of Huck’s age who promises Huck and other boys of the town a life of adventure. Huck is eager to join Tom Sawyer’s Gang because he feels that doing so will allow him to escape the somewhat boring life he leads with the Widow Douglas. Unfortunately, such an escape does not occur. Tom Sawyer promises much—robbing stages, murdering and ransoming people, kidnaping beautiful women—but none of this comes to pass. Huck finds out too late that Tom’s adventures are imaginary: that raiding a caravan of "A-rabs" really means terrorizing young children on a Sunday school picnic, that stolen "joolry" is nothing more than turnips or rocks. Huck is disappointed that the adventures Tom promises are not real and so, along with the other members, he resigns from the gang.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another person who tries to get

The Frontier in American History

There are quite several sharp notions in The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner, and all of these notions very well contribute to the revelation that with diversity comes the great possibility of acquiring an identity independent as it is from everything else outside.Although much of what is written in the collected essays verifies the idea that the creation of a government of the people surpasses that which is merely imitated, the role of the external elements can be argued as indispensable elements in the establishment of an identity.   One of the central themes in The Frontier in American History is the idea of the formation of the government that is distinctive and proper to the Americans.The author, Frederick Jackson Turner’s viewpoint in the book evidently shows his aim towards rendering a piece which will devote on tracing the history of America as well as with the nature of civilization.It has been noted that Turner was one of the ambitious demo cratic leader with the bias on lurking deep on the â€Å"flaws† of those who are in office which furthers his conviction on self-reliance and the turmoil revolving around political idiosyncrasy.The author was a piece of hopeful being.   Further, another major limitation of Turner's thesis is that it does not adequately recognize the extent to which frontier societies are shaped by the economic and political systems of the states in which they are located or to which they are most closely linked.It is not merely expansion into a wilderness that explains the character of a frontier society, but rather expansion within a particular social, economic and political context. In the slave states, for example, westward expansion occurred within an economic and legal context that transplanted the slave system and the values that went with it into new areas.Written in the year 1920, several collaborations on the critique made in the light of The Frontier serves a moral vision, as pres ented in Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exposition and has even garnered his works Pulitzer Prize awards a year after he died[1].This Wisconsin legend in history and literature has made a large impact on the society that his works were often placed in the table of deliberation as either that which is intellectually beneficial in the astounding arena of history or that which defeats the sagacity of being a historian.The main fact that he held his theory on high hopes in building a feasible force in the economic, social and political discussion in America, it is undeniable that majority of historians having the attempt to fully bring up the marvel of The Frontier is admirably an epic as his works were given worth and space in encyclopedias as well as in classroom deliberations.Turner’s argument is grounded on the premise that a government that is shaped according to other nations or that which resembles or at least partly incorporates external elements from foreign nations will not be suitable for the people and for the entire nation. It can be observed thatTurner firmly adheres to the principle of having an identity that is solidly based on what is natural to the people and to the rest of the country. What is natural supersedes those that are artificial—what is essentially natural to America is ‘diversity’ in the truest sense of the word[2].Apparently, Turner makes it a point to bridge the issue with diversity to that of having a strong government structured according to the innate qualities of the American people. However, it fails to consider the fact that diversity also grants the substantial possibility of not actually unifying all the corners of the country into a single and identifiable sphere[3].What Turner does is to transcend this ‘diversity’ and patch all the different—albeit intrinsic—‘American’ elements into a unified concept that virtually quells, at least in theory, th e force of other external factors. He does this at least in the sense of proposing an ‘ideological’ battle, one that treats ideas far superior than brute or physical force.Although Turner argues that bloodshed is inevitable, he also suggests that the ideas of man will have to take the core of the movement towards the establishment of an independent and unique government and that these ideas should come from the American people themselves and not from anybody else.[1] Schultz, S. K. (1999). Turner, Frederick Jackson -Historian (1861-1932).  Ã‚   Retrieved October 19, 2007, from http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/bios/15.html[2] Thies, Cameron G. (2005), ‘War, Rivalry, and State Building in Latin America', American Journal of Political Science, 49 (3), 453.[3] Sullivan, John L. (1973), ‘Political Correlates of Social, Economic, and Religious Diversity in the American States', The Journal of Politics, 35 (1), 71.   

Obesity; Root Cause Of Many Diseases.

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess of fat has accumulated in the body and may give rise to health problems. A person is obese when his body mass index is above 30 kg/m2. Body mass index is ratio of an individual’s weight and height, and can be calculated by dividing person’s weight with square of his height. The most commonly used measure of weight status is body mass index, or BMI. Years of research have shown that BMI provides good estimate of â€Å"fatness† and correlates well with important health outcomes. For adult men and women healthy BMI falls between 18 to 25 kg/m2 .Overweight is defined as a BMI between 25 and 30; and obesity a BMI of 30 or higher. So it is important tool for clinicians trying to screen to determine who may be at risk because of carrying around too much weight for their height. More or less every region of world is facing this problem. Once a problem of wealthy nations, obesity now impacts countries at all economic levels, bringing with it a wave of ill health and lost productivity. Worldwide rate of obesity doubled since 1980, with just over 200 million adult men and just under 300 million adult women obese.Of all high-income countries, the United States has the highest rate of overweight and obesity, with fully a third of population obese, a rate projected to rise around 50 percent by 2030. Obesity is also on the rise in South Asian countries including Pakistan. According to Forbes, Pakistan is ranked 165 (out of 194 countries), with 22. 2% of individuals crossing the threshold of obesity. In Pakistan the highest concentration of the obese lies in the big cities as compared to the rural countryside. At the other times in history obesity was considered as sign of wealth and prosperity, as mankind suffered scarcity of food in the past.But now obesity has been declared as a disease by American Medical Association. Whether or not it is considered a disease, it is also an important risk factor for many c hronic diseases. Obesity is associated with many chronic heart diseases such as angina, myocardial infarction (heart attack), high blood pressure, deep vein thrombosis and more. A 2002 study concluded that 21% of ischemic heart disease is due to obesity, while a 2008 European consensus puts the number at 35%. Obesity has been cited as the main cause of high blood pressure.The risk of hypertension (high blood pressure) is five times higher in the obese as compared to those of normal weight. A definitive link between obesity and hypertension has been found using animal and clinical studies, which have suggested that there are multiple mechanisms for obesity induced hypertension. People who are overweight are at much greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus than normal weight individuals . Being overweight puts extra pressure on body’s ability to control blood glucose using insulin and therefore makes it much more likely for you to develop diabetes.Almost 90% of peopl e with type 2 diabetes mellitus are overweight. Many respiratory system diseases may be outcome of obesity such as asthma, obstructive sleep apnea etc. Obesity may be associated with variety of reproductive system diseases for example polycystic ovarian syndrome, infertility, birth defects, intra-uterine fetal death etc. Gastrointestinal diseases such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, gall stone, fatty liver are predominant in the overweight. Many types of cancers occur with increased frequency in those who are overweight or obese.A study from United Kingdom showed that 5% of cancer is due to excess weight. Certain neurological conditions are also attributed to increased body weight. Apart from associated morbidity and mortality, obesity has many social and economic implications as well. The obese are often subject of ridicule as a result they suffer from depression and lose self-confidence. Obesity reduces man-power thus incurs economic loss. A combination of excessive food energ y intake, lack of exercise is thought to cause most cases of obesity.A limited number of cases are primarily due to genetics, medical reasons and psychiatric illnesses. In contrast, increasing rates of obesity at societal level are felt to be due to easily accessible and palatable diet, increased reliance on cars and mechanized manufacturing. Food energy is calculated in terms of calories, excess of calories when taken are stored in body in the form of fat. Thus energy dense foods increase body fat by supplying extra of calories and ultimately lead to obesity.Sweetened beverages and fast food meals provide more calories than required and are most important contributing factors for obesity in United States and European countries. Lack of regular physical exercise plays significant role in obesity. Worldwide there has been shift to less physically demanding work, significant portion of world’s population doesn’t get sufficient exercise. This is mainly due to invention of machines that save much of the hard work in every field. Obesity may be result of many genetic and environmental factors, as it tends persist in certain families due to inheritance of defective genes.Experts have related increased body weight in children with their time spent on watching television; more they spent their time watching television more they are prone to obesity. Obesity is sometimes clinical feature of some diseases for example Cohen syndrome, Prader Willi syndrome etc. Proper diet and physical exercise has been mainstay of long term management of the obesity. Fiber diet such as wheat, corn and certain vegetables help maintain healthy weight. Regular physical exercise burns extra calories, thus prevents excessive deposition of fat in the body tissues.Certain drugs and surgical procedures are also known to treat obesity, but are less preferred. It is clear that obesity is root cause of many diseases such as angina, myocardial infarction, hypertension, diabetes mellitu s and many more. Once it was prevalent in affluent nations, now it is problem of all nations of the world. Obesity results from high energy foods such as sweetened beverages, fast food meals. It may also result from sedentary life style and other genetic and environmental factors. Obesity can be managed by taking proper diet and regular physical exercise.