The odyssey

The odyssey Which film does a more effective job in adapting Homers The Odyssey: Ridley Scotts Gladiator or Barry Levinsons The Natural. I believe that both films do an effective job of adapting Homers epic poem. However, in my opinion, The Natural does a better job of this. The Natural achieves a more effective level than Scotts film in adapting The Odyssey because Levinsons cinematic adventure has more similarities in the characters, plot structure, and resolution. The characters in Levinsons motion picture are very similar to the characters in The Odyssey. Roy Hobbes, the main character of the movie, compares very well with Odysseus, the main character in Homers epic poem. Odysseus is a great Trojan War hero and Roy Hobbes is a great baseball player, which is similar to being a war hero because Hobbes is a hero to his baseball team in their war for the pennant. Both characters leave their home to achieve glory: Odysseus in the Trojan War and Hobbes in baseball. Odysseus leaves Ithaca, which is a small island, and Hobbes leaves his small farm. Both places are small and not vey well known. Odysseus and Hobbes both leave a woman at home with a child to take care of. However, Odysseus never met his child and Hobbes was unaware that he left his hometown girlfriend when she was pregnant with his son. Another similarity is that both of these protagonists are flawed. Odysseus dishonored the god, arguably because he has too much pride, which is hubris . Moreover, Hobbes also had too much pride. Having too much pride causes each character to go off course, literally and figuratively. Odysseus is blown of course traveling from one crazy island to the next. Whereas, Roy Hobbes gets shot, which causes him to quit baseball for a long time and travel from one job to the next. The two heroes even have similar enemies, for example Hobbes has Gus Sands who nearly kills him, and Odysseus has the Cyclops who nearly kills him; also both enemies only have one eye. Another similarity is the weapon of choice for both individuals; Odysseus has his bow, which is used to defeat the suitors after his wife, and Hobbes has Wonderboy, which is his baseball bat used to defeat opposing baseball teams. In Gladiator there is not one specific weapon that Maximus uses. Lastly, eventually both heroes return home and are humbled. Odysseus returns home to Ithaca, but as a beggar. And Hobbes returns to the farm to take care of his united family. The plot structure of the movie is also very similar to Homers epic poem. Each story begins in a small place that is not very well known. The Natural begins on a farm and The Odyssey begins on a small island called Ithaca. Another similarity is that both of the main characters leave their home to become well known. However, even though they were both great, both protagonists have too much pride, which ends up causing both of them to go off course of their goal. However, Maximus in Gladiator did not have too much pride, but he was still sent off course. Odysseuss goal was to return home, but because he did not honor the gods, the gods would not allow him to achieve his goal very easily. Hobbess goal was to set baseball records, but because of his pride he was literally shot down on his way to the top. Then both characters must put forth much more time and effort than originally planned to achieve their goal. Eventually Hobbes changes his goal to being with his family when he realizes that he left his hometown girlfriend home pregnant with his son; just like Odysseus left his new born son with his wife when he left home. In the end, both heroes wind up home and happy. The resolutions of both protagonists are also very similar. Both eventually learn their lesson. Odysseus realizes that it is wrong to think that he is greater than or equal to the gods and not all the glory should go to him. Hobbes realizes that baseball is not just about break individual records, but the game is about the glory of the team. These are similar because the baseball team is equivalent to the team of Odysseus and the gods in the Trojan War. So the victory is not solely for the glory of the individual. In conclusion, The Natural does a more effective job of adapting to The Odyssey then Gladiator does. The Natural is an effective adaptation of The Odyssey because of its similarities in characters, plot structure, and resolution. There are many striking connections between Roy Hobbes and Odysseus. Also, the plot structure and resolution of The Natural is almost identical to that of Homers epic poem The Odyssey.

The Purpose of Dreaming While Asleep Essay -- Neurology Sleep

Dreams are a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind. In our dreams we can portray ourselves as anything, we can go anywhere and do anything. There are many types of dreaming methods such as, daydreams, recurring dreams, nightmares, epic dreams, prophetic dreams, and lucid dreams and so on. You spend six years of your life dreaming. There are five reasons why we dream: so we can satisfy our wishes, to file away memories, to develop and preserve neural pathways, to make sense of neural static, and to reflect cognitive development. We satisfy our wishes through dreaming. Dreams present a psychic protection valve that releases otherwise unacceptable feelings. If dreams are symbolic they could be understood any way you wish while on the other hand, others state dreams hide nothing. While you dream you file away your important memories and new skills. You also dispose useless information from your day. Sleep deprivation has affected many people and have resulted in impaired speech, memory lost, and problem solving skills. If you don’t get decent night of sleep after you learn new materials, you won’t incorporate it efficiently into your memories. We dream to develop and preserve neural pathways. A neural pathway attaches one part of the nervous system with another and typically consisted of bundles of elongated myelin-insulated neurons. A number of researchers hypothesized that dreams may also serve a physiological meaning. There was a possibility that the brain activity connected with rapid eye movements (REM) sleep presents the sleeping brain with interrupted motivation. We dream to make sense of neural static. Other assumptions suggest that dreams go off from neural ... ... to be with his significant other, Sofia. Dreaming is a complicated instrument used by the best of our civilization to make themselves and this world a better place. To dream is a powerful method. Visions and thoughts come from your dreams. Novelists, writers and poets make their dreams into stories. Artists and musicians discover dreams for their motivations. Dreams assist us to discover answers to our everyday dilemmas and view things from a different viewpoint. References Myers, D. G. (2004). Exploring psychology Dreams, New York: Worth Publishers. Lucid dreaming. (1994). In lucidity Institute. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from Lucidity Institute: http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html#LD Dreaming. (1994). In Dream Information. Retrieved November 12, 2010, from Lucidity Dream Moods INC.: http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/

When Everything Changed

I slowly looked around, detached from reality. The news hit me like a formidable black train. Silence  coated the room filled of  anxious yet unusually quiet cheerleaders like a heavy snow on the mountain peaks from where we came from. Every familiar face I could  find grew cold and stern. All hopes of  a  national title flew out of the window before the judges could even  mutter  the two words  that brought our world crashing down. â€Å"Illegal stunts. † Nine months of sweat and tears, 4  years of commitment, all brought down in a matter of moments.Less than ten  minutes  before my final  national high school cheerleading competition and all the  work my  team and I put into our flawless routine no  longer mattered. We had ten  minutes to  recreate a near-impossible routine and preform it for over 600 people. How  could our  coaches not know our routine was filled with illegal stunts? More  importantly why did we  travel  1,997 mil es to be humiliated? I knew in that moment that the hard work, sweat, and tears that were supposed to pay off with a shiny gold metal and an adorable white silk national champ jacket, came down to one thought: â€Å"Can we pull this together? Before we could even wrap our heads around the situation that was being presented to us my team and I were being hastily rushed toward the overwhelming maze of two-story black curtains. I could hear the abundant crowd roaring on the other side. Our parents, eagerly waiting, had no clue the panic that was now instilled within us. Scott, my teams’ choreographer, sashayed through the groups of cheerleaders toward us. â€Å"Good luck, Ladies† he muttered, â€Å"Sorry about the sudden changes in your routine†¦I†¦ I didn’t think anything was illegal. † At wit’s end, I huddled my team together.Taking turns, my co-captains and I shared some inspirational words and started singing our team song: â€Å"Lean on Me. † Suddenly, we were united on stage in front of hundreds of people. Blinded by the spotlights in front of me, I glanced to my right only to see my coach. She clung to the side of the raised stage, barely able to see over, her emotions written all over her face, frustrated and scared. At that moment I knew she was just as nervous as we were. The moment all the hours practicing, the sore muscles, the obsession over cheerleading for 9 months straight was about to pay off, BOOM.The music was on and muscle memory kicked in. One dance step after another just happened without any thought. As the dance portion of the routine was over and the cheer portion slowed to an end, I knew our final pyramid was coming soon. Panic. No one was where she needed to be. It seemed as if we were ants being watched through a magnify glass, scurrying about with no real direction. Rushed and confused, we threw together what we could. â€Å"We can do this! † I shouted to the girls. Finally s ome sanity as my bases threw me into the air, only to realize the other half of the team was struggling.I was always taught to just keep going, so that’s what I did. The music continued to build, and the newly changed portion was finally here. My bases, consisting of my fellow captains, pushed me into the air. I reached out for the flyer next to me. Only there was no flyer next to me, and without her, none of this would work. I glanced over after hearing gasps come from the audience, only to see half my team on the ground, struggling and fighting to pull themselves up. The music ended. Silence. The last impression the judges and the crowd saw of us was complete pandemonium.First place was out of the question. â€Å"With a routine like that, you will be lucky to make it any further. † Our coaches starred at each of us as we walked shamefully backstage to watch our routine on the big TV monitor. One 8-count at a time we watched our dreams unfold and come crashing down, l iterally. Knowing that it wasn’t completely our fault, we joined the crowd to watch the rest of the competing teams. In the proceeding moments we learned that without the falls at the end, our routine was perfect– filled with smiling faces, tight dance moves, and a high level of difficulty.Due to those minor mistakes, however, our trip to Orlando was over without reward. The following morning, disappointed and heartbroken, my teammates and I boarded our flight back to the mountains. Looking back now, the memories created are irreplaceable whether good or bad. Sometimes all the hard work and effort doesn’t pay off in the way we hope for. Left with disappointed dreams, my duties as a cheer-captain were over and I was left with memories and a group of friends who could never be replaced. I didn’t get that national title, but at least we made it that far, which is more than many young girls could even hope for.

Cloning More Ethically Acceptable than Global Warming Essays

Cloning More Ethically Acceptable than Global Warming nbsp; One day soon, human clones will walk among us. Does the thought send a shiver up your spine? How about the notion of eating french fries from a potato engineered with jellyfish genes to make its leaves bioluminescent? We should consider our responses to both issues now, before reality comes knocking at the door. Several groups have announced intentions to clone humans, and the bioluminescence gene has already been successfully incorporated into potato plants. nbsp; If those prospects make you squirm, youre not alone. The publics emotional response to the issues of human cloning and biotechnology far outstrips its response to global warming and widespread species†¦show more content†¦We certainly wouldnt want cloned children to suffer illnesses caused by imperfect technology. Others voice their concern that parents who employ the techniques to recreate a lost child will place burdensome expectations on the cloned child, who - despite sharing the genes of the lost child - will be a unique person. Indeed, the word clone is misleading, since such children will be less similar to the original child than would be an identical twin (the clone will not have shared the same womb at the same time). But do such issues justify an outright ban on human cloning? The technical challenges will soon be overcome with the help of new research, and the education of parents (and other relatives) could certainly help reduce misguided expectations. nbsp; Some respond to such an optimistic viewpoint by claiming that there are no true benefits. George Annas - the head of the health-law department at Boston University - claims that there is no moral justification to clone human beings. If the human species was dying and cloning was the only way to ensure the survival of the species, then sure. But how about individual couples, who are deeply driven to have their own genetic children but unable to do so by other means? Surely the continuation of the human species will be no comfort to them. nbsp; In my experience, the most common justificationShow MoreRelatedGenetic Engineering : The Uncertain Future2161 Words   |  9 PagesAbstract Genetic engineering is looked as a future technology but the future is fast approaching. There are many benefits of genetic engineering, such as curing diseases and creating a more intelligent population, but there are also dangers of genetic engineering, such as disrupting the human genome, and creating more social imbalance. Genetic engineering has been tested and proven to be effective in repairing or replacing defective genes but it can also be easily misused and abused to create a societyRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pageset al. provide a highly readable account of ideas, perspectives and practices of organization. By thoroughly explaining, analyzing and exploring organization theory the book increases the understanding of a field that in recent years has become ever more fragmented. Organization theory is central to managing, organizing and reflecting on both formal and informal structures, and in this respect you will find this book timely, interestin g and valuable. Peter Holdt Christensen, Associate Professor, Copenhagen