Toni Morrisons Sula - A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula Essay

A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula In The Apocalypse in African-American Fiction, Maxine Lavon Montgomery weaves a multi-faceted interpretation of Toni Morrison's Sula. Montgomery submits, "drawing upon an African cosmological system, Morrison maintains that although life in modern America is chaotic, it is possible to escape life in the West and recover the time of the black community's non-Western beginnings" (74). Though Montgomery makes a highly detailed argument advancing several significant ideas that are well worth acknowledging, her final conclusions exceed what can be clearly supported in Sula. Montgomery's first major heading of "Modern Chaos and Ancient Paradigms" (75) sketches her belief that "natural disasters, unexpected deaths, and continued racist oppression serve as bitter reminders of the near-tragic dimensions of life, for to be black in America is to experience calamity as an ever-present reality, to live on the brink of apocalypse" (75). She supports this statement with the origins of the Bottom... Toni Morrison's Sula - A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula Essay A Multi-faceted Interpretation of Sula In The Apocalypse in African-American Fiction, Maxine Lavon Montgomery weaves a multi-faceted interpretation of Toni Morrison's Sula. Montgomery submits, "drawing upon an African cosmological system, Morrison maintains that although life in modern America is chaotic, it is possible to escape life in the West and recover the time of the black community's non-Western beginnings" (74). Though Montgomery makes a highly detailed argument advancing several significant ideas that are well worth acknowledging, her final conclusions exceed what can be clearly supported in Sula. Montgomery's first major heading of "Modern Chaos and Ancient Paradigms" (75) sketches her belief that "natural disasters, unexpected deaths, and continued racist oppression serve as bitter reminders of the near-tragic dimensions of life, for to be black in America is to experience calamity as an ever-present reality, to live on the brink of apocalypse" (75). She supports this statement with the origins of the Bottom...

Ethics In Health Care Essay

Because there are not enough organs available for everyone, some system for allocating scarce resources is needed. Currently there is no one method used to decide who should get an available organ first. The decision making procedure is sometimes called distributive justice theory [1] which states that there is not one â€Å"right† way to distribute organs, but rather many ways a person could justify giving an organ to one particular individual over someone else. Criteria can include: 1. To each person an equal share; 2. To each person according to need; 3. To each person according to effort; 4. To each person according to contribution; 5. To each person according to merit; 6. To each person according to free-market exchanges. Both Mickey Mantle and Todd Krampitz were entitled to a transplant by at least one of these criteria. According to equal access, organs are to be allocated based on objective factors aimed to limit bias and unfair distribution, but there is no truly fair criteria. Length of time waiting, should be balanced with rate of health decline, and age discrimination is unfair as well. The dilemma of whether Mantle or Krempitz should have gotten their transplants is based on our human desire to establish the â€Å"worthiness† of the individual case. Because Mantle caused his liver deterioration by the choice of excessive drinking, it is easy to think him less worthy than a child or adult who had no opportunity to avoid their situation [2]. No one said Krempitz would not have gotten a transplant eventually, or that his need for the transplant was avoidable by his prior actions. Krempitz took advantage of the situation that a clear pathway for transplant decisions does not exist, and bypassed the doctor-valuation process. If the source of the organ would not have donated otherwise, then Krempitz did not do anything unethical since he did not take away someone else’s chance to have that particular organ. If the ad led to additional unplanned donations, then he even helped others. However, if he did step in front of someone else who was â€Å"in line† that would be breaking the rules. But it is unclear whether it is unethical, since it is possible that the rules of the queue are unethical themselves. At best what he did can be considered crass and dangerous, since the possibility existed that someone could have killed someone to get the money offered for the implant. The problem with equal access approach is that some human has to make the value judgment of what is fair and equal access. Some who believe in equal access distribution would also like to have an organ distribution process free of medical or social worthiness biases. Making a decision on whether a person could have avoided their problem by lifestyle choices is effectively a social punishment on those who squandered their health. On the other hand maximum benefit criteria is to maximize the number of successful transplants and minimize waste. This is a resource responsible approach and seems a more reasonable way to make the choice. It also covers those whose lifestyle caused their problems, since more often than not someone who has abused their body has other damage in addition to the organ in question, and should have higher likelihood of dying from other factors, making them less potentially successful than others. According to the Pope [3]: â€Å"The decision on who’s first in line to receive organs can be based only on medical factors, – not a person’s age, sex, race, religion, social standing, usefulness to society or any other criteria.† Personally I think that the choice of who gets the transplant ought to be made first based on the expected prognosis (likelihood the procedure will be successful and the patient have full recovery). For two people for whom there is equal chance of success, then money or insurance should not be the deciding factor on who gets the organ. Instead the age of the person, their responsibilities to other dependent humans (many children etc.), and possibly waiting period should be considered. In this case Mantle probably would not have gotten the transplant since he was not expected to survive long, anyway. [1] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy webpage. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/. [2] Ubel PA, Jepson C, Baron J, et.al. Allocation of transplantable organs: do people want to punish patients for causing their illness? Liver Transplant, 2001; 7(7):600-7. [3] Norton, J., 2000 Catholic News Service http://www.catholicherald.com/cns/transplants.htm SUPPORTERS OF

The Early Modern Atlantic Economy Edited by J. McCusker...

On one hand a group of historian argues the notion that Brazil and the Caribbean experienced a sugar revolution while on the other hand another group argues that there was no such thing as a sugar revolution, what Brazil and Caribbean experienced was simply a sugar boom. In order to assess which group of historians is more accurate, one must first understand the concept of a sugar revolution and what factors must be present in order for a sugar revolution to occur. The concept of a sugar revolution is one that states there was a drastic change from the cultivation of tobacco to the cultivating of sugar cane, changing the country`s economy, politics and social structure within a short period of time. According to B.W. Higman there are†¦show more content†¦When sugar cane was introduced those planters who owned small plots of land either had to sell their land, merge their land with another planter and enter into a partnership or buy more land in order to grow sugar cane. Sug ar cane could only be grown on large plots of land which ranged from 150 acres to 500 acres in Barbados and in Jamaica 300 acres to 5000 acres. The type of labour also changed within the Caribbean islands of Barbados, Jamaica, Nevis, Antigua and Montserrat from free labour to slave labour. Tobacco cultivation required a very small labour force, but with sugar as the new cash crop a large labour force was needed in which the Dutch provided by bringing African slaves. Therefore the white populations of these countries declined while the black populations increased due to the sugar revolution. Even though the governments of these Islands made efforts to keep the black-to-white ratio ten to one, according to Greenwood, Robert, Hamber, S, Dyde, Brian ‘ the ratio became extremely difficult to maintain during the years passed’. This population change occurred during the early years of the sugar revolution up to the mid-1700s. In Barbados there were 18 000 whites and 5 500 blacks in 1645 and by 1660 there were 20 000 whites and 30 000 blacks while Jamaica had 4 500 whites and 1 500 blacks in 1658 to 8 500 whites toShow MoreRelatedRethinking Mercantalism Essay15042 Words   |  61 PagesRethinking Mercantilism: Political Economy, the British Empire, and the Atlantic World in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Author(s): Steve Pincus Reviewed work(s): Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 1 (January 2012), pp. 3-34 Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.69.1.0003 . Accessed: 06/09/2012 12:18 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms