Lower middle class Essay Example for Free

Lower middle class Essay This passage is an extract from M.T. Anderson’s dystopian novel of consumerism and corporate America. The passage is a dialogue between two key characters, Titus and Violet, who each represent contrasting views of the cyber mentality and advertising control. Unlike the passage the novel depicts humanities descent into a decaying society which has no redemption. This passage opens with a short, sharp dialogue between two characters, no names are mentioned and we really don’t know who they are. Yet we sense there must be a bond between them because of the acquiescence of the second character (eg. â€Å"I did†, â€Å"I listened†). We realise that the â€Å"chat† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97) is between the two key characters, Titus and Violet, on their visit to a mall. Clearly the narrator is also the protagonist, Titus, teenager from an upper middle class family, who for the most part is content with his consumer lifestyle. In this conversation Violet is forcing him to question and â€Å"resist the feed† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97) but he is clearly too entrenched within the program to resist. Although he helps her create wild consumer profiles while at the mall, his background helps him resist her strong push to break away from â€Å"those† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97) people. Titus is brainwashed to accept the trademark marketing of the feed because he was â€Å"chipped† as an infant. Although he appears compliant in this passage, it is obvious that he is only doing it to please Violet, â€Å"alright†¦ok† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97). Just like in the rest of the novel Titus is blind to Violet’s urgency in escaping the feed. It is clear he is unaware of the environmental disasters that are happening around him globally and as the passage suggests he is prepared to accept the status quo and conform because in his words â€Å"that’s the feed so what† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97). He is so oblivious of the dangers around him, he doesn’t even realise that her resistance is causing her slow death. The â€Å"she† in the passage, is obviously Violet. She is the one directing and controlling the dialog between the two teenagers. It is clear that she has a sense of desperation and perhaps paranoia, because she recognizes that they are watching us â€Å"right now† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97). Her ramblings sound ridiculous to Titus despite the fact that he does exactly as she says. Violet’s plan in this passage is to resist the feed by tricking them into thinking that she has a wide and random assortment of interests in advertising. The reader is reminded that Violet is not a mainstream teenager, she has been raised by an eccentric parent and was home schooled. Making her different to Titus and his friends, who got their implant at infancy she received hers at the age of seven. Violet views the feed negatively, different from Titus and his friends, perhaps because she comes from a lower middle class background. Anderson creates her to challenge the system she is living under, as she says in the passage â€Å"they tried to figure out who you are†¦make you conform†¦it’s like a spiral† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97). Her disgust and her rebellion against this social norm that everybody else accepts will eventually shut down her body parts and because her father cannot afford repairs, her body will go into malfunction and she will eventually die. In fact the book ends with Violet dying and the feed saying â€Å"everything must go† (Anderson, 2002). This death creates a voice from Anderson suggesting a society of apathy and hopelessness. The narrative of this passage positions the reader to take sides. It is unclear just how contrasting the belief of the two characters is. The narrator is clearly submissive and the reader is eager to find out why. Why does he do as she asks? Why does he listen as she asks? One is keen to find out the reason behind her pushiness. The passage opens with â€Å"she said† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97) and in the first two lines, he â€Å"looks around† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97) as she tells him to, he â€Å"listens† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97) as she instructs him, but it is clear at the end of the passage that he does not necessarily agree, as he says â€Å"so what?† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97). The mall is used symbolically and metaphorically to represent the social demographic of these two teenager’s lives and it is here that Violet is trying to convince Titus to distance himself from the tentacles of the cyber octopus that is the feed. In fact, the telepathic closeness that this feednet creates between people is obvious in the first couple of lines of this passage, where one character agrees with the suggestions of the other. The passage is structured with a combination of sentence lengths, it opens and closes with very short sharp phrases, almost building up into a vortex of explanation. In the middle of the passage sentences are longer because there is so much more to explain, making meaning difficult to understand. There is a distinct pattern of alliteration used as a force of reinforcement, â€Å"she said† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97) and â€Å"wanting, watching, waiting† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97). The tone of the passage begins with a casual conversation between two teenagers and develops almost into a political rhetoric. The conversation is almost childlike, simple, about â€Å"toys† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97), about â€Å"things† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97), about â€Å"games† (Anderson, 2002, pp. 96-97), hiding a more sinister and psychological message. The passage replicates Anderson’s overall view of society. He uses the language of youth culture, presenting the novel/passage in the first person narrative through Titus who is often unlikeable and unpredictable. In the passage the reader is positioned to accept Violet’s (her) view of the world because we cannot trust Titus’ biased point of view. Nevertheless, Anderson has created authentic adolescent voices, sometimes humorous but always honest. Titus represents the apathetic accepting team and Violet of course incites the reader’s admiration for her challenge to a society, which is overlooking the dangers of overpowering consumerism. We cannot fail but see Anderson’s satire through Violet’s voice and his criticism of wealth, status, consumerism, corporate America, messaged advertising, conglomerates, and a society falling into a universal disaster of its own making. The passage is short but captures the essence of Anderson’s meaning and criticism of societies obsessed with consumerism.

The Diary of Anne Frank Essay examples -- English Literature

The Diary of Anne Frank In this project, I will be comparing the life of Anne Frank to mine. Firstly, I will give a brief timeline of the main events that took place in her lifetime. Then I will begin to compare the various aspects of her life to mine. Finally, I will draw up a conclusion. Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, just 60 years before I was, 1929. During the first three years of her life, The Great Depression happened. The National Socialist Party began to gain support. In 1933, Hitler was made Chancellor. This was the same year that Otto Frank and his family moved to Holland. A year later Anne began school and in 1935 â€Å"Juden Verboten† (â€Å"No Jews†) appeared on signs in restaurants and shops all over Germany. Later that year, the Nuremburg Laws were introduced. I can’t imagine what it would be like to know that I wasn’t wanted in my home country. This was only the first hurdle for Anne, many were yet to come. Before Anne was thirteen, she had been sent to a special school because of her religion and World War II had started. When Anne’s thirteenth birthday came, she received a diary that changed the way millions of people now think. A month later, her sister, Margot was called to report to a transit camp. It was then that Otto Frank saw the sign he needed to take the family into hiding. They were in a secret annexe above the Opekta-Works in Amsterdam. Altogether with the Van Daan family and Mr Dussel the dentist there was eleven people. Through the two years they were in hiding, millions of Jews were being taken to concentration camps to be killed. Anne lived in constant fear. August 1944, the group in hiding are betrayed and split up into various concentration camps, ... ...could come down and have hour long conversations with people I’ve never met before. Hearing what Anne went through though makes me wonder how a seemingly insignificant book kept her sane and positive for that amount of time. August 4th, 1944. Just sixty years ago this year, the eleven were betrayed. Nazi soldiers came storming up and took away everyone in the room. They all went to concentration camps like Auschwitz. After a month they were all separated, after a year ten were dead. This makes me angry, the fact that they managed to stay alive for so long to be killed anyway, because of one man. Hitler. The story of Anne Frank shows to me that the authority Hitler had made a fourteen yr old girl physically break down. The story shows just how oppression is converted into depression. The pressure in her mind was released by conferring with her diary.

Microsoft Office Review Assignment Page Win34

2. Shelly folder-lists location Computer-shows the disk drives and hardware connected to this computer. Recycle bin-Contains the files and folders you have deleted. Mozilla Firefox-Lists location HP photosmart-HP Photosmart Essential 3. 5, also listed location McAfee Security scan-listed the location Windows update-Delivers software updates and drivers and provides automatic updating options. Microsoft Security Assentials- Microsoft Security Assentials Malwarebytes anti-malware-malwarebytes anti-malware, also listed where it’s stored. . 22 4. 1 5. 2 6. The button on the task bar is highlighted and the top of the screen says untitled paint. 8. 0 9. I right clicked the paint button on the taskbar and right clicked close window. 10. cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, select all, layout, folder and search options, delete, rename, remove properties, properties, and close. 11. I clicked help and then went down to view help and clicked on that. This dialog box is used to offer helpful sug gestions on recovering files from the recycle bin. 2. I clicked libraries on the left side of the window and documents was right underneath of it. 13. It contained one video clip called Wildlife. 14. I selected extra large icons and the icon looked the same just became large. 16. I chose understanding security and safe computing from the bulleted list of options to choose from in the help and support window. I learned that there are 4 ways you can protect your pc from security threats. 17. 12 topics, 30 topics

Security Issues with Databases by Jing Ji - 2543 Words

Security Issues with Databases by Jing Ji David Maccarone Sheng Mao Security Issues with Databases 1. Current state of database security A database is a system that is specialized to manage data in a computer application system. Data has many forms, such as text, digital, symbols, graphics, images and sound. The database systems are integral components of current and future command, communication, control and intelligence information systems. (Lunt, 1992, p. 253) Databases are used widely in our life. Because of databases, vast amounts of data have become easier to use and manage. Government, finance, operators, public security, energy, taxation, business, social security, transportation, health, education,†¦show more content†¦Depending on the set up, these administrators may have access to the entire database, even if they do not have separate database accounts. As Natan (2005, p.109) points out, Windows System Administrators who are defined at the Domain Controller level may even have permissions on the database server. As such, an end-to-end view of who has what permissions needs to be undertaken . While one may not be able to completely eliminate this vulnerability (since what good is a database that no one can see), businesses can limit their exposure by understanding what permissions each individual has, and restricting access to the minimum number of people. The second issue surrounding database security is in the way the database is configured and maintained. If the database is not properly configured when set up, preferably by a qualified Database Administrator (DBA) then, just as with an Operating System, many vulnerabilities may exist. This can be as simple as failing to change a default password, or forgetting to turn off an unneeded database service. Likewise, if the proper patches are not applied to the database as they are released, then vulnerabilities in the very database application can be exposed to hackers, both inside and outside the company. For this reason it is important to have trained and experienced DBAs on staff, a set of well-defined proce duresShow MoreRelatedCNPC CSR report25861 Words   |  104 Pagescontests and evaluations Increase information disclosure Enhance employee training by hosting competitions on professional skills Organize occupational health examinations Improve the enterprise pension system Reinforce anti-terrorism and security efforts in overseas projects Implement the Overseas Employee Assistance Program Improve the staff development mechanism Publish the Corporate Identity System Manual of China National Petroleum Corporation to provide employees with value guidelines