The Not so Friendly, Arnold Friend Essay Example for Free

The Not so Friendly, Arnold Friend Essay When Connie picks up the phone she hears something on the other line, a type of roaring noise that you hear in those scary movies about the devil. Arnold also talks to Connie as if he were saying lyrics from one of her favorite songs knowing how willingly Connie will do anything to fit in with the culture music gives. Arnold Friend tells Connie, â€Å"We’ll go out to a nice field, out in the country here where it smells so nice and it’s sunny†¦I’ll have my arms around you so you won’t need to try to get away and I’ll show you what love is like, what it does† (Oates 628). He goes on saying sweet things to Connie to make her come out behind the screen door and come over to him, but she does not seem to come to him because of how kind he says his words, but because of the fear that has built up from them. Arnold Friend was almost narrating the next few seconds of he life as if it was now his to claim, â€Å"Now come out through the kitchen to me honey and let’s see a smile, try it, you’re a brave sweet little girl. † And as he said this, â€Å"She put out her hand against the screen. She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were safe back somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited† (Oates628). Another reason that Arnold Friend gives off a frightening image is that his normal teenager look is the almost â€Å"too real† of a look. Arnold Friend is just an image that he knows Connie wants to see in a guy and has seen in a lot of them. The narrator says, â€Å"[Connie] recognized most things about him, the tight shirt, an even that slippery friendly smile of his, that sleepy dreamy smile that all the boys used to get across ideas they didn’t wan to put into word†¦But all these things did not come together† (Oates 623). Arnold Friend has that look to him that most girls would think is attractive, but at the same time there is something that was not right about him. Arnold left his glasses on for most of the conversation, but when he took them off the skin around his eyes were so pale they made his eyes seem to glow in a supernatural way. The narrator states, â€Å"He took off the sunglasses and she saw how pale the skin around his eyes was, like hold that were not in shadow but instead in light. His eyes were chips of broken glass that catch the light in an amiable way† (Oates 622), making his eyes look like they were glowing like they would on something supernatural. Oates also goes on explaining that after Arnold Friend puts his glasses on top of his head he did it cautiously â€Å"as if he were indeed wearing a wig† (Oates 624). Arnold Friend could be wearing a wig to simply defy his age so Connie will go on a ride with him or also to hide the horns on top of his head, like the devil has. â€Å"His whole face was a mask, she thought wildly, tanned down onto his throat but then running out as if he had plastered makeup on his face but had forgotten about his throat. † (Oates 625). The last reason that Arnold Friend gives off a frightening image is the knowledge he conveys about and with Connie. Arnold Friend frequently tells Connie of his knowledge of her family, neighbors and herself. When Connie hears Arnold say her name for the first time she tells him that she never said her name and he tells her in response, â€Å"But I know what it is. I know your name and all about you, lots of things† (Oates 622). He continues to tell her some of the information he knows about her, â€Å"I know your parents and sister are gone somewhere and I know where and how long they’re going to be gone, and I know who you were with last night, and your best girl friend’s name is Betty† (Oates 622). But Arnold’s knowledge is just facts about Connie’s life and family, Oates also describes his knowledge Connie as if he was there watching these events that Connie’s family is apart of. Arnold Friend says, â€Å"Aunt Tillie’s. Right now they’re-uh-they’re drinking. Sitting around,† he said vaguely, squinting as if he were staring all the way to town and over to Aunt Tillie’s backyard. Then the vision seems to get clear and he nodded energetically† (Oates 624). He continues to tell Connie things that a stranger should not know about her and her surroundings. He talks to Connie about an â€Å"Old woman down the road,† and Connie replies that she is dead. Not only does his knowledge of the old woman being Connie’s neighbor portray the devil and give off a frightening vibe to Connie, but also the knowledge of her death as if he were scaring Connie. Arnold slightly even gives Connie a little foreshadowing of her future with him. Through manipulation, image, and knowledge Arnold Friend conveys an image of the evil and the devil and gives off a frightening vibe to Connie. He tries to hide his true self and give out this image of the typical guy that Connie would be interested. He used that Rock amp; Roll pop culture to lure in Connie and than used his knowledge to frighten and manipulate her into selling her soul to him. Works Cited Oates, Joyce Carol. â€Å"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been†? Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 7th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. 615-28. Print.

Ten Thousand Proud Elephants :: Personal Narrative Homosexuality Essays

Ten Thousand Proud Elephants I wore a dress to the gay pride parade this year. It’s a grand parade, fun filled with hundreds of stories like this, and how people go there looking for voice and they scream so loud for it that they come home voiceless. I wore my voice in the threads of a dress. I’m not gay but these are the bravest, most respectable people I’ve ever seen, and I wore a dress for hope that people feel safe to be people. The day began with a beer breakfast morning. My lover, Stephanie and I walked our dog, bleu (whom we think is secretly gay), and then came home to countless phone calls from friends planning to get together, all of them recognizing that the reason they were doing so was because they had dreamt the night before that people in the world started to make plans to get together. Stephanie lent me the dress and we started out the door hand in hand, man in drag, and the day rolled on like the curve of a rainbow. Walking through Chicago was frightening, but the very thought gave even more purpose to the day so I walked a little prouder. Stephanie showed no fear and I look back at a very beautiful couple. We were met outside of jock-ville u.s.a., Wrigley field, by a bunch of cross dressing, wig wearing, loudly free with passion like jack hammers for hearts†¦homosexuals. We follow them to the beginning of the parade. One of the first things you see at the parade is people drinking beer on the streets in front of the cops who are there for "protection." Another thing you might see is those same cops also drinking beer. Soon nudity, free-wielding like breasts and butts were newspapers†¦Street Wise! and fancy free, is fleshed before you, and every once in a while a flash of seriousness that is lying under the covers of freedom for fun like a body awake at night, rears it’s fancy face. An organization called PFLAG (parents of gays and lesbians) gathered to march, holding signs proclaiming that they are "†¦proud of my gay son!" and "I love my lesbian daughter." I started crying. Following this crowd a group of Chicago’s gay cops walked by, and that just about sold the crowed a kleenex for every wave of those brave peoples hand.

Computer science coursework Merit Essay Essay

Record shops, cinemas, radio stations, video rental stores and even libraries are losing customers to the global trend that is OIS (Online Information Sharing – the official MPAA and RIAA term for internet piracy). It once used to be a common sight to see small record shops filled with teens picking their favourite artists’ new records from the well stacked shelves, paying at the desk, discussing music with others and making new discoveries. It was not uncommon for people to buy or rent VHS tapes or sit at home listening to the radio. Piracy of course was alive here, the market for pirate radio, pirate tapes and pirated videos was enormous, the difference between then and today? Equipment. Nearly every person below 40 has a computer in MEDCs and also has the knowledge to ‘share’ everything they want from their media collection with others. The most significant difference between the days of pirate radio and the days of worldwide networking is that you no longer need to know how it works to do it; millions of parents mindlessly expose their young kids to P2P networks such as KaZaA and LimeWire which are full of adult content, viruses and include open chat programs which might allow sexual predators access to their children. The first consumer P2P (peer-to-peer) network of note (others such as MC2 , Direct Connect and TinyP2P had existed before but were not widely adopted by the average user) called Napster allowed only for the sharing of music files such as WAVE and . mp3 (leading to MPEG 3 becoming the most popular music format in years to come). This was the most organised piracy or the time among teenagers and young adults through the internet but had problems in terms of the danger that faced the user (being caught) in that the centralized nature of the service meant that the server not only listed the files bring shared by members but all of the files passed through it in an effort to prevent the proliferation of malicious programs. This was extremely bad news for the user as Napster now had the IP address of each and every user, an integral flaw which would come back to bite the company and its user base later on before it could change it’s process and remove the evidence from its servers. Napster had finally made stealing music easy but was considered flawed by many in the IT community who wanted easier methods of sharing software, video and text files and a safer method of sharing music. Audiogalaxy was the first mainstream centralized P2P client that was capable (although not by design) of sharing any kind of file whatsoever, it gained popularity after the downfall of Napster and was the first time that the MPAA took note of file sharing software as connections became more capable of allowing fast download of high quality video. Audiogalaxy only indexed *. mp3 files, the obvious way round this limitation was found quickly: by (for example) naming a *. exe piece of software from â€Å"tree. exe† to â€Å"tree exe . mp3†. This made AG extremely useful for illegal distribution of both legally and illegally purchased data between users with experience in CGI and Batch (CGI parameters had to be edited to share non mp3 files) but was not as popular as eDonkey2000 (another P2P later to become known as eMule) program which did not have the security limitations of previous P2P clients as it was much faster to decentralize and allow open sharing and indexing. Especially in the case of Napster, facilitating thousands of minor crimes led to a series of lawsuits launched by musicians against the company (Metallica, Dr.Dre, Madonna) but received praise from other artists (Radiohead, Dispatch, Editors) for allowing distribution of singles prior to an album’s release. Eventually a larger lawsuit was filed against the company which eventually resulted in bankruptcy after a lawsuit (which inadvertently increased the service’s user numbers) filed by the RIAA resulting in Napster closing down their network and being blocked from selling the company without liquidating assets under Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Act meaning that the company was forced to close. The name was later sold to Swedish pornography company PMG who run it as a paid for service using similar looking software. AudioGalaxy was also sued and shut down as it’s out of court settlement rendered the service effectively useless and resulted in the service’s user base abandoning it en masse – as a result AG too, opened a pay service to distribute music. In efforts to decentralize and avoid federal prosecution, modern networks designed for file sharing are de-centralized, often encrypted and use proxies to disguise IP addresses, for these reasons modern networks make it much less likely for a user to be discovered and served with a court order or other legal reprimand. A de-centralized system does not have a server which holds the files but instead a server that indexes a list of all available files rather than storing them. Most modern p2p systems also use (as mentioned previously) a process of encryption and proxy servers to make them untraceable. The servers often do not ask uploaders and downloaders of content to register accounts as they have previously done, this prevents user name linking: a process that the CIA reportedly used wherein they would search a napster username through a series of websites trying to gain personal data on a pirate in order to find and prosecute them. Another security feature of modern P2P protocols is the streaming swarm structure which works on a ‘rarest first’ basis, splitting files into multiple ‘parts’ and downloading these parts (to be reconstructed into a usable file on the leech (downloading) computer) rather than an actual file. As none of these individual parts is usable as the intended finished product on it’s own Swedish law allows the redistribution under it’s own piracy laws – for this reason, the most prolific pirating groups are based in the country. One such group is the Swedish pirate political party called Piratbyran, the Piratbyran, (whose motto ‘Pirate and Proud’ has itself caused problems for the group) this organised group has demanded that (along with the Pirates website piratgruppen. org) pirates be treated ‘fairly’ by the law of the world as they believe they have the right to appraise things and decide if they are worth purchasing before doing so. For this reason, Piratbyran have set up Kopimi, a copywright alternative (said ‘copyme’) which declares other’s right to use your work as they see fit (this being a more extreme version of many other previously concocted alternatives like creative commons which permit a user the right to use works for non commercial reasons of their choice) for anything at all. The group also used Bram Cohen’s bit torrent protocol and created the world’s largest ‘tracker’ – a website that indexes all of the files available through the protocol which is called ThePirateBay. com (a. k. a. TPB), this site is distributed in over 20 languages and is currently the most popular tracker for the most advanced, secure and efficient protocol that is commercially available at this time. They are however intending to create their own protocol to remove their reliance in Bram Cohen (the creator) who has recently cut distribution deals with Hollywood film studios and is believed to be considering taking the protocol commercial. Governments across the world are certainly taking note, shown in hundreds of adverts which have only proven ineffective thus far. In the USA and the UK the governments have been running multiple adverts against piracy on legally purchased DVD videos and Blu ray / High Definition DVDs which are fairly useless: the advert assumes ‘You wouldn’t steal†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ and lists a series of items before telling you piracy is a crime and showing w young girl getting up from her computer where she is downloading a film and walking out of the door. Most people tend to be offended at the fact that, after legally paying for something, they are forced to watch an advert telling them not to steal. This string of adverts alone has caused a series of parody adverts which take off the script of the original â€Å"You might steal a book†¦ † and even inspired a film called ‘Steal this movie’. Of course there are also positive sides to the increase in stealing and sharing among internet users, the little guy for example is heard far more than the major executive, companies are embracing the freedom culture and popular bands are pre releasing their albums for free to gain fan support. Sharing is even curing cancer! A largely adopted project (Folding@Home) launched by a US university is folding protein strings over a massive decentralized network in an effort to discover a cancer cure or prevention in lieu of the supercomputer they would normally require. Those passing records about in the early days probably never saw that coming when they connected their first networks! Back in the early 1980s, piracy (albeit not online) was rife amongst office workers and the computer competent, these early criminals would exchange software through floppy disk and share records between each other. As the 90s started and the first networks were being created within offices, the stealing only increased as files could be copied between computer terminals via cable rather than by hand. Now, with the age of the internet: it is estimated that over 300 million of the world’s population routinely steal information and data over the internet with millions more borrowing DVDs and books from each other, whether or not these people are stealing more or less because of the internet is unquestionable, with our ability to access millions and millions of people we are able to share and steal far more than we previously could have done and this only provides incentive to give and take more than we would normally have done in a spirit of world community that is evoked by groups that exist in this sphere such as piratgruppen and the piratbyran.

The Long Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot - 822 Words

T.S. Eliot characterizes his speaker in â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† based on his own personal experiences. In 1915, Eliot wrote one of his most famous poems as a skeptic (Schneider 1103). He constantly questioned the meaning of human life and the reasons why human beings were created at all. In the same way, Prufrock also has a difficult time in finding the purpose of his long life. The speaker of this poem takes the reader on a journey so that maybe the listener can aid him in finding meaning to his life. Throughout T.S. Eliot’s â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,† the narrator is overwhelmed by the nothingness in his life through the characterization of himself, the wandering to many different settings, and the feeling of death approaching him. First, Prufrock does not think too highly of himself. He states that he is â€Å"not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be† (Eliot 111). Prufrock considers himself an ordinary person and does not want to be treated as exceptional. According to Margaret Morton Blum, T.S. Eliot may have developed his main character by studying William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Blum points out that Prufrock has a similar mindset as Yorick, a foolish character in Shakespeare’s play (Blum 424). Both Prufrock and Yorick believe that the world and everything in it is worthless. Constantly throughout the poem, the main character is becoming aware of his balding head. He cannot find confidence in himself because he is losing hair and is worried that he isShow MoreRelatedA Competitive Analysis of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald1014 Words   |  4 Pageswere T.S. Eliot who wrote his very well-known poem, â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfr ed Prufrock† (1915), and F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote his famous novel, The Great Gatsby (1925). 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