The United States and the Normandy Invasion :: World War II History

The United States and the Normandy Invasion The year was 1944, and the United States had now been an active participant in the war against Nazi Germany for almost three and a half years. During this time, numerous battles had occurred which were fought with determination and intensity on both sides. Amongst the many invasions of World War II, there is one day which stands out more in the minds of many American soldiers than the others. That day was June 6, 1944, more commonly known as D Day, part of the invasion of Normandy, known as "Operation Overlord." This operation was the largest amphibious assault in history. It was a day in which thousands of young Americans, who poured onto the beaches of France, matured faster than they would have ever imagined. Little did they know of the chaos and torment that awaited them on their arrival. The attacks on Utah and Omaha were strategically made, and carried out in careful preciseness. The Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France began on June 6, 1944, and the American assault on the Utah and Omaha beaches on this day played a critical role in the overall success of the Normandy operation. An extensive plan was established for the American attack on Utah and Omaha Beaches. The plan was so in-depth and complex, its descriptions detailed the exact arrivals of troops, armour, and other equipment needed for the invasion, and where exactly on the beach they were to land. Before the landings were to begin, the coastal German defences had to be broken down by a combination of a massive battering by United States Naval ships, and by bombing from the United States Air Force. Between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German coastal defences. As soon as the preliminary bombing was over, the American and British naval guns opened fire on the Normandy coastline. A British naval officer described the incredible spectacle he witnessed that day: "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning." Along the fifty-mile front the land was shaken by successive explosions as the shells from the ships' guns tore holes in fortifications and tons of bombs poured down on them from the skies. Through smoke and falling debris German defenders crouching in their trenches would soon faintly see the hundreds of ships and assault craft closing in on the shore.

Essays --

Consequently, California higher education has increased in student fees in order to gain the amount of the state budget. Larry Gordon, Gale Holland, and Mitchell Landsberg, authors of the article â€Å"The California Fix,† have pointed out that CSU system has raised student fees by a total of 32% and is commanding 24 furlough days for all employees, including college presidents in 2009. Indeed, the UC system has a reduced freshman enrollment by 6% and hiking undergraduate fees by 9.3%. Then, Governor Jerry Brown has fund higher education but not enough. Laurel Rosenhall, author of the article â€Å"After Massive Cuts,† has revealed in 2010, state funding for CSU went up by more than 11% over in 2009 while UC moved up by more than 12%. In 2011, Brown decided to intend cutting $500 million each from the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems and another $400 million from a California Community College (CCC). Brown also has plans to ra ise fees on community colleges from $26-$36 a unit which means a full-time student would actually pay $1,080 per school year in fall 2011 (Rosenhall). According to Investment Weekly News, May 17, 2012, the California Student Aid Commission will resist to proposed Cal Grant cuts and the rearrangement of the Cal Grant Entitlement Program. The proposal of Cal Grant cuts will reduce college opportunity for students. This will affect the greatest free funding at the UC and CSU when the Governor’s proposal to eliminate Cal Grant which low income students cannot afford the rising cost of higher education. Michele Siqueriro, commissioner of the Campaigns for College Opportunity, explains that Cal Grant students whose family incomes are $50,000 a year for a family of four would lose t... ...ion in funding. However, California is struggling due to the economy so CSU will have to look for ways to modernize and educate students in difficult finaincal times (Dulaney). Although our parents thought the higher education system is the key to success, the budget cuts is causing the state and people to save money in California. Conversely, students are concern about the reductions that will extend the time it takes to gruaduate in four years. Most likely higher tuition is distressing many students to pay their student loans. For example, Dior Sweeney, a senior at UC Berkeley, has works two jobs while going to school, but he believes when he graduate that he will owe more than 20,000 student loans. He also worries about paying his tuition, rent, transportation, and food because the economy is effecting him to think that he will not get a job with a B.A. (Chea 7).

Phil Alden Robinsons Field of Dreams :: Film Movies Field Dreams Essays

Phil Alden Robinson's Field of Dreams Was Ray Kinsella a triumphant hero who dared to live his dreams, or merely an insane lunatic who blindly followed voices that could only be heard within the confines of his mind? Although either of these theories could be argued successfully, the idea that this intrepid man was indeed a hero is supported by a list of characteristics that generally indicate a classical hero. In the movie, Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella was introduced to the viewers as an ordinary man, living an ordinary life, in an ordinary town. Conversely, he was given the extraordinary supernatural ability to revive a number of celebrities from both the world of baseball and literature who had been dead for many years. Kinsella related to common people, but possessed powers that are not only uncommon, but ultimately inhuman. Although not a fool, Ray Kinsella was also not invincible. For example, he was forced to deal with defeat and hopelessness throughout his travels. Once, he misunderstood a message given to him and journeyed to a place that he was not called to go to. But, being the bright and resourceful person he was, he was not discouraged and continued to persevere. Ray Kinsella was called upon by forces left unknown to the viewers and himself to go on both a physical journey as well as a journey of the heart. After hearing voices proclaiming, "If you build it, they will come," Ray risked the economic and emotional stability of the family he loved dearly to build a baseball field. At first, Ray Kinsella was highly skeptical, but eventually he realized the significance of his obscure calling. Upon the completion of the baseball field, "Shoeless Joe Jackson", the baseball player who had been his father’s hero before he passed away, suddenly appeared in the field to talk with Ray and to play baseball. As the plot progressed, Ray continued to receive messages. After each new message, Ray was called upon to further his journey. This journey involved traveling to various cities around the United States, as well as facing issues within himself that he has successfully hidden from for years. The reason for his journey, and the path to follow were never clearly manifested to Ray Kinsella.

An Ideal Student Essay

An Ideal Student Children are the wealth of a nation. A Nation that produces a generation of talented and hardworking youth marches ahead on the path of progress. However creating quality citizens is no easy task and cannot be achieved overnight. The first step for that is to produce ideal students in our schools. These ideal students would go on to become ideal citizens. Who is an ideal student? There isn’t one definite answer to that because there are many qualities that together define an ideal student. The most important quality of an ideal student is that for him. The foremost duty of his school life is to study. He studies regularly and works hard to improve his performance in each exam. But his objective of studying is not to only score good marks or secure a high rank. Beyond that he has a thirst for knowledge, an interest to learn more about everything he observes. Apart from studies, an ideal student actively gets involves in other activities. He is good in arts and sports and regularly participates in intra and inter school events. He is an active member of various clubs in the school and helps in organizing events. But participating in competitions and winning events is not the only big thing in life, and an ideal student knows that very well. Virtues like kindness, compassion, respect, sincerity, honesty, politeness are equally important in today’s world, and these qualities are found in abundance in an ideal student. He treats his parents, teachers and elders with respect, and speaks politely to everybody. In times of crisis for his friends, he is the first person to stand by them. He never boasts of his achievements and never gets depressed by his failures. He is always cheerful and maintains a positive approach to life. He spreads hope and happiness wherever he goes. In short his conduct is admired by everyone. An ideal student is a voracious reader. He reads the newspaper regularly and is well aware about the events and happenings in various parts of the world. He also reads magazines, novels and short stories. He has an excellent grasp of the language and is very good at communicating things to others. Last but not the least, an ideal student loves his parents and family members very much and does as much as he can to help them and to keep them happy. He never wastes his parents’ hard-earned money and believes that knowledge is the biggest wealth he can acquire. An ideal students grows up to be an asset to his family, his society and the country. If only all our schools could produce more and more ideal students, our country could achieve tremendous progress and become the envy of the whole world.

Dancing at Lughnasa

In the time ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ was set Gerry and Chris’s relationship would have been extremely unorthodox and would have circulated a lot of town gossip. Having a child out of wedlock was extremely shocking and making the decision to then keep Michael even more so. In 1936 women had very few rights and with the shock of Michael being born only the towns respect for their brother, a missionary, kept them from being societal lepers. Friel presents the relationship between Gerry and Chris by using stage directions to show the true feelings between them and how their relationship is sustained.Having Gerry and Chris talking in the garden while the four other sisters are inside listening intently shows how little privacy the two have in their relationship. When Gerry first arrives Chris appears extremely cold and offhand in front of him using one word answers ‘Chris: Hello, Gerry†¦ yes†¦yes. ’ All of this gives the impression that she has very little time for him and doesn’t particularly care about him. However Friel’s staging shows the audience that she really does care because we see her reaction before Gerry comes on stage.Friel portrays her as standing stock still in shock then, when coming to her senses, rushing around panicking, ‘adroitly adjusts her hair and clothes. ’ It is the panic before the extract that shows her much Chris truly does care about Gerry and also about how little the sisters have in their lives due to the their scramble to make themselves presentable.This highlights how Gerry is a key romantic figure in the play because even though all the while the sisters are saying ‘Kate: He won’t stay the night here’ and ‘Rose: I hate him!’ they still all end up crowding around the window to listen in and watch, suggesting that though disapproving they still half wish to be in Chris’s shoes. The social constraints of the situation lead them t o wanting Gerry out of the families lives, but still the desire is there through the constant comments. These comments are key to the suggestion of an invasion of privacy, ‘Maggie: you should see the way she’s looking at him†¦Kate: they’re not still talking are they?’Friel is trying to show how hard it must be for Gerry and Chris to live in such an enclosed area where everyone knows everyone’s business, thus exploring a theme of romance, or lack of romance. This is continued throughout the extract, the fact that Gerry never visits ‘Chris: 13 months’ making the relationship seem very one sided – Chris remembering the last visit to the day while Gerry can’t remember the month. Gerry proposes to Chris at the very end of the extract and this gives a sign that maybe he does care about her.Even though Chris turns him down there is still the slight remembrance of this moment throughout the rest of the play, leading to the au diences opinion that maybe Gerry does truly care for Chris despite leaving her alone with child. However through Michael’s narrative closer to the end of the play in the second act we find out that Gerry already had ‘a wife and three grown children’, Friel choosing to leave this revelation till the end to produce a far more dramatic climax to their relationship. It is then that the audience realises that Gerry never intended to marry Chris and only offered in the knowledge that she would refuse.This all gives the impression that there is never any real closeness or intimacy for the two of them and the whole summer of happiness before, ‘suddenly he takes her in his arms and dance. ’ was a lie. A large influence on Friel when writing ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’ was the changing role of women in society. Thatcher had just been Prime Minister and women’s rights were becoming much more accepted in the 1990’s, perhaps why Friel chose t o make this such a large part of the play. Set in 1936 the Mundy sisters would not have been at all accepted by society with Chris having Michael out of wedlock and then deciding to keep him.Changing attitudes within society would have influenced Friel’s interpretation of Chris and Gerry’s relationship. Friel depicted this family as an example of what is yet to come, the sisters supported Chris throughout and after her pregnancy even though it went against societies beliefs, thus inflicting Chris’s embarrassment upon themselves as well yet still sticking together as a family. Friel emphasizes that women should have the right to do as they please through the disruption of outside influences.At the beginning of the play the sisters are happy in their little bubble making jokes about the outside world ‘Maggie: steady on girl, today its lipstick; tomorrow it’s the gin bottle’ although never participating in it. It’s when they begin to allo w others into their circle that things begin to go down hill for them. Before Gerry’s arrival they were all dancing and laughing but his arrival marked a change for them all, Friel perhaps suggesting that women don’t need the influences of men and all they bring with them is destruction.Danny Bradley and Rose are another example of this, the death of Rose’s defenceless white rooster is symbolic of mans predatory nature and the violence of this act implies violence between Rose and Bradley. Therefore Friel is portraying women as stronger without the male interference, Chris and Gerry’s relationship is used to highlight this as it is obvious to the audience that Chris would have been better off without Gerry in the first place but it is this continued procrastinating relationship that truly destroys her.The audience views Chris and Gerry’s relationship with trepidation throughout the play due to Friel’s depiction of him as a stereotypical woma niser. Kate calls him a ‘Loafer! Wastrel! ’ but conveniently neglects to mention the obvious charisma he has. In a short few minutes of conversation he has turned Chris from cold and unwelcoming ‘Chris: Thirteen months. ’ To one who is warm and laughing and allows Gerry to ‘dance her lightly, elegantly across the garden. ’ The audience views this exchange with surprise having heard only very negative things about Gerry from the sisters; the easy acceptance from Chris confuses them.The audience’s mistrust of Gerry’s character increases after the small discussion of Agnes between the two. Having already seen Agnes’s rigid, almost forced disinterest in Gerry, and then to have Gerry asking specifically after her Friel creates a slight unease for the audience, suggesting that something may have between the two of them. This leads to the audience beginning to see the cracks in the family’s foundations with Gerry seemingly at the centre of this. Friel enforces this idea of him being a womaniser later in act 2 when he begins to flirt with Agnes ‘Gerry: Dance with me Agnes.’ and then kisses her forehead, all of this watched by Chris.The audience begins to really mistrust Gerry at this point as it is obvious that he is the cause of conflict between the family they have come to love. The audience is seeing men in a bad light which relates to the feelings at the time it was being performed when the term ‘glass ceiling’ was coming into existence, women in the workplace being oppressed by men and now, in the play, them to being oppressed in relationships. There is the feeling that men can get away with any sort of misdemeanour by just walking away, leaving, whereas women i.e.Chris, are always left with the result – a baby. Gerry’s carrying on represents this stereotypical male so that when the audience discovers that Gerry in fact has ‘a wife and three grown chil dren’ it comes as no surprise. In conclusion, Friel presents Gerry and Chris’s relationship as something parallel to that of a pre 1990’s relationship. He wants to suggest to the audience that women no need longer depend on men by showing how much better off the Mundy sisters were before the arrival of Gerry and the conflict he brought within the family.Although the influences on Friel were all about the empowerment of women, he presents Gerry and Chris’s relationship with Gerry as the dominant figure, putting the play in the context of its setting and to show how the male dominance was a cause of the family breaking down. Through his presentation of the relationship he is evoking the idea that there are more possibilities available to an empowered women rather than a dominated one.

An Analysis of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Essay

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a short story written by F. Scott Fitzgeraldon May 1922. It was later adapted into a movie in 2008. The story is one of its kinds as it is about a person named Benjamin Button who is born with a body of a dying man in his 80s. As the story progress, Benjamin finds out that his physical states are becoming better as he grow. The story mainly focuses on Benjamin’s life particularly on his relationships where he has to go through a lot of conflicts of life. In the resolution, it ends with Benjamin who is also a baby, breathing on his last breath. There are a lot of symbols depicted in the story particularly in the 3 hour movie version which contains symbolisms such as the hummingbird, the clock in New Orlean’s Train Station, the 7 lightning strikes, and Lake Portchartrain. The first symbol is the hummingbird. The bird symbolizes two things which are Benjamin’s life and concept of eternity. Looking at the nature of the bird, it is extremely small in size and in fact, it is the smallest bird in the world. They are very petite and fragile that a single squeeze by a human can instantly kills it. The bird is rarely found because they do not fly in groups. Plus, this is the only kind of bird that has the ability to fly backwards. To relate on the story, the hummingbird appears itself two times; at the sea where Captain Mike Clark dies during the war and outside the Hospital window during the Hurricane Katrina when Daisy is on her deathbed. What makes it ironic is the fact that hummingbirds would not possibly survive in those kinds of events because they are physically weak. The bird cannot fly for too long nor handle rough winds. But they are different in the story. This is why the hummingbird symbolizes Benjamin’s life. Although he is born wit h a body of a dying man, brittle bones, wrinkled skin and even the doctor Queenie called for says that he will die very soon, it never happens. Benjamin keeps on growing strong and moves forward. Moreover, the hummingbird’s ability to fly backwards describes the way Benjamin’s life moves, backwards. Furthermore, Captain Mike Clark has a hummingbird tattoo on his chest. When he was a kid, he dreams of becoming an artist but his father never supports him, saying that he must continue the father’s legacy of being a sail man. It is mentioned in the story where he tells Benjamin about the significance of hummingbird. The wings of a hummingbird look very  much like the symbol of eternity, ∞. Eternity is the idea of life that never ends. Benjamin knows that he is the only one of his kinds and sooner or later, his story will die along his death. Thus, in order to retain his story, he writes a diary and passes it to Daisy so that his daughter will have it. By doin g that, his life may end but his journeys will remain for eternity. Next is the clock in New Orleans built by Monsieur Gateau. He made the clock to tick anti-clockwise because he wants it to be a reminder for all to never forget about the fallen heroes of World War 1. Gateau’s only wish is to turn back time so that he can have his son back who died during the War. The movement of the clock has 2 symbolisms. One is the same symbol as the hummingbird’s ability to fly backwards. The clock is a symbol of Benjamin’s physical state in his life where his body starts from old to young. Another symbol for the clock is that it symbolizes fate’s dominance over life. For Gateau, he is afraid that life is moving by him. He could not accept the reality that his son is no more to be found. It pretty much kills him on the inside that results him to exile from the country. This goes the same towards Benjamin life, no one would wish themselves to be abnormal like him but the thing is, there is no control over it. People can only accept how things go and move on. Another example is Daisy’s car accident, she is capable, talented and has a bright future career in ballet but one accident changes all of it. It is very clear that every action people do, every hard work they put in, every words of prayer they say will eventually depends on one’s own absolute fate. This indicates that people do not have the power to control the future, they can only plan and organize it and leave the rest to fate. Plus, it also questions people whether they are using their time wisely or not because clock never stops ticking. To relate back on Gateau, his action of making the clock from turning how it is supposed to turn (clockwise) can be considered as an act of denial towards fate. The third symbolism found in this story is the lightning that strikes Mr Daws seven times. Mr Daws keeps on saying the same thing to Benjamin as he recalls how he got struck by lightning seven times. The symbolism that can be related to this is the number of lightning strikes Mr Daws get; seven.  This is a symbol of sin a, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. A person can only be in the stage of integrity or despair if he is living in a retirement house, waiting for his death as referred to Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development because old people tend to review their life and reflect on what they have done. Mr Daws could most probably be in despair; regretting actions that he had done in the past. He once mentioned to Benjamin that he is blinded because of one of the lightning that struck him. But the truth is his eyes were never blinded. This shows that Mr Daws is not saying that lightning literally strikes him 7 seven times, but he is just reminiscing about his re grets in life. It shows how much pain and regret he is in that he would not mind it if lightning would ever strike him. Another symbol that has the same meaning as the lightning strikes is the lake Benjamin’s father usually goes to when he was a kid; Lake Portchartrain. Benjamin knows about the existence of this house when his father told him about it. Despite feeling hurt of being abandoned when he was a child by his own father, he brings his father to the lake. This is his way of showing that he forgives his father’s wrongdoings toward him. There at the lake, they do not do any talking, there is only silence as they watch the sunrise. There is a big difference between the ending of Mr Daws and Thomas Button. For Mr Daws, he leaves the world feeling regret while Thomas would surely feel his life as positively integrated because he finally gets to be with his only son, Benjamin whom he thought would never forgive him. In my opinion, the story is very heartwarming. It can open anyone’s heart just by reading or watching it because that was the feeling I felt when I finished watching the movie version. Not only it carries a lot of moral values, the issues depicted in it are very significant for someone to realize the importance of time management. The best moral value that I managed to get from this story is that we must be thankful for the life we have and the things we have today because all of these may never be the same tomorrow. As a conclusion, people must know their purpose of life so that they would not waste it like how it is depicted in this story.

Muslim Empires Essay

The Ottoman Turks consisted of Turkic-speaking nomadic people who had spread westward from Central Asia in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. They were located in the northwestern corner of the peninsula, which allowed them to expand westward and eventually take over empires between the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. The sultan was the supreme authority in both a political and a military sense. Administrative and military power were centralized under the bey, who was only a tribal leader, tribal law was before Muslim law. The Ottoman authorities were Sunni Muslims. The sultan assigned duties to a supreme religious authority, who then maintained a system of schools to educate Muslims. There were some who believed in Sufism or other doctrines, but the government allowed it as long as they were still loyal to the empire. Non-Muslims had to pay a head tax since they were exempt from military service. The Ottoman Empire was divided into four main occupational groups: peasants, artisans, merchants, and pastoral people. Shah Ismail founded the Safavid Dynasty. The Safavids was a mixed society like the Ottoman Empire; majority of the population were Iranian. They used the Shi’ite faith, and Shi’ism was declared the state religion. Like the Ottoman’s sultan, the Safavids had their shahs who would check up on their people. This empire was not as wealthy as the Ottomans and the Mughals. Their greatest area of productivity was in textiles. The founder of the Mughal Dynasty is known as Babur. Ruling of the dynasty was passed down from Babur to his son, Humayun, and then to his grandson, Akbar. As emperor, Akbar didn’t just focus on the views of Muslim but also gave Christian views a chance. He later formed a new type of worship called the Divine Faith, which combined characteristics of different religions. He believed in having a harmonious society, which meant each individual and group would play their assigned role and contribute their part to society. This dynasty was the last of the great traditional Indian dynasties. All three of the empires were Muslim, and they all displayed an impressive capacity to create and run a large empire. The Muslim World was protected by the military and political abilities of these empires. Unlike their European counterparts, these empires continued to thrive.