Edgar Allan Poe and Suspense in Poe and Jackson Term Paper

Edgar Allan Poe and Suspense in Poe and Jackson - Term Paper Example This can be accredited to the actuality that most of his stories were short, interesting and easy enough to be classroom material, or due to their ability at pandering the present sullen morbidity that is characteristic of early adolescence or late childhood. American literature reached its peak maturity in the XIX century through the works of different writers such as Melville and Hawthorne, Thoreau and Emerson, Whitman and Longfellow, Twain and Poe, who was oddly in his own category. He has had a far-reaching influence on not only mass culture, but he has been able to provide rare insights into elite culture. As an innovator, he was quite resourceful: it is evident through his invented modern detective tales such as The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Purloined Letter, and The Murders in the Rue. He, together with Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, is a progenitor of horror movies (Datlow 59). Poe was always worried a lot about life after death, especially in terms of the body and soul bein g depicted in the number of his narratives that entailed characters being buried alive, or of corpses having a life as zombies or of characters who were kept, under hypnosis, animate. He was gifted in the creation of small, enduring images that have up to this era remained in the collective psyche of a wide range of audiences. In his work – The Masque of the Red Death – Poe describes an intricate floor plan for the imperial suite of Prince Prospero with the strange design of the ball-room location emanating from the Prince’s eccentric tastes of decoration and his love of the weird. All the seven rooms of irregular shapes add to the suspense of the viewer with there being a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yard distances, with each turn eliciting a novel effect. All successive rooms had different colors, a sort of progressive journey through a range of garish hues with the last chamber being black. This view only got from a gaze through a window tinted red. T he reader is held in suspense due to his/ her vague grasp of the different room’s signature colors (Jackson 67). Soon, the imperial suite becomes the scene of a crime with both the prince and his guests succumbing to a succession of bloody murders committed by an unknown assailant. Furthermore, the architecture entailed in these successive rooms also adds to the sense of suspense due to their eliciting luminal spaces between the notions of reality and illusion. The architecture of the suite, which is complicated, is symbolic of the reader’s limited comprehension. In his other work – The Black Cat – the readers encounter a character who after getting drunk, releases his guilt and self-hatred on his wife’s pet cat by grabbing it but the cat bites him. In revenge, he takes out one of its eyes but this quickly heals, though the cat’s presence is a continuous reminder of his failings. Eventually, though, the narrator gets rid of the cat by hangin g it from a tree. There is a twist to this event with his house burning down except for a section of the wall that has sketched on it the image of a giant cat (Datlow 58). Later on, he finds a new cat that has much similarity to the first in a bar and he takes it home. The reason behind this was so as to aid in undoing his previous act of violence. The feline’

Revise Persuasive Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Revise Persuasive Speech - Essay Example In this regard, I seek to demystify an understanding of the BOTOX procedure; the serious side effects posed by the procedure, and create awareness reiterating that BOTOX injections are harmful to one’s health. III. Today I would like to enlighten you in understanding the BOTOX procedure; the serious side effects posed by the procedure, and create awareness reiterating that BOTOX injections are harmful to one’s health. 1. The term BOTOX refers to a purified type of botulinum that is a neurotoxin. Evidently, the neurotoxin when injected results to a medical situation called botulism. In this regard, it is normally injected in small amounts so as to relax the facial muscles and minimize wrinkles. 3. In this regard, scientific information indicates that a single gram of BOTOX could result to the death of as much as one million people. On the other hand, a couple of kilos could result to the total wipeout of all humanity as we know it. B. According to the medication guide of the Food and Drug Administration, it states that BOTOX may cause serious side effects that can be life threatening. These include difficulty in breathing or swallowing and spread of toxin effects. Moreover, the effect of botulinum toxin may affect areas of the body away from the injection site and cause symptoms of a serious condition called botulism. These evidently include loss of strength and muscle weakness all over the body, double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, hoarseness or loss of voice, loss of bladder control among others. 2. Moreover, according to the New York Post in December 16th 2013, Gwyneth Paltrow was quoted in an interview that, â€Å" I won’t do BOTOX again, because I looked crazy. I looked like Joan Rivers!† Also in another confession, the queen of BOTOX, Nicole Kidman admitted that, â€Å"I did try BOTOX, unfortunately, but I got out of it and now I can finally move my face again.† Such shocking confessions and lamentation just further

Parenting Skills Essay Example for Free

Parenting Skills Essay 1. What role do you think discipline plays in developing a child’s self-esteem? What forms of discipline best serve the self-esteem of the child or adolescent? 2. List and discuss how activities, clubs, or sports, impact the self-esteem of children and parents. Provide at least two activities, clubs, or sports in your answer. Discussion Answers 1. I think that discipline done correctly could help in a child’s self-esteem. When you discipline a child make sure that they understand WHY and it makes them feel trustworthy, and included. If you treat discipline like a dictatorship the child feels like you’re abusive and they are stupid and untrustworthy. people with low self-esteem generally Fail to achieve their goals, Are not able to pursue accomplishments in a responsible and disciplined manner, Have poor communication skills, Have a pessimistic view on life, Are prone to anxiety, depression, hostility, loneliness, shame, and guilt, Form unhealthy, destructive relationships with others, and Make decisions in life more to please others than to adhere to their own interests and value systems. I think that discipline done correctly could help in a child’s self-esteem. When you discipline a child make sure that they need to understand what is happening and they need to feel included. If you treat discipline like a dictatorship the child feels like you’re abusive. people with low self-esteem generally fail to achieve their goals, have poor communication skills, have a negative view on life and are prone to anxiety, depression, loneliness, and guilt. Also, form unhealthy, destructive relationships with others, and make decisions in life more to please others. 2. Parents should encourage children to participate in sports and clubs that are productive and give a feeling of accomplishment. However, it is not always advantageous for a parent to push a child toward a particular sport or activity because sometimes the parents will push their children towards their dream sports or activities they wanted to do as a child. 3. parents should encourage children to participate in sports and clubs that are productive and give their children a feeling of accomplishment. However, it is not always advantageous for a parent to push a child toward a particular sport or activi ty.

A military technology

A military technology CDMA is a military technology first used during World War II by English allies to foil German attempts at jamming transmissions. The allies decided to transmit over several frequencies, instead of one, making it difficult for the Germans to pick up the complete signal. Because Qualcomm created communications chips for CDMA technology, it was privy to the classified information. Once the information became public, Qualcomm claimed patents on the technology and became the first to commercialize it. Code Division Multiple Access technology emerged as an alternative to the GSM cellular architecture and has shared in the past decades explosive growth in the wireless market. CDMA, like GSM, has seen incremental improvements in capacity throughout this period. Now both types of networks are making a transition to third-generation (3G) systems around the globe, offering yet more capacity and data services. INTRODUCTION With the advent of wireless communication there was the advent of the two technologies for the cellular communication. They were the CDMA and the GSM technology. Both the technologies have their own mechanisms of working and their own pros and cons for which they have their own different utilizations and implications.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The technology on which our group has proposed to research is the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology. Though the total users of the CDMA technology around the globe are approximately 14% yet it has many advantages over the GSM technology which has enormous number of users. Actually the GSM technology is easy to manage and to handle rather than CDMA but that doesnt mean that it has got no future. Truly speaking the CDMA technology is the technology of the future. Gradually its gaining popularity in the European market. What is CDMA? CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) refers to any of several protocols used in so-called second-generation (2G) and third-generation (3G) wireless communications. As the term implies, CDMA is a form of multiplexing, which allows numerous signals to occupy a single transmission channel, optimizing the use of available bandwidth. The technology is used in ultra-high-frequency (UHF) cellular telephone systems in the 800-MHz and 1.9-GHz bands. CDMA employs analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) in combination with spread spectrum technology. Audio input is first digitized into binary elements. The frequency of the transmitted signal is then made to vary according to a defined pattern (code), so it can be intercepted only by a receiver whose frequency response is programmed with the same code, so it follows exactly along with the transmitter frequency. There are trillions of possible frequency-sequencing codes, which enhance privacy and makes cloning difficult. The CDMA channel is nominally 1.23 MHz wide. CDMA networks use a scheme called soft handoff, which minimizes signal breakup as a handset passes from one cell to another. The combination of digital and spread-spectrum modes supports several times as many signals per unit bandwidth as analog modes. CDMA is compatible with other cellular technologies; this allows for nationwide roaming. The original CDMA standard, also known as CDMA One and still common in cellular telephones in the U.S., offers a transmission speed of only up to 14.4 Kbps in its single channel form and up to 115 Kbps in an eight-channel form. CDMA2000 and wideband CDMA deliver data many times faster. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a digital air interface standard, claiming eight to fifteen times the capacity of traditional analog cellular systems. It employs a commercial adaptation of a military spread-spectrum technology. Based on spread spectrum theory, it gives essentially the same services and qualities as wireline service. The primary difference is that access to the local exchange carrier (LEC) is provided via a wireless phone. Though CDMAs application in cellular telephony is relatively new, it is not a new technology. CDMA has been used in many military applications, such as: Anti-jamming (because of the spread signal, it is difficult to jam or interfere with a CDMA signal). Ranging (measuring the distance of the transmission to know when it will be received). Secure communications (the spread spectrum signal is very hard to detect). CDMA is a spread spectrum technology, which means that it spreads the information contained in a particular signal of interest over a much greater bandwidth than the original signal. With CDMA, unique digital codes, rather than separate RF frequencies or channels, are used to differentiate subscribers. The codes are shared by both the mobile station (cellular phone) and the base station, and are called pseudo-random code sequences. Since each user is separated by a unique code, all users can share the same frequency band (range of radio spectrum). This gives many unique advantages to the CDMA technique over other RF techniques in cellular communication. CDMA is a digital multiple access technique and this cellular aspect of the protocol is specified by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) as IS-95. In CDMA, the BSSAP is divided into the DTAP and BSMAP (which corresponds to BSSMAP in GSM). Generating a CDMA signal There are five steps in generating a CDMA signal. analog to digital conversion vocoding encoding and interleaving channelizing the signals conversion of the digital signal to a Radio Frequency (RF) signal The use of codes is a key part of this process. How CDMA is altering the face of cellular and PCS communication? CDMA is altering the face of cellular and PCS communication by: Dramatically improving the telephone traffic capacity Dramatically improving the voice quality and eliminating the audible effects of multipath fading Reducing the incidence of dropped calls due to handoff failures Providing reliable transport mechanism for data communications, such as facsimile and internet traffic Reducing the number of sites needed to support any given amount of traffic Simplifying site selection Reducing deployment and operating costs because fewer cell sites are needed Reducing average transmitted power Reducing interference to other electronic devices Reducing potential health risks Commercially introduced in 1995, CDMA quickly became one of the worlds fastest-growing wireless technologies. In 1999, the International Telecommunications Union selected CDMA as the industry standard for new third-generation (3G) wireless systems. Many leading wireless carriers are now building or upgrading to 3G CDMA networks in order to provide more capacity for voice traffic, along with high-speed data capabilities. CDMA is a form of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum communications. In general, Spread Spectrum communications is distinguished by three key elements: The signal occupies a bandwidth much greater than that which is necessary to send the information. This results in many benefits, such as immunity to interference and jamming and multi-user access, which well discuss later on. The bandwidth is spread by means of a code which is independent of the data. The independence of the code distinguishes this from standard modulation schemes in which the data modulation will always spread the spectrum somewhat. The receiver synchronizes to the code to recover the data. The use of an independent code and synchronous reception allows multiple users to access the same frequency band at the same time. In order to protect the signal, the code used is pseudo-random. It appears random, but is actually deterministic, so that the receiver can reconstruct the code for synchronous detection. This pseudo-random code is also called pseudo-noise (PN). There are three ways to spread the bandwidth of the signal: Frequency hopping. The signal is rapidly switched between different frequencies within the hopping bandwidth pseudo-randomly, and the receiver knows before hand where to find the signal at any given time. Time hopping. The signal is transmitted in short bursts pseudo-randomly, and the receiver knows beforehand when to expect the burst. Direct sequence. The digital data is directly coded at a much higher frequency. The code is generated pseudo-randomly, the receiver knows how to generate the same code, and correlates the received signal with that code to extract the data. HOW SPREAD SPECTRUM WORKS? Spread Spectrum uses wide band, noise-like signals. Because Spread Spectrum signals are noise-like, they are hard to detect. Spread Spectrum signals are also hard to Intercept or demodulate. Further, Spread Spectrum signals are harder to jam (interfere with) than narrowband signals. These Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) and anti-jam (AJ) features are why the military has used Spread Spectrum for so many years. Spread signals are intentionally made to be much wider band than the information they are carrying to make them more noise-like. Spread Spectrum signals use fast codes that run many times the information bandwidth or data rate. These special Spreading codes are called Pseudo Random or Pseudo Noise codes. They are called Pseudo because they are not real Gaussian noise. Spread Spectrum transmitters uses similar transmit power levels to narrow band transmitters. Because Spread Spectrum signals are so wide, they transmit at a much lower spectral power density, measured in Watts per Hertz, than narrowband transmitters. This lower transmitted power density characteristic gives spread signals a big plus. Spread and narrow band signals can occupy the same band, with little or no interference. This capability is the main reason for all the interest in Spread Spectrum today. IMPLEMENTATION OF CDMA TECHNOLOGY Now a day, in large organization the communication process has to be fast and efficient. There are the major points that have to be taken care in the modern corporate culture. Over time, more and more demands have been made on the capabilities of corporate networks. Workers want more mobility; secure, high-speed access; and an extension of applications across the enterprise, all of which can strain current IT capabilities. The first and foremost of all is protecting corporate network assets is an ongoing task for IT professionals. Increased worker mobility and mobile workers needs for immediate, secure access to critical business information add challenges to maintaining network security Some of todays top security issues and concerns are: Unauthorized systems and network access Auditability and compliance Customer data breaches Internal and external sabotage Theft of intellectual property and confidential business information Cost of mobile device administration The following diagram illustrates many elements critical to mobile data security. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GSM AND CDMA TECHNOLOGY In cellular service there are two main competing network technologies: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Cellular carriers including Sprint PCS, Cingular Wireless, Verizon and T-Mobile use one or the other. Understanding the difference between GSM and CDMA will allow you to choose a carrier that uses the preferable network technology for your needs. The GSM Association is an international organization founded in 1987, dedicated to providing, developing, and overseeing the worldwide wireless standard of GSM. CDMA, a proprietary standard designed by Qualcomm in the United States, has been the dominant network standard for North America and parts of Asia. However, GSM networks continue to make inroads in the United States, as CDMA networks make progress in other parts of the world. There are camps on both sides that firmly believe either GSM or CDMA architecture is superior to the other. That said, to the non-invested consumer who simply wants bottom line information to make a choice, the following considerations may be helpful. Coverage The most important factor is getting service in the areas you will be using your phone. Upon viewing competitors coverage maps you may discover that only GSM or CDMA carriers offer cellular service in your area. If so, there is no decision to be made, but most people will find that they do have a choice. Data Transfer Speed With the advent of cellular phones doing double and triple duty as streaming video devices, podcast receivers and email devices, speed is important to those who use the phone for more than making calls. CDMA has been traditionally faster than GSM, though both technologies continue to rapidly leapfrog along this path. Both boast 3G standards, or 3rd generation technologies. EVDO, also known as CDMA2000, is CDMAs answer to the need for speed with a downstream rate of about 2 megabits per second, though some reports suggest real world speeds are closer to 300-700 kilobits per second (kbps). This is comparable to basic DSL. As of fall 2005, EVDO is in the process of being deployed. It is not available everywhere and requires a phone that is CDMA2000 ready. GSMs answer is EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), which boasts data rates of up to 384 kbps with real world speeds reported closer to 70-140 kbps. With added technologies still in the works that include UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Standard) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), speeds reportedly increase to about 275à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬380 kbps. This technology is also known as W-CDMA, but is incompatible with CDMA networks. An EDGE-ready phone is required. In the case of EVDO, theoretical high traffic can degrade speed and performance, while the EDGE network is more susceptible to interference. Both require being within close range of a cell to get the best speeds, while performance decreases with distance. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards In the United States only GSM phones use SIM cards. The removable SIM card allows phones to be instantly activated, interchanged, swapped out and upgraded, all without carrier intervention. The SIM itself is tied to the network, rather than the actual phone. Phones that are card-enabled can be used with any GSM carrier. The CDMA equivalent, a R-UIM card, is only available in parts of Asia but remains on the horizon for the U.S. market. CDMA carriers in the U.S. require proprietary handsets that are linked to one carrier only and are not card-enabled. To upgrade a CDMA phone, the carrier must deactivate the old phone then activate the new one. The old phone becomes useless. Roaming For the most part, both networks have fairly concentrated coverage in major cities and along major highways. GSM carriers, however, have roaming contracts with other GSM carriers, allowing wider coverage of more rural areas, generally speaking, often without roaming charges to the customer. CDMA networks may not cover rural areas as well as GSM carriers, and though they may contract with GSM cells for roaming in more rural areas, the charge to the customer will generally be significantly higher. International Roaming If you need to make calls to other countries, a GSM carrier can offer international roaming, as GSM networks dominate the world market. If you travel to other countries you can even use your GSM cell phone abroad, providing it is a quad-band phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz). By purchasing a SIM card with minutes and a local number in the country you are visiting, you can make calls against the card to save yourself international roaming charges from your carrier back home. CDMA phones that are not card-enabled do not have this capability, however there are several countries that use CDMA networks. Check with your CDMA provider for your specific requirements. According CDG.org, CDMA networks support over 270 million subscribers worldwide, while GSM.org tallies up their score at over 1 billion. As CDMA phones become R-UIM enabled and roaming contracts between networks improve, integration of the standards might eventually make differences all but transparent to the consumer. The chief GSM carriers in the United States are Cingular Wireless, recently merged with ATT Wireless, and T-Mobile USA. Major CDMA carriers are Sprint PCS, Verizon and Virgin Mobile. There are also several smaller cellular companies on both networks.

Evaluation of Blood Brothers, by Willy Russell Essay -- Blood Brothers

Evaluation of Blood Brothers On 3rd March I went to the Phoenix Theatre in West End to watch a production of one of Willy Russell's greatest plays, Blood Brothers. â€Å"Blood Brothers† is set in Liverpool in the early eighties. The play follows the life of two main characters: Eddie Lyons and Mickey Johnstone, who are twins split at birth. In Blood Brothers the characters fall into two stereotypical groups: the working class and the upper-middle class. The reason the play focuses on the difference in class is that the play was written in the reign of Margaret Thatcher who told the people of Great Britain to look after themselves, and that there is no such thing as a society. Willy Russell was against this way of thinking and wrote plays opposing it. Mrs. Johnstone is a typical working class woman who lives on her own and spends more money than she earns. Mrs. Lyons is a typical upper-middle class woman, married and doesn't want her possessions being contaminated by the filth of the world, the working class. Mickey, the twin that was kept by Mrs. Johnstone, is an archetypical lower class boy, dirty ripped clothes and a mouth like a sewer. Edward however is a stereotypical upper-middle class boy, smart, clean uniform that uses correct English grammar. These are the four main characters, although there is one more character that plays a significant role in the musical, the narrator. The job of the narrator in this play is to set the scene and bring aspects of superstition into the play. He does this through his songs and his dialogue. It seems slightly ironic that although the Johnstone family is very poor they start off cheerfully, compared to the Lyons who are rich and never seem happy. This mak... ...projection of the tree on the floor. At the tensest moments the lights dimmed and a spotlight was put on the narrator to add dramatic tension. The actors worked very well, the fact that adult actors played children characters was barely noticeable. This is probably due to the costumes that the actors wore. The actors that played the two boys I feel were especially good because not only did they have to look different ages throughout the play but they acted the ages as well. I feel this musical as a whole was excellent, there was very good uses of the dramatic techniques and staging techniques used by the Phoenix theatre. Overall I enjoyed the play and would recommend it to people that enjoy plays where they don’t have to follow on every detail in order to understand it. The way the narrator ties everything together makes the story line make sense.

Analysis of Out, Out by Robert Frost :: Out, Out Robert Frost Poems Poetry Essays

Analysis of Out, Out by Robert Frost "Out, Out--" by Robert Frost is a poem about a young boy who dies as a result of cutting his hand using a saw. In order to give the reader a clear picture of this bizarre scenario, Frost utilizes imagery, personification, blank verse, and variation in sentence length to display various feelings and perceptions throughout the poem. Frost also makes a reference to Macbeth's speech in the play by Shakespear called Macbeth which is somewhat parallel to the occurrences in "Out, Out-." Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a "buzz-saw." The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls he and the other workers to come for "Supper." As the boy hears its dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last sentence of the poem, "since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves. Frost uses different stylistic devices throughout this poem. He is very descriptive using things such as imagery and personification to express his intentions in the poem. Frost uses imagery when he describes the setting of the place. He tells his readers the boy is standing outside by describing the visible mountain ranges and sets the time of day by saying that the sun is setting. Frost gives his readers an image of the boy feeling pain by using contradicting words such as "rueful" and "laugh" and by using powerful words such as "outcry". He also describes the blood coming from the boy's hand as life that is spilling. To show how the boy is dying, Frost gives his readers an image of the boy breathing shallowly by saying that he is puffing his lips out with his breath. When talking about the saw, Frost uses personification and repetition. Personification is seen when he says that at times it can run light and at others it has to "bear a load", talking as if the saw was a person which had to carry something.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Analysis Essay

In the book, Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, the main character is the author as a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. She starts off as an incredibly positive child with enormous faith in herself and her relationship with G-d. Through her experiences, especially when she was in her crucial, early teenage years, she completely loses her faith in G-d and also rebels against her environment. The author wants to show the Western world that there are many people in Iran, like Marjane, that are no different than Westerners. She does this by describing her childhood teenage conflicts with her parents, with oppression and with her faith in G-d, all of which most Western teenagers could easily relate to. Marjane’s conflicts prove that she is not just a spoiled teenager, rebelling for no other reason than just being a teenager, but that the environment she was in would make most teenagers rebel. Two of Marjane’s conflicts with her parents come from her strong desire to participate in the public protests against the Shah. Marjane has a close relationship with her parents, whose activism against oppression influences her greatly. She sees her parents go to protests against the Shah and she desperately wants to join in and be a part of it. On panels 16.9-17.6, Marjane is begging her parents to allow her to join them in the next day’s protests. She says to them, â€Å"For a revolution to succeed, the entire population must support it.† They tell her she can’t go yet because it is too dangerous. She is very upset with them for not letting her go. Later, on panels 38.1-39.5, Marjane defies her parents’ authority by attending a demonstration with her maid, Mehri. The author narrates, â€Å"When I finally understood the reasons for the Revolution I made my decision.† Marjane is referring to her decision to go to a protest against the Shah. This is after her maid’s heart is broken because the boy she is in love with dumps her when he finds out she is below his social class. Marjane believes that the Revolution will abolish the social class system. These two examples of conflict with her parents show that Marjane is not just acting out against her parents, but cares deeply for the future of her country and those closest to her, like her maid. The Islamic Fundamentalists’ new rules and laws also create conflicts for Marjane because of the influence from her parents’ secular beliefs and her previous secular schooling. On panels 96.1-98.7, the author describes Marjane’s new school environment after her secular French school is shut down. The students are forced into Islamic schools where the girls and boys are separated. They have new rituals to perform, like hitting themselves to honor the Iran-Iraq war casualties. Almost immediately, the students begin to make fun of the rituals and the new teachers enforcing them. The school is so upset with the students’ behavior that the parents are called in for a lecture as well. At the end of the lecture, Marjane’s father says to the teacher, â€Å"If hair is as stimulating as you say, then you need to shave your mustache!† This shows Marjane’s parents’ rebellion against the Fundamentalism, which heavily influences Marjane. It also shows that Marjane, and her fellow students in this case, are not doing anything wrong in their parents’ eyes, but simply having a tough time adapting to this completely new set of beliefs, rules and laws. A similar conflict for Marjane revolves around the new, strict rules on what women can wear in public. On panels 130.1-134.4, Marjane’s parents return from a trip to Turkey with gifts of Western clothing for her. She immediately puts them on, gets a compliment from her mother, and goes out to buy some black market rock and roll tapes. She is confronted by the Guardians of the Revolution for wearing the Western clothing and almost gets arrested. Like any teenager who receives cool, new clothes from their parents, she wants to immediately enjoy wearing them. Also, she has only known freedom and has been taught by her parents that it is OK to express herself with clothing. Rather than being a spoiled teenager, rebelling against the Fundamentalists, she is simply a teenager expressing herself and trying to enjoy herself in her new clothes. Marjane’s environment also causes her to have a major conflict with her faith in G-d. As a young girl, Marjane truly believes that she will be the Last Prophet. (6.3-9.6) She feels so strongly about this and her relationship with G-d she even endures ridicule from her classmates for saying she will be a Prophet. But, as her environment changes, and the Revolution starts to build, she shows signs of conflict with her faith in G-d. On Panel 10.1 she says, â€Å"My faith was not unshakable.† On 10.2 the author narrates, â€Å"The year of the Revolution I had to take action. So I put my prophetic destiny aside for a while.† The fact that she truly believed she would become a prophet, to the point of enduring ridicule, showed that she was very serious about her faith in G-d. Then her environment changes so much due to the building Revolution and the terrible things happening in Iran under the Shah’s government that she takes her emotional energy away from her f aith in G-d and starts to put it towards the Revolution. Her once strong relationship with G-d ends completely when her uncle Anoosh is falsely accused of being a Russian spy and executed. (70.1) On panel 70.4, Marjane tells G-d, â€Å"Get out of my life! I never want to see you again!† Throughout the rest of Persepolis, Marjane never again mentions G-d. She went from believing she is a prophet, and talking to G-d regularly, to completely rejecting Him. This profound change shows that Marjane’s life was deeply affected by her environment. When the tough environment Marjane grew up in is considered, her conflicts with her parents, with oppression and with her faith in G-d seem understandable. Her conflicts with her parents arose mainly from her desire to protest because that’s what she thought she should be doing. Her conflicts with her oppressive, Islamic Fundamentalist school are understandable because it was all new for her and her classmates. And finally, her conflict with her faith in G-d was due to the overwhelming circumstances of the Revolution and the oppressive, Islamic Fundamentalist regime. Her reactions to her environment seem completely normal and justified. She is not a rebellious child and teenager, but is just very committed to whatever she believes in, and conflict almost always comes with commitment.