Fair Queen Speech free essay sample

Their frequent Sunday morning arguments about religion are a result of Gabriel’s Saturday night drinking. Maria is a devout Catholic, but Gabriel’s vaquero mindset causes him to distrust priests because to him they stand for order and civilization. Antonio knows that Gabriel’s father once dragged a priest from church and beat him after the priest preached against something that Antonio’s grandfather had done. At last Antonio goes downstairs, and Maria scolds Antonio for not being properly formal when greeting Ultima. Ultima requests that Maria not scold Antonio, as the night was hard on all the men in town. Maria protests that Antonio is still a baby. She says that she thinks it is a sin for boys to become men. Gabriel hotly declares that it is not a sin, only the way of the world, and Maria argues that life corrupts the innocence and purity that God bequeaths to children. We will write a custom essay sample on Fair Queen Speech or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She says bitterly that if Antonio becomes a priest, he will be spard Ultima are the only grown-ups he knows who eat or drink before taking Communion on Sundays. Many women in town are dressed in mourning because they have lost sons and husbands in the war. Antonio notes that the war has indirectly claimed two more victims: Chavez’s brother and Lupito. Antonio lingers near his mother, who smoothes his hair, and he feels soothed by her presence. He feels another jolt of anxiety when he realizes again that when he starts school soon, he will have to leave her. Antonio and Ultima discuss the events of the previous night. Antonio asks Ultima how his father can take Communion if he committed the sin of firing at Lupito. Ultima replies that she doesn’t think Gabriel fired at Lupito, but she warns that no one should presume to decide whom God does and does not forgive. On the way to the church, the family passes a brothel situated in a ramshackle mansion that belongs to a woman named Rosie. Maria makes her children bow their heads as they pass, and Antonio realizes that Rosie is evil, but evil in a different way from a witch. Before mass, Antonio mingles with the other boys. As they play, they discuss the night’s events. One of the boys brags that his father saw Lupito kill the sheriff. Antonio says nothing about Lupito’s death. Analysis Antonio’s thoughts and actions in this chapter indicate a new obsession with in and punishment. Ultima acts as a mentor to Antonio, guiding his inexperienced mind through new adult terrain. For example, her explanation that the men of the llano will not kill without reason is an attempt to address Antonio’s curiosity regarding the morality of murder. Ultima also tries to teach Antonio a larger moral lesson regarding salvation and damnation. Her suggestion that people must make independen t moral decisions but should not make decisions regarding salvation and damnation introduces into the novel the idea that morality is not absolute. Ultima uses Catholic terms in her explanations to Antonio because Antonio is trying to make sense of Lupito’s death within a Catholic framework. One sign that Antonio is leaving his childhood behind is his realization that the grown-ups he loves and trusts can make mistakes. Narciso and Gabriel’s failed attempt to save Lupito, as well as the triumph of Chavez’s and the others’ blind anger and fear, forces Antonio to confront the fact that good intentions and good actions do not always achieve their desired results. As Antonio’s mentor, Ultima does not tell him what to think; rather, she tells him how people like his father and Narciso make moral decisions. Her approach gives Antonio the freedom to apply his understanding to his own decisions. Ultima’s style of teaching implies that she is more interested in helping Antonio develop into an independent person than in teaching him any particular moral outlook on life. Maria’s and Gabriel’s opinions regarding the transition between childhood and adolescence are based on the issues of sin and punishment that preoccupy Antonio. His mother associates growing up with learning how to sin, while Gabriel and Ultima view growing up as an inevitable process that is not good or bad in itself. Maria’s worldview results from a primarily religious outlook on life, but Gabriel and Ultima’s embodies a natural outlook. As a boy becomes a man, he uses his experiences and his knowledge to make decisions. The pressures that accompany each of these outlooks flare up when the subject of Antonio’s future comes up yet again. Maria’s religiosity leads her to the conclusion

The Control on Nature Essays

The Control on Nature Essays The Control on Nature Essay The Control on Nature Essay Victoria Perez The Control of Nature Response Paper It is an extremely difficult task for engineers to design a â€Å"dam† like the Old River Control Structure in southern Louisiana so that they can be sure that it will prevent avulsion of the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya. The flood of 1973 that caused so much damage to the Old River Control Structure was the affect of many things. There were unusually heavy snows in the upper valley. The South of the state received an exceptional amount of rainfall. Eventually, the runoffs came down to the tributaries, built-up, and ultimately signaled computers a warning that the mainline levees were not adequate to contain the amount of water collected. In a state of panic there were sandbags, potato ridges and barriers of uncompacted dirt added to the levees to try to prevent a flood. During the continued spring high water the collected drainage all came together at Old River in units exceeding two million cubic feet per second. Twenty-five per cent of that left the Mississippi channel and went to the Atchafalaya. Professor Racphael G. Kazmann remembers his experience walking over the structure prior to the flood of 1973. Kazmann recalls, â€Å"That whole miserable structure was vibrating This thing weighs two hundred thousand tons. When two hundred thousand tons vibrates like this, this is no place for R. G. Kazmann. I got in my care, turned around, and hot the hell out of there. † The structure and its stilling basin had been built to disperse energy- but not quite that much energy. The Mississippi delta is subsiding and eroding Deltas are normally slowly increasing in size due to sediment deposited by the river. The slow increase is due to a slight imbalance between sedimentation by the river, and sinking of the delta due to consolidation of deeper sediments. The balance has been upset by the construction of levees and dams along the Mississippi River leading to rapid erosion of the Mississippi River delta in Louisiana. The construction of levees along the lower river that channel water and sediments past New Orleans and out into the Gulf. This has stopped sedimentation throughout the delta, and the delta is now rapidly sinking below sea level. If the levees did not exist the river channel carrying most of the river water would change position, and deposit sediments throughout the delta. The dredging of many canals to provide access to oil and gas wells. The canals help salt water reach further inland, resulting in death of trees and vegetation that stabilizes wetlands. Wind blowing along the canals produces waves that erode the banks. And, storm surges produced by storms travel along canals causing erosion further inland. All areas are not eroded at the same rate during a storm. Some areas have severe erosion during an event. Other areas have much less erosion.