One cold and bleak December day, I set off into the woods with the sole intention of shooting a grouse for dinner. There would be no sport today; no explosive flushes, no finely crafted double barreled shotguns, no spectacular wing shots. They have their place but not today. A semester at college had made me hungry for fresh, clean, unprocessed meat. I would shoot the bird in the head, on the ground, with a .22 rifle. I was unashamedly out to kill.
It was getting dark when I glanced up into the dark boughs of the spruce. I had searched every alder thicket, brush pile, and apple tree that I knew of and here, not one hundred yards from my back door, was the dark, unmistakable, silhouette of a grouse. I slowly raised my rifle, took careful aim, and slowly pulled the trigger. With the snap of the shot, it somersaulted to the ground. My heartbeat quickened as I rushed over to where the bird had fallen . . .
Man is a predator and therefore by nature, a hunter. Do not doubt this. While we do not possess the speed of the cheetah, the rapier-like talons of the falcon, nor the strength of the bear, we do have the greatest weapon of all- our superior ability to think. It was the great equalizer that brought us the club, the spear, and the 30.06. For over ninety-nine percent of our history we have utilized weapons as hunter-gather societies (Caras 7), with males traditionally doing the bulk of the hunting. Certainly the remaining one percent is too short a time in our evolutionary history to lose complete touch with our instincts. True, today's "civilized," sedentary world has rid us of our original need to hunt but it has not completely rid us of the urge to hunt in all of us. There are still those of us, for what ever reason, maybe ...
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...id. Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. Macmillan Publishing Co. New York. 1962.
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. 1985 National Survey of Hunting, Fishing, and Wildlife Associated Recreation. Washington, D.C. 1988.
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Where does the line of sport and murder intersect in hunting? Is it when the species being hunted is able to reason? Or is it when the species being hunted looks just like the hunter? In both movie and film, we see a man fight for his life and another going against all codes of ethics. While Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s film adaptation both have several similarities, the difference are also apparent in each respective media.
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Both in and out of philosophical circle, animals have traditionally been seen as significantly different from, and inferior to, humans because they lacked a certain intangible quality – reason, moral agency, or consciousness – that made them moral agents. Recently however, society has patently begun to move beyond this strong anthropocentric notion and has begun to reach for a more adequate set of moral categories for guiding, assessing and constraining our treatment of other animals. As a growing proportion of the populations in western countries adopts the general position of animal liberation, more and more philosophers are beginning to agree that sentient creatures are of a direct moral concern to humans, though the degree of this concern is still subject to much disagreement. The political, cultural and philosophical animal liberation movement demands for a fundamental transformation of humans’ present relations to all sentient animals. They reject the idea that animals are merely human resources, and instead claim that they have value and worth in themselves. Animals are used, among other things, in basic biomedical research whose purpose is to increase knowledge about the basic processes of human anatomy. The fundamental wrong with this type of research is that it allows humans to see animals as here for them, to be surgically manipulated and exploited for money. The use of animals as subjects in biomedical research brings forth two main underlying ethical issues: firstly, the imposition of avoidable suffering on creatures capable of both sensation and consciousness, and secondly the uncertainty pertaining to the notion of animal rights.
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
Fertel, R.J. "Free And Easy"? Spontaneity And The Quest For Maturity In The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn." Modern Language Quarterly 44.2 (1983): 157. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
existence of a single god. (“Monotheism”) “For the Pharisees, God is primarily one who makes demands. For them, the Scriptures of the Old Testament were a set of rules that must be kept at all cost.” (“Jesus Challenges the Pharisees”)
Mark Twain had a prolific and illustrious career as one of the great American novelists. What is most exciting about his work is how he uses satire to confront and address the prevalent issues in society. At the age of fifty, Mark Twain published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a satire which was later known as the “Great American Novel.” In a satire, the protagonist and his or her counterparts portray a serious situation, often a real world issue, in a comical light. In this case, the novel explores the life and the journeys of a young teenager, Huckleberry Finn, and a slave, Jim. Throughout the course of the novel, Jim’s role becomes prominent as a father figure to Huck. Jim is
After leaving Geneva to pursue his own ambitions in creating “a new species [that] would bless me [Victor] as its creator,” Victor Frankenstein returns after successfully creating a bringing his creation alive (Shelly 46). Written during a retreat in Switzerland by Mary Shelley, the daughter of radicals Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, Frankenstein explores numerous observations about life and human nature. Observing that people are not inherently selfish and cruel but rather that these traits are products of circumstances, Shelly explores the how personal ambitions can disable strong morals and values of characters. Throughout Frankenstein, the consequences, often negative, of ambitions are explored thus making this 1818 novel a cautionary
Mark Twain’s The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is one of the most classic American Literature Book. It consists of historical backgrounds, universality, and timelessness. But one of the most outstanding chapters of the book is chapter 27 and 28.In the two chapters, Twain’s use of the literary device – Characterization builds the character of Huckleberry Finn and show the different aspects of his character.
It was a beautiful October afternoon as I climbed to the top of my tree stand. The sun was shining, and a slight breeze was blowing from the northwest. I knew that the deer frequented the area around my stand since my step-dad had shot a nice doe two days earlier from the same stand, and signs of deer were everywhere in the area. I had been sitting for close to two hours when I decided to stand up and stretch my legs as well as smoke a cigarette.
----- "Civil Disobedience" from A World of Ideas - Essential Readings for College Readers, Lee A. Jacobus, Bedford Books, 1998, 1849(123 -146)
The study area consisted of Latah and Benewoh in Idaho, USA. The research used a total of 105 sites to collect data; ranking the areas from lowest to highest elevation. The methods implemented in this research consisted of wetland sampling, mail survey and habitat modelling. The combined results allowed for better insight for the conservation of these species. The first section of the experiment consist...