Research Proposal

For my research paper I am thinking about looking into the costs, methods, expectations and new policies concerning becoming a doctor. This topic interests me because this is the career I have chosen to pursue, and this will help me understand the processes of medical school. Right now its hard to know what to look into as far as research, but I was thinking of interviewing my oncologist, I think she would be a great source, because she works for children's hospital in Minneapolis, and they partner with the University of Minnesota Medical school where I received treatment.
     Another way I might like to take this essay is to show my experience with treatments and cancer, and how that has lead to my interest in Medicine. Someday I hope to be researching treatments for cancers. In my case I was diagnosed with a Wilm's Tumor at the age of ten, this was very rare since the tumors are usually found at the ages three to four.  Because of this my parents were asked if the hospital would let me be in a research study, which I just recently thought about now, (clearly I had other things to worry about at that time) now that I think about it I'd really like to know what they found.   One of the other reasons I like the idea of researching Wilm's Tumor/Cancer, is that there has been more research on the subject, for example there are studies for the long term effects of cancer treatment; radiation and chemo. These treatments might be putting you at risk for other cancers as you age or other health issues. So I'd like to explore this research and see if there are any new ideas or proposed solutions.

Heart of Darkness: Imperialism

     In "Heart of Darkness" Conrad leaves to ambiguity what the "Heart of Darkness" really is. Some argue it's Africa and that the place is what corrupts. Others say its Imperialism that is the darkness, Imperialism, is apparent form the beginning and can be seen in an early quote "nothing to boast of when you have it, since your strength is just another accident arising from the weakness of others" (pg. 69-70) This demonstrates that power is essentially corrupt, because to be in power you must have taken it from someone else, because you decided they were weaker.

Another quote I found that I thought tied in nice is on page 70. "A conquest of the earth which mostly means taking away from those who have a different complexion" This quote I think has the connotation of slavery and imperialism behind it. "...a different complexion" implies black, the Africans in this case, and the imperialism comes in with the connotation behind the word choice "Conquest". Its meaning implies taking over something, in this case a whole civilization, only because they appear different and the Europeans think themselves as more civilized and superior.

Earlier on in the story Marlow talks a little bit about his childhood, and even from an early age we can see the European Imperialism. "...a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously of. It had become a place of darkness." (pg.71) this quote is two-fold, first we can see that the map is at first blank white space, it is the unknown, uncivilized and unconquered in the European's eyes, and this is what attracts them, something new to conquer. Even as a child Marlow dreams of seeing and exploring the white space, but he like the other European didn't take into account that the place was already inhabited. Second the quote is foreshadowing the rest of the story, the Imperialistic dreams will turn to nightmares, and the darkness I believe is what the people bring to Africa.

In one final quote "...Specimen was impressively bald, behold it was like a ball, and Ivory ball" (Pg. 125) The Specimen is Kurtz, the man is charge of the Ivory and conquest. He is now seen as corrupt and looks like the very symbol of imperialism, the Ivory. Ivory is what has made the conquest of Africa possible; the Europeans set out to conquer and take from Africa what they could. But along the way of this dream darkness came, and Kurtz become corrupt keeping the Ivory for himself and went crazy killing men, and putting their heads on stakes.  This man that everyone believed was so great and noble was really corrupt and this was due to Imperialism, and the need for power over others.

Heart of Darkness

"Heart of Darkness'' seen through the post-colonial lens examines the idea of imperialism and exploration.  Marlow as a child recalls looking at the map of the world and seeing all the white space, the unexplored and unknown. With his imperialistic spirit he promises to conquer it and sets his sights on Africa, with the feeling of adventure, not satisfied with not knowing, not conquering. "...a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously of. It had become a place of darkness." This quote is foreshadowing the results of the imperialism and power struggle between the cultures of Europe and Africa. The land was once the great unknown, hidden from the rest of the world, but now that it has been discovered and charted it was the great conquest, the greatest adventure. But it became something much more dark, the men brought with them imperialistic ideas and set out to take from the land what they could, bringing their hearts of darkness with them. The "glorious" dream had now turned into reality, with this dream came darkness, the quote above alludes to the nightmare the conquest turned out to be, the coveted Africa was no longer white space for a dream, but colored blocks of conquered territory that show the dominance of the European culture and the enslaved Africans. This is the darkness, the imperialistic mindset that one culture had, that they used to make profit and adventure of, that would later show their hearts of darkness.

Jon Hassler Short Stories

In each of Jon Hassler's short stories the role of power changes through out each story, and in some cases is never regained.
      Agatha McGee was not in power but throughout the story she gains it through subtle and not so subtle manipulation of the all male public school board. She is able to establish right and wrong and used her version of right and her own standing in the town to get what she thought was right.
     In the short story Anniversary the power struggle involves a man and time, (character v. nature) he cant seem to understand that life is passing him by, and continues to live as though he has time, and in the end the reader is left to make up their own conclusion as to whether he will correct his ways, if he does not then nature has the power and he will continue on the same path, but if he decides to finally come out of his little room and start living, he will have power.
      Winning Sarah Spooner shows how Emmet and Sarah both have power, this is accomplished through Characterization, we are able to pick out each of their traits, and see how their mind works. Sarah is lonely and wants companionship and to keep busy, she uses this and her nurturing nature to get what she wants. Emmet is masculine and somewhat aloof, giving him some control, he isn't totally manipulated by Sarah, but he also lacks companionship and becomes close to Sarah to regain it.

     In the short story “The Life and Death of Delano Klein” the author seems to just be telling a story and there is no overall purpose to life, except to simply live it, the tone is very serious and even with several humorous stories in the beginning the tone is not the least bit humorous.  The story is awfully dull and is just what it says it is the life and death of Delano. But the author goes about it in a roundabout way, he just shares little pieces of his life, he offers no comments or analysis, just little snippets.  The repetition of Delano’s boredom offers some evidence of why Delano is the way he is, because he is bored and that is his only motivation to do anything.  He used to read, then became interested in Refrigeration, later he married and had children; he was still bored, and filled his time with building a house.  Soon he grew bored again and decided to go to college, then he drove off a cliff and died, this happened out of nowhere, it just happened. It happened so abruptly that the reader had no time to adjust and there was no way to really for see it which was confusing because we expect there to be resolution or an epiphany but there is none. At the funeral no one knew what to say, they didn’t really know him, he so quickly changed and molded his interests and was often bored.  It appears in this story that life is just about going through the motions, there is no real meaning, everything happens in sequence as life should but the main character is not dynamic in a real sense, he is always bored, that never changes and then one day he just dies.  Even after he takes a liking to poetry and it seems to have had some profound effect on him, the resolution we were hoping for, we find he just stole his wife’s work, Delano was an odd character and no one really knew him.