Sula by Toni Morrison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sula by Toni Morrison - Essay Example The author concentrates on the certain part of the town which is called 'The Bottom', which mean the bottom of life and society. The main character of the novel, Sula, grew up actually in that place. During her childhood she was surrounded by people, who refused to contain themselves in the social norms. Sula was born in a female-centered domain with Hannah her widowed and sexually free mother, with Eva her grandmother, who had her leg amputated, and with boarders and relatives taken into the house situated at 7 Carpenter's Road up in the Bottom. Reading the novel, one can see enormous influence of family on the personality: "Eva's arrogance and Hannah's self-indulgence merged in her and, with a twist that was all her own imagination, she lived out her days exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody unless their pleasure pleasedher"1. Since her early childhood, Sula Peace seemed to people strange girl because of the rose tattoo near her eye and because of the disorder among her household. Sula lives in a "woolly" house of "throbbing disorder" with few, if any rules. The characters around Sula exist as a point to compare the different ways the community treats those who are different. For example, Shadrack and Hannah are outcast from the community in the bottom as well as Sula; nevertheless they are not regarded with such fear or resentment as the town feels towards Sula. Shadrack returned shell-shocked from the war and then led quite immoral lifestyle frequently drinking and behaving as a bum. He was considered crazy, but wasn't disgraced, as he was a male. However Hannah had frequent affairs with married men after the death of Sula's father, she was known as a kind and generous woman and even respected. Sula, in turn, has never experienced a healthy relationship between a man and a woman. She was taught to view sex as at the source of pleasure. This certainly affected Sula's adult life; she had romances only with other women's husbands. Such behaviour was regarded as a delinquency. Opposite to Hanna Sula was not a submissive participant in her relations with men, but felt as an equal. She used her lovers only for pleasure, taking no consideration as to how the men feel. She always gained limitless control over them - actually this caused hatred, scorn and nasty rumors among the women, who had no real power over their husbands.Sula looked after herself and because she had all her teeth, had had no childhood diseases and looked younger than her age the town acknowledged that she was a real evil. She embodied the things that had never been seen in the community before; the community, in turn, labelled her as wicked as people had fear about unknown. Thus, for the inhabitants of Medallion, Sula was an example of evil. After Sula returns from her ten year long absence from Medallion, she starts even more promiscuous lifestyle. She is considered a "slut" among the community. Nevertheless, after her return, the membersof community start behaving better and more carefully than they had before. Women began to take care of themselves and their children and to cherish their

The impact of tobacco smoking on the academic performance Essay

The impact of tobacco smoking on the academic performance - Essay Example The study’s hypothesis is that use of tobacco leads to poor academic performance. The study involves an extensive review of the literature that is associated with this area, and then a primary data collection through face-to-face interview and filling of questionnaires. A total of 40 males students are randomly selected to participate in the study, which takes place at Queens Mary University. The questionnaire and the interview questions are framed in a manner to provide both qualitative and quantitative approach of data analysis. Regression analysis by the use of SPSS is conducted analyses the quantitative data, while the qualitative data is coded and common themes identified. The findings of the study are that the students who have used tobacco for many years score poor grades in their academic work. Some of the reasons identified as the causes of poor academic performance include lack of completion of assignments, absenteeism, poor memory and lack of ability to read. The st udy recommends further research to identify the causation effect of the variables. Key words: Use of tobacco; Addiction; academic performance; cognitive. INTRODUCTION Smoking of tobacco in institutions of higher learning is a common scenario that has caused a lot of concern because of the side effects that are associative with such substances. The impact of smoking in the brain includes occurrence of numerous physical changes, which can significantly impair the process of learning and concentrations hence lower the level of academic performance by in students in the institutions of higher learning. Study conducted by a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [15] found that smoking of tobacco can have dire consequences on the academic performance of students. Some of the impacts they cited include lower level of concentration and activity, which occurs due to lack of nicotine in the body, for the time that the students stays away from smoking to attend classes; and high rate of absenteeism because the smoker’s immune system is weakened and hence susceptible to myriads of diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, and cold. In view of this, smoking of tobacco is potentially harmful to academic performance. This study will be aimed at identifying the impact of tobacco smoking on the academic performance of the students from Queen Mary University. LITERATURE REVIEW Use of tobacco among university students is a common trend and its impact is potentially hazardous in different ways, including impeding the level of academic performance. Some of the immediate risks include abuse and dependence, as well as numerous others psychological and physical impacts [13]. A study by Jones and Heaven [11] shows that not all smokers experience problems when they engage in smoking, while psychological risk model displays an intricate relationship between personality and individual factors, drug-taking behavior, and family and environmental factors. Lynskey et al. [14] and Ha n, McGue and Iacono [7] demonstrated that social and environmental factors rather than genetic factors influence use of substances. Most of the researchers in this field have cited common risk factors such as delinquent peers, depressive symptomatology, family functioning, child abuse, parenting style and expectancies, substance using, and antisocial behavior [e.g. 9]. It is also believed that use of substances can increase the risk of taking harmful drugs. The theory of gateway explains how the successive use of a particular substance to another is attained, but the issues of causal attribution and the exact sequencing are still not clear and further research is needed to shed more light [12]. Use of substances from very early ages has been associated with poor academic performa