I Have a Dream Essay Example for Free

I Have a Dream Essay Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15th 1929. He was a pastor, activist and the prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement and is often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism. He is most famous for his speech called â€Å"I have a dream†. It is about not being segregated or discriminated against and to have equal rights between white and black people. It is now recognized as one of the greatest speeches in history. Martin Luther King used a number of rhetorical devices in his speech. The main rhetorical device used throughout the speech is repetition and parallelism. In each paragraph he repeats different sentences to emphasize what he is saying. He repeats phrases such as ‘one hundred years later’, ‘we can never be satisfied’, ‘I have a dream’ and ‘now is the time’ to make the listener remember the parts he wants to emphasize. It is effective because the people are anticipating it so then they can join in. Also later on in life people will look back at the speeches and remember it for certain phrases because of the repetition. Martin Luther King also uses inclusive pronouns in his speech, for example we, our and addressing the audience as brothers and sisters. ‘The sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.† He makes the audience feel as though it is there duty as well to overcome the discrimination and try and make all the southern states of America united and equal. He also makes the audience feel like it is their dream too and not just his. Martin Luther used different parts of the English language to enhance the meaning of his speech and bring out the details. The different rhetorical devices, allusions to historic documents, and metaphors seemed to have brought about the emotions that King was trying to arouse in his listeners. This helped him influence his listeners towards wanting equality for all and changing what was happening in the present so they didnt repeat things in the past.

Process Management Methods for Construction Performance

Process Management Methods for Construction Performance ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to study how the construction performance can be improved by adopting the process management approaches, in order to provide better client value and more cost-efficient production. The research focused on the manufacturing process , and referring point, and transfer this process thinking into the construction. The methods were tested in pilot tests in which the developed cost and value engineering prototype application was used. This thesis demonstrates an integration of design and production planning based on the product model approach. The final outcome is that the main contractor can utilise information coming from designers as input in its own tendering and cost estimation applications. The key methodology used for describing the information management process throughout the building process life-cycle was IDEF0. The analysis of the current process (as-is), in the form of an IDEF0 model, helped in identifying the main problems of current practice. The target process (to-be) definition was based on product model utilisation and takes into account the possibilities for process reengineering supported by product data technology. One specific requirement was deemed important in view of the anticipated developments in thearea of data exchange; the target system should be structured in such a way that it could easily be adapted to receive data according to the emerging IFC core model schemas. The overall result of the research reported in this thesis is that the product model approach can be used for a substantially reengineered information management process of a main contractor, especially in design and construct type contracts CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION RESEARCH BACKGROUND The construction industry is suffering from its fragmented nature ¼Ã‹â€ European Commission, 1994 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. The lack of co-ordination and communication between parties, the informal and unstructured learning process, adversarial contractual relationships and the lack of customer focus are what inhibit the performance of the industry (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998). Because the construction project is regarded as unpredictable in terms of delivery time, cost, profitability and quality, the industry has not been able to combine high quality with productivity, customer satisfaction and flexibility (Fairclough, 2002). Howell (1999) pointed out that the ‘inefficiency’ of the industry has tended to be the way of life. However, Latham (1994) suggests using the manufacturing as a referencing point and transferring the practices and theories from manufacturing industry. And Howell suggests that the learning from manufacturing could be a two way process: manufacturing could learn from construction in areas such as project-based management; and construction could learn from manufacturing’s developed and developing solutions to improve competitiveness. In manufacturers are accustomed to taking a process view of their operations, and they usually model both discrete product activities and holistic high-level process both internal and external activities. Base upon this, Egan (1998) recommends that process modelling could be used as a method to improve the construction performance. Furthermore, many other models derived from manufacturing and process management theories have been recognized and adopted by construction companies Nevertheless, as Ball (1988) summarised, construction industry has distinctive characteristics differentiating from other sectors as well as manufacturing. Although solutions have been recommended, their implementation in manufacturing is far advanced in comparison to construction industry. Thus to what extent these process management approaches and models can improve the design and construction process will need to be examined. RESEARCH AIM The aim of the research is to understand construction process management and to prove it as an approach that could help to improve the construction performance. In order to achieve the aim, specific objectives were set PROJECT OBJECTIVES The research project objectives are outlined below l To explore the readiness of construction to embrace the process approach to deliver project l to identify the present state of process management in construction l To Study the current trends and developments of construction process management METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH The starting point of this research is exploring the construction process management approach and find out its influence on construction productivity and competitiveness. A cross-section research method is adopted in the collection and analysing of the data and presentation of the findings. To obtain comprehensive understanding of the relationship between manufacturing process and construction process, as well as theories on construction process management, a great quantity of books and documents need to be looked through. Then the implementation of process management in construction is inspected by adoption of the case study qualitative research approach. REPORT STRUCTURE The general instruction and structure of the report will be provided in this section. The report is organized to consist of six main chapters. A brief description of the content of each chapter is outlined below Chapter one In this chapter, the research report is introduced. The research background is addressed. The aim and objectives are also presented. Chapter two Chapter two reviews the existing literature. A wide-ranging literature review was carried out to identify the current knowledge and keep up on any development on the field. The literature review covers the understanding of manufacturing process, construction industry situation and problems within it, process management theory, and the implementation of construction process management approach. Chapter Three In this chapter, an overall outline of various research methods that might applied in this research is presented. The selection and justification of the research methods are described. The chosen methods and research plan are highlighted in this chapter. Chapter Four This chapter examines the collected data and analyzes the data within cases, as well as a detailed cross-case analysis of cases. Chapter Five This chapter is directly linked to the chapter four. An in-depth discussion is held based upon the previous analysis and research. Chapter Six This chapter provides the conclusion of the report as well as the recommendation. The direction of further research is also proposed SUMMARY CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction Over the past few years, researchers and sponsors have increasingly turned their attentions to finding ways managing the construction process. After decades of neglect, construction process is high on the agenda. As the construction product has in most instances been a ‘one-off’, much emphasis has been placed on project management. However actually the industry is focused on design and development of a building product and should look to manufacturing reference on how to manage the design and development process. Examining the manufacturing perspective and understanding how it can be applied to design and construction and considering the use of techniques and technologies available to support the process and the issues relating to the implementation on projects is essential for construction industry . However, whether this process approach is needed in the construction field, and to what extent it contributes to the construction industry, this required to be researched a nd evaluated. Therefore in this project, why there should be process management in construction industry, the state-of-the-art, how it is applied and the future of it will be identified. Being continuously criticized for its less than optimal performance by several government and institutional reports such as Philips(1950) and Latham(1994), The UK construction industry has been under increasing pressure to improve its practices(Howell, 1999). From the analysis of these reports, conclusion coming up that the fragmented nature of the industry, the lack of co-ordination and communication between parties the informal and unstructured learning process, adversarial contractual relationships and the lack of customer focus are widely and typically existing in the construction industry and are supposed to embarrass the industry’s performance. Furthermore, Fairclough(2002) indicates that construction are often seen as unpredictable in terms of delivery time, cost, profitability and quality, and the investment into research and development is usually seen as expensive when compared to other industry. According to Howell, the â€Å"inefficiency† of the industry has tended to be the way of life. This may be due to the fact that none of the reports, apart from Latham (1994) and Egan (1998), has been sufficiently acted upon. So Lutham suggests using manufacturing as a reference point and Egan, in his Rethinking Construction report, recommends process modelling as a method of improvement. There has been a constant subject of discussion on the transfer of the transfer of practices and theories from other sectors as Lutham (1994) suggested in his report. Some construction practitioners are obstinate that their industry is unique and that the transference of principles cannot be adopted wholeheartedly. Due to it, Ball (1998) emphasized some of the arguments most commonly used to differentiate construction from other industries: The one-of-a-kind product. The spatial fixity of buildings. One-site production. The effect of land price on design and construction possibilities. The requirement for long life expectancy. The inexperience of clients The merchant role of company. The overwhelmingly domestic industry. The masculine stereotype of the workforce. The long cycle from design to production. The high cost of the projects. The amplified reaction to economic crisis. The labour intensive production The fragmented nature of the industry. Nevertheless, there are also many practitioners and academics who believe that the construction industry has much to learn from other industries typically manufacturing. Howell (1999) goes so far as to suggest that this learning could be a two way process: manufacturing could learn from construction in area such as project-based management; and construction could learn from manufacturing’s developed and developing solutions, to improve its performance of competitiveness and productivity. As stated by Love ¼Ã¢â‚¬  Gunasekaran (1996) and Korenlius ¼Ã¢â‚¬  Wamelink (1998), manufacturing has been a constant reference point and a source of innovation in construction for many decades. Solutions that have been recommended to help overcome the problems of construction include industrialization, computer-integrated construction, robotics and automated construction. However their implementation in manufacturing is far advanced in comparison to the construction industry. Koskela (1992) believes that the fundamental theories and principles of manufacturing should be harnessed to deliver the full benefits to construction rather than the ‘technological solutions’. In recent years the realization that the construction industry might not be as unique as was traditionally thought has initiated new research, which In particularly, has resulted in a development of the concept that construction is a manufacturing process. Moreover a research fund under the Innovative Manufacturing Initiative (IMI) sector of the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC, 1998) to continue and expound upon current thinking. a new phenomenon currently appears to being steadily exploited within construction companies at the side of the new technologies taken from manufacturing. It is based upon the development and use of fundamental core processes to improve efficiency of the industry, with great emphasis upon the basic theories and principles underlying the design and construction process. Egan(1998) draw attention to this factor by reporting that due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry very little work had gone into process modelling. Manufacturers are in the habit of taking a process view of their operations; they usually model both discrete product activities and holistic high-level for both internal and external activities. In particular, there has be a growing volume of research focusing upon the consolidation of the just-in-time(JIT) and the total quality management(TQM) theories, with an array of other practices such as productive maintenance, visual management and re-engineering . Investigations by construction practitioners and academics alike have now sought to develop the content and manufacturing, agile production and lean production. Current Researches on Construction Industry The Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERT) Report observes that the construction industry is becoming frustrated over the lack of progress in removing or mitigating barriers to improving construction practices and is necessary to support sustainable development goals. the industry has to face Many difficulties as it approach this goal: facilities are designed by using least-cost technologies that ignore opportunities to improve productivity and enhance environmental quality; it seems to be complicated, to achieve agreement on government design and construction policies that advance sustainable development; what’s more, there are the frustration of knowing better technologies are available but not having the capacity o find and retrieve them; and international concentration on construction research and practice is far more inadequate. Also the report identifies specific constraints to innovation that characterize the challenges facing the construction industry which repre sent the areas where work needs to be done. The observers indicate that the design and construction process often discourage the introduction of innovative technologies and systems that have superior characteristics but are not necessarily the least-cost option, which can work to the detriment of owners and the environment; unsuitable building codes and disjointed regulatory systems that does not allow for adopting new and better materials and practices are often be applied when buildings and facilities are designed and constructed. There is a lack of understanding by the public and by industry of practices and opportunities to promote sustainable development; there is lack of timely and accurate information and a knowledge base on proven design and construction solutions and techniques for assuring quality construction, which results in lost opportunities to improve system efficiencies and productivity through adoption of innovative technologies; there are no consistent, accurate, and comprehensive predictive models available for designing for sustainability making the process difficult to validate, monitor, and evaluate. Therefore, the observers suggest, new tools and methods are required for advancing state-of-the-art technologies, including taking advantage of advances in information systems to increase the construction industry’s efficiency and productivity. According to Kraiem Diekman’s (1987) theory delays of project are classified into three groups: compensable, excusable and non-excusable. Generally, a delay is considered compensable to the contractor when its cause is within the control, is the fault of or is caused by the negligence of the owner. Excusable delays occur when the contractor is delayed by occurrences that are not attributable to either the contractor or owner. Non-excusable delays are caused by the contractors own action and/or inaction. These can be caused by the fault of the contractor, or his subcontractors, material, workforce or suppliers. The delay damages from the contractor is regarded could be retrieved by the owner conceivably. Lieshmann (1991) presented the consequences of delays in construction, especially from the legal point of view. Herbsman et al. (1995) catalogued the influence of delays on time, cost and quality. Baldwin Manthei (1971) studied the causes of delay in building projects in the USA. The major causes of delay were the result of weather, labour supply and subcontractors. These authors found that adequate planning at the very early stages of the project is important for minimizing delay and cost overruns in most projects in developing countries. This study dealt with developing countries where workers are relatively skilled. The authors realised that some of these problems relate to the special characteristics of this part of the world, such as productivity, whereas others are inherent in the nature of construction projects, such as planning and control problems. Yates (1993) developed a decision support system for construction delay analysis called the delay analysis system (DAS). The main categories of delays in the DAS system include engineering, equipment, external delays, labour, management, materials, owner, subcontractor and weather. Assaf et al. (1995) studied the causes of delay in large building construction projects in Saudi Arabia. Some of the mos t important causes of delay included approval of shop drawings, delays in contractors payment by owners, design changes by owners, cash problems during construction, the relationships between different subcontractors schedules in the execution of the project, the slowness of the owners decision-making process, design errors, excessive bureaucracy in project-owner organization, labour shortages and inadequate labour skills. From analysing the factors causing the delay of project, there should be elicitation on whether it can be diminished by application of process management. Atkin, BorgbrantJosephson (2003) argues that ideas of what should be considered in the design stage of a new building often seems to be a headache for architects, engineers and clients. These ideas invariably lead to some compromise between the demands of hard engineering and softer issues, with the potential likewise to compromise on the physical characteristics and performance of the building leading to some measure of failure. Examples of failure include high energy costs, health problems and structural destruction because of moisture, for which the occupant must pay directly or indirectly. Long-term socio-economic consequences can occur from this as well. Current problems are failures resulting from neglect of building physics principles are examined and their causes are highlighted. Research is continuing into the development of tools to help reduce the risk of failure and to highlight the costs and risks attached to the insufficient attention to building physics principles. Theories on Manufacturing Process and Process Management According to Melan’s(1992) research, a well- managed manufacturing process has the following characteristics: 1. Clearly defined ownership. Traditionally, ownership of a manufacturing operation is generally clear and explicit; it resides with a manager. The manager responsible for the operation is readily identifiable. The organization objectives, its output, and what the manager is accountable for must be fully understood. Standards such as cost, schedule, and quality are established for judging the manager’s performance. However, in recent years, authorized work teams and self-directed work groups where employees are assuming some of the tradition roles of management have gradually take the place of the traditional management ownership. A process owner, whether an individual or a team, is fully responsible for yield, cost, quality, and schedule, and must management the process to the targets set on these standards. Further, an owner has the authority to change or oversee a change in the process within his or her area of jurisdiction. 2. Defined boundaries. Manufacturing processes have a clearly defined beginning and end. He final output, or deliverable, as well as the input required to create it are clear and unambiguous. What is sometimes not clear, however, is whether output specifications truly reflect customer requirements and whether input specifications represent what is needed in the ensuring transformations. The lack of understanding of requirements on either the input side or output side underlies many business processes. In a well-managed manufacturing process, requirements problems are minimized through conscious effort aimed at specifying the work product as it proceeds from one operation to another. 3. Documented flow of work. Work flow in a manufacturing process is generally documented in great detail. There are several reasons for this. Documentation provides a permanent record of the manner in which a physical transformation takes place for production purposes. This record also provides a reference point or baseline from which any changes are to be made and serves as a means for replicating the process. Finally, documentation also serves as both a training and reference aid for the personnel involved in the process. 4. Established control points. Control points serve as a means for regulating the quality of work. Because of the natural variation that occurs in physical process, control points are established to manage variation. These points involve such activities as inspection, verification of required characteristics, and the disposition of discrepant material. 5. Established measurements. Measurements provide a statistical basis for controlling the flow of work and managing variation. Statistical techniques such as the control chart serve as useful tools for managing variation in many operations of a repetitive nature. 6. Control of process deviations. In managed processed, corrective action is performed in a timely manner and from a statistical basis when an undesirable variation occurs. Feedback and regulation are the heart of process control and, without control, the process loses its capacity of providing consistent output quality. Anderson’s (1994) theory clearly introduces the manufacturing process. He states that the most obvious characteristics of a production facility are the volume of items produced and the variety of different products made using the same resources. The volume and variety characteristics provide one way to look at the process of manufacture. Usually an increasing volume of production, in term of the number of individual units of each product, will go hand in hand with decreasing variety, in terms of the number of different products. And the author classifies the manufacturing process into three types: Mass Production involves producing a small number of different products in a great quantity, which provides the stereotype of manufacturing industry: long assembly lines where men or machines endlessly turn on the same product month after month. One characteristic of a mass production process is that operations are linked together in a line: when one operation is finished on a produc t it moves directly to the next operation; Batch Production is used when there are a greater variety of products being produced, with correspondingly smaller volumes. In this situation it is usual to have machinery and equipment which can be used to carry out operations on a number of different products. A single machine will carry out an operation on a whole batch of items of one kind and then be set up to carry out a similar operation on a whole batch of items of another kind; One-off production is used when individual customers each require an individual product, which is different from any product the company has made in the recent past. This implies low volumes but the greatest possible variety. With very large and complicated items the manufacturing process may be project based. This indicates that the manufacturing processes sufficiently complex, and over a long enough time-scale, that the major difficulties are associated with planning how various different operations and ac tivities will fit together. Born (1994) has provided a systematic method for integrating process management with quality management. It is based on a notion called the Quality Process Language (QPL), which is capable of representing and analysing all process within an organization. It also provides a basis for quality management approaches, such as ownership of processes, improved communication and compliance with requirements and regulations. QPL has been used in many types of organisation, large and small, highly structured and loosely structured. It provides a foundation for practical approaches such as facilitated workshops, process mapping and improvement, and documentation of procedures. The author also point out that activities and roles inputs and results of any organization can be well represented if the nation of QPL is mastered and then this notion can be converted into ordinary text and flow charts, for use in procedure and other documentation about the organization. The use of QPL as author states provides a common language for process and quality specialists to communicate directly. This offers an opportunity to discuss and design organizational and process changes without ignoring the effect on quality. QPL is a diagrammatic language, and it makes it easier for non-quality specialists to understand how processes affect quality and vice versa. Process Management in Construction Report (Kagioglou, Cooper, AouadSexton, 2000) introduces the findings and recommendation on the process management relate to the state of the construction industry at the present time and recommend some solutions as t in respect of how some of the problems might be overcome by transferring established practices from the manufacturing industry. However, the authors deem that it must be very careful when transferring knowledge and practices from manufacturing into the construction industry due to a number of reasons. First, the differences between the level of maturity of both processes and practices are distinct, with manufacturing having the lead. Second, because construction depends heavily on Temporary Multi-organizations (TMOs) while long-term partnership arrangements normally play the operation role in the manufacturing industry, the structure of the industries and of the organization of project personnel is dissimilar. Finally, comparison between the processes and the practices of both industries must be made by considering the levels in which they exist, such as strategic, managerial and operational. Therefore, clarification of process levels can have an important influence on the management of those processes. Kagioglou (1998) argues that there are two chief perspectives of manufacturing that construction can benefit from: the project process or New Product Development (NPD) and the operational and production processes. The first relates very closely, both in terms of nature and content, to the design and construction process. For itself, the development that of a solution from a demand identified in the market place or internally within an organization to the implementation is considered. This is achieved by organizing the activities that need to take place in a number of phases, which are made distinct by the determination of review points between the phases. This is very similar to the enactment of a construction project, the difference being that the distinction between the phases is usually determined by the entry of the different parties or functions, for example, architects, contractors, to the process. The second area is related to the way in which the production of a product, incl uding material flow, process design and resources planning, is undertaken. Indeed, a number of very effective philosophies and practices such as Just in Time (JIT), lean production and others have a legacy of optimized production in the manufacturing sector. JIT aims to improve production by utilizing the internal and external supply chains in terms of people and material flow. The first two benefits can be realized in the construction industry perhaps more readily than the third one, which requires a significant reorganization and mind-shift of the litigation-driven industry. This investigation concentrates on what can be absorbed from the NPD project process of manufacturing, and reference to it is made throughout the description of the Generic Design and Construction Process Protocol (GDCPP). Koskela (1992) expresses in his report that currently some construction subproducts are produced in processes that possess a manufacturing character. The assembly of such components with the building frame usually represents a minor share of the total costs. Windows, doors, elevators, prefabricated concrete components, and prefabricated houses, are examples of this kind of manufactured product. In regard to quality management, clear progress has been made in many countries. Many supplying firms have acquired quality certification according to the ISO standard. The application of the new production philosophy is least problematic in this part of the construction industry: the methods and techniques developed in manufacturing can be applied directly. However, except for quality management techniques, only a minor fraction of the factories and plants delivering to construction sites have begun to implement the new philosophy. It may be anticipated that this transformation will proceed r apidly after having gained initial momentum. Thus, industrialized construction might gain competitive benefits sooner than site construction. Additionally, Koskela (1992) summarized the condition of Implementation of process improvement by engineering and construction organizations. The inherent recommendation of the new philosophy to construction practitioners is clear that the share of non value-adding activities in all processes has to be systematically and persistently decreased. Increasing the efficiency of value-adding activities has to be continued in parallel. Construction should adopt the new production philosophy. In manufacturing, the new production philosophy improves competitiveness by identifying and eliminating waste (non value-adding) activities. Traditionally, construction is viewed and modelled only as a series of conversion (value-adding) activities. For example, waste activities such as waiting, storing inventory, moving material, and inspection are not generally modelled by Critical Path Models (CPM) or other control tools. Construction has traditionally tried to improve competitiveness by making conve rsions incrementally more efficient. But judging from the manufacturing experience, construction could realize dramatic improvements simply by identifying and eliminating non conversion (non value-adding) activities. In other words, actual construction should be viewed as flow processes (consisting of both waste and conversion activities), not just conversion processes. As demonstrated previously by the manufacturing industrys experience, adoption of the new production philosophy will be a fundamental paradigm shift for the construction industry. The implications of this for design are that the process of construction must be developed in conjunction with the design itself. An initial set of design and improvement principles for flow processes are presented that can serve as an implementation guideline. Major development efforts in construction, like industrialization, computer integrated construction and construction automation has to be redefined to acknowledge the need to balance flow improvement and conversion improvement. The conceptual foundation of construction management and engineering, being based on the concept of conversion only, is obsolete. Formalization of the scientific foundations of construction management and engineering should be a primary long term task fo

The Deployment of Security Policy in Information Systems Essay

Database auditing is considered as a contemporary article on database due to a vital role on the database security (Abraham, etal .,2002). There are many different of motivations that make one very excited to do this work , Nevertheless there are millions of database transactions that being executed among different of hosts all-round the organization sites. There are many question arise such as How to do some statistical analysis on database, also How to reveal out the crimes that the database is vulnerable to. Surrounding the world that fully of millions of end users part of this huge figure doing malicious activities that may create crises and Misleading ,thus, firms depend on the information that being manipulated on the database and as it has been noticed the information is strategic material on organization. With the many of database crimes it is very difficult to determine the person that is responsible of some malicious activities in the database, therefore, database auditing implementation is generated to stand behind this issues wherever a crimes appears on an organization. On other hand the database auditing implementation assist on the assessment of our organization’s behaviors, attitudes, and rationality in dealing with organizational database. Within the technological competence awareness is important, different security solutions have been presented and the best solution is to audit the database logs, actions on database and any alteration on the objects of database to avoid any data modification. Through revolution of information technology (rapid, vast technology) Database auditing implementation should afford the velocity and power full to monitor the database activities. Moreover, we are in a bottle n... ...erience in analysis and design of distributed information systems, I+D Computation, Vol.1, No.1, July 2002. [8] H.G. Sol, R.L. Crosslin, Dynamic modelling of information systems II, North Holland, Amsterdam,1992. [9] P.I Rivera-Vega, R. Karlapalem, M. Ra, A mixed fragmentation approach for inintial distributed database design, Proceedings of International conference on data engineering, IEEE, 1990. [10] K. Hui, Knowledge Fusion and Constraint Solving in a Distributed Environment, PhD Thesis, University of Aberdeen, Kings College, Aberdeen, 2000. [11] R. Varadarajan, P.I. Rivera-Vega, S.B. Navathe, Data redistribution scheduling in fully connected networks, Proceedings of 27th Annual Alberton conference on communication, Control and Computing, 1989. [12] M.T. Ãâ€"zsu, P. Valduriez, Principles of distributed database systems, Prentice Hall Edt, New Jersey, 1999.

Dreams in Song of Solomon, Narrative Frederick Douglass, Life of a Slav

Dreams in Song of Solomon, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Push    In 1776 it was stated that our country was based upon one simple truth, "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Though stated with a poetic justice, this statement did not hold true for all U.S. citizens. Many citizens were held in captivity, versus freedom, unable to pursue those "inalienable rights." After two hundred years of inequality, Martin Luther King, Jr., would provide one of the most vocal positions regarding the lack of equal rights owed to African Americans. In his 1969 Lincoln Memorial speech, King would historically state, "I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."    Like most Americans, African Americans have developed several variations of the American Dream. Many African Americans find that their dream differs from the traditional American dream in that there is no immediate success. Sometimes it consists of equality via liberty and/or literacy, while at other a simple desire to know self through historical connection. Dreams of this nature have been a major underlying theme of African-American literature since the 1800's.    In the mid-1800's Frederick Douglass began sharing his story of slavery with what was then considered the "North." Douglass realized his dream early in life and worked to achieve as much of the dream as possible. As he explains in The Classic Sla... ...e up the great African-American literary tradition describing the quest for the dream of equality, and in that, exercising their inalienable rights.    WORKS CITED Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Introduction. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. ix-xviii. Graff, Harvey J. The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth-Century City. New York: Academic Press, 1979. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: The Penguin Group, 1977. Sapphire. Push. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1996.

Robert Pirsigs Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Essay

Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values Confronting crises of technological annihilation and personal madness, Robert Pirsig finds each to be a manifestation of a deeper crisis of Reason. In response) he suggests an alternative to our current paradigm of rationality, the "art of motorcycle maintenance." By showing that our understanding and performance derive from our emotional and evaluative commitments, he challenges the cultural commonplace which construes "subjective" states as distortions of "objective" reality. In so doing, he asserts that "wholeness" or sanity may be achieved only through "passionate caring," and an awareness and acceptance of how our emotions and values shape our experiences. Further, he shows that technology, a manifestation of our values, may be controlled only through emotional and moral commitment. A restorative rhetoric, on Pirsig's analysis is, then, one in which the passions and values are recognized as the very ground of being in and interpreting the world. The crisis of reason As he begins his "Chautauqua," Robert Pirsig finds himself in a twofold crisis. He characterizes the public dimension of the crisis as arising in large part from the technological fragmentation of nature and man. Having transformed nature from a field of daffodils into a field for its own potential appropriation, technology, as Marshall McLuhan has noted, now also "shapes and controls the scale of human association and action" (McLuhan 8). Seemingly indifferent to human values and developing under its own logic, technology increasingly isolates us from our natural environment, from one another, and even from ourselves. For though we may be in touch with Belgrade or Toky... ...ight give, the Sophist being "a hunter of young men of rank and distinction who works not by violence, but by persuasion." ("The Middle Speech of Plato's Phaedrus," Journal of the History of Philosophy, 9 [1971], 421). Pirsig admits that his defense of the Sophists against Plato is not original; indeed such a defense dates to the nineteenth century. Everett Lee Hunt elaborates this point in his "On the Sophists," in The Province of Rhetoric, ed. Joseph Schwartz and John A. Rycenga (New York: Ronald Press, 1965); and in "Plato and Aristotle on Rhetoric and Rhetoricians" (Historical Studies of Rhetoric and Rhetoricians, ed., Raymond F. Nowes [Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell Univ. Press, 1961], p. 20), he writes: "It is to Hegel that the Sophists owe their rehabilitation in modern times." Hunt also shows that Lewes, Grote, Sidgwick and John Stuart Mill all joined in the defense.

The Influence of Noam Chomsky in Child Language Acquisition

The influence of Noam Chomsky in child language acquisition Noam Chomsky dominated the world of linguistics like a colossus for decades after the late fifties. My main aim of this essay is to discuss his influence in the area of child language acquisition and inspect to see if his influence is waxing or waning. After that I will examine the reasons behind the increase or decrease of his influence. I will be relating back every so often to nativism and the great ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate since Chomsky’s reputation significantly depends on it. Avram Noam Chomsky was born in 1928 and is, as reported by the online Encyclopaedia , â€Å"an Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also is the creator of the Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages. † Apart from his linguistic work, Chomsky is also famous for his political views. Although, the field of children's language development includes a whole range of perspectives , the issue that has outweighed the rest is that of whether language ability is ‘innate’ or not. This matter which has been long debated concentrates on finding out whether children were born ‘preprogrammed’ to acquire language or is it merely a matter of cultural product . One of the most influential figures around this debate was Noam Chomsky, who believed in the innate capacity of children for learning language. As Harris (1990:76) explains, â€Å"Chomsky suggested that infants are born with innate knowledge of the properties of language. Further elaborating on Chomskys’s belief, Sampson (1997:23) says â€Å"Chomsky claims that this process of first language acquisition must be determined in most respects by a genetic programme, so that the development of language in an individuals mind is akin to the growth of a bodily organ rather than being a matter of responding to environmental stimulation. † Noam Chomsky suggested that children are born with a genetic mechanism for the acquisition of language, which he called a â€Å"Language Acquisition Dev ice† (LAD). He claimed that they are born with the major principles of language in place, but with many parameters to set. Further supporting this claim Chomsky (1972:113) said â€Å"Having some knowledge of the characteristics of the acquired grammars and the limitations on the available data, we can formulate quite reasonable and fairly strong empirical hypotheses regarding the internal structure of the LAD that constructs the postulated grammars from the given data. † Nevertheless, this theory of an innate Language Acquisition Device has not been generally accepted but in fact has been opposed on two grounds. Firstly, in the famous ongoing debate between nature and nurture many people have criticised Chomsky for disregarding environmental aspects. Secondly, there is a difference of opinion as to whether language acquisition is part of the child’s wider cognitive development or as Chomsky believes, is an independent inborn ability. Disagreements such as these display the immense impact Chomsky’s theory has had on the field of linguistics. One of the central concepts which Chomsky introduced was the idea of Universal Grammar. Chomsky greatly influenced Linguistic thinking by his theory that a universal grammar inspires all languages and that all languages have the same basic underlying structure. Collis et al (1994:11) further clarify â€Å"Chomsky argued that universals of linguistic form are innate: the child had inborn knowledge of the general form of a transformational grammar. † He believed in Universal Grammar because children remarkably seem to be able to learn rapidly whatever language they are exposed to despite certain rules of grammar being beyond their learning capacity and in a couple of years they seem to master the system they are immersed in . Harris (1990:76) supporting this view says: â€Å"After a period of some four to five years’ exposure to the language of those around them, children seem to have mastered the underlying rule system which enables them to produce an infinite variety of relatively well-formed, complex sentences. † Also children progress so rapidly in acquiring their native language as though they know in advance the general form of the system to be acquired as Fromkin & Rodman (1998:339) state, â€Å"The similarity of the language acquisition stages across diverse peoples and languages shows that children are equipped with special abilities to acquire. Wilkipedia explaining this theory says: â€Å"it does not claim that all human languages have the same grammar, or that all humans are â€Å"programmed† with a structure that underlies all surface expressions of human language; but rather, universal grammar proposes a set of rules that would explain how children acquire their langua ge(s), or how they construct valid sentences of their language. † Although, Sampson (1997:108) gives the arguments in support of language universals some credit saying â€Å"the arguments from universals is the only one hat has some serious prima facie force† But, by and large, Sampson (1997:136) disagrees as he concludes: â€Å"there are some universal features in human languages, but what they mainly show is that human beings have to learn their mother tongues rather than having knowledge of language innate in their minds. † Another argument, involving Chomsky, which is referred to as Poverty of data, is that children would be unable to learn language in a human environment where the input is of poor quality. Chomsky (1980) argued that the child’s acquisition of grammar is ‘hopelessly underdetermined by the fragmentary evidence available. He recognized this deficiency due to two major reasons. The first is the poor nature of the input. According to Chomsky, the sentences heard by the child are so full of errors and incompletions that they provide no clear indication of the possible sentences of the language. As well as this problem there is an unavailability of negative evidence and children have a hard time knowing which forms of their language are acceptable and which are unacceptable. As a result of all this, he believes language learning must rely on other constraints from universal grammar. Macwhinney (2004) says: â€Å"To solve this logical problem, theorists have proposed a series of constraints and parameterizations on the form of universal grammar. Plausible alternatives to these constraints include: conservatism, item-based learning, indirect negative evidence, competition, cue construction, and monitoring. † According to Macwhinney (2004) Chomsky’s views about the poor quality of the input have not stood up well to the test of time. Many studies of child directed speech have shown that speech to young children is slow, clear, grammatical, and very repetitious. Newport, Gleitman & Gleitman (1977) reported, ‘the speech of mothers to children is unswervingly well-formed. ’ More recently, Sagae et al (2004) examined several of the corpora in the CHILDES database and found that adult input to children can be parsed with an accuracy level parallel to that for corpora. Although, this failure of Chomsky’s claim has not so far led to the collapse of the ‘argument from poverty of stimulus’, however, as Macwhinney (2004) says, â€Å"It has placed increased weight on the remaining claims regarding the absence of relevant evidence. The overall claim as Macwhinney (2004) points out is that, â€Å"given the absence of appropriate positive and negative evidence, no child can acquire language without guidance from a rich set of species-specific innate hypotheses. † Chomsky also claimed that there was a critical period for language learning which was first proposed by Eric Lenneberg. He claimed, as Cook & Newson (199 6:301) explain, that there is a critical period during which the human mind is able to learn language; before or after this period language cannot be acquired in a natural fashion. Although the rare cases of feral children who had been deprived of first language in early childhood seems to support the idea of critical period but it is not known for definite if deprivation was the only reason for their language learning difficulties as Sampson (1997:37) points out, â€Å"it is not certain if children in cases of extreme deprivation have trouble learning language because they have missed their so-called â€Å"critical period† or if it is because of the extreme trauma they have experienced. Although Chomsky was a very influential and successful nativist, Sampson (1997:159) claims ‘his theories were given a helping hand by external circumstances. ’ At the time when he was putting forward these ideas about language and human nature, Chomsky was also the leading intellectual opponent of American involvement in the Vietnam War as Sampson (1997:11) states: â€Å"politics had given Chomsky much of his audience in the early days as he was the leadin g intellectual figure in the 1960’s movement against American involvement in the Vietnam War. His opposition to the Vietnam War made him a popular figure amongst the young Americans who also opposed the decision and were eager to cheer on anyone speaking against it. Sampson (1997:11) also points out importantly â€Å"Many people came to listen to Chomsky on foreign policy and stayed to listen to him on linguistics. Giving other reasons Sampson (1997:159) claims that â€Å"it was a period when the academic discipline of linguistics found a new market in providing professional training for teachers of foreign language and this nativist style of language analysis was relatively appealing to them as nativism focused on language universals rather than on the peculiar individual features of particular languages. Similarly he points out that â€Å"it was a period when knowledge of other languages among the English speaking world was diminishing. † Furthermore, the years aro und 1970 were also a period when the university system expanded massively in a very short eriod. Large numbers of people were taken on into the university teaching profession over a few years, and after entering they remained there as Sampson (1997:159) says, â€Å"they stayed; so an over-presentation of whatever intellectual trends happened to be ‘hot’ just then was locked into the system. † Stating another reason Sampson (1997:161) claims: â€Å"American linguists who were not established in their careers were afraid to voice disagreement with nativism publicly for fear of damaging their chances of academic employment. The most important point keeping the nativist domination is the greater job availability as Sampson (1997:161) points out, â€Å"there are more jobs in nativism than empiricism† During the 1980s, Chomsky’s nativist discourse moved out of the public limelight as his political interference became less agreeable to many and so Chomsky ’s influence started to diminish in significance to linguistic nativism as Sampson (1997:11) says â€Å"In the 1980’s Chomsky’s star waned† and then reasoning the 1980’s eclipse he says that ‘those were the Margaret Thatcher years, which meant that educated public opinion had other things to be interested in. But, beginning in the 1990s, a new wave of writing has revived basically the same idea about language and knowledge being innate in human beings and they rely on Chomsky’s ideas as Sampson (1997:14) says, â€Å"Many of the nativists work of the 1990’s depend on chomsky’s version of nativism. However, these books seem to better equipped to the test of time as Sampson (2003) points out â€Å"These books refer to a broader range of considerations, including issues high in human interest such as case studies of pidgin languages, young children’s speech, experiments in teaching language to apes whereas Chomskyâ⠂¬â„¢s arguments were rather dryly formal and mathematical. † Furthermore, the contemporary nativists claim to identify some additional evidence which was never mentioned by Chomsky. Several different writers have contributed to this â€Å"new wave† of present-day arguments for nativism. By far the most influential, however, as Sampson (2003) suggests, has been Steven Pinker’s 1994 book The Language Instinct. Regarding this new revival Sampson (1997:12) says: â€Å"The nativists of the 1990’s are quite different. Their books are full of fascinating information about languages and linguistic behaviour so that people enjoy reading for the data alone. He further states: â€Å"As a result, the new generation of linguistic nativists have succeeded very quickly in winning audiences and attracting praise from distinguished and sometimes influential onlookers. † Criticising the content of these books he says: â€Å"The reader is taken on a magical mystery tour of language and urged to agree that nativism makes a plausible account of it all- rather than herded through a bare corral in which every side exit is sealed off by barriers of logic a nd the only way out is the gate labelled ‘innate knowledge. In conclusion, it is very obvious to see the great impact Chomsky’s ideologies have had in the area of child language acquisition which subsequently enhanced his status. Describing his huge influence Sampson (1997:10) says, â€Å"It would be hard to exaggerate the impact that these ideas of Noam Chomsky’s achieved. † He further states â€Å"By many objective measures, he became the world’s most influential living thinker. Sampson (1997:11) further reports that, â€Å"in the comprehensive computerized registers of references that scholars make to one another’s writings in the academic literature; within the sphere covered by the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Chomsky is the most- quoted living writer, and the eighth most quoted in history. † Although his ideas suffered a blow in the 1980’s, it has been strongly revived since the 1990’s as Sampson (1997:161) critically states â€Å"in the 1990’s the public mood has changed again. Society is showing signs of reverting to an almost medieval acceptance of intellectual authority, from which dissent is seen as morally objectionable† Further, reasoning the success of these new nativist writers he says â€Å"When Chomsky originally spelled out an argument, the reader would assess it and might detect its fallacies; but when recent writers refer to something as having been established back in the 1960s–70s, most readers are likely to take this on trust, for lack of time and energy to check the sources. Finally, on the subject of ‘nature vs. nurture’ debate, which so heavily involves Chomsky, it seems impossible to distinguish whether language is only acquired due to environmental exposure or simply due to innate faculties. From the evidence it seems that humans possess innate capabilities which enable linguistic development, but the correct environment, with exposure to adult language throughout the critical period, also seems to be necessar y in order for a child to develop and become a proficient speaker. In regards to this issue Collis (1994:10) makes a valid conclusion â€Å"current thinking about language acquisition treats nativist and empiricist explanations as forthrightly opposed, but as potentially varying in degree: language acquisition is mostly a realisation of innate principles, or mostly a consequence of learning. † Similarly, Sampson (2003) clarifies: â€Å"Clearly this issue is not an all-or-nothing question. It is about where truth lies on a spectrum of possibilities. Nature must have some role in human cognition; conversely, nurture must also play a role. † Bibliography Chomsky, N. (1972) Language and Mind New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and representations. New York: Columbia University Press Chomsky, N. (1986) Knowledge of language: it's nature, origin and use. New York: Praeger Cook, V. J, & Newson, M. (1996) Chomsky’s Universal Grammar : An Introduction(2nd ed. ) UK:Blackwell Publishers Collis, G. , Perera, K, & Richards, B (1994) (Eds. ), Growing points in child language UK: CUP Fromkin, V. and Rodman, R. (1998) An Introduction to Language. 6th. ed. US: Harcourt Brace College Publishers Harris, J (1990) Early Language Development- implications for clinical and educational practice London:Routledge Macwhinney, B(2004) ‘A multiple process solution to the logical problem of language acquisition’ Journal of Child Language. Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 883–914 UK:CUP Newport, E. , Gleitman, H. & Gleitman, L. (1977). Mother, I? d rather do it myself: some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In C. Ferguson (ed. ), Talking to children :language input and acquisition. Cambridge: CUP Sagae, K. , MacWhinney, B. & Lavie, A. (2004). Automatic parsing of parent–child interactions. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers 36, 113–26. Sampson,G (2005) The ‘Language Instinct' Debate: Revised Edition of Educating Eve Continuum International Publishing Group Sampson, G (2003) Empiricism v. Nativism [http://www. grsampson. net/REmpNat. html](07/05/05) Sampson,G (1997) The ‘Language Instinct' Debate: Educating Eve London and New York: Cassell Wikipedia (2005) The Free Encyclopedia – Noam Chomsky [http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky] (07/05/05) Wikipedia (2005) The Free Encyclopedia- Universal grammar [http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Universal_Grammar] (07/05/05)

Last Sacrifice Chapter Twenty-eight

I STOPPED BREATHING. WE'D each had our own blankets, but even in the middle of summer, the temperature had dropped during the night. Dimitri, in his sleep, had rolled over against me, merging our blankets into one pile and resting his head on my chest. His body lay against mine, warm and familiar, and he even snuggled a little closer. He was more exhausted than I'd realized if he was doing this in his sleep. After all, this was the guy who slept with one eye open. But his guard was down now, his body unconsciously seeking †¦ what? Simple warmth? Me? Damn it. Why had I asked Sonya my question? Why couldn't I keep going with my easy role as Adrian's girlfriend and Dimitri's friend? Because honestly, I wasn't doing a very good job at either one right now. Tentatively, fearfully, I shifted slightly so that I could put one arm around Dimitri and draw him closer. I knew it was a risk, one that might wake him and break this spell. But it didn't. If anything, he seemed to relax more. Feeling him like that †¦ holding him †¦ it churned up a swarm of emotions within me. The ache I had felt since his loss burned within me. At the same time, holding him like this also seemed to fill that ache, as though a piece of me that had been missing was now restored. I hadn't even realized that piece was missing. I'd blocked it all out until Sonya's words had shaken my fragile new acceptance of life. I don't know how long I stayed like that with Dimitri. It was long enough that the rising sun began to illuminate the tent's translucent fabric. That was all the light my eyes needed to now see Dimitri, to see the finely carved lines of his face and softness of his hair as he lay against me. I wanted so badly to touch that hair, to see if it felt like it used to. That was a silly sentiment, of course. His hair wouldn't have changed. Still †¦ the urge was there, and I finally gave in, gently running my fingers over some stray locks. They were smooth and silky, and that barest touch sent chills through me. It also woke him up. His eyes opened, instantly alert. I expected him to jump away from me, but instead, he only assessed the situation–and didn't move. I left my hand where it was on the side of his face, still stroking his hair. Our gazes locked, so much passing between us. In those moments, I wasn't in a tent with him, on the run from those who regarded us as villains. There was no murderer to catch, no Strigoi trauma to overcome. There was just him and me and the feelings that had burned between us for so long. When he did move, it wasn't to get away. Instead, he lifted his head so that he looked down at me. Only a few inches separated us, and his eyes betrayed him. He wanted to kiss me–and I wanted him to. He leaned over me, one hand resting against my cheek. I readied myself for his lips–I needed them–and then he froze. He pulled back and sat up, exhaling in frustration as he looked away from me. I sat up as well, my breathing rapid and shallow. â€Å"Wh-what's wrong?' I asked. He glanced back at me. â€Å"Pick. There are lots of choices.' I ran a finger along my lips. So close. So, so close. â€Å"I know †¦ I know things have changed. I know you were wrong. I know you can feel love again.' His mask was back up as he formulated his answer. â€Å"This isn't about love.' The last minute replayed in my head, that perfect connection, the way he'd looked at me and made my heart feel. Hell, Sonya claimed we even had some mystical connection. â€Å"If it's not about love, then what is it about?' I exclaimed. â€Å"It's about doing the right thing,' he said quietly. The right thing? Right and wrong had been perennial topics at St. Vladimir's. I wasn't eighteen. He was my teacher. We were slated to be Lissa's guardians and had to give her our full attention. All of those were arguments for why staying apart had been necessary back then. But those had long since fallen by the wayside. I would have questioned him more–if someone hadn't scratched at our door. Both of us sprang up and apart, reaching for the stakes we'd slept near. Grabbing my stake was instinct because I knew there was no Strigoi out there. But lately, Strigoi had been the least of our worries. â€Å"Rose? Dimitri?' The voice was barely audible–but familiar. Relaxing slightly, I unzipped the tent's entrance and revealed Sonya kneeling in front of it. Like us, she wore the same clothes from earlier, and her auburn hair was messy. Otherwise, she seemed to have escaped her pursuers unscathed. I scooted aside so that she could enter. â€Å"Cozy,' she said, glancing around. â€Å"You've got the farthest spot out on the campground. Took me forever to find the car you described.' â€Å"How'd you get here?' I asked. She winked. â€Å"You're not the only ones who can steal cars. Or, in my case, get people to â€Å"willingly' lend them.' â€Å"Were you followed?' asked Dimitri. He was all seriousness again, with no sign of what had passed moments ago. â€Å"Not that I could tell,' she said, shifting into a cross-legged position. â€Å"A couple guardians followed me back in the neighborhood, but I lost them a while ago. Most of them seemed more interested in you two.' â€Å"Imagine that,' I muttered. â€Å"Too bad Victor was long gone–he might have taken priority.' â€Å"He didn't kill a queen,' she said ruefully. We'd had to eventually tell her why Victor was wanted and that he'd been the one Sonya had sensed was stalking Lissa back at St. Vladimir's. â€Å"But the good news is I know where they're at now.' â€Å"Where?' asked Dimitri and I in unison. A small, knowing smile came to her lips at that. â€Å"West Michigan,' she said. â€Å"They took off in the opposite direction from Court.' â€Å"Damn,' I muttered. Dimitri and I had gone southeast from Ann Arbor, clipping the Detroit suburbs and just crossing into Ohio. We'd picked the wrong direction. â€Å"But you saw Jill? Is she okay?' Sonya nodded. â€Å"Fine. Scared, but fine. She described enough landmarks that I think we can locate their motel. I found her in a dream a couple hours ago; they had to rest. Victor wasn't feeling well. They might still be there.' â€Å"Then we need to leave now,' said Dimitri, instantly in action. â€Å"Once they're moving, Jill will be awake and out of contact.' We packed up our campsite with amazing speed. My ankle felt better but was still sore. Noticing my limp, Sonya called a halt just before we got in her car. â€Å"Hang on.' She knelt before me, examining the swelling ankle that was easily exposed by my torn dress. Taking a deep breath, she rested her hands on me, and a surge of electricity shot through my leg, followed by waves of heat and cold. When it was over and she stood up, the pain and swelling were gone, as were the scrapes on my legs. Probably the cuts on my head too. Spirit users had healed me so often that you'd think I'd be used to it, but it was still a little startling. â€Å"Thank you,' I said. â€Å"But you shouldn't have done that †¦ shouldn't have used the magic †¦' â€Å"You need to be in peak condition,' she said. Her gaze drifted from me, staring off at the trees. â€Å"And the magic †¦ well, it's hard to stay away from.' Indeed it was, and I felt guilty that she was using it on me–and moving closer to insanity. Robert's restoration had healed her mind a little, and she needed to take advantage of that. This was no time for a lecture, though, and Dimitri's expression told me he too thought it best I get back in shape. We took off toward where Sonya told us Jill was, and this time, her directions were as specific as she could make them. No more vagueness or binding promises. We stopped once to â€Å"acquire' a new car and get a map. The info Sonya had gleaned from Jill led us to a town called Sturgis. While it was in the western half of Michigan, it was also south–meaning the distance wasn't quite as long as we'd expected. Nonetheless, Dimitri drove at least fifteen miles per hour over the speed limit the whole time. â€Å"There,' said Sonya, as we rolled into downtown Sturgis–which wasn't much of a downtown. We were near a modest-looking motel on a side street. â€Å"That's what she described. The Sunshine Motel.' Dimitri pulled into the lot behind the building, and we all sat there, staring at the motel, which didn't look as cheerful as its name. Like me, I presumed my companions were trying to figure out how to approach this. Jill's dream info had gotten us here, but Sonya had nothing else to help us find their room–if they were even still here. They certainly wouldn't have checked in under real names. I was going to suggest we just walk past the doors and hope Sonya would sense Robert when she suddenly pointed. â€Å"That's their car,' she said. â€Å"They're here.' Sure enough. There was the CR-V we'd taken to Jill's house. Talk about karma. I'd swiped Victor's keys, and he'd repaid the favor by taking ours. None of us had thought much about his escape vehicle in the ensuing chaos. â€Å"Sloppy,' murmured Dimitri, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. â€Å"They should have switched cars.' â€Å"That's Sydney's,' I pointed out. â€Å"It's not technically stolen, so it's not on any police lists. Besides, something tells me Victor and Robert aren't hot-wiring pros like some people are.' We'd left a string of stolen cars across the Midwest. Dimitri nodded, like I'd actually just complimented him. â€Å"Whatever the reason, it helps us.' â€Å"How do we find them?' asked Sonya. I was about to suggest the aura plan but dismissed it. Robert would sense Sonya at the same moment, giving him brief warning. Plus, when we found the brothers, there'd likely be a fight. Doing it in the motel would attract attention. This parking lot was in back, away from the main road. â€Å"We wait,' I said. â€Å"It's amazing enough that they even stopped this long. If they have any sense, they'll leave soon.' â€Å"Agreed,' said Dimitri, catching my eyes. Souls in sync. The memory of that near-kiss returned, and I looked away, fearing what my face would betray. â€Å"The lot's easy to defend too. Not much room for escape.' It was true. The motel flanked one side, a concrete wall the other. There weren't many other buildings nearby either. He moved our car to the farthest spot he could in the lot, providing us with a full view of it and the motel's exit–but keeping us semi-concealed. We considered sitting in the car, but Dimitri and I decided we should wait outside, giving us more mobility. We left Sonya inside. This wasn't her fight. Standing behind the car with Dimitri, in the shadow of a leafy maple, I became acutely aware of his proximity and fierce warrior stance. He might be missing his duster, but I had to admit I liked the view of him I got without the coat. â€Å"I don't suppose,' I said softly, â€Å"that we're going to talk about this morning?' Dimitri's eyes were fixed so hard on the CR-V that he might have been trying to make Jill and the brothers materialize inside it. I wasn't fooled. He was just avoiding looking at me. â€Å"There's nothing to talk about.' â€Å"I knew you'd say that. Actually, it was a toss-up between that and â€Å"I don't know what you're talking about.† Dimitri sighed. â€Å"But,' I continued, â€Å"there is something to talk about. Like when you almost kissed me. And what did you mean about â€Å"the right thing'?' Silence. â€Å"You wanted to kiss me!' It was hard to keep my voice low. â€Å"I saw it.' â€Å"Just because we want something doesn't mean it's right.' â€Å"What I said †¦ it's true, isn't it? You can love, can't you? I realize now that right after the transformation, you really didn't think you could. And you probably couldn't. But things have changed. You're getting yourself back.' Dimitri gave me a sidelong look. â€Å"Yes. Things have changed †¦ and some haven't.' â€Å"Okay, Mr. Enigma. That doesn't help explain the â€Å"right thing' comment.' Frustration filled his features. â€Å"Rose, I've done a lot of bad things, most of which I can never fix or find redemption for. My only choice now, if I want to reclaim my life, is to go forward, stopping evil and doing what's right. And what is not right is taking a woman from another man, a man I like and respect. I'll steal cars. I'll break into houses. But there are lines I will not cross, no matter what I–‘ The motel's back door opening jolted us to attention. It was no wonder my love life was so messed up when the most profound and intimate moments were always being interrupted by dire situations. It was just as well because I had never, ever seen that line coming: What is not right is taking a woman from another man, a man I like and respect. New drama took precedence. Victor stepped outside, with Robert and Jill walking side by side behind him. I'd half expected to see her tied up and was surprised that she accompanied them so calmly. Too calmly, I soon realized. It wasn't natural. There was an almost robotic feel to her movements: she was being compelled into docility. â€Å"Compulsion,' said Dimitri quietly, recognizing it as well. â€Å"Go for Victor. I'll get Robert.' I nodded. â€Å"Jill will run as soon as the compulsion's broken. I hope.' I didn't put it past her to join our fight, which could cause more harm than good. We'd find out soon enough. Mercifully, no one else was around. It was still fairly early in the morning. Dimitri and I sprang out from our hiding spots, crossing the distance of the parking lot in a matter of moments. Two healthy dhampirs could outrace two old Moroi any day. And as crafty as they might be, the brothers hadn't expected us. In my periphery, I just barely saw Dimitri kicking into warrior god mode, fierce and unstoppable. Then, I focused entirely on Victor, throwing my full weight at him and knocking him to the ground. He hit hard against the asphalt, and I pinned him down, slamming my fist into his face and making his nose bleed. â€Å"Well done,' he gasped out. â€Å"I've been wanting to do that for a very long time,' I growled. Victor smiled through the pain and the blood. â€Å"Of course you have. I used to think Belikov was the savage one, but it's really you, isn't it? You're the animal with no control, no higher reasoning except to fight and kill.' I clenched his shirt and leaned him over him. â€Å"Me? I'm not the one who tortured Lissa for my own benefit. I'm not the one who turned my daughter Strigoi. And I'm sure as hell not the one who used compulsion to kidnap a fifteen-year-old girl!' To my disgust, he kept that maddening smile on his face. â€Å"She's valuable, Rose. So, so valuable. You have no idea how much so.' â€Å"She's not an object for you to manipulate!' I cried. â€Å"She's a–ahh!' The ground suddenly rolled up beneath me, a mini-earthquake centered around us. The asphalt bucked up, giving Victor the leverage to push me off. It wasn't a strong push, and I could have easily recovered my balance if not for the ground rippling and surrounding me, rolling like ocean waves to knock me over. Victor was using his earth magic to control the area where I stood. Faint cries of surprise told me others were feeling a little of it, but the magic was clearly focused on me. Not without cost, though. Victor was an old man–an old man I'd just shoved onto asphalt and punched. Pain and fatigue were all over him, and his labored breathing told me wielding magic this powerful–something I'd never seen an earth user do–was pushing every ounce of strength he had left. One good punch. That was all I needed. One good punch would knock him down and take him out of this fight. Only, I was the one being taken down. Literally. Try as I might, my personal earthquake got the best of me, knocking me to my knees. I was still in that stupid dress too, meaning my newly healed legs got scraped again. And once I was down, the asphalt rose around me. I realized Victor was going to ensnare me by creating a stone prison. I couldn't let that happen. â€Å"All that brawn for nothing,' gasped out Victor, sweat pouring off his face. â€Å"It does you no good in the end. Real power is in the mind. In cunning. In controlling Jillian, I control Vasilisa. With Vasilisa, I control the Dragomirs, and from there–the Moroi. That's power. That's strength.' Most of his smug tirade went over me. But part of it stuck: In controlling Jillian, I control Vasilisa. Lissa. I couldn't let him hurt her. I couldn't let him use her. In fact, I couldn't let him use Jill either. Lissa had given me a chotki, which was kind of a cross between a bracelet and a rosary. It was a Dragomir heirloom, bestowed upon those who protected the family. That was my duty: to protect all the Dragomirs. The old guardian mantra rang in my mind: They come first. With skill I didn't know I possessed, I sized up the shaking ground and attempted to stand again. I made it, practically dancing in that parking lot. And as I stared at Victor, I felt what Sonya had warned about: the catalyst. The spark that would ignite the darkness I'd gathered and gathered from Lissa. In looking at him, I saw all the evils of my life in one man. Was that entirely accurate? No, not exactly. But he had hurt my best friend–nearly killed her. He'd toyed with Dimitri and me, complicating what was already a mess of a relationship. He was now trying to control others. When would it end? When would his evil stop? Red and black tinged my vision. I heard a voice call my name–Sonya's, I think. But in that moment, there was nothing else in the world but Victor and my hate for him. I sprang at him, fueled by rage and adrenaline, leaping out of the epicenter of shaking ground that threatened to seize me. Once more, I threw myself at him, but we didn't hit the ground. We'd shifted position slightly, and instead, we hit the concrete wall–with just as much force as I might have thrown a Strigoi. His head bent back at the impact. I heard an odd cracking sound, and Victor slumped to the ground. I immediate dropped down, grabbing his arms and shaking him. â€Å"Get up!' I screamed. â€Å"Get up and fight me!' But no matter how much I shook him or yelled, Victor would not stand. He wouldn't move on his own. Hands grabbed me, trying futilely to pull me away. â€Å"Rose–Rose! Stop. Stop this.' I ignored the voice, ignored the hands. I was all anger and power, wanting– no, needing–Victor to face me once and for all. Suddenly, a strange sensation crept along me, like fingertips across my skin. Let him go. I didn't want to, but for half a second, it seemed like a reasonable idea. I loosened my hold slightly, just enough for those hands to jerk me away. Like that, I snapped out of the haze and realized what had happened. The person who'd pulled me was Sonya, and she'd used a tiny bit of compulsion to get me away and let go of Victor. She was strong enough in her power that she didn't even need eye contact. She held onto me, even though she had to know it was wasted effort. â€Å"I have to stop him,' I said, wriggling from her grasp. â€Å"He has to pay.' I reached for him again. Sonya gave up on physical restraint, appealing to words instead. â€Å"Rose, he has! He's dead. Can't you see that? Dead. Victor's dead!' No, I didn't see that–not at first. All I saw was my blind obsession, my need to get to Victor. But then, her words broke through to me. As I gripped Victor, I felt the limpness in his body. I saw the eyes that looked blankly at †¦ nothing. That crazy, churning emotion in me faded, transforming into shock. My grip slackened as I stared at him and truly understood what she had said. Understood what I had done. Then, I heard a terrible sound. A low wailing broke through the frozen horror in my mind. I glanced back in alarm and saw Dimitri standing with Robert. Robert's arms were pinned behind his back as Dimitri effortlessly held him, but the Moroi was doing everything in his power–and failing–to break free. Jill stood nearby, looking uneasily at all of us, confused and afraid. â€Å"Victor! Victor!' Robert's pleas were muffled by sobs and as useless as my own efforts to get Victor up. I dragged my gaze back down to the body before me, barely believing what I had just done. I'd thought the guardians had been crazy in their reaction to Eddie killing a Moroi, but now, I was starting to understand. A monster like a Strigoi was one thing. But the life of a person, even a person who– â€Å"Get him out of here!' Sonya was so near me that the unexpected exclamation made me wince. She'd been kneeling too but now jumped to her feet, turning toward Dimitri. â€Å"Get him out of here! As far as you can!' Dimitri looked surprised, but the powerful command in her voice drove him to instant action. He began dragging Robert away. After a few moments, Dimitri simply opted to toss the man over his shoulder and cart him off. I would have expected cries of protest, but Robert had fallen silent. His eyes were on Victor's body–their gaze so sharp, so focused that they seemed like they could burn a hole through someone. Sonya, not having my fanciful impression, thrust herself between the brothers and dropped to the ground again, covering Victor's body with her own. â€Å"Get him out of here!' she called again. â€Å"He's trying to bring Victor back! He'll be shadow-kissed!' I was still confused and upset, still appalled at what I'd done, but the danger of what she said hit me hard. Robert couldn't be allowed to bring back Victor back. The brothers were dangerous enough without being bonded. Victor couldn't be allowed to summon ghosts the way I could. Victor had to stay dead. â€Å"Doesn't he have to touch the body?' I asked. â€Å"To finish the bond, yes. But he was wielding tons of spirit just now, calling Victor's soul back and keeping it around,' she explained. When Dimitri and Robert were gone, Sonya told me to help her move the body. We'd made too much noise, and it was a wonder no one had come out yet. Jill joined us, and I moved without really being aware of what I was doing. Sonya found the keys to the CR-V on Victor and flattened the backseats to increase the rear cargo space. We crawled into it, the three of us having to hunch down to stay out of sight. We soon heard voices, people coming to see what had happened. I don't know long they were in the parking lot, only that they mercifully didn't search cars. Honestly? I had few coherent thoughts at all. That rage was gone, but my mind was a mess. I couldn't seem to get a hold of anything concrete. I felt sick and just followed Sonya's orders, staying low as I tried not to look at Victor's body. Even after the voices were gone, she kept us in the car. At last, she exhaled a deep breath and focused on me. â€Å"Rose?' I didn't answer right away. â€Å"Rose?' â€Å"Yeah?' I asked, voice cracking. Her voice was soothing and cajoling. I felt that crawling on my skin again and a need to please her. â€Å"I need you to look at the dead. Open your eyes to them.' The dead? No. My mind felt out of control, and I had enough sense to know bringing ghosts here would be a bad idea. â€Å"I can't.' â€Å"You can,' she said. â€Å"I'll help you. Please.' I couldn't refuse her compulsion. Expanding my senses, I let down the walls I kept around me. They were the walls that blocked me from the world of the dead and the ghosts that followed me around. Within moments, translucent faces appeared before me, some like normal people and others terrible and ghastly. Their mouths opened, wanting to speak but unable to. â€Å"What do you see?' asked Sonya. â€Å"Spirits,' I whispered. â€Å"Do you see Victor?' I peered into the swarm of faces, seeking anyone familiar. â€Å"No.' â€Å"Push them back,' she said. â€Å"Put your walls back up.' I tried to do as she said, but it was hard. I didn't have the will. I felt outside encouragement and realized Sonya was still compelling me. She couldn't make the ghosts disappear, but feelings of support and determination strengthened me. I shut out the restless dead. â€Å"He's gone then,' Sonya said. â€Å"He's either completely consumed by the world of the dead or is wandering as a restless spirit. Regardless, any lingering threads to life are gone. He can't come back to life.' She turned to Jill. â€Å"Go get Dimitri.' â€Å"I don't know where he is,' said Jill, startled. Sonya smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. â€Å"Close, I'm sure. And watching. Go walk around the motel, the block, whatever. He'll find you.' Jill left, needing no compulsion. When she was gone, I buried my face in my hands. â€Å"Oh God. Oh God. All this time, I denied it, but it's true: I am a murderer.' â€Å"Don't think about that yet,' said Sonya. Her take-charge attitude was almost comforting. Almost. It was easier to take orders than fend for yourself. â€Å"Deal with your guilt later. For now, we have to get rid of the body.' I uncovered my eyes and forced myself to look at Victor. Nausea welled up within me, and those crazy feelings spun even more out of control. I gave a harsh laugh. â€Å"Yes. The body. I wish Sydney was here. But we don't have any magic potions. The sun won't destroy him. Weird, isn't it? Strigoi are harder to kill †¦ harder to kill, easier to clean up.' I laughed again because there was something familiar about my rambling †¦ it was like Adrian in one of his weird moments. Or Lissa when spirit had pushed her to the edge. â€Å"This is it, isn't it?' I asked Sonya. â€Å"The flood †¦ the flood you warned me about. Lissa escaped spirit, but it finally defeated me †¦ just like Anna †¦ just like the dream †¦ oh God. This is the dream, isn't it? But I won't wake up †¦' Sonya was staring at me, her blue eyes wide with †¦ fear? Mockery? Alarm? She reached out and took my hand. â€Å"Stay with me, Rose. We'll push it back.' A knock at the window startled us both, and Sonya let Jill and Dimitri in. â€Å"Where's Robert?' asked Sonya. Dimitri glanced down at Victor and then promptly looked away. â€Å"Unconscious, hidden in some bushes around the corner.' â€Å"Charming,' said Sonya. â€Å"Do you think that's smart? Leaving him?' He shrugged. â€Å"I figured I shouldn't be seen carrying an unconscious guy in my arms. In fact †¦ yes, I think we should just leave him there. He'll wake up. He's not a fugitive. And without Victor, he's †¦ well, not harmless. But less harmful. We can't keep dragging him with us anyway.' I laughed again, that laugh that seemed unhinged and hysterical even to me. â€Å"He's unconscious. Of course. Of course. You can do that. You can do the right thing. Not me.' I looked down at Victor. â€Å"†An animal,' he said. He was right. No higher reasoning †¦' I wrapped my arms around myself, my fingernails digging into my skin so hard they drew blood. Physical pain to make the mental pain go away. Wasn't that what Lissa had always said? Dimitri stared at me and then turned to Sonya. â€Å"What's wrong?' he demanded. I'd seen him risk his life over and over, but never, until now, had he truly looked afraid. â€Å"Spirit,' said Sonya. â€Å"She's pulled and pulled for so long †¦ and managed to hold it back. It's been waiting, though. Always waiting †¦' She frowned slightly, maybe realizing she was starting to sound like me. She turned to Jill. â€Å"Is that silver?' Jill looked down at the heart-shaped locket around her neck. â€Å"I think so.' â€Å"Can I have it?' Jill undid the clasp and passed it over. Sonya held it between her palms and closed her eyes a moment, pursing her lips. A few seconds later, her eyes opened, and she handed me the locket. â€Å"Put it on.' Just touching it gave me a strange tingling in my skin. â€Å"The heart †¦' I looked at Dimitri as I fastened the clasp. â€Å"Do you remember that? â€Å"Where's the heart?' you asked. And here it is. Here it †¦' I stopped. The world suddenly became crisper. My jumbled thoughts slowly began to move back together, forming some semblance of rationality. I stared at my companions–the living ones–truly seeing them now. I touched the locket. â€Å"This is a healing charm.' Sonya nodded. â€Å"I didn't know if it'd work on the mind. I don't think it's a permanent fix †¦ but between it and your own will, you'll be okay for a while.' I tried not to focus on those last words. For a while. Instead, I tried to make sense of the world around me. Of the body in front of me. â€Å"What have I done?' I whispered. Jill put her arm around me, but it was Dimitri who spoke. â€Å"What you had to.'