Abstract This paper analyzes seven types of sea creatures within four subclasses. It presents and discusses classes of fish, shellfish, cephalopods and cartilaginous sea creatures. It then looks at each class to determine the seven types of edible sea creatures. The paper describes culinary considerations that are taken into account with each class and subclass of edible sea creature.
From the Paper "Under the cartilaginous category are subclasses of Chondrichthyes, Batoidea, and Pristiformes. The Chondrichthyes has two additional subclasses under cartilaginous fishes: Holocephali and Elasmobranchii. They seem to have popped up on Earth over 450 million years ago having no true bone but have tremendous cartilage and a distinctive jaw. The Holocephili are considered chimaeras. The Elasmobranchi are considered sharks and rays. They can be harmless and is used for fishing sport or commercially. The Batoidea are rays have gill slits, which are alongside the fin and attached to the head near the orbit. They are flat and are considered boneless skeleton with a sturdy expandable substance. They have no dorsal fins and have crushing teeth to eat mollusks and anthropods. The Pristiformes has a saw-like snout and the teeth are entrenched. These cartilaginous fish are shark-like with two dorsal fins and a caudal fin. In addition, the saw captures and kills smaller fishes and also dig up covered crabs and bivalves. The female has a covering over its snout, which avoids injury during birth (Jobling, 2004, p. 175-322)."
Abstract This paper discusses Bigfoot-the legendary, giant ape-like creature. The stories and evidence in this paper are provided by coach David Wright, a zoology and biology teacher by trade and a legitimate Bigfoot researcher who is affiliated with the Bigfoot Field Research Organization. The paper describes the creature and tells us its place of abode and that it has been in existence since the mid 19th century. In addition, the paper describes a few encounters with Bigfoot as well as video evidence.
From the Paper "Many footprints are found each year by Bigfoot researchers. When Sasquatch footprints are found, scientist use a method called casting to preserve and better their research. Casting is the process of manufacturing in which a liquid substance is poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then the liquid is allowed to solidify. The solid casting is then broken out to complete the process. Casting is most often used for making complex shapes that would be otherwise difficult or uneconomical to make by other methods. Casting is a six thousand year old process. The oldest surviving casting is a copper frog from Thirty two hundred BC. There have been many casts made from Sasquatch (Wright, David). Scientists have made casts of many body parts including feet, hands, knuckles, buttocks, and even whole body imprints. Footprint cast have been popping up individually for decades and covering miles (Murphy 141). A series of nine Sasquatch footprints were casted after the Patterson - Gimlin film. Some casts from this series showed a lack of arch in the middle of the foot, indicating an opposite flexibility in that part of the foot. Also there were several half-tracks casted, meaning the Bigfoot had been running because it's heel never touched the ground (131). There have also been hand, knuckle, and buttock imprints that comply with Sasquatch tracks or sightings. In the year two thousand Richard Noll, Matt Moneymaker, and several other investigators went on a Bigfoot expedition. While on their hunt they discovered a half body imprint of Sasquatch close to Skookum Meadow in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington (Coleman 17). "If authentic, noted Benjamin Radford, editor of the Skeptic Inquirer, the cast would be 'arguably the most significant find in the past two decades'" (17). They arranged a mud trap, set out some food, and played sound recordings of what was said to be a Sasquatch call. They received responses to their call. Animals took their food and tracks of coyotes, bears, deer, and elk showed up in their mud trap. Then they found a large imprint which was later decided to be a Sasquatch imprint (21)."
Tags: legend, creature, encounters, Bigfoot, footprints, giant, ape
Reviews Virginia Anderson's "Creatures of Empire", which discuses the problems of the coexistence of the English and Indians in early colonial America.
1,360 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 0 sources, 2007, $ 45.95
Abstract This paper explains that Virginia Anderson's "Creatures of Empire", which explores the relations between English settlers and Indians in early colonial America, argues about the significant part English animals, especially cattle and pigs, played in advancing colonization. The author points out that Anderson believes that these animals, as tools of settlement, succeeded in complicating relations between natives and colonists because they forced adaptation and change on the native peoples previously content without them. The paper concludes that Anderson wrote that the friction between these two peoples progressively increased, aided in large part by disputes over domesticated animals, which led eventually to the outbreak of violence in the mid 1670s.
From the Paper "Informed by pretentious attitudes, settlers assumed that the obvious benefits of husbandry regarding livestock and farming, just like civility and Christianity, would work as a testament to themselves, convincing the Indians quite effortlessly of their superior nature. Wholly champions of Indian adoption of husbandry practices in favor of a Christian life, even when small disputes played out, the English solution typically involved an attempt at compromise with the Indians while continuing efforts to impress upon them husbandry."
Tags: husbandry christian dominion free-ranging, cultural identity
Abstract This paper discusses and reviews the 1994 film, "Heavenly Creatures," by Peter Jackson. It discusses the plot of the film and discusses the visuals and the images conveyed in the opening sequences and how they contribute greatly to the underlying sense of deviance and the nature of the lesbian relationship at the heart of the film. The paper specifically focuses on the relationship of the two girls in the film.
From the Paper "Indeed, the way the two girls move together once they meet suggests a growing obsession that is not entirely explained by reference to shared experiences or to agreement on how wonderful Mario Lanza is. Throughout the film, there is a strong sense of a deeper attraction that cannot be explained except in sexual terms, even if the girls themselves never think in that way and if those around them also do not see the meaning of this attraction. Queer deviance in that sense has to be imposed by later observers, meaning the audience for the film, because that leap in thinking was not taken by the society in which the girls lived. What the film suggests is that this leap would have been made had people known more about the situation at the time."
This paper discuses Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", not as a romantic condemnation of science but rather as a condemnation of man's desire to know and control the supernatural.
Abstract This paper explains that "Frankenstein", written by Mary Shelley in the first decades of the nineteenth century, is the story of man's desire to transcend his own limited and fallible nature and a warning of the suffering and punishment that comes from that effort. The author points out a dichotomy in "Frankenstein", the division between the natural and the unnatural, between what is possible to man and what is impossible--if Victor represents the unnatural, then his creature embodies the natural. The paper relates that the conflict within Victor and between the creator and the creature, is brought most sharply into focus during the creation of the she-creature. When the creature wishes for nothing but love and companionship, it demands a help-mate and threatens to unleash its fury on all those dear to Victor if its desire is not met.
From the Paper "Clearly, Shelley's warning is against meta-humanistic and not scientific knowledge. Even if we were to assume that her understanding of science had been so naive as to equate it with supernatural omnipotence, her understanding of recent history could not have been so fragmented. It is likely that Frankenstein's creature represents the chaos and turmoil that sprang from the French Revolution. It is significant that Shelley's novel takes place during the 1790's and yet there is no mention of this major event. Still more important is her brief allusion to the English revolt a century and a half earlier."
Abstract This paper looks at the main characters of the books "Harry Potter", "The Wonderful World of Oz" and "The Hobbit". It argues that each of these characters are "unlikely heroes" which makes the story even more charming for young readers. These heroes are compared to each other.
From the paper:
"At the beginning of the Harry Potter saga, the reader is introduced to the boy who will become the epicenter of the Hogwarts world as a small, scarred baby nestled in the arms of a large, bury and uncouth gamekeeper.
Although the image of Dorothy Gale has largely been fixed in the world's mind as the luminous Judy Garland, crooning ?Somewhere Over the Rainbow,? in the actual first book in the Oz saga, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, the reader's first vision of Dorothy is somewhat different. In the book, Dorothy Gale is introduced as a poor, young girl on a depleted dust bowl farm in the middle of Kansas during difficult economic times. The land is flat and dry and her world is flat and dry.
The fantastic world of Middle Earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien is populated by creatures such as elves, wizards, and trolls. Yet the central, saving figure of his first book The Hobbit, the saving sort of creature who will take over the function of hero in the rest of the novels in The Lord of the Rings series is that of a Hobbit. A Hobbit is a small, furry, frequently hungry creature who at first seems to bear little resemblance to the ethereal elves or the wise wizards such as Gandalf. Hobbits have not even been awarded one of the great rings in the division of power that in Middle Earth. Yet it is a Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who ultimately gains control over the ring that shall rule them all."
Abstract This paper discusses how the three main narrators of Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" are utterly isolated. It looks at how Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the Creature are all victims of loneliness and rejection. It discusses how Victor and Walton choose to be detached from the outside world. Walton, looking for a passage through the North Pole, and Victor's dedication to a science revelation, leaves them both alone and surrounded by controversy. It also explores how the Creature is abandoned and forced to be on his own and how this isolation from Victor and the family in the cottage is the fuel for his murderous nature. It shows how Walton, Frankenstein, and the Creature are three characters that are removed from society and loved ones throughout the novel and, ironically, end together in each other's company at the North Pole.
From the Paper "Victor Frankenstein appears to have been unattached through out his life. During his childhood he was always reading, his thirst for knowledge then is the same obsession that would eventually damn him. While he was creating the monster, he was cut of from the rest of the world while he concentrated on his own ego and scientific development. He, like Walton, did not notice that he was alone. He could only see the success and contributions that he was insistent on completing. Once the creature is finished and alive, Victor immediately regrets his action from the sight of this monster before him. He runs out into the streets, leaving behind the only body that he had been with for months."
Abstract This paper discusses the common themes in mythology reflecting the fears, emotions and flaws of the human mind as well as the classic struggle against horrible creatures with the power and potential to destroy those who are unfortunate enough to cross paths with the beasts. The paper specifically focuses on the mythological story of "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. It discusses not only Moby Dick as a horrible creature, but also the obsession that Ahab has with the whale and his view of it as the root of all evil in the world.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Ahab's Obsession Explained
What Moby Dick Represents Symbolically
Moby Dick as Mythological Creature Conclusion
From the Paper "More than just a whale, even the most horrible whale that ever existed, Moby Dick symbolizes much more in this story. Again, Ahab has made the whale the symbol of all of the problems he has ever encountered, and feels that by killing the whale, he will gain true emotional freedom. Obviously, it is impossible for a whale to have caused all of these problems for a human being, but in portraying the whale this way, Ahab is also shown as a symbol in himself. In this instance, Ahab can be viewed as all of the hatred and ignorance of man, represented in one physical being. If, as is intended, the story of "Moby Dick" is to be interpreted as mythology, then Ahab can be seen as a symbol for negative human emotions and reactions to the world around them, just as much earlier tales of mythology used various gods and even inanimate objects or forces of nature to represent something else."
Abstract This paper discusses how the creature in "Frankenstein" is essentially human, but because of his frightening and dreadful exterior, his human qualities are overlooked. It looks at how, due to society's rejection of him, the main aspects of humanity are not accessible to the creature, and this eventually leads him down a path in which he has no control. It contends that because society deprived the monster of all humanity, they are the direct cause of the inhumane acts, which therefore, does not justify their rejection of him. He begins life as a benevolent creature who values human life but because of his eventual exile from society, turns into the monster everyone originally judges him to be.
From the Paper "Although the monster has all the intangible characteristics of humanity, it is the readily visible ones that keep society from recognizing them. There are many different qualities that make a human being different from other living organisms, the most obvious being the physical characteristics. If one were to classify being "human" by physical characteristics alone, then the monster in Frankenstein would be considered human, albeit a very ugly one. Ironically, the monster is made up of all human parts, but because these parts do not resemble those of other humans and are ugly, he is considered inhuman and cast out from society. Human beings have always feared the unknown, and because the monster is so different in appearance and essentially unfamiliar, the people's first reaction is therefore fear. "
Abstract The paper shows that one type of image that American poetess Emily Dickinson uses again and again is that of the insect or other tiny creature, with different insects being used as metaphors for love and sexual relations. The paper explains that the insect or other tiny creatures, such as the worm, seem to represent nature for Dickinson and particularly procreation and regeneration, perhaps because of a perceived role by insects in spreading seeds of plants and trees. Focusing on her poem "In Winter in My Room", a work which also reflects Dickinson's self-discovery and use of her immediate surroundings and experiences, the paper shows that Dickinson uses these images in different ways in her poetry.
From the Paper "Much of the myth of Emily Dickinson centers on the fact that she lived most of her life in one house, and the concept of home is central in her work and is also embodied with her ideas of love; love for family, love for nature, and love for life. Dickinson's image of home is turned into an image of herself--her home is her world, and she has a perception of the architecture of the home that is akin to her perception of the architecture of the body. The home and the elements that make up the home, including its garrets, chambers, rooms, corridors, doorways, and windows, project the form of the poet's mind and bring the reader closer to Dickinson's evolving sense of "place," as person and poet. Other images objectify her inner life, including all of her major concerns--self, family, love, loneliness, madness, renunciation, nature, God, death, immortality, eternity, and poetry itself. Here again, the "home" is invaded by, and even improved by, the role of the insect, representing the regenerative element in nature."
Abstract The following essay shows how the central character in Gardner's novel, Grendel, moves away from a nihilistic sense of self and toward what eastern philosophies describe as a sense of enlightenment.
From the paper:
?In his very early days, even the evil, man-eating Grendel was an innocent creature. "I lived those years, as do all young things, in a spell. Like a puppy nipping, playfully growling preparing for battle with wolves" (Gardner 16). It is only when he ventures into the world and gets caught in a tree from which he is unable to escape, that he experiences his first fears that the world is not as he had previously conceived it to be. With his foot stuck in the tree and a bull repeatedly charging, but missing him, Grendel comes to a realization. ?I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me or what I push against, blindly . . .? (Gardner 22). It is also during this particular scene that Grendel first comes into contact with men.?
Abstract Metaphors not only can be used as literal interpretation of events, but also have metaphorical meanings. A good example would be the black cat in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and how the narrator in the story implied throughout the story that the cat is of demonic creature. The black cat in the short story not only has a literal meaning of a normal household cat but also from a metaphorical-side of meaning, as the narrator's personal demon, which haunts him throughout the story and brings him to the point of near insanity.
From the Paper "The first mention of the black cat in the short story is when the narrator's wife noticed his partiality for domestic pets and "lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind" (894), which includes a black cat. In the beginning, the narrator describes the cat as a "large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to a degree" (894). When he describes the cat in this way, the narrator gave us his view of the cat as an everyday, normal household cat that people who have had an encounter with cats can feel a real connection to. Even though some people might have the superstitious belief that an entirely black cat might be a minion of the underworld or a witch in disguise which his wife did when she "made frequent allusions to the ancient popular notion" (894), the narrator tries his best to also show that this is a normal cat like any other. The narrator also gives the pet the name of Pluto, which is the name for the god of the underworld in Roman mythology. By doing this, he further connects the black cat of his to something from the underworld. He also calls what he sees when he went back to check out the ruins of his house that burned down as an apparition (895) and a "phantasm of the cat" (896). An apparition is a ghost or spirit and by following what the narrator describes, his view of the black cat goes from a normal household pet to something that haunts him for months. The loss of the cat not only brought him remorse at what he did to the cat when he hung it on a rope but also regret at the loss of a fine pet."
Abstract The main point of this paper is that consciousness is not something that is specific to human beings; but that man is likely the only species that truly does not understand the depth and intensity that animals possess in their special consciousness. It analyzes various ways in which man acts towards animals that shows how insensitive we are to other living creatures' consciousness - they are used for experiments, as a food source, in labor, etc. The paper argues humanity has taken advantage of the animal kingdom, while at the same time given nothing back in return with regard to a level of appreciation for nonhuman sentience. It examines research in the field which proves that animals do have definite levels of consciousness and different animal species are compared to each other to determine their level.
From the Paper "What is consciousness if not the awareness that one exists and, therefore, acts upon that knowledge as a means by which to maintain survival? Just because animals do not outwardly possess the prerequisites of consciousness set down by man's definition does not mean they do not exhibit their own consciousness in various other -- and significantly more elusive -- ways. When science has taken to task the issue of animal consciousness, it has typically pitted several species against one another as a means by which to establish some semblance of conscious behavior. Results from these types of research methods have consistently demonstrated a considerable divergence between and among species residing at varying rungs upon both the evolutionary and supraliminal ladders."
This paper is a comparison between the novel, "Frankenstein", written by Mary Shelly, and the creature's various incarnations in the entertainment world.
Abstract This is a discussion of one particular literary critic's view of Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein", in which she compares the literary work to the modern portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in modern science fiction films. In it, the writer discusses the reasons Mary Shelly's creature would not make a popular movie character.
From the Paper "Our society has long relied on entertainment venues to help individuals establish their normalcy. It is a sad fact that, in order to feel one's ?belongingness,? it is necessary to view those who don?t belong in order to make the comparison. Take, for example, the idea of a circus ?freak.? Those observers on the outermost fringes of society can look at them"the bearded lady, the little person, or, the most infamous of his kind, the Elephant man"and take comfort in the fact that, as weird or marginal or outcast as they are, there are still individuals out there who are more so. To humanize these individuals"or in fact, to see them as human at all"would defeat their entertainment value."
Abstract This paper asks whether "Frankenstein" can teach a lesson for modern man. If we, in our moral confusion, are immobilized ,and the creation takes on a life of it's own, will we inevitably be destroyed? Is this the inherent repugnance that is felt, but not capable of being elucidated in the matter of cloning? s the fear of a loss of dignity the same as the creature's irresponsible rejection by society? This paper shows how these questions act as catalyst for a comparison between the creation of life that was Frankenstein's fall and today's scenario of technological advancements that allow the creation of life through cloning.
From the Paper 'Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is the story of a man who creates a monster as both companion and prototype in his quest to bring back those he loves who have died. The monster, however, is lonely and rejected by society. Frankenstein is immobilized by his own moral dilemma as his creation escapes and brings about the destruction of Frankenstein, all that he loves and the world as he knows it. The monster abhors life and seeks revenge on his creator by killing. He then forces the doctor to make another creature so that he will no longer be alone. Frankenstein, fraught with guilt and the ethical implications, is not able to finish the new creature and destroys it, destroying the monster's only hope for a companion. The story ends with the monster destroying his creator and then himself."
