The Value Of Health Across Cultures

Evaluating the Value of Health and Cultural Heritage across Cultures Culture and values are standards that influence and shape human behaviors, decision making processes, personal relationships, and status of health and happiness. The United States has become a symbol of a multicultural society representing many different ethnicities and minority groups. As our culture continues to grow rapidly so is the necessity to increase awareness, understanding, and tolerance of these diverse groups. As health care providers we must understand the basic needs of our patients, whether they are black, white, green or purple, and the repercussions of prejudices and cultural insensitivities. Health care providers need to become responsive to the cultural values of different peoples and how these could augment effective and humanistic care delivery (Edelman, 2010). The Heritage Assessment Tools allows you to identify individual cultural beliefs and behaviors. These beliefs have shaped how we value health, the ways we maintain our health and the practice/acceptance of modern medicine. For example, if a patient identifies those relationships with family members or members from the community are highly valued then the nurse should consider lenience with the hospital visiting policy to meet the patients needs to maintain and restore their health. Many cultures value a caring holistic approach to medicine that incorporates family and supports systems to promote healing. Some cultures do not emphasis the practices of western medicine and utilize healers like priests, herbalists, or scientologist. By applying a heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of the patient as well as maintaining an open and understanding relationship of their culture, nurses can work to meet their needs in a holistic approach. How we have learned to take care of ourselves or our â€Å"health maintenance â€Å"varies from culture to culture. I grew up in a culture where regular exercise, watching what you ate, and â€Å"being thin is in† were highly valued. I and most of my friends had retainers and braces to maintain the image of good health with a picture perfect smile. As kids we were all active and parents provided healthy snacks as well as well balanced meals. Fast food and take-out was a once-in-a-while indulgence. For ethnic groups, health as a value may have different definitions and their behavior may reflect this(Edelman, 2010). I interviewed a Hispanic female and her family about how her culture has influenced her maintenance of day-to-day health. Family is an important dynamic in her culture, putting everyone else in her family before herself. Her family has influence of her everyday decision making, sure her children and grown parents are always well taken care of. Diet is based on being able to provide for the family more than the value of the foods nutrients. She admits that fast food is a cheaper option for feeding her children than stocking up on healthy produce at the grocery store. Her home is shared with her husband, four children, and her two parents, so they are all involved in taking care of one another. I also had the opportunity to meet with a family that traveled from Saudi Arabia to receive cardiac evaluation and treatment at the world renowned Texas Medical Center. The adult male patient as his wife were very private and did express interest in developing personal relationship with their nurse, so most my assessment was made from conversations held with their daughter a practicing physician in the same hospital. She told me that health maintenance is highly valued and the government provides a number of health care services to the public. Those who can afford it will travel elsewhere for expert opinions and cutting edge treatments. In regards to their routine values of health maintenance, their family practices and beliefs are based from Islamic religion and culture. Islam promotes heath and wellness with meditation, proper diet, regular activity and cleanliness (bathing, fragrance, attention to hair and nails). Lastly, their culture strictly dictates the foods they eat as well as what is considered toxic or harmful to their health. The ways of preventing disease or â€Å"health protection† has made an impact on health care. Growing up with access to health insurance, routine doctors visits, vaccinations, and educational programs to promote heath and wellness such as the D. A. R. E program was normal practice. One of the biggest obstacles for the Hispanic family was not having access to affordable health are. Health care insurance is not affordable for many poor Americans, whose priorities are the basic needs of health including food, clothing, and shelter rather than health care(Edelman, 2010). They admit to not having good preventative health care like routine physicals, medication compliance, attending follow-up appointments, and regula r dental hygiene. Being hospitalized is often a last resort because of the finical stress is can cause because of lack of health insurance. In contrast to the Hispanic American family, the Saudi family viewed out of pocket expenses a low priority when considering health protection. This patient needed to have heart surgery and with support from immediate and extended family members in the United States, some practicing as physicians, this was the best option. Good health is often a sign of affluence and high social status. How individuals deal with disease and restore health is based from cultural beliefs and learned experiences. Learning from personal experience with my family members being hospitalized and being treated for disease, we are aggressive with treatment and expect the information and results quickly. We expect to have everything done to treat illness and when modern medicine fails we have a hard time accepting that reality because of our faith in the health care system, doctors, and nurses. The Islamic culture also encourages individuals to seek medical help and treatment. Religion plays a huge part in healing and health restoration. I witnessed my patient and his wife praying regularly. Family is also key for this culture, demonstrating strong ties with both immediate and extended family at the bedside involved in regular discussion with physicians and other health care providers. Being able to afford out of pocket expenses hey expect the highest level of expertise and excellence in care from their health care providers. Sometimes family members will contribute to these expenses. Hispanic cultures typically cater towards men, children, and the elders in the household. This Hispanic American female admits that even immediately after having her fourth baby, she was still the primary care giver to her children and homemaker/care taker of the household. Also, she admits that even though not having regular access to medical care this does not influence how she provides attention and nurtures her family members during times illness. Her culture has a strong emphasis on family and religion as well as practicing traditional home remedies. Being surrounded by family and prayer helps her and her family in times sickness and promotes healthy recovery. Based on the three different cultures evaluated there is one strong common value, family. Health traditions and beliefs are greatly influenced from learned family practices as well as from influential support systems. This century will continue to be a time of great challenges as the population of the U. S. continues to be a nation of diverse peoples(Edelman, 2010). Nurses continue to make many positive moves toward understanding culturally diverse populations (Edelman, 2010). As we have learned, culture is a very unique and complex set of values. By being aware of cultural differences and gaining cultural knowledge nurses can help promote and ensure a healthy society.

Cost Behavior and Allocation Essay

Analyze the complexity of cost behaviors in health care organizations and describe how costs are classified according to their relationship with volume. Health services managers are vitally interested in how costs are affected by changes in volume. Before costs can be managed, one must have an understanding of how and why costs are being incurred. For, example medications dispensed from the pharmacy are variable costs items since the more often medications are dispensed to the patient, the higher to the total medication costs (Lang, 2012). In this example the cost is driven by the prescription of the medication for the patient, which leads to dispensing the medication and incurring the cost. If the medication is not prescribed the total cost would be zero. The salary of the Director of the Pharmacy is a fixed cost, at least over the short run because that person is paid the same salary regardless of how many, or how few, prescriptions they fill. The text defines the relationship between an organization’s total costs and volume as cost behavior or underlying cost structure, is used by mangers in planning, control, and decision making. The primary reason for defining and organization’s underlying cost structure is to provide healthcare managers with a tool for forecasting cost and profits at different volume levels (Gapenski, 2012). The cost structure of both fixed and variable costs- that is some of the costs are expected to be volume sensitive and some are not- is typical in healthcare organizations. Total variable costs increase or decrease proportionately as volume changes, but variable cost rate remains constant as long as volume remains within the relevant range. Fixed, costs, in contrast to total variable costs, remain unchanged as the volume varies. The Academy of Healthcare Management Journal states, when attempting to improve profitability by decreasing or controlling costs, cost behavior is particularly important. If activities are limited or decreased to lower variable costs without consideration of fixed costs profits may actually decrease. In conclusion, total costs are merely the sum of the two. Because total variable costs are tied to volume, total variable costs increase as the volume increases even though fixed costs remain constant. Discuss the importance of cost allocation and how it may be leveraged by health care organizations. Cost allocation is essentially a pricing process within the organization whereby managers allocate the costs of one department to other departments. Cost allocations within healthcare organizations must establish prices that proxy those that would be set under market conditions. Costs within a health services organization must be allocated. Overhead costs of the business, such as those incurred by administrators, facilities management personnel, financial staffs, and housekeeping and maintenance personnel must be allocated to those departments that generate revenues for the organization (Gapenski, 2012). The goal of cost allocation is to assign all of the costs of an organization to the activities that cause them to be incurred. Health services managers track and assign costs by individual patient, physician, diagnosis, reimbursement contract, and so on. Much of the motivation for more accurate cost allocation systems comes from the recipients of overhead services. Mangers at all levels within health services organizations are under pressure to optimize economic performance, which translates into reducing costs. To assign costs from one activity to another, two important elements must be identified: a cost pool and a cost driver. A cost pool is a grouping of costs that must be allocated, while a cost driver is the criterion upon which the allocation is made. Clearly, the proper allocation of overhead costs is essential to good decision making within health services organizations. In conclusion, revenues must exceed the total of both fixed costs and variable costs combines in order for an organization to be profitable.

The Byronic Hero Destiny and Russian Romanticism Essay Example

The Byronic Hero Destiny and Russian Romanticism Essay Example The Byronic Hero Destiny and Russian Romanticism Paper The Byronic Hero Destiny and Russian Romanticism Paper Essay Topic: Eugene Onegin Irena Curic dr. sc. Janja Ciglar-Zanic, red. prof. English Romanticism 08 January 2013 The Byronic Hero and Russian Romanticism Introduction George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, or simply Lord Byron, was a British poet of Scottish descent who is today considered to be the most influential British poet of the Romantic period (Catherine B. ONeill calls him the best-known nineteenth-century British poet outside England).His adventourous character and wild but appealing works made him famous throughout Europe. He died in Greece during the countrys war of Independence and became a legend. He was only 36 when he died but his influence was massive. His works, mostly Childe Harolds Pilgrimage and Don Juan, but also Mazeppa, the Corsair and the Prisoner of Chillon were read among the intelectual elite of the whole Europe and many poets and intelectuals became inspired to write their own works in style of Byron.It was the idea of national identity, so popular in the 19th century, that Byron s upported during his life, and the fact that he wrote about the exotic lands and their pains under the tyranny of the oppressors that made him especially popular in moulding of the new nations and their identities in southern and eastern Europe (Hocutt: Byrons influence as individual and author seemed always to have greater impact outside of England than within his prudish homeland. While imitators and admirers of Byron the individual and author could be found throughout Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, and Russia, little more than harsh criticism for his works and exile for his lifestyle emanated from his sometimes beloved, sometimes criticized native Britain, even after his death. ). Apart from his political influence, he was just as appealing to the youth who saw his quests and deeds as an impetus to rebel. In the eyes of his time, Byron was primarily looked upon as an outlaw, an immoral man. He had an affair with his stepsister and was openly sceptic of religion and political institutions.His works were filled with descriptions of decandence and abomination. His demonic heroes with weak moral compass became iconic for the writers who would be influenced by Byron. Catherine B. ONeill wrote: Childe Harold took the world by storm because of many features that we now think of as characteristic of Romantic poetry: the subjective experience of the natural wor ld, the high degree of identification between the author and the hero, the motif of a journey that is simulatneously literal and psychological, and, primarily, the isolated heros mysterious disenchantment and heartache. The Byronic hero had become a specific literary type of hero who very much resembles the writer alone. It is usually a young male (although there are female examples) who is constantly bored and unsatisfied. His spleen drives him to a constant search for new sensations, which rarely give him pleasure. He prefers solitude to the company of others and feels much more connected to nature than to people: Now Harold finds himself at lenght alone, And bade to Christian tongues a long adieu; Now he adventurd on a shore unknown, Which all admire, but many dread to view:His breast was armd `gainst fate, his wants were few; Peril he sought not, but neer shrank to meet, The scene was savage, but the scene was new; This made the ceaseless toil of travel sweet, Beat back keen winters blast, and welcomd summers heat. He finds particular characteristics of savageness to be more truthfull than society of his day which he finds corrupt and dishonest: The royal vices of our age demand A keener weapon, and a mightier hand. He takes great pleasure in satirizing contemporary events and social currents: Prepare for rhyme-I`ll publish, right or wrong: Fools are my theme, let Satire be my song. It is no secret that Byron shaped his demonic hero on his own character and his own experiences. The real background of his poems makes his scenes and adventures seem more vivid and close to the reader. So it is no wonder that his straightforward style and his hatred of censorship met with such international adoration. Byron in Russia When Byrons works conquered Europe, his influence very quickly reached Russia where his works, especially Childe Harolds Pilgrimage, inspired two of the greatest Russian Romantic writers – Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov. When his work came to Russia, it became an instant hit among Russian authors.Even the very young authors, who would later shape the Russian realism, like Turgenev, read and admired Byrons work. Daniel Hocutt writes that Most Russian writers viewed Byrons work in one of two ways: late sentimentalists admired his vivid and tender sensitivity; later Romantics emphasized their heros bleak colouring and rebellious passions . Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was the first Russian author to publicly praise Byron and openly imitate his style. E ugene Onegin: the first Russian Byronic hero? Alexander Pushkin was the first authentic Russian Romantic poet and the leader of the National Romantic movement.He appreciated Byron and used the motive of the Byronic hero in his best known work Eugene Onegin. Pushkin imitated high Byronism in his narrative poems and lyrics written in Southern Russia between 1820 and 1824 Readers compared Pushkins and Byrons lives, focusing on sexual scandal, exile, and advocacy for Greek and other nationalist movements. Pushkin briefly encouraged such comparisons, announcing in 1822 that his new poem-in-progress, Eugene Onegin, was in spirit of Don Juan, but he quickly backtracked when his satire suffered from comparison to Byrons. Eugene Onegin, the protagonist of the work, is a young man who suffers from the typical Romantic boredom, the spleen. The work begins when Eugene grows bored of St. Petersburg (city, the very place of corruption) and wants to run away from his life there. He has even grown t ired of women and has given up his books. After death of his uncle, he goes away to the countryside. There he meets a young woman Tatyana who falls in love with him. However, being a cold Romantic outsider, Eugene politely turns her down only to fall in love with her in the end of the story.But then it is her turn to turn him down because she has a husband and does not want to compromise her pride and reputation. Although Pushkin tried to make his main character resemble a Byronic hero (Eugene even has a picture of Byron on his shelf), when he gave him the power to confess his feelings and change his nature, he moved away from the original, thus creating a specific type of a Russian Romantic hero: a hero with pretensions to change his miserable destiny. A true Byronic hero would carry on with his fate, without trying to change it and would most certainly continue running away from his emotions.Byronic Hero of our Time Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was killed in a gun duel, much like his predecessor Pushkin, at an early age of 27. It is interesting that they both had their main characters fight duels in their books. Of course, Onegin and Pechorin both managed to save their lives. Mikhail Lermontov had a much more complicated relationship with his British idol. First, he admitted resemblance to Byron in his poem Dont think me worthy of pity and then stated that he is not Byron but a true Russian poet in his poem No, Im not Byron:No, Im not Byron; I am, yet, Another choice for the sacred dole, Like him a persecuted soul, But only of the Russian set. I early start and end the whole, And will not win the future days; Like in an ocean, in my soul, A cargo of lost hopes stays. Who, oh, my ocean severe, Could read all secrets in your scroll? Wholl tell the people my idea? Im God or no one at all! However, he is the Russian author who managed to come the closest to the original idea of a Byronic hero through the character of Pechorin in his work Hero of our Time.Although he made a whole list of Byronic references, such as doctor Verner having a limp, or Princess Mary reading Byron among other authors, it is the protagonist, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin that captur es our imagination from the first page. He suffers from spleen, enjoys danger and seduction of beautiful women. He does not do it purely for the fun, which we can clearly see from his journal, but is afraid of commitment and therefore runs away from his feelings.He chooses to stay unhappy in order to keep his freedom: Id make any sacrifice but thistwenty times I can stake my life, even my honor, but my freedom Ill never sell. Why do I prize it so much? What do I find in it? What am I aiming at? What have I to expect from the future? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Its some innate fear, an inexplicable foreboding . . . Conclusion Russia of the early 19th century was a gloomy and turbulent place. It was a time of growing nationalist ideas and revolutionary thoughts, a time of lord Byrons literary influence. Byrons struggles and support for national and regional independence movements influenced Decembrists and other revolutionaries in the 1820s. One such revolutionary was Alexander Pushkin, most famous of the Russian Romantic poets, who was exiled to his mothers estate as a result of his involvement in and support of the 1825 uprising. Pushkins impact on Russian Romanticism cannot be minimized, particularly as it relates to Mikhail Lermontov, the last famous Russian Romantic writer. Voraciously reading Byrons poetry and prose in the original, in translation, and in loose interpretation, these Russian writers dedicated themselves for over a decade to write as Byron wrote and to live as Byron lived. Both Pushkin and Lermontov thoroughly read and enjoyed Byrons work and each of them by being a bit of Byronic her oes themselves, helped to shape a new type of a Russian Romantic hero.

Are standards really necessary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Are standards really necessary - Essay Example The tasks in making the financial statement are becoming more and more complicated because of the changes in the disclosure and regulatory requirements. According to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) (2009), the interest on such regulation has given much attention because of the impact of the financial crisis, issues of accuracy and the increasing number of business and stakeholders today. If the increase of regulatory requirement is a meaningful improvement, then understanding on some of its aspects should be enumerated to see if the regulations have contributed to the problems, and whether companies and financial institutions could have acted more responsibly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thus this paper will give focus on whether standards are really necessary in the preparation of financial statements. It will also consider the question if the governing regulations are too much to be implemented. And lastly, whether the company is using the improved or the traditional way, the advantage and disadvantages will be tackled. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has drawn up and published a new set of accounting standards called the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which are now applied globally (Weets, n.d., p. 1). According to the International Accounting Standards Board (2007, p. 28), IFRS is developed by an open public observation that involves accountants and different financial statement users around the world. IFRS development and interpretations are all through an international due process. Authorities are establishing this heavy-handed and more complex approach because of the recent failures of regulation. Many countries including the 9,000 public companies in European Union, Middle East, Russia, China, Japan and Australia believe that this new regulation is the appropriate solution

Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 8

Ethics - Essay Example that there is only one right or better way to think about moral problems; â€Å"for example, the same figure can be seen as a square or a diamond, depending on its orientation in relation to a surrounding frame†¦a bird-watcher and a rabbit-keeper are likely to see the duck-rabbit figure in different ways, yet this difference does not imply that one way is better or a higher form of perceptual organization.† (p.229). Gilligan is imperative on the thinking that the conception of the moral domain is comprised of at least two moral orientations, and that these orientations raise new questions about observed differences in moral judgment and the disappointments to which they give rise. Factors such as the necessary distinction between differences in developmental stage and differences in orientation are strong issues in her discussion, and it is stated pronouncedly that her research on moral orientation derives from an observation which was made in the course of studying the relationship between moral judgment and action. Gilligan also speaks strongly about the issue of abortion, explaining that the language of the public abortion debate reveals a specific and significant justice perspective. â€Å"Whether the abortion dilemma is cast as a conflict of rights or in terms of respect for human life, the claims of the fetus and of the pregnant woman are balanced or placed in opposition.† (p.233) Gilligan uses various studies in her research and writing, in order to show the relation between the ethics of care and the issue of justice. One study of particular importance in this case is the one which two medical students were cast to each report a decision not to turn in someone who has violated the school rules against drinking, and who â€Å"cast their decision in different terms. One student constructs the decision as a net of mercy, a decision to override justice in light of the fact that the violator has shown ‘the proper degrees of contrition.’† (p.234). This study

The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake - Essay Example The Lamb is meek, vulnerable and harmless. The picture of the Lamb’s feeding â€Å"by the stream and o’er the mead† suggests God’s kindness in creation and echoes similar descriptions as seen in the Bible particularly Psalms 23, as well as the parables of Jesus. In the second stanza, Blake reminds the readers that the God who created the Lamb is also like the Lamb, considering that Jesus is known as the â€Å"Lamb of God.† The poem seems to be essentially about God’s love revealed through His care for The Lamb and the child and about the apparent paradox that God became both child and Lamb in coming, as Jesus, into the world. The image of a child is also associated with Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus shows a special preference for children. Likewise, the Bible depicts the childhood of Jesus, showing him to be guileless and vulnerable. â€Å"The Tyger† on the other hand is a poem that tells of the realities of life through the magnificence of a tiger. For generations, The Tyger has been interpreted differently but its fundamental meaning is the natural and creative energy of human life, an inspiring shape (â€Å"symmetry†) that no one should try to control. Blake’s poetry tells of the extremes of human experiences, which is richly portrayed in his poem, â€Å"The Tyger†. The tiger is fierce, active and predatory portraying the extremes of human experience. The poem encompasses the darkest forces of ignorance which are transcended by the divine, transcendental consciousness which combines both polarities of light and darkness. The questions presented in â€Å"The Tyger† are directed at the tiger as well as the reader. These are rhetorical questions because no answer is given and answers to these questions are far from obvious. Take into consideration the answer to the first question which may be â€Å"God†

Society’s Curiosity of the Unknown Essay Example for Free

Society’s Curiosity of the Unknown Essay Whenever I am walking home alone, I am always paranoid that something is going to happen to me. I start to think about all of the horrible possibilities that could occur and I always feel as if I am being followed or watched. Even walking in an empty parking lot to my car scares me because I have a fear of being abducted. I, along with most people, was raised to be cautious of things like that. I was taught to always think of the worst thing that can happen, to be safe and to prevent the worst from happening. I am scared of death because I do not know what will happen after that. American’s obsession with the dark side comes from the curiosity of death. This obsession came from the first death of a human being. That was when curiosity about death and the afterlife originated. People do not know what happens after death and we are interested to find out more. Americans today come across the dark side every day whether they realize it or not. Inquisitiveness about the dark side appears in books, movies, and television shows. The piece â€Å"Zombies: why are we so obsessed?† by Eric G. Wilson, refers to all of the zombie and vampire themed books, movies, and television shows in today’s society. â€Å"True Blood,† â€Å"The Walking Dead,† and â€Å"Twilight† are some very well-known examples he uses to capture our attention and also to answer the question why we are so obsessed with death. â€Å"Maybe our obsession with zombies is a reflection of our fear of a pandemic virus that will transform us into flesh-starved corpses. Or perhaps we are afraid of a global financial collapse that would result in cannibalistic hordes haunting burned-out cities,† (1) wrote Wilson. The author of this article does not even know the answer, but that is precisely the point, the answer to the afterlife will forever remain unknown. The answer to our obsession is simply mere curiosity about death and the afterlife. These shows are produced to entertain and meant to provide us some sort of relief to the lingering questions we ask ourselves every day, even though the answers are not concrete, whatsoever. Finding answers to these questions is why there are so many artistic pieces centered around the dark side which began the gothic era, circa mid 12th century. Edgar Allen Poe is one of the first American authors of gothic literature. The reason Poe’s writing is so intriguing is because it relates to society’s curiosity or apprehension of death. His writing is so interesting because any revulsion the reader has about death or the afterlife is diluted because they are experiencing death through someone else’s eyes and not their own. There is nothing more intriguing than the unknown of the afterlife. There seems to be some sort of an addiction to receiving any knowledge or vindications about death or the afterlife. We can get these answers from reading gothic literature such as this by Poe. Poes writing is popular because of how it relates to our fear of the unknown. Americans are often obsessed with the dark side of human nature which is a reflection of this fear. The Masque of the Red Death is one of the many famous pieces of gothic literature written by Poe. The short story takes place in Europe around the time of the 14th century where an epidemic of the Red Death, has killed off half of the population. Prince Prospero shut himself away in his castellated abbey with seven irregular rooms representing the seven stages of life. The most eastern room was light blue, emphasizing life and the subsequent rooms ranged from purple, green, orange, white, violet, and finally, the most western room was black. The black room symbolizes the gothic fear of the end of life. The sun rises in the blue east room, representing the beginning of the day and the beginning of life, and the sun sets in the black west room, signifying the end of the day or end of life. Prospero decides to invite the healthiest aristocrats to a masquerade ball in his castle. He and his guests foolishly feel safe and protected from the disease and death because the abbey is surrounded with â€Å"a strong and lofty wall with gates of iron.† Once inside, no one can escape and no one can get in. In the black room, there is unusual dà ©cor. There is an ebony clock, which symbolizes death. It chimes each hour to remind the partiers of the fear they have about the ending of their lives. The masqueraders were considered grotesque. Towards the end of the story, an uninvited guest representing the red death, who is dressed as a corpse, interrupts the party. This creature walks from room to room and past the guests to the black room, the most western room. No one goes near the shrouded man except Prince Prospero who is following him angrily and â€Å"he bore aloft a drawn dagger.† He confronts the red death. Shortly afterwards there is a scream and Prince Prospero falls to the floor dead. The figure stands in the shadow of a clock and the partiers realize that there is no life form behind this mask. When they realize that, one by one the guests start to die. Poe ends the story with the irony of death being inevitable as much as Prospero and the partiers tried to avoid it. When the ebony clock symbolizing death chimes every hour, the guests stop everything they are doing in order to reflect on death. â€Å"While the chimes of the clock rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation† (2) When the clock echoed its chimes, the people who were the most alive even took time to bring their activities to an end in order to think about death and what happens when their life ends. The oldest of the guests were confused, putting their hands on their heads to consider the lives they have lived and what would happen if and when it all concluded. The guests of the party focus on running away or avoiding death. They do not want to come into contact with it because they do not know what will happen to them. This is why when the clock chimes, everyone goes silent and dazes off trying to view their beliefs on what death would really be like. They also come to the realization when the clock chimes that someday, their lives will end. It is almost as if everybody goes through a tempora ry transformation when the clock echoes and chimes. They take a step back and face the reality that they cannot hide from death forever. However, when the clock stops echoing, these thoughts are diminished and everyone resumes their previous activities overlooking the thoughts they just had, as if nothing had even happened. The guests continue to party with laughter filling the room. Later towards midnight, which is also the end of the day, symbolizing the end of life, this masked stranger suspends the party. The partiers immediately go quiet when they come to this realization that there is something bizarre about this figure. â€Å"There were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2) The partiers discuss in a quiet manner what they think this unwelcoming intruder could represent out of curiosity . They do not gaze away from it, attempting to discover the true inscrutability of this unknown figure. At first the guests are disturbed that something like this would even occur in a ball that clearly reprimanded anything to do with death. They express disapproval and disgust when they first perceive this distinguishing character. However, they then begin to communicate to one another in a hushed tone what they think this craze may be. The guests do not fail to glance away or stop conversing endeavoring to figure out what this spiritual disposition represents out of their curiosity of the unidentified and the unknown. Poe’s gothic literature is not the only piece that represents society’s obsessive curiosity about death. William Faulkner is an American author of gothic literature in the 20th century that is also well known for his gothic writing style. Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is a gothic horror story set in the antebellum South. The story is told in retrospect about a spinster named Emily Grierson. It begins and ends at her funeral and the narrator moves through her life from about the age of 30 until the age of 74. Emily is an eccentric aristocrat who lives with a very controlling father, who imprisons her in their home. At about the age of 30 her father dies but she is so eccentric and resistant to change that she refuses to accept his death for 3 days. â€Å"She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days† (3) Her father left her only the house, and no money. She is in denial of the fact and refuses to accept the deterioration of her social status. One day, Homer Barron, a northern construction foreman and self-proclaimed lifelong bachelor, comes into her life. In spite of the fact that she is penniless, she shows a condescending attitude toward him and feels that she is superior. â€Å"Because the ladies all said, â€Å"Of course Grierson would not think seriously of a northerner, a day laborer.†Ã¢â‚¬  (3) Eventually, she falls in love, but her love is expressed to Homer in the same way her father’s love was shown to her. Love equals control. Her tragic determination to keep Homer in her life and stop time leads her to murder the man. Years later when she dies at the age of 74, neighbors attend her funeral on the pretense of showing respect. However, it is their morbid curiosity that drives them to see her and her house. After her burial, the decomposed body of the entrapped Homer Barron is found in what appears to be a macabre bridal chamber and a grotesque shrine. Death and denial are recurring themes throughout the story. The death of the two men Emily loved most, her father and Homer, her denial of their deaths, her den ial of her diminished status, and finally, her own death weave through the story from beginning to end. Emily’s constant need for attention and approval lead her to be curious about not only death, but life as well. When she meets Homer in the story, she accepts carriage rides from him even when she hardly knows him and someone in her place typically would not associate with a northern laborer. An outcome of her father’s death is Emily’s newfound freedom and her birth of curiosity to what she has been missing out on in life. When she falls in love with Homer, she takes after her father and shows her affection peculiarly by controlling everything he does. Her cousins come to stay with Emily and as a result of this, Homer moves out. Emily then starts to relive her fear of being alone and deprived of attention. When Homer returns, Emily poisons him. Her curiosity about what her life would be like without him drives her to do this and he fear underscores her curiosity. To ensure that this never happens, she kills him. Curiosity about death appears throughout gothic lit erature from past to present but it appears in modern times too. Long Island Medium is a television program on TLC about a woman named Theresa Caputo, who supposedly can come into contact with the dead. The spirits speak to her to reassure those who were left behind of whatever concerns them. This provides closure to the people that have lost those loved ones. Long Island Medium is a well-liked show because it provides people with answers about those they have lost such as if they are okay, if they are in heaven, and what they are feeling. Curiosity about loved ones people have lost is the reason for the show’s popularity and it shows us how society is obsessed with the dark side. â€Å"I have been channeling spirit for 11 years now, and everyone wants to know what happens when they die,† says Caputo. In regular episodes of Long Island Medium, Theresa Caputo will be doing necessary daily activities and she will come into contact with the spirits. While at the supermarket, Caputo encounters two women and one of them has a baby in a st roller. She approaches them regularly. â€Å"My name is Theresa and I’m a medium,† she says with a smile on her face. She then goes on to the woman with the baby that she feels that there is energy between a mother and a father having a recognition and excitement towards the baby. She then goes on to ask the mother of the baby if her parents had died. The woman, Vanessa, from East Meadow, tells her story about how both her parents had passed away and she never got to say goodbye. â€Å"Just know that your dad is stepping forward along with your mom acknowledging the birth of your beautiful son,† she says politely. Vanessa smiles somewhat morosely and manages an â€Å"okay.† Caputo persists with telling Vanessa that her parents are watching over the baby by the rocking chair in the baby’s room. Vanessa’s mother’s spirit tells Caputo of the baby’s yellow room in their new house and Caputo says this to Vanessa. Vanessa and her Aunt smile a nd laugh in disbelief. â€Å"Just know that her soul is with you because she says you don’t feel her,† Caputo goes on. Vanessa said she never felt that her mother was with her spiritually. â€Å"I always say that. I can’t believe you just said that,† says Vanessa. â€Å"Your mother is leaning over and kissing you and saying that she’s proud of you and that you’re going to be an amazing mom.† Vanessa nods and begins to cry. It seemed as if she was waiting for some kind of answers for years. She was curious to find out vindications to how her parents were and what they thought of her. Almost every human being has experienced death in some way. An inference on why this show is so notorious is because of the human intellect that there is an afterlife, but it is just unknown. Society preys on any type of justification on what happens after death. There are other modern gothic shows on television that show society’s curiosity about the afterlife and the unknown, but in fictional forms. Pretty Little Liars is a show on ABC family about four girls who are trying to solve the mystery of the death of their closest friend Allison. Shortly after the confirmation of Allison’s death, all four girls start to get disturbing texts and messages from an anonymous person who calls themselves â€Å"A† Their deceased friend Allison was the only one they told all of their secrets to. They figured since she was dead that all of their secrets were safe. However, â€Å"A† knows everything there is to know about all four of the girls’ lives. Every situation that happens to them whether it is financial, romantic, or criminal, A is the first person to know about it. The girls reunite and figure out that they all receive these messages from A. They try to unfold the mystery behind A along with trying to configure the clandestine of their friend Allison’s death. They start to wonder if this A is really Allison and if she is still alive. Attempting to unravel this enigma leads them into life threatening positions which change their reputations and self-confidence. The obsession in finding out the unknown of what happened to their friend and what happens to them in the result of trying to solve this mystery is the consequences of their simple curiosity. In the beginning of this hit series, the girls’ beloved friend Allison, whom they confided in, mysteriously disappeared. Questioning of her disappearance was the uproar of the town. Shortly afterwards, the police found her dead body. When all of the girls start receiving the same, eerie text messages, with information that only Allison knew of them, they start to question if Allison is really dead, or if her spirit is within the messages. Their curiosity of the unknown leads them to questioning what really happened to their friend. If the inhuman had no sense of curiosity, they would not find themselves caught up in the drama an anonymous figure is trying to provoke. Their curiosity leads to this obsession of finding out everything there is to know about their friend’s death and what really happened to her. If society was not curious about the afterlife and death, we would not have all of these books, stories, television shows or movies revolving around the dark side. The essence of mystery is what attracts society to creating any source of material to find any information. Curiosity is simply in our nature. If there were no curiosity, billions of dollars would not be made in trying to provide people with some sort of answers to what they are seeking. Curiosity birthed America’s obsession with the dark side.