The Holocaust: Buchenwald :: European Europe History

The Holocaust: Buchenwald Introduction The Holocaust is the most horrifying crime against humanity of all times. "Hitler, in an attempt to establish the pure Aryan race, decided that all mentally ill, gypsies, non supporters of Nazism, and Jews were to be eliminated from the German population.He proceeded to reach his goal in a systematic scheme." One of his main methods of "doing away" with these "undesirables" was through the use of concentration camps. "In January 1941, in a meeting with his top officials, the 'final solution' was decided". The Jewish population was to be eliminated. In this paper I will discuss concentration camps with a detailed description of the worst one prior to World War II, Buchenwald. Concentration Camps The first concentration camps were set up in 1933. In the early days of Hitler's regime, concentration camps were places that held people in protective custody. Victims for protective custody included those who were either physically or mentally ill, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews and anyone against the Nazi regime. "Gypsies were classified as people with at least two gypsy great grandparents." By the end of 1933 there were at least fifty concentration camps throughout occupied Europe. "At first, the camps were controlled by the Gestapo (police), but by 1934 the SS, Hitler's personal security force, were ordered, by Hitler, to control the camps." Camps were set up for several different purposes. Some for forced labor, others for medical experiments and, later on, for death/extermination. Transition camps were set up as holding places for death camps. "Henrick Himmler, chief of the German police, the Gestapo, thought that the camps would provide an economic base for the soldiers." This did not happen. The work force was poorly organized and working conditions were inhumane. Therefore, productivity was minimal. Camps were set up along railroad lines, so that the prisoners would be conveniently close to their destination. As they were being transported, the soldiers kept telling the Jews to have hope. When the camps were finally opened, most of the families who were shipped out together ended up being separated. Often, the transports mirrored what went on in the camps; cruelty by the officers, near starvation of those being transported, fetid and unsanitary conditions on the trains. "On the trains, Jews were starved of food and water for days. Many people did not survive the ride to arrive at the camp." Jews were forced to obey the guards' orders from the moment they arrived at the camps.

The Model Theory Of Dedekind Algebras :: Algebra Mathematics Essays

The Model Theory Of Dedekind Algebras ABSTRACT: A Dedekind algebra is an ordered pair (B, h) where B is a non-empty set and h is a "similarity transformation" on B. Among the Dedekind algebras is the sequence of positive integers. Each Dedekind algebra can be decomposed into a family of disjointed, countable subalgebras which are called the configurations of the algebra. There are many isomorphic types of configurations. Each Dedekind algebra is associated with a cardinal value function called the confirmation signature which counts the number of configurations in each isomorphism type occurring in the decomposition of the algebra. Two Dedekind algebras are isomorphic if their configuration signatures are identical. I introduce conditions on configuration signatures that are sufficient for characterizing Dedekind algebras uniquely up to isomorphisms in second order logic. I show Dedekind's characterization of the sequence of positive integers to be a consequence of these more general results, and use configuration signat ures to delineate homogeneous, universal and homogeneous-universal Dedekind algebras. These delineations establish various results about these classes of Dedekind algebras including existence and uniqueness. 1. INTRODUCTION One of the more striking accomplishments of foundational studies prior to 1930 was the characterization of various mathematical systems uniquely up to isomorphism (see Corcoran [1980]). Among the first systems to receive such a characterization is the sequence of the positive integers. Both Dedekind and Peano provided characterizations of this system in the late 1880's. Dedekind's characterization commenced by considering B, a non-empty set, and h, a "similar transformation" on B (i.e. an injective unary function on B). In deference to Dedekind, the ordered pair B = (B,h) is called a Dedekind algebra. While the study of Dedekind algebras can naturally be viewed as a continuation of Dedekind's work, the focus here is different. Rather than investigating whether a particular Dedekind algebra (the sequence of the positive integers) is characterizable, we proceed by investigating conditions on Dedekind algebras which imply that they are characterizable. In the following we review some of the results obtained in the model theory of Dedekind algebras and discuss some of their consequences. These results are stated without proofs. Weaver [1997a] and [1997b] provide the details of these proofs. Attention is restricted here to the model theory of the second order theories of Dedekind algebras. Weaver [1998] focuses on the model theory of the first order theories of these algebras. 2. CONFIGURATIONS Given a Dedekind algebra B = (B,hB), AB is the transitive closure of hB.

Marina Gana Vida Essay

PROBLEM: What could Jonah Nobleza do to balance the employment and production of MGV? OBJECTIVES: To be able to find an alternative way to scale-up the production without sacrificing the mission of MGV. To prove to the investors that MGV is a successful social enterprise with viable economic. To be able to spot the best possible solution balancing employment vs. production. AREAS OF CONSIDERATION: Strengths The staffs of MGV are all professionally trained. Providing health products to consumers Promoting environmentally friendly fishing practices Well-developed facilities Provides healthy fish farming Women are skilled in fish processing Opportunities Providing business opportunities to Muslim women in Davao community Having more loyal customers Adopt technology Weakness Limited capacity of production Lack of investors Not using chemical pesticides that reduces the quantity of fish Threats Competition of other fishing industries Natural or man-made calamities ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION: Stick to their goals to hire more workers by adding another processing plant Merge machine labour and manual labour in production process Replace the manual labour into automated labour process while the workers will serve as indirect employees. RECOMMENDATION: The best alternative course of action is the second solution, which is merging of manual and automated labour process which is in production there will be a machine to help fasten their production for better labour process and to maintain the employment, there should also be a manual process for the workers to help manipulate and monitor the machines. CONCLUSION: We therefore conclude that our recommendation can help the company increase their production without eradicating workers in view of the fact that they can also help in monitoring the machinery to speed up production and we can assign them in manipulating the machines. Adding more machines also means hiring more workers and as a result of having faster production. As their goal is to provide employment to many poor household they were able to maintain their social enterprise.

Comerica Case Study Essay

The purpose of this paper is to recommend Jack to long the Comerica Incorporated (CMA) stock. In this paper we explain how banks operate and present a small back ground on the issue Comerica is facing. Then we more on to financial statements analysis of CMA, which does not present a very strong outlook of the company, but because of the financial crisis, whole industry is experiencing financial stress. Next, our valuation methods show that CMA is undervalued relative to its peers, and hence is a good company to invest in. BACKGROUND: Simply putting, banks accept deposits from public; keep some of those deposits with them and lend the rest to businesses and individuals. Businesses and individuals in turn pay interest on those loans and banks pay interest to depositors, making money from the spread. Nowadays banks operations have become more and more complicated, and hence more important to capital markets. To get in to more detail, banks’ profits come from the following several ways: Differences between Interest Rates on Loans and Deposits: As already explained Banks lend loans at the interest rates that are higher than the ones they pay for deposits. A large part of banks’ profits come from the spread between banks’ depositing and lending rates. Service Fees: Banks provide financial services to their clients and charge certain amount of fees. By charging fees for managing customers’ bank accounts and providing other financial services such as issuing letter of credits, banks create another source of income, known as noninterest income. Now banks’ services have also expanded into investment consulting and information disseminating. These services usually cost expensive fees. Financial Products: Banks provide financial products to help clients manage their property and generate noninterest income. A good example can be that banks sell mutual funds to their clients and gain income from both commissions and certain percentage of the funds’ returns. In addition, banks sometimes also act as  brokers and generate revenues from bid-ask spread. Investment: Some banks play an active role in venture capital industry. By making investments in promising small companies, banks earn the benefits like capital investors or buy-out funds do. In addition, banks can also explore profit opportunities within currency exchange market. Circulation Intermediary for Cash: Bank can boost the economy by reallocating idle money to investors who need money. Banks can gather the discrete money by absorbing deposit and then lend out loans, thereby increasing the liquidity of cash and thriving investment activities. Create Derivative Value: Because of banks, several times the value of original deposit is created. People save their money in banks, and banks lend the money out. New loans throughout the banking system generate new deposits elsewhere in the system. Thus new deposits are derived by the loan and create more sources of cash for banks to lend out. Payment Chains: Banks encourage the business between companies by managing the shift of funds through corporate accounts. Banks can also represent their clients to make payments and help their clients to honor cash. Comerica Incorporated (CMA), one of the 20-largest banks operating in America, has major operations in Midwest, California, Texas and Florida. Comerica operated under three business segments: the business bank, the retail bank and the wealth and institutional management. Due to the financial crisis of 2008, banks, especially ones with high exposure in mortgage related loans, were under a lot of stress. Comerica, being one of them, is being evaluated by the Jack, as a potential investment. CHARACTERISTICS OF CMA’s FINANCIAL HEALTH: Based on the financial statements provided and the Exhibit 5, we have outlined the main characteristics which define CMA’s financial health. Increase in Credit Loss Reserves: Credit loss provisions are the estimated loan losses from the current operating period, which means that company is not expecting to receive these loans back and hence expensing them out, by increasing the allowance for credit losses on balance sheet. There is a substantial increase in the company’s credit loss provisions for Comerica. The percentage of credit loss provisions to PBT plus credit losses skyrocketed, from 3.6 percent in 2006 to 66 percent in Jun 2008, indicating the Corporation’s tough situation in collecting the outstanding loans. Increase in Non-Performing Assets: Reserve coverage ratio, despite the increase in loss reserves, is decreasing dramatically, from 213% in 2006 to 87% in June 2008, indicating an enormous increase in non-performing assets (NPA). The main reason on increase in NPAs the fact that high percentage (32.9%) of company’s total loans is Real Estate loans. This is the reason that company’s interest income has decreased despite the increase in loans made in 2008. Efficiency ratio is basically an operating expense margin measure, the lower the better. The above 60 percent efficiency ratio, 50 percent generally regarded as optimal, is an indicator of company’s deteriorating performance. Use of Long Term and Short Term Debt to Finance Loans: Balance sheet show that Comerica’s total deposits are maintaining a level since 2005, however company’s net loans have increased by almost $10 Billion. Balance sheet clearly shows that these loans are finance from the increase in short-term and long term debt, which cast doubts on the profitability of company going forward. Unsustainability of the Dividend Pay-out Ratio: Exhibit 5 shows an increasing trend in the dividends, which Comerica has tried to maintain despite the low earnings. In the June 2008 quarter, company paid $99 Million as dividends against the net income of $56 Million during the same quarter. These levels of dividends are not sustainable in the current recessionary environment, and when the company does cut dividends, it will send a bad signal to the market. Downward Revision in the Federal Funds Rate: We noticed that spread, which equals to net interest expense as a % of earning assets minus net interest expense as a percentage of interest bearing liabilities, is decreasing. One of the reason of this phenomenon is that interest bearing deposits are increasing – which is bad for the company. Moreover, there has been a downward revision of 3.25 percent in the federal funds’ rate from its original level of 5.25% in July 2007, to 2.0% in 2008 – limiting the banks’ ability to charge higher spreads. Moreover, commercial loans are predominantly floating rate, so decrease in the Federal Funds rate will affect company’s interest income. We do think that decrease in the Fed’s rate will increase the demand for loans but given the credit crunch, it seems unreasonable in the short run. Decrease in Interest Income Percentage Measures: The shrinkage of interest income can be obviously seen from the Corporation’s net interest income as a percentage of earning assets, from 6.82% in 2007 to 4.86% by the end June 2008. This decrease is due to both factors of the ratio, one interest income is decreasing, secondly earning assets for Comerica Inc., which is loans, investment securities available-for-sale and short-term investments are increasing. Moreover, net interest margin, which is calculated as a difference between net interest income and net interest expenses divided by earning assets, show a downward trend. VALUATION: To value Comerica, we have used both methods Jack is planning to use. We will first do the sensitivity analysis (Exhibit 7 in the case) to find the range of tangible book value, earnings and dividends. Using that sensitivity analysis table, we will find the range of firm’s value employing comparable and dividend discount models. Sensitivity Analysis: In the Exhibit 7 at the end of the case, we have already been given the existing quarterly earnings estimates and tangible book value at the end of 2009. Those estimates are based on charge-off ratio of 0.85%. We have completed the sensitivity analysis based on the following assumptions: †¢Percentage of charge off is annual, and dollar value of the charge off will be distributed over each quarter equally. †¢Company’s charge-off ratio taken in 2008 will continue to be the same in 2009. We think this is a  reasonable assumption because of current low reserves for credit losses to NPA ratio of Comerica, as compared to its peers. †¢Company will maintain a certain level of allowance of loan losses. Therefore any increase in percentage of charge off will translate to decrease in tangible book value of the company through the income statement. †¢Dividends are taken to be 48% of earnings in case of positive net income and zero in case of negative net income. Company is trying hard to keep the level of dividends constants, to avoid sending bad signals. But company will not be able to sustain this level of dividends, so it will revert to the historical average of 48% dividend payout ratio (Exhibit – 1). Using these assumptions, we get the range of tangible book value, at the end of 2009, of $5,247 Million in case of 0.85% charge off to $4,647 Million in case of 2% charge-off. Detailed calculations are provided in the Exhibit – 2. Comparable Method: We have chosen two multiples to value Comerica i.e price to tangible book value and price to earnings ratio. Since, due to the current financial crisis, earnings of the companies are very volatile, we think price to tangible book value is a better multiple. Therefore, we will use price to earnings ratio just as a check multiple. Now that we have decided which multiples to use, we need to assign weights to the comparable companies to find out the weighted average multiples. To assign weights, we considered the following factors in terms of similarity between Comerica and comparable companies. †¢Geological location of the operations †¢Percentage of loans from different business segments †¢Financials – Including total revenue break up, return on equity and assets, reserves for loan losses to total loan and total NPAs etc. Based on these weights assigned we calculated the comparable weighted average of the price to tangible book value ratio and price to earnings ratio. Following table summarizes values calculated by both the methods and their sensitivity to the charge-off percentage. Detailed calculations are given in Exhibit – 2 and 3. As we mentioned before, earnings are very volatile right now and are suppressed because of the financial crisis. So we think price to tangible  book value is a better measure of company’s intrinsic value. Therefore we think, company is undervalued right now and hence Jack should propose to long its stock. Dividend Discount Model (DDM): We have also used DDM to find the intrinsic value of the company. We think that company will not be able to sustain its dividends of $0.66 per share per quarter in the short run. However, by year 2010 company will have enough earnings to come back to its previous level. Keeping in mind the fact that company has been growing its dividend payout ratio, and earning are also expected to increase in the long run; we have assumed that company’s dividends will grow at the rate of 2% in perpetuity. Using these assumption, and cost of equity 8.8%, dividend discount model gives us the share price of $40.39 per share, which also indicates that company is undervalued right now. Detailed calculations are provided in Exhibit 4. FUTURE INDUSTRY OUTLOOK: The collapse of mortgage market has taught financial industry an expensive lesson, making a lot of financial institutions unable to fully recover even till now. One of the major factors that cause a lot of banks’ failure and bankruptcy during financial crisis is the banks’ overconfidence in real estate market and issuing huge amount of new debt without the checking credit quality of borrowers. After the financial crisis, banks have become very cautious when dealing with mortgage related loans. Requirements regarding borrowers’ personal incomes and documentation have been considered necessary and valuation process about mortgages has gone very conservative. Facing the illiquidity during the financial crisis, banks are required to improve their capital bases to improve their insolvency. One regulation from Base III incorporates a significant expansion in risk coverage and introduces modified ways to calculate risk-based capital. Moreover, complex hybrid capital ins truments, which used to be considered as a part of banks’ equity, has been exclude from banks’ equity calculation. Base III also puts increasing focus and emphasis on banks to acquire common equity that can be quickly cashed out when facing unexpected situation. The enactment of Base III and the self-improvement happening in the banking industry or, even broader, financial industry have made bank valuation focus more on bank’s  traditional originate-to-hold business, and associated bank’s securitization activities with higher risk. Increasing focus has also been put on a bank’s capital base, which has everything to do with a bank’s solvency and liquidity. Banks, whose equities have complex hybrid equity capital instruments, tend to be less liquid and have higher business risk. Funding source is another factor considered. Banks with less retail funding on their balance sheets are more vulnerable when unexpected situations happen. Loan quality, which had been largely neglected when everyone had big overconfidence to housing market before the burst of the financial cris is, has been brought back to the ‘valuation table’ and greatly reemphasized. These improvements in the regulatory requirements have restored the confidence of investors in the banking industry to some extent. That’s why we see the financial industry raising to the level where it was before the financial crisis. CONCLUSION: Financial statements analysis of CMA does not present a very pretty picture, but because of the financial crisis, whole industry is under stress and experiencing the same deterioration in the quality of earnings. However, our valuation methods show that CMA is undervalued relative to its peer companies and hence is a good investment to hold right now.

Character Analysis: John Updike A&P

John Updike’s story entitled â€Å"A&P† is a narration of a man who seeks for his identity and pride. The narrator of this story is also the main character – Sammy. This protagonist is a simple man – a grocery clerk and an observer.Because of this job, Sammy used to observe his costumers and the ambiance of the A&P. However, due to one situation that occurred into the grocery store, Sammy realizes many things and gives him certain actions that changed his life. Being the main character of the store, Sammy shows different emotions – happy, angry, sad, confused, and puzzled. That is why Sammy is a picture of transforming identity from the beginning up to the end of the story.In terms of sympathy towards Sammy’s character, I have seen that Updike uses different factors and elements to show emotions and actions coming from the main character. It is to provide conflict, climax, and resolution to the story. the author sympathize with Sammy’s character that can be seen in the end of the story where Sammy realizes that he has no job and the worlds will not be a better place for him anymore.This part shows sympathy in a sense that the author makes the character realize the fact of life and did not only release the solution of the conflict. Updike shows the justification and idea of Sammy after he quit his job, which is a form of sympathy to the character.Because the character comes from a middle class, the language is casual and straight. In the beginning of the story, we could see that Sammy is very observant with people or with his environment. When Sammy wants to express his feelings, he shows it directly without any form of pretention.From this fact, it defines the identity of Sammy as a normal character with dignity and pride. However, the way he describes things or people is dramatic in a sense that he provides accurate imagination to feel and understand his perceptions. As the story goes by, we could able to show t hat Sammy starts to express his actions and words together that changed his path.Sammy is easily affected by his environment. This is the most significant trait that he showed throughout the story. From the beginning up to the end of the story, Sammy establishes a concept of being affected to everything that happens in his environment. From this fact, we could distinguish that Sammy is a composition of attraction, curiosity, inferiority, and distinction. All these factors rehabilitate the mind and actions of Sammy towards other people like Quennie and Lengel.In my own observation, I can say that Sammy’s persona is dynamic because his actions and motivations are not stable. As the story goes on, Sammy’s personality elevate from one factor to another. In the beginning of the story, Sammy is an observant. When he saw Queenie in a swim suit, he started to analyze things. When Lengel enters the scene and confronts the ladies in swim suit, Sammy talks to Lengel. When Sammy t hinks that Lengel’s actions are illogical, he quits his job. His actions had a process to establish his character – not just a static formation of his identity.From all of these, I can say that Sammy is a good character that can be played. He is flexible enough to adjust in different scenarios. This is what I like with his character. Even if he is prank, direct, and ‘weird’ character, there is a concept of intelligence that lies within his persona. It shows that Sammy was not easily manipulated by his environment but he could think and become supple to show who he really is.Work CitedUpdike, John. A&P.

Critical Reflection and Leadership in Identity Making Essay

â€Å"Vision is the key to understanding leadership† (Haslam, Reicher, & Platow, 2011). I have spent many years trying to avoid positions of authority and leadership roles, bedside nursing was a perfect escape. This paper will show that we are all born leaders and to get to those hidden leadership abilities is to engage in self-awareness, self-reflection, and achieve a higher education to learn how to apply them (Lowney, 2003). Critical Reflection and Leadership in Identity Making â€Å"Vision is the key to understanding leadership† (Haslam, Reicher, & Platow, 2011). I have spent many years trying to avoid positions of authority and leadership roles, bedside nursing was a perfect escape. Over the years, I have worked virtually every aspect of nursing, except management. I found conversations to be one sided, often leaving the staff feeling they were guilty until proven innocent. I have had some remarkable â€Å"Nurse Managers but, most were ineffective, selfish, and unappealing. This did nothing to inspire me to become a leader. Becoming the Intensive Care Units’ â€Å"Unit Based Educator† made me realize that the only way to achieve my vision to make a difference, was through education geared toward leadership. According to Lowney (2003), the insight into being a leader is through self-reflection. (Valli, 1999) interjects this theory into five types of reflection, further guiding us into a deeper self-awareness. The reading that had the most impact on me this week would have to be critical reflection. To me, critical reflection is interchangeable with critical thinking. I am bombarded with information that requiring on the spot decisions. Through the use of Critical thinking, I make decisions from past experiences, information at hand, and the impact my decisions will have now and the future. On the other hand, critical reflection, is more of a process that allows us to question past experiences, then consider, reassess and analyze those experiences prior to applying them to the current situation. The information provided in this week’s study has already impacted my leadership style. I have applied critical reflection to make more informed decisions, and being better informed, I am less reactionary. Being reflective has allowed me to be more insightful on how destructive, self- deception has been in my personally, socially, and in my work. I no longer say â€Å"I cannot†, instead; I review the situation, reflect on alternatives, and then make a decision. I agree with Lowney (2003) we are all born leaders and to get to those hidden leadership abilities is to engage in self-awareness, self-reflection, and achieve a higher education to learn how to apply them. I thought that I had escaped the claws of leadership by becoming an educator, another self-deceptive thought. This course has taught me that the Educator has the most influential leadership position. Being an Educator is my motivation to learning how to be that sound, moral leader I want to be.

Analysis Of The Book The Circle

Dave Eggers’ The Circle, it set certain reverberations echoing in my mind, especially through the correlation of The Circle’s three slogans, â€Å"SECRETS ARE LIES, SHARING IS CARING, PRIVACY IS THEFT† (Eggers 305), with 1984’s â€Å"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH† (Orwell 6). I then began to see, like others, that Eggers’ dystopia is a contemporary 1984; therefore, I felt it would be appropriate to compare them. In almost all the reviews and essays written on The Circle, there is not†¦ Grand Central Publishing released Flora Rheta Schreiber’s book Sybil. Through the book Dr. Wilbur, Sybil’s therapist psychoanalyses Sybil’s sixteen different personalities. The book went through all the different personalities and what is the cause of her dissociation. After her analysis was complete Dr. Wilbur thought a book should be written, this was when Flora was introduced into the picture. Flora had had previous work as a journalist and editor of varying psychiatric papers and articles. After†¦ The Hughes Brothers imprint their religious point of view in their 2010 American post-apocalyptic film, â€Å"The Book of Eli†. In this dramatic tale Denzel Washington stars as Eli, a mysterious wanderer that carries the world’s only remaining copy of King James’s Bible. He ventures 30 years across a desolated post-apocalyptic landscape in the attempt of finding a safe haven for this sacred book. Determined to complete his mission, Eli’s quote â€Å"We walk by faith, not by sight† from the Bible conveys a†¦ J07 -- THE BOOK OF TELLS 1 Citation. Collett, P. (2003). The book of tells: How to read people’s minds from their actions. London, United Kingdom: Doubleday. Tells are a recognizable action or a method of performing an action that reveal something about a person that is not otherwise easily observable (Collett, 2003, p.15). The Book of Tells, written by social psychologist Dr. Peter Collett, decodes tells to explain what these subtle clues of human behaviour and motivations are telling us. By delving†¦ establishing and emphasizing whatever specific emotion that the artist wishes to portray. It can also signify a call for extra attention from the reader to a specific page, as the line work suddenly changes in style between pages. In â€Å"The Outside Circle†, the line work on the 26th page is conveying the shattered life and transitioning that the character Joey Caver is going through, and is a visual representation of his emotions negatively being broken down. Lines are everything within a comic as†¦ Major Works Review General 1. Title- The Book Thief 2. Author- Markus Zusak 3. Date of Original Publication- 2005 4. Novel Type- Historical Fiction Structure 1. Point of View- Death 2. Relationship to Meaning- As an omniscient force Death can provide insight on several different events happening all over the world at different points in time, and thoughts running through all the characters’ heads, while also being able to share his own thoughts and feelings about humanity. 3. Plot Structure- a. Exposition-†¦ transporting them. As a result between with a death of 9.6 and 10.8 million Africans arrived in the Americas alive. With the odds against Aminata Diallo, she faces many losses but through these losses Aminata manages to re-defines herself. In "The Book of Negroes" the novel focuses on Aminata 's self-discovery through her many loses, including her loss of innocence, the loss of safety, and the loss of relationships. Aminata first losses her innocence at the age of 11 when colonist invaded her small†¦ Comparatively: A Review Circles are globally ubiquitous. They occur naturally, are used for style, and used as metaphors. One metaphorical use of circles is found in Zen Buddhism. An EnsÃ…  is a hand drawn circle, generally in one brush stroke. It is elegant in its simplicity and symbolises enlightenment, the void, and the wholeness of the universe. In Peter Singer’s book The Expanding Circle, he argues that moral progress comes when people use their reason to progressively expand their circle of empathy from†¦ The novel, The Book Thief, was published in the year 2005 and falls under the genre of historical fiction. In the novel, death narrates the story beginning in 1938. Liesel Meminger is presented as the book thief and is faced with many hardships at the beginning of the novel. She has lost both her parents including her little brother, Werner. This girl is faced with agony and death at such a young age in her life. This forms Liesel into a person who isolates her inner humanity and compassion towards†¦ According to Psychology Today, on average kids spend 5-7 hours a day looking at screens. This is a staggering amount, accounting for around half of daylight hours. In The Circle, a novel by Dave Eggers, a young girl named Mae in a job with a large technology company spends close to her entire day on a screen, leaving little time for interactions with people. Instead she relies on how others perceive her online, rather than as a real human being. Truman’s entire life is fake in The Truman Show, a†¦