A Medical Experience

    It was the end of a normal day at the station.  The medics are just getting to bed

after running a half a dozen calls for an assorted minor medical and trauma problems.  The

paperwork was finished.  The reports were entered into the computer.  The truck was

even restocked.  They were just about into dreamland but, as with most nights at this

particular station,  sleep was not to be.

    Several miles away, in a small, well kept apartment, Angie Briggs, a

eighty-year-old woman awoke to the feeling that the life-giving air was being denied to

her.  She tried to sit up, but the feeling would not subside.  Walking made it worse.  She

also noticed that, even though the temperature in her room was comfortable, she was

dripping with sweat.  The longer that she waited, the harder it became to breath.  So,

realizing the fact that her doctor was probably asleep, she did the next logical step, she

called her daughter, who lives in another state.  The daughter realized that her mother

needed more help than she could give over the phone, tried to persuade the mother to call

an ambulance, which, of course, the mother refused to do, stating that it wasn't necessary.

The daughter then took it upon herself to call EMS from her own house.

    The medics were notified of the problem through the usual method, a series of

tones over a radio that cause a loud horn to blare and all the station lights to come on,

much to the annoyance of the fire lieutenant.  This alarm was immediately followed by the

dispatchers voice giving all the applicable information on this call.

    "Med unit 2, respiratory call, 103 Royal Terrace Boulevard, apartment 7, in

reference to a 80 year old woman with shortness of breath."

    Not that the EMS crew were listening at this point.  They are busy getting into

their jumpsuits and putting their boots on.  It does not matter if they are eating, sleeping,

watching TV, or even taking a shower, they are required to be in the ambulance and en

route to the scene within two minutes.

    "Med Two's en route."  Stated EMT Jennifer Meyers in a sleepy voice

    " Copy med 2 is en route to 103 Royal Terrace Blvd., apartment 7."  Now they are

listening.  "This is in reference to a 80 year-old female who is in severe respiratory

distress.  Received the call from her daughter that is out of state.  Patient sounds very

short of breath."

    "Copy"

    "I'm pretty sure that it is in the first entrance into the apartment complex.  Should

be the third or fourth building on the left", stated Doug Murphy the paramedic on duty.

    It took only a few minutes for the ambulance to arrive at the scene.  After dispatch

was informed of their arrival, Doug and Jennifer removed the stretcher that was already

loaded with the monitor, the airway bag, and the med box. As he approached the front

door, Doug took notice of the condition of the walkway, of the location of the bushes, and

any outside furniture that might impede exiting the house with a stretcher loaded with a

person.  He did the same quick evaluation upon entering the residence.

    After knocking, an elderly, heavy-set woman opened the door.  The medic could

see immediately that she was is serous trouble.  Her clothes were soaked, wet with sweat,

every time she took a breath, a faint popping sound could be heard.  The medic also could

see the front of her neck pull in along with every breath and that her general color had a

faint, matted bluish color about her.  Doug knew that without immediate treatment, this

lady would die.

    Doug quickly lowered the stretcher and took the equipment off of it.  "Why don't

you sit right here."  Doug told Mrs. Briggs

    " I'm fine, really.  I told my daughter that I would see my doctor in the morning.  I

don't know why she called you?" Mrs. Briggs stated.  The medic was surprised that she

could talk at all.

    "When did you start having trouble breathing?"  Doug asked as he was turning on

the oxygen bottle

    "About an hour ago.  I woke up and couldn't catch my breath." Pointing to the

oxygen mask that the medic was placing on her face.   "I really don't need any of that."     

    " I think you do.  You need to let me do my job and treat you.   This condition will

only get worse."

    "No, I think I'll wait till the morning."

    "Listen, you don't have until the morning.  To be perfectly blunt, I doubt you have

a hour.  You need to let me treat you now.  Your lungs are full of fluid."

    "How do know that?"  asked the patient.

    "I can hear it, even without my stethoscope." retorted the medic.  " I can take care

of this problem with medicines, but I need to do it now." Looking at his partner.  "How's

the blood pressure?"

    The medic's partner had been busy taking the patients blood pressure and pulse,

and was now in the process of applying the electrodes on the patients chest for the

monitor.

    "180/90, pulse 100 very irregular." came the reply.

    While his partner began to set up the IV bag, the medic finished putting on the

monitor leads.  After he turned the machine on, he then began listening to the patients

chest, carefully listening to each lobe of the lungs, trying to judge just how far the

crackles, or rales, go up into the chest.  This allows him to determine how full of fluid

Annie's lung were.

    "Your lungs are three-quarters the way full." Doug then took a look at the

monitor.    "Do you usually have skipped heart beats?"  questioned the medic.

    "Yeah, it's been like that for a while."  answered the patient.

     He then asked the patient.  "Have you ever had an IV before?"

    "Yes. Do I really need one now?"

    "Yes ma`am, you sure do." answered the medic.  A rubber tourniquet was placed

around the patients arm tight enough to stop the return blood flow, or venous blood but

not too tight enough to cut off the arterial blood flow.  He then looked for and found a

vein in her wrist, prepped the site with alcohol, and stuck a needle that was covered by a

thin catheter into the vein.  After he removed the needle, leaving the plastic catheter in the

vein, he took a sample of blood from the site and connected the IV line.  He then released

the tourniquet and opened the IV line to make sure he had a good flow.  The drip rate was

set so it would only drip once ever few seconds.  After he taped the line down to the

patient's arm, he finished this particular procedure by making sure that all the dirty needles

were safely placed in a sharps container.  He didn't want any accidental needle sticks.

            "Ma'am, are you allergic to any medicines that your aware of?"

    "No, not that I can think of."

    "OK, This is what we are going to do.  First, I'm going to give you some Nitro

with a spray.  What I need to you to do is open your mouth and put your tongue at the top

of your mouth"  Stated the medic.

    Mrs. Briggs complied, almost.  She opened her mouth and kept her tongue at the

bottom of her mouth.    "Tongue up." The patient complied. 

    "Good, now take a breath in."  When she did, the medic sprayed the Nitro into her

mouth.  Having her inhale when he sprayed the Nitro kept it from going back into his face. 

    Talking  to the patient "Ma'am, I'm going to give you some Lasix though the IV

line.  Hopefully, it will pull some of that fluid out of your lungs and back into your

bloodstream.  Is that oxygen helping?"

    "A little."

    "Good" The medic replied.  He then proceeded to slowly give the Lasix.  The

standing orders that he works under (after all, a non-physician cannot give medicine

without a physician willing to assume responsibility for it) allows him a dosage range up to

80 mg. for Lasix.  If the patient was not in such distress, he would have opted for double

of the home dosage.  However, this time he chose for the full eighty.

    After being secured in the ambulance, Jennifer went back to make sure that the

residence was locked up.  Doug then retook the patients  blood pressure (which had not

changed) and listened again to her chest, detecting a slight clearing of the lungs.

    "Ma'am, I need to ask you again if you are allergic to any drugs."

    "No, I'm not."

    "Have you ever taken Morphine before."

    "No, why?"

    "Because I'm going to give you some in a minute"

    "Why?  I don't hurt anywhere."

    "We're going for another effect that it has.  It helps pull that fluid out of your

lungs."  Seeing a look of confusion in the patients eyes, Doug asked  "Do you understand

what is happening?"

    "No"

    "For some reason, your heart cannot keep up with the flow of blood coming into

it."  The medic explained as he drew up the Morphine from the vial.  "When this happens

to the left side of the heart, the blood backs up into the lungs, causing the blood plasma to

leak into the tiny air sacs in your lungs.  This is what is causing you to be short of breath

and to have that crackling noise when you breath.  All the medicines I am giving you cause

your blood vessel to dilate, or get bigger.  The Nitro causes this all over the body.  The

Morphine does it in the arms and legs.  And the Lasix pulls it out of the body by making

you have to pee a lot.  The Morphine will also help you to relax somewhat.  Just let me

know if you start felling nauseous."  Doug took a alcohol wipe and cleaned the injection

port of the IV tubing, then inserted the syringe's needle into the port.  "I'm giving you the

Morphine now."

    By this time, Jennifer had finished locking the apartment.

    "You all set?" She asked, sticking her head in the back of the truck.

    "Yup, let's go."

    On the way to the hospital, the patient started improving; her blood pressure and

pulse were going down, and the patient was breathing a lot easier.  The rales were even

noticeably diminishing.  The medic had called the hospital over the radio notifying them of

the patient that he was bringing in and her current condition.  The patient, due either to

her finding it easier to breath or due to the Morphine, began talking.

    "How long have you been a fireman?" The patient asked

    "Never have been, I'm a paramedic."  The paramedic retorted.  "We have a dual

system in this county.  We work with and are stationed with the fire department, but we

are under a different chain of command."

    "What does that mean."

    "I don't put out fires, they don't give people needles."

    By the time that the ambulance got to the hospital, the patients lungs were almost

clear of any rales that the medic could hear.  And, as expected, the patient requested a

bedpan as quickly as possible.

    "Which room would you like us in."  Doug  asked a nurse.

    "What'ch ya got" came the reply.

    "Heart failure."

    "Room 10 will be fine."

    "Thanks." responded the medic as he wheeled the patient into the treatment room.

While the nurse went to get her paperwork, the medic and his partner lifted the patient

onto the hospital stretcher, transferring the oxygen tubing

Book Review: Willy Loman: A Man With A Dream, Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller

Willy Loman: A Man With A Dream

A common idea presented in literature is the issue of

the freedom of the individual in opposition to the

controlling pressures of society.  Willy Loman, the main

character in Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller,

epitomizes this type of person; one who looks to his peers

and co-salesman as lesser individuals.  Not only was he

competitive and overbearing, but Willy Loman sought after an

ideal that he could never become: the greatest salesman

ever.  Determined to make money, Willy became uncontrollable

and somewhat insane.  Through his dialogue and actions,

Willy Loman portrays a character of insecurity, persistence,

and unknown identity.

From the very beginning of his life, Willy Loman

experienced problems with his popularity and personality.

His last name is a pun on a 'low man.'  He is at the bottom

of the business world as an unsuccessful salesman.  In

addition, his theories on life and society prove to be very

degrading, not to mention influential to his mind set every

day.  Willy believes that being well-liked and having a

personal attractiveness, together, can bring success, money,

and many friends.  Ironically, Willy does not have many

friends and many people do not like him.  With a beauty

unlike others, Willy thinks that doors will open and

problems will all disappear.

As a salesman, Willy developed many hindrances that

caused his mind to deteriorate.  His life as a salesman was

built on a dream that he witnessed as a child.  At an early

age, Willy heard of a salesman, Dave Singleman, who could

make his living out of a hotel room.  Singleman was very

successful and when he died, people from all over the

country came to his funeral.  It was this ideal that Willy

Loman sought after.  All he ever wanted was fame,

popularity, and a few friends.  Unfortunately, when Willy

died, not a single person went to his funeral.  His life,

one that was spent trying to become another person, namely

Dave Singleman, was a waste as no-one even wanted to see him

buried.

In reflection of his career with the Wagner Company,

many other problems arose that forced economic difficulties

on him and his family.  He was determined to live by ideals

that placed him above everyone else.  It was with these lies

and illusions that Willy's life began to lose its' air of

reality.  He lost his identity, courage, and dignity

throughout New England as a salesman.  And as he explained

often, 'I have friends...They know me up and down New

England.'  Realistically, though, Willy was not successful.

He did not have friends and people did not like him in New

England.

'With his self-identity weakened and undermined, Willy

lost his grasp of things in general.' (P.P Sharma, critical

analysis)  He spent hours on hours dreaming of the past.

Thinking of himself and his son Biff who had potential, but

did not take advantage of it.  Biff was Willy's inspiration

as a father.  He had the determination to become a great

football player, not to mention make something with his life

and the Loman name.  However, Biff flunked math and threw

all of his opportunities away.  It was with these

circumstances that Biff and his father began to separate.

Willy always promised his sons prosperity and good-fortune,

but he could not give that to him and when he lost Biff, his

life became an even larger failure.

In other memories and illusions, Willy often replays

the moments with his brother, Ben.  Specifically, the time

when Willy was offered a job in Alaska; the job which would

have made him an enormous amount of money haunts Willy every

time he tries to sell his Wagner stockings, only to have his

sales come up lame.  With low sales and age, Willy decided

to ask for a job in New York.  And it was at this time that

his company decided to stop paying by salary, but solely on

commission.  And for a man who cannot sell well, the loss of

a salary is very detrimental to his well-being.  'Although

Willy is aware, maybe dimly and imperfectly, that he is not

cut out for success in the world of trade and commerce, he

nevertheless nurses the dream of getting the better of

everybody else.  And this leads him into an alienation from

himself, obscuring his real identity.' (P. P. Sharma,

critical analysis)

Willy's life would have been more satisfying had he

engaged himself in more physical work that would occupy his

mind.  His life was situated on a dream for success and

prosperity.  When it never arrived, Willy spent a lot of

time, just brainstorming how to make his life what he wanted

it to be.  Putting his family aside, Willy committed a

terrible sin.  In Boston, during one of his business trips,

Willy cheated on his wife.  He met a woman who would be very

cheap for an evening, and as a boost of confidence, Willy

spent the night with this low-class woman.  Unfortunately,

his son Biff, who was surprising his father in Boston,

walked in on the two, thus causing a situation that would

forever haunt Biff.  His thoughts of his father as an

influential salesman in New England were all lost.  What

appeared, instead, was the belief that his father was a

loser with no potential to ever support his family.  It was

at this time that they their lives spread apart.

Using that situation as a downfall and the many others

that occurred in Willy Loman's life, it was not surprising

when he killed himself.  In search of happiness, Willy

believed that he could give his family what they wanted if

he only left the world.  But, his dreams were wrong, as his

family did not even care enough to go to his funeral.  He

died for things that he had lived for- his sons and

illusions of prosperity.  Ironically, though, his life was

not worth the happiness of his son's.  And his life was

definitely not worth the sacrifice that he made for them his

entire life.

Willy Loman died still unsure of his status in the

business world.  He wanted success and money, but at the age

of sixty-one, he realized that these goals would never be

reached.  His identity was lost and his presence on earth

unknown.  Willy Loman was influenced by society in that he

could not overcome the pressures of selling and making

money.  His life long dream was happiness, but that never

came either.  The pressures of society killed a man who once

had courage and determination.  But, as his life moved

further, Willy Loman lost his ability to see the world

clearly.  All his eyes could observe was despair and

insecurity.  It was through his beliefs that he decided to

end his unhappiness, by ending his life.  Willy Loman died a

lost identity, but one that found himself for a brief period

of time; long enough to end his life forever.

Book Review: More's Moral Dilemma

More's Moral Dilemma

During the English renaissance in the 1500's, King Henry VIII wants a divorce from his wife for various reasons, but divorce is against the Catholic religion.  This is why he wants Sir Thomas More's consent, because More is a highly respected Catholic, but he is such a good Catholic that he goes against divorce.  In the play, A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, King Henry VIII applies pressure on Thomas More to support the divorce in many ways.  He exerts it both directly and indirectly in forms of threats and intimidation from various people.  Henry forces Meg, More's 'renaissance woman' daughter, to take an oath in order to see him, so she  tries to influence his decision about the divorce by using her intellect and by begging.  Wolsey, a cardinal, was told by the king to try to persuade him to support the king's divorce by appointing him to a political office, so if More does not support the king, he could be executed for treason.  Similarly, the king orders Cromwell, his assistant, to apply  pressure by finding a reason to kill More, to force  him out of the way.  All of these pressures from the king lead to a moral dilemma that More has to face, but he chooses to stick to his morals.

King Henry applies pressure on More to support the divorce through Meg.  While More is in jail for failing to take an oath supporting the divorce,  Meg tries to convince him to take the oath, and she says, 'Say the words of the oath and in your heart think otherwise,' (page 81).  More responded to this by saying, 'What is an oath then but words we say to god?' (page 81).  Meg is applying direct pressure on More by asking him to say the oath and not believe in it, so he will get the benefits of believing it and stick to his morals at the same time.  However, More thinks this is against Catholic religion because he thinks of an oath as 'words we say to God,' so he certainly can not use Meg's strategy.  Meg pressures More directly by trying to reach out to his feelings when she says emotionally, 'But in reason!  Haven't you done as much as God can reasonably want?' (page 81).  More supports his beliefs by saying, 'Well...finally...it isn't a matter of reason; finally it's a matter of love.'   Meg wants More to know that his family's food and money depend on him, and further more, whether he says the oath.  More still sticks to what he believes in, because he believes that he must always do what God wants him to do, for there is no limit to what god can 'reasonably want.'  Meg does as much as she can to persuade More to support the King, but it does not work, and More sticks to his morals.

Henry also orders Cromwell to pressure More to support the divorce.  At first, Cromwell informs More directly that the king is not pleased with him, and then says, 'Yet you do not know that even now, if you could bring yourself to agree with the Universities, the Bishops and the Parliament of this realm, there is no honor which the King would be likely to deny you?' (page 66).  More acknowledges this and says, 'I am well acquainted with His Grace's generosity,' (page 66).  Cromwell wants More to know that the king still has great respect for him, and if he supports the divorce there would be 'no honor which the King would be likely to deny' him.  More is not greatly affected by this type of pressure however, because he is the type of man that does not let rewards tempt him to go against his morals.  Cromwell realizes that More is stubborn on this issue, and wants to execute him, so to More he directly reads the charges against him, 'That you did conspire traitorously and maliciously to deny and deprive our liege lord Henry of his undoubted certain title Supreme Head of the Church of England,' (pages 86- 87).  More is shocked, and said, 'But I have never denied this title!' (page 87).  Cromwell is so devoted to satisfying the king that he finds a way uses More's silence as evidence of opposing the king, which means he is 'traitorously' denying the king of his title.  This is the most influential pressure that More has received, because if he is found guilty of high treason, he will be executed; but he still sticks to his morals.  More now has to deal with the harshest kind of pressure to face, because his life is in jeopardy.

Wolsey also plays a part for Henry in pressuring More to support the king.  At first, Wolsey tries to use his power to pressure More directly into supporting the king, 'The King needs a son; I repeat, what are you going to do about it?' (page 12).  More is smart when he says, 'I pray for it daily,' (page 12).  Wolsey is trying to pressure More with his power by making him answer the question, by using 'I repeat' as a way of reminding him that he must answer the question.  More, however, displays his intelligence by saying that he prays for the king's son, instead of giving in to Wolsey's trap and telling him that he supports the king.  Wolsey then gets angry at More and indirectly pressuring him by appointing him as the lord chancellor, which More does not know until Henry informs him, 'Did you know that Wolsey named you for chancellor?' (page 30).  More is surprised to hear this, and says, 'He was a statesman of incomparable ability,' (page 30).   Now More has to support the king, or he could be executed for high treason, which would prove to be the harshest form of pressure for More.  When More realizes why Wolsey appoints him a political position, he realizes what a smart move this is by Wolsey, and calls him 'a statesman of incomparable ability,' but this does not change More's decision about the divorce.  If Wolsey did not name More for chancellor, More would not have been able to be tried for high treason, and he would have been able to disagree with the king and not face execution.

More receives many pressures from many people through King Henry, both directly and indirectly.  In addition to Meg, More's whole family, including Alice, his wife, pressure him to support the king's divorce.  Also, politically he was challenged not only by Cromwell and Wolsey, but he is pressured by Norfolk, Rich, and Cranmer to support the divorce as well.  Socially, More is alone in his disagreement with the divorce.  All this pressure against More, and he still sticks to what he believes in and what his religion says to do, although he dies for it.  The moral dilemma More faces is similar to the moral dilemma of someone who has AIDS.  If you have AIDS, you have no good way of dealing with it.  More displays what a wonderful a person he is by choosing to not go against what he believed in, even though he got executed for it, which was probably a little crazy.

A Look At Savage Garden

A Look At Savage Garden
Savage Garden is an Australian duo formed in 1994 by Daniel Jones and Darren Hayes. Daniel Jones, born on July 22, 1973 in Essex England moved to Brisbane, Australia as a young child, he plays keyboard, guitar, programming and sings back up. Darren came from a long line of musicians, so his love for music started when he was very young. When he was little, his brother had a drum set and when he went out, Daniel would sneak into his room and play then, he took piano lessons when he was seven. By the age of ten, he was playing the keyboard and drums in pubs and hotels. Daniel’s musical influences were, Peter Gabriel, XTC, and Tears For Fears. Darren was born May 8, 1972 in Brisbane, he is both the lead and back up singers. At a young age, he began showing alot of intrest of getting into entertainment by singing and acting around the house which led him to act in many school plays when he got into high school. After high school, Darren attended college, to study journalism, Drama and education. His influences include, Prince, The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, and Duran Duran. Both the guys are songwriters. Daniel was playing with another band called Red Edge, when he put an ad in a Brisbane music paper for a lead vocalist, Darren was studying to be a teacher when he decided he wanted to get into the music scene, he saw Daniel’s ad and responded, “We clicked imeadeatly” (Darren Hayes, Savage Garden biography) Darren joined the band and in 1994, He and Daniel decided they were tired of playing other people’s music so they left the band and devoted their time to writing and the band, Crush was formed. Darren and Daniel soon found out another Australian band also had that name so, they bought the name from them but, then they found another English band called Crush so they decided to call the band Savage Garden which was thought of by Darren, it was from an Anne Rice novel where “she describes the world as two levels, one as a very beautiful place but,in the other, underneath, we’re all savage beasts” (The conception of savage garden) in the other,Darren and Daniel so fired by self assurance, sent out over 150 demo tapes to record companies and management all over Australia. One by one they got rejected until John Woodruff heard their tape and thought they had a chance, he immediately flew to Brisbane to sign them to JWM, his record company. Their first self titled album was recorded in Sydney, Australia. It was produced by Charles Fisher and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. Woodruff released the record to an independent label, Road show Music and in 1996 their first single, I Want You, was released in Sydney. The single went platnum and became the highest selling single in Australia for 1996. It was also nominated for a Aria Award for the Best Debut Album in 1996 just two weeks after it’s release and it rised to #3 on the national AMR charts. It debuted at number 31 on the Billboard charts which was “the highest chart entry ever for a debut single from an Australian artist.”(village.com) It had a slow start until Rosie O’Donnell who loves the part in the song that says “chick-a-cherry cola” began playing it on her show and eventually invited them to appear and perform on the air. Their Second single, To The Moon and Back, “which adresses the insecurities of a teenage girl” (savagegarden.com/bio)quickly became a hit, reached number one and sold 135,000 copies in Australia and was in the top 30 in the US. Their third and most sucessful, Truly Madly Deeply which is a love song “distilled from the purity of heart” (savagegarden.com/bio),sold 160,000 copies and debuted at number 25 on the billboard charts. Their album was released on March 24, 1997 and debuted at number 1 on the national ARIA chart where it spent 19 weeks. The album has sold 9 times platnum, 670,000 albums, in Australia alone. Savage Garden launched their first live tour in Australia, May 1997, preforimg at sold out shows. Then in 1998 they were on the road again with their The Future Of Earthly Delites World Tour. Their CD was number 9 on the top ten best selling albums list from Dec 29, 1998 to Jan 3, 1999. They are currently in the process of making a new album which should be out sometime this year.

Book Review: A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence

                We were strangers from the beginning

                tormented by our difference

                which did not exist.

                            (Betsy Warland)

    An important ingredient inherent in a successful mother-daughter relationship is balance.  Like the scales of justice, maintaining equilibrium requires work.  The special bond between mother and daughter is delicate and unlike any other relationship due to expectations of performance on behalf of both women.  The female psyche is, characteristically, particular: each woman having a certain regiment making themselves unique.  Ideals and behavior learned, possibly inherited, from others are two of many things which carve an individual's personality.  It is these similarities and differences which often cause conflicts between mother and daughter.  In A Jest of God, the relationship between Rachel and her mother is strained due to unspoken expectations that each had of the other.  Stemming from poor communication, a host of differences were assumed to exist between the two, when in fact their struggle originated in their sameness.

    The largest weapon which spear-headed the communication war between Rachel and her mother was the generation gap; coming from different eras, the pair assumed they had nothing in common.  In Rachel's eyes her mother was a pristine, saintly woman who maintained high moral values for herself and her family.  Therefore, being a good person and making the right decisions was never questionable to Rachel, as this was how her mother expected her to behave.  Rachel listened numerous times to her mother comment on how "peculiar" her behavior looked, and spoke of anyone else she observed doing the same.  Although this annoyed Rachel about her mother, she adopted similar paranoia tendencies, speculating how her behavior with Nick, a summer beau, looked to anyone who could be watching or noticing.  Irritated by her mother's attitude, Rachel excused it on the pretense that her views reflected the past times in which she lived.  However, Rachel had neither the patience nor the desire to speak out against her mother for fear of stirring trouble between them.  The irony in Rachel's decision is that their relationship needed  just what she was so desperately trying to avoid. 

    By turning her back on the communication problem between herself and her mother, Rachel wanted to believe that the problem was inherent in the misunderstanding each had of the other.  Underneath her shell, Rachel was coming to terms with what was really true of the gap between herself and her mother: their difference lay in her want to not be similar.  Both were single: Rachel unmarried and her mother a widow.  Through her fling with Nick, Rachel wanted to express her desires to be independent from her  mother, and have an adult relationship with another human being.  Another similarity between the two women was in their propensity to be stubborn and secretive, having opinions they did not speak of but eluded to.   This stubbornness was evident in terms of religious exploration as both were curious about faith. Rachel was more aggressive in her curiosity as evidenced in her visit the Tabernacle, however kept it a secret knowing her mother speculated about what good people saw in such activity.   Yet another similarity both mother and daughter share was in their satisfaction at living in a small town. Following the death of her father, neither Rachel nor her mother were anxious to change their living pattern.  Rachel was not blind to the similarities she had with her mother, but attempted to change herself in order to be different. 

    Like a teenager's last rebellious actions before entering adulthood, Rachel's actions during her last months in Manawaka symbolized the final fight to be different from her mother.  Struggling to maintain a casual relationship with a man her mother would disapprove of, Rachel was forced to sneak around behind her mother's back.  Rachel's mother seemingly had no trouble speaking her mind. Rachel tried to maintain her image as a proper, rule-abiding school teacher, and refused to speak to her principal about a troubling issue for fear he would lose respect for her. When attending the Tabernacle, Rachel spoke in tongues and left not knowing what she revealed of herself, only that her mother would surely disapprove of what she had done. Making a public spectacle of herself was a fear Rachel shared with her mother, however the experience was liberating for her because she knew the news would disturb her mother. These outward actions by Rachel were demonstrative of her want to finish her spiritual growth, which was stunted by an overbearing mother, and her own fear of being the same way. 

    Rachel remained a child well into her adult life.  This was evident in the way she spoke to herself, analyzing, and scrutinizing her own actions.  The narrative tone was that of a motherly voice, likely evidence of the fear for what her mother would say, and reflective of who she was growing into.  Rebelling against such growth is a natural progression for women because a strong sense of rivalry exists between mothers and daughters.  The latter, eager to carve their own path, become distressed when they realize they are unable to choose something new for themselves because it has already been branded into them from their mothers.  Such behavior is ritualistic and shows friendly competition between the wise and the wiser, as the former strive to prove themselves independent.  It is an attempt by daughters to prove their ingenuity, and gain acceptance and approval from their mothers.  Rachel realized this was occurring simultaneously with the reconciliation of her inner self, took charge of her independence and moved herself and her mother to the West Coast, at the end of the book.

    Gaining independence was a great triumph in Rachel's life, and coincided with the first building block in an attempt to bridge the communication gap between herself and her mother.  Taking charge of her life was something Rachel never felt compelled to do prior to the growing experience of her inner-self.  As important as branching out on her own was, she was never before able to do this because she allowed herself to live under her mother's protective wing.  Although seeming to despise her mother for the qualities she unadmittingly possessed herself, Rachel was merely running from the truth, and failing to communicate only helped to reinforce this.

Movie Reviews: A History of Antiracism Films

In studying and understanding the politics and artistic ideologies of film not in the popular "Hollywood" tradition, films of different cultures must be examined to explore the political and social history of the struggles for cultural identity.  The film becomes a means of consciousness raising and of creating political awareness. Films of revolution and social change cross all cultural boundaries and bring to the screen revolutionary movements in developing and underdeveloped countries.  The power of film is such that it not only reflects society in its own image; they can cause society to create itself in the image of the films.   This, unfortunately, has proved to be a battle for black men and women as they have been depicted in a far from flattering view since the beginning of the medium.  African Americans have been forced to endure constant racism and discrimination projected at them through movies since the technology was created.  Through the determination of many intelligent filmmakers, African Americans have been able to create a depiction of their culture as they see fit; and in the process, creating anti-racial films committed to social change.

At times, the screen has predicated against progress by fixing certain concepts and stereotypes in the public mind and artificially reinforcing the notion of their continuing usefulness.   The victims of these stereotypes were mainly African-American.  Blacks were, for the most part, misrepresented subjects to be exploited by the medium of film since it was created;  the most popular example being, D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915).  Although hailed as the most successful and artistically advanced film of its time, it ignited race riots and it directly influenced the 20th century reemergence of the Klan.  Birth of a Nation locked misconceptions about race into a technologically innovative movie that gripped viewers with its new ability to convey the full flavour of events and feelings.  The Birth of a Race (1918), two years in the making and perhaps three hours in length, began as a response to Griffith's film.  But its succession of producers and backers lost touch with the original concept. Nonetheless, it inspired George P. Johnson and his brother, Noble, to found the Lincoln Motion Picture Company to carry forward the quest for a black cinema, only to fail because of a nationwide influenza epidemic that shuttered theaters.  As the American movie industry gradually moved to California after Word War I, little new opportunities arose for the African American.  Blacks generally played out conventional roles as chorus girls, convicts, racetrack grooms, boxing trainers, and flippant servants.  The sameness of the images led to the first boom of race movies that were made by black, and often white, producers specifically for black audiences. George and Noble Johnson made as many as four such films that were black versions of already defined Hollywood genres - success stories, adventures, and the like - all of them since lost.  As World War II progressed, creators of race movies disappeared due to the short rations of film stock.  Yet black activists and their government together pressed filmmakers to address wartime racial injustice.  In response, federal agencies made several movies of advocacy. First among them in distribution to both army and civilian theaters was the United States War Department's The Negro Soldier (1944), written by Carlton Moss, who also starred in the film. Late in the war, the government commissioned or inspired short civilian films on the theme of equitable race relations, among them Don't Be a Sucker, It Happened in Springfield, and The House I Live In (which won an Oscar in 1947 as the best short film).  The Government Manual for the Motion Picture (1942) recommended the use of 'colored' soldiers and servicemen with foreign names as a way of stressing national unity.  The general conception was that pictures of racial integration might help to allay racial tensions at home.  Documentaries, meanwhile, were beginning to showcase more liberal attitudes.  Janice Loeb and Helen Levitt's The Quiet One (1947) caught the dedication that social workers gave to black juveniles. The United Auto Workers sponsored an animated cartoon, The Brotherhood of Man (1947), which took up the fate of racism in postwar America.

Of all African American filmmakers of the era, Oscar Micheaux dominated his age.  More than any other known figure, Micheaux took up themes that Hollywood left untouched: lynching, black success myths, and color-based caste.  Above all, Micheaux saw his films as "propaganda" designed to "uplift the race." In the 1930's, his films represented a radical departure from Hollywood's portrayal of blacks as servants and brought diverse images of ghetto life and related social issues to the screen for the first time.  During his career, Micheaux made 35 movies. Most were stories about the lives, loves and perils of middle-class blacks.  With his fifth movie, Within Our Gates (1920) Micheaux attacked the racism portrayed in the most highly acclaimed silent movie of all time The Birth of a Nation. In his movie, Griffith depicted blacks as lazy alcoholics who raped white women. Micheaux turned the table on Griffith, filming a scene where a white man tries to rape a black woman, using exactly the same lighting, blocking, and setting as the black on white rape scene in The Birth of a Nation. Unfortunately for Micheaux, Within Our Gates came out right after the race riots, which plagued America throughout the summer of 1919. Black and white officials feared further violence if Within Our Gates was shown and they forced Micheaux to edit out controversial scenes. Micheaux, however, turned around and booked other theatres to show the "uncut version" to even bigger audiences.

Around 1950, the Committee for Mass Education in Race Relations was set up with the intent to "produce films that combine entertainment and purposeful mass education in race relations."   At this time, films were beginning to provide momentum for the Civil Right Movement that was to take place in the 1960s.  Films became more political during these times challenging the views of the ignorant.  Costa-Gavras's The Battle of Algiers (1966) was adopted as a favourite film of the Black Panthers, while Anthony Harvey's Dutchman (1967) was considered revolutionary by critics.  A new wave of films was to follow the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.  The impact of the Civil Rights Movement along with the assassination of the Movement's leader was felt across America.  New waves of films were to be embarked upon by Hollywood labeled "blaxploitation."  As a movie genre, blaxploitation refers to a series of films in which African-American characters and their lifestyles are presented in a manner that reinforces often negative stereotypes. Many critics of 70s blaxploitation films believed these movies pandered to the lowest of black so called "ghetto" images, while borrowing heavily from mainstream Hollywood genres no longer used. There were black westerns, sci-fi fantasies and even kung-fu films.  But despite mediocre performances by the actors and shoestring budgets, the hip talk, sex appeal, and messages of black power made blaxploitation movies instant hits with black audiences.  This portrayal becomes the ideal by which young Black men and women live their lives, forcing them to become adolescent adults with guns and out of wedlock babies. Secondly, this portrayal tends to dehumanize Black men in the eyes of the world. As Adolph Hitler demonstrated, it is much easier to annihilate a race after that race has been lowered to a subhuman status in the eyes of society.   The financial success of Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) came as a surprise to Hollywood's major studios who instantly attempted to cash in.  Melvin Van Peebles projected a new image of a black hero in his film that he wrote, directed and starred in.  The message of Sweetback is that, if you can get it together and stand up to the Man, you can win.   "Of all the ways we've been exploited by the Man," Van Peebles writes, "the most damaging is the way he destroyed our self image.'  Black Panther leader Huey Newton urged the black community to see the film more than once since it attempts 'to communicate some crucial ideas and motivates us to a deeper understanding and then action based on that understanding."   The portrayal of Black men as gangsters and thugs is damaging in a number of ways.  There have been four episodes of filmmaking about Afro-Americans: Hollywood films portraying blacks before World War II, Hollywood films after that war, films made by black independents such as Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams before WWII, and the black exploitation movies of the late 1960s and early 1970s.   There has been an addition to the previously mentioned episodes known as the new black cinema.  The new black cinema was born out of the black arts movement of the 1960s, out of the same concerns with a self-determining black cultural identity.   What separates the new black cinema from these other episodes is its freedom from the mental colonization that Hollywood tries to impose on all its audiences, black and white.   Asserting that black expression could be appreciated on its own terms, this new black cinema aimed to preserve black culture both within the Hollywood system and apart from it.  A younger generation of filmmakers embraced Van Peebles, Micheaux, and African filmmakers as their cultural models. For the first time women joined black filmmakers' ranks.  New distributors, including the Black Filmmakers Foundation, California Newsreel, and Women Make Movies, Inc., aimed at select audiences and academic circles rather than mass markets.  The best known of the new black filmmakers during the 1980s and 1990s was probably Spike Lee.  Spike Lee's breakthrough independent feature, She's Gotta Have It (1986), was a "welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites."   By the late 1990s, the steadily expanding black presence in American film seemed to assure a solid future for the new black cinema.

The medium of film has a surface realism which tends to disguise fantasy and make it seem true.   Since the creation of the technology to capture moving images, African Americans have been depicted in an unfair fashion.  Popular films would inflict the values of ignorant, racist filmmakers as people went to discover them.  It took a lot of struggle and perseverance for filmmakers to enjoy the luxury of freedom available to them today.  Hollywood was never considered an ally to African Americans who wanted to depict their reality as it really was.  Independents had to struggle to finance films which were not Hollywood-friendly and many seized to continue because of this obstacle.  The pioneers of anti-racist films; the men and women who triumphed over hardships to create a piece of art true to their heart and culture are credited for providing the backbone for social change.  However, there is no argument that blacks still have distances to go in receiving a fair and honest portrayal in movies and television.