Berkeley Academic Calendar 2017-2018 Essays

Berkeley Academic Calendar 2017-2018 Essays Berkeley Academic Calendar 2017-2018 Paper Berkeley Academic Calendar 2017-2018 Paper Article Topic: Scholastic Fall Semester 2017 Occasion Date Fall Semester Begins Wednesday, August 16, 2017 Guidance Begins Wednesday, August 23, 2017 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Labor Day) Monday, September 4, 2017 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Veterans Day) Friday, November 10, 2017 Non-Instructional Day Wednesday, November 22, 2017 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Thanksgiving) Thursday, November 23 Friday, November 24, 2017 Classes End Friday, December 1, 2017 Perusing/Review/Recitation Week Monday, December 4â€Friday, December 8, 2017 A day ago of Instruction Friday, December 8, 2017 Last Examinations Monday, December 11â€Friday, December 15, 2017 Fall Semester Ends Friday, December 15, 2017 Winter Commencement Sunday, December 17, 2017 Scholastic Administrative Holidays (Winter Holidays) Monday, December 25 Tuesday, December 26, 2017 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (New Years) Friday, December 29, 2017 Monday, January 1, 2018 Spring Semester 2018 Occasion Date Spring Semester Begins Tuesday, January 9, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) Monday, January 15, 2018 Guidance Begins Tuesday, January 16, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Presidents Day) Monday, February 19, 2018 Spring Recess Monday, March 26â€Friday, March 30, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Cesar Chavez Day) Friday, March 30, 2018 Cal Day To Be Determined, http://calday.berkeley.edu/ Classes End Friday, April 27, 2018 Perusing/Review/Recitation Week Monday, April 30â€Friday, May 4, 2018 A day ago of Instruction Friday, May 4, 2018 Last Examinations Monday, May 7â€Friday, May 11, 2018 Spring Semester Ends Friday, May 11, 2018 Beginning Saturday, May 12, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Memorial Day) Monday, May 28, 2018 Summer Sessions 2018 Occasion Date Spring Semester Begins Tuesday, January 9, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) Monday, January 15, 2018 Guidance Begins Tuesday, January 16, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Presidents Day) Monday, February 19, 2018 Spring Recess Monday, March 26â€Friday, March 30, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Cesar Chavez Day) Friday, March 30, 2018 Cal Day To Be Determined, http://calday.berkeley.edu/ Classes End Friday, April 27, 2018 Perusing/Review/Recitation Week Monday, April 30â€Friday, May 4, 2018 A day ago of Instruction Friday, May 4, 2018 Last Examinations Monday, May 7â€Friday, May 11, 2018 Spring Semester Ends Friday, May 11, 2018 Beginning Saturday, May 12, 2018 Scholastic Administrative Holiday (Memorial Day) Monday, May 28, 2018

My grandparents are approaching their Golden Wedding Anniversary Essay Example

My grandparents are moving toward their Golden Wedding Anniversary Essay My grandparents are moving toward their Golden Wedding Anniversary. It is my goal to sort out the occasion for them.Tasks.Tasks that I should perform will include* Using a word processor and database to compose a letter to nearby inns, requesting data about costs, accessibility and food.* Using a database to make a rundown of visitors for the party.* Creating solicitations for the gathering and consolidating them with the database to customize them.* Creating envelopes for the solicitations, and print the envelopes out by blending them with the list if people to attend database.* Creating menus for the night, with a similar shading plan and configuration as the invitation.* Sending headings from visitors houses to the picked inn, and send them to visitors who live outside the province of Pembrokeshire.For every one of the errands I will give instances of my work and clarify bit by bit how I finished each task.Task 1.Objective: Send letters to neighborhood inns, mentioning data about whether they can provide food for a gathering of around sixty individuals. It would likewise be useful to discover data, for example, evaluating and any exceptional offers available.Step One.Firstly, I needed to acquire the names and addresses of neighborhood lodgings. To accomplish this, I visited the Yellow Pages site, www.yell.co.uk, and scanned for HOTELS in PEMBROKESHIRE. This gave me a rundown of lodgings, which I went into an impermanent database.Step Two.I at that point started to type the letter. Figure 1 shows my first draft of it. I didnt truly consider introduction for this, however simply centered around getting the spelling and sentence structure correct.Step Three.After I had checked the principal draft, I explored different avenues regarding diverse text style styles, to ideally improve the introduction. Figure 2 and Figure 3 show two styles that I tried.Step Four.I concluded that the first draft looked superior to any of the upgraded variant, yet it looked excessive ly crushed together, and just took up half of the page. To understand this, I embedded clear lines among lines and left a space at the base for my granddads signature.Step Five.After I was happy with the presence of the letter, I consolidated it with my database of inns. Figure 4 shows that I embedded the Company, Address 1, Address 2, Town, County and Postal Code fields from my database into the document.Step Six.After this had been done, I blended the letter with my database and sent it to every lodging. (Figures 5 9 show duplicates of each letter that I sent to the hotels.)Task 2.Objective: Create a database of visitors. The database ought to incorporate their names, alongside contact information.Step One.Using Microsoft Access, I gathered a database of guests.Step Two.I likewise printed these out, so my granddad could check them.Step Three.Figure 1 shows that when I initially printed out the sheets, they showed up on two pages. Despite the fact that this was not a significant is sue, it would be increasingly helpful if the rundown was on a solitary page.Step Four.To explain this, I changed the page design from representation to scene. The database now only fitted on one page. Figure 2 shows a duplicate of this.Step Five.After investigating the subsequent duplicate (Figure 2) I saw another issue. The information in the Address 1, Town and County fields was excessively long and had been cut off. To illuminate this, I expanded the width of the fields and the information now fitted.Step Six.Because I had expanded the width of a portion of the fields, the database was presently too long again and took up two pages. To unravel this I diminished the widths of different fields, and the database now fitted on a solitary page. Figure 3 shows a duplicate of the last printout of the visitor list.Task 3.Objective: Create solicitations for the occasion. They ought to be made to a reasonable and elegant topic, and the data ought to be sufficient to advise visitors regardi ng the principle game plans (scene, time, and so on.), however they ought not contain an excessive amount of data with the goal that they become overpowering and difficult to peruse as that would ruin them.

Chester Barnard Essay Example For Students

Chester Barnard Essay Chester Barnard, a leader of the new Jersey Bell Telephone Company, help advance thinkingabout associations when he distributed The Functions of the Executive in 1938. Barnard give us a substantially more practical perspective on what truly goes on in formal association. As indicated by Barnard individual have just a restricted measure of intensity. An individual can do just so much when acting alone. Barnard hypothesizes that there are two different ways to gauge this new participation. The first is adequacy, which is social in character and the second is effectiveness, which identifies with the fulfillment of individual issues and is increasingly close to home in nature. Barnard commitment comes in the zones of correspondence, dynamic, and authority. Barnards four conditions should be met all together for a person to acknowledge a correspondence as definitive. First , the individual must comprehend the correspondence, second, at the hour of their choice, that individual must accept that what can anyone do steady with the end goal of the association, third at the hour of their choice, that individual intrigue and fourth that individual is intellectually and truly ready to agree to the correspondence. Memoirs

Contrast between Japanese Ninja Anime and American Ninja Cartoon Essay

Complexity between Japanese Ninja Anime and American Ninja Cartoon - Essay Example This is in such a case that the films came up short on the awful individuals, at that point it would not have accomplished the present crowd level. The primary contrast between the two movies is the degree of commitment between characters. For example in Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, the characters keep up a reasonable relationship without getting into extraordinary activity. In the primary scenes, Naruto and his assistants are doled out the job of securing an on-screen character during a shooting parade. From the start, the characters have a reasonable relationship and there isn't a lot to report regarding activity and clashes. Genuine activity starts not long after the characters arrive at the place that is known for snow where they were pulled in by trouble makers. Dissimilar to TMNT, the Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow has proactive activity (Wiater 98). In this methodology, the principle characters just pull in after they have been assaulted. Then again, TMN T characters show dynamic activity. Through this methodology, the characters go out looking for miscreants. The film is set in a wrongdoing desolated New York City where the ninja turtles are out to battle wrongdoing. In contrast to the past film, the ninja turtles go out looking for lawbreakers and draw in them. The film is more activity stuffed than Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow. The activity scenes in the film are enjoyable to watch and they have a comic methodology. Without a doubt, the activity in the film comes up short on a positive story of a deliberate subject (Rahimi 34). The turtles are engaged with road battles to make sure about the spot in the city and to control rebellion. Be that as it may, the titles assault wrongdoing suspects even before affirming their association in wrongdoing. The movies have striking imaginative highlights. Toward the start, the two motion pictures have shocking hues. Lamentably, things start to... The two motion pictures are connected at this point totally different as far as introduction and utilization of cinematography procedures. In addition, the movies have various methods of making and introduction of characters. By and by, the motion pictures have a comparative crowd and their plot improvements are practically comparable. The two movies utilize various methodologies character creation. Albeit the two movies utilize speculative characters, there was an inclination to make a feeling of reality among the executives. The American Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle utilizes kid's shows while Japanese Anime Ninja utilizes amines to build up its characters. In contrast to kid's shows, amines have unmistakable outward appearances that can be utilized to make a wide assortment of physical attributes. In this way, amines are nearer to reality than animation (Eastman 123). Then again, kid's shows have highlights that are a long way from being genuine (Wiater 98). Also, kid's shows don't have relative physical appearances. Amines can be utilized to recount to genuine human stories while kid's shows are utilized explicitly for comic purposes. The traits of kid's shows and amine as portrayed above make unmistakable component between the two movies. Also, the distinctive way to deal with character improvement crowd and plot. To be sure, plot and subject advancement in the two motion pictures was dictated by the distinctions in character improvements and creation. The films have huge degrees of likeness notwithstanding having diverse set up, subjects and character determination. The two movies recount to ninja stories and disposal of wrongdoing and miscreants. The movies likewise have inconsistencies in their determination of hues and foundation structures. This makes them to pull in various crowds and following.

Motivation and Job satisfaction

Question: Depict about the Motivation and Job fulfillment are abstract and influenced by factors like social impacts, individual connections outside work and obscure local circumstances? Answer: Presentation Assurance of the elements that impact the activity fulfillment of a worker has become a critical focal point (Weiner, 2013). In view of the customary conviction, where representatives were relied upon to be spurred by the viable administration models and authoritative inspiration systems, anyway this idea has been eclipsed by the speculations that states emotional factors like social impacts, individual relationship and obscure residential circumstances has vital effect on the inspiration and occupation fulfillment of workers (Herzberg et al. 2011). This specific assemblage of research without a doubt esteem the impacts of outside marvels on work fulfillment that have been to a great extent ignored. Writing audit Experimental inquires about reliably center to recognize the determinants of occupation fulfillment, and obvious proposes that the key contributory elements to the subject incorporate social impacts (cultural qualities, standards and conviction), socio-segment factors (for example sex, conjugal status, age, and level of training), and so on (Chambers et al. 2014). Social effects on Job fulfillment In light of the examination by Hofestede (2012), various specialists advance the view that social qualities are stay steady and predictable after some time (Elliot Dweck, 2013). At such a position, the way of life is seen as the homeostatic semi balance and henceforth, despite the fact that the observational help to it is less, one can theorize that the social qualities will in general affect work fulfillment after some time. The examination started by Hofestede presenting a national social system inside the association arrangement. Inside this structure, the analyst builds up a lot of social measurements with the concentration to portray the idea of national culture that was characterized as the aggregate programming of brain that naturally recognizes the class of individuals or individuals from one gathering from the other (Wigfield Guthrie, 2013). Thinking about this structure, a contention emerges that states, culture takes after ones mental programming which is essentially steady in nature and viewed as a reliable dependable indicator to decide how people are probably going to think and act inside the general public. As indicated by Wigfield etal. (2015), industrialization is supposed to be reported as particular movements from customary to mainstream objective worth frameworks. While in the post-industrialization stage, it enormously interfaces with the endurance esteems and self-articulation. Inside this move in culture, it is regularly watched a critical degree steadiness of conventional qualities. The variety in social qualities inside the industrialized society, this tirelessness credit to the distinction in social legacy and altogether to the strict legacy. Anyway theoritising the proper nature relationship between social qualities and occupation fulfillment is a troublesome call. Corresponding to it, Grana et al. (2012) examines how adequately the directors in worldwide association must know about the social contrasts, for instance exchanging across outskirts in various nations. For some situation, certain administration systems may prompt positive worker results while the methodology utilized on representatives on certain culture, anyway the impact of the procedure might be less powerful when applied on representatives from different societies. This suggests to the way that social disposition (both at the national and individual level) is probably going to have a moderating impact between different contribution by the board and result of representative including the activity fulfillment. For example, it is guessed that the social estimations of an individual fundamentally influence their desires for different perspectives identified with their activity and working environment. In the event that the desires are surpassed by the truth, it results into a more significant level of occupation fulfillment and the other way around. Once more, Armitage et al. (2012) refered to that, independence, a specific social worth (for example the degree at which an individual want to live firm feeling of individual character in this manner contradicting the idea of community that alludes to the inclination of gathering personality) is probably going to lead a person to want and perform self-coordinated and independent assignment in their activity. Comparable to it, if the business expands the degree of self-sufficient undertaking for certain gathering of workers, it is normal that the activity fulfillment for the gathering of representatives holding certain social qualities will increment significantly than the ones that don't hold the particular social qualities. Besides, the impact of social qualities on work fulfillment and impacts of social qualities on taking part in authoritative dynamic, have been experimentally investigated by Chevallier et al. (2012), whose experimental outcomes show that, headway towards the conventional qualities may result into elevated level of occupation fulfillment, then again, progression towards the endurance esteems bring about low degree of employment fulfillment. Impact of local circumstance in work fulfillment Negative residential circumstance may emerges because of the wrong work life balance or other situational emergency that impact the representative activity fulfillment. A fulfilled workforce is critical to drive the accomplishment of association. As indicated by Lin Lu (2011), work-life balance is the significant inspiration of representatives that drive the workers to stay with association instead of the money related advantages of compensation. Armitage et al. (2012) characterized work fulfillment as an enthusiastic or full of feeling reaction towards ones occupation. A worker feel de-inspired to give his earnest attempts at work and most extreme productivity to accomplish the authoritative objectives because of the local circumstance that may emerges because of the contention between work-life balance. Herzberg et al. (2011) refered to that, this specific clash takes three structures for example strife in time, behaviorial clashes and struggle out of pressure between jobs. The contention of time emerges when request forced by various jobs played by the worker makes it hard for him to oversee time effectively. The distraction of the person with one job influences the people capacity to play out the errands particular to the next pretended by him/her, regardless of whether the individual is truly present (Chambers et al. 2014). Strife emerging because of strain between jobs coming about into pressure age/de-inspiration while performing one job influences the manner in which an individual perform to satisfy the interest of different jobs. For example, stress and exhaustion involvement with work has noteworthy effect on the family life at home and the other way around, which thusly result into de-inspiration and impact the activity fulfillment Social clash alludes to the particular wonder that states, conduct of individual explicit to one job is contradictory is incongruent with the conduct required by the other job. For example, local issues and issues outside work impact the people capacity to work productively or provide food the demeanor expected at work. Consequently offers ascend to circumstance where the individual feel unfit and de-propelled and couldn't embrace the unique requests (Chambers et al. 2014). Work and family (individual relationship) impedance Specialists undoubtedly exceptionally recognize the corresponding idea of employment fulfillment with different household circumstances and receive a bidirectional point of view of work-residential clash. People have a persistence of having greater adaptability to take part in close to home or family responsibilities as opposed to improving their duties towards work. As per (), there are fundamentally two kinds of obstructions that impact the activity fulfillment: Work to family obstruction Family to work obstruction The business contract directs the working time of an individual though the family time of an individual is totally relies upon the people attentiveness. The time conflict of these two angles makes an irregularity between in two ways individually in this manner prompting disappointment in occupation and turnover expectations. Work and family impedances on a very basic level works in two ways. To start with, work requests for additional time and vitality from the representative ruining the exercises towards family (individual connections). For example, going to of promoting visits as well as gatherings early morning drives the people to bargain their own life and obligations towards the individual connections. Analysts call this as work impedance with the individual life (Herzberg et al. 2011). Second, obligations and obligations towards the individual connections (family) obstruction with the people duty and execution towards work. For example, stressing over the wiped out dependants at home, for example, duty towards companion and accomplices numerous multiple times redirect the consideration of people from obligations identified with work hence prompting work a circumstance where family meddle in work. In addition when representatives can't adjust between the two areas of work and individual life, they will in general feel unsatisfied with the activity and prone to pull back from business related exercises. Herzberg et al. (2011) proposed about the different degrees of stress that representatives forces that can prompt clash between close to home life and work which thus prompts leaving of place of employment. As indicated by Armitage et al. (2012), obstruction of work with individual relationship is essentially and decidedly identified with the expectations of turnover. Then again, the view of worker to authority over administration of work and individual life is altogether and contrarily identified with the turnover expectations. The above writing endeavors to relate the factors work and individual life that are interlinked with one another. Once more, the investigation attempts to break down the different sources

How to Answer the USC Short Answer Questions TKG

How to Answer the USC Short Answer Questions Let’s start with the question you asked yourself that led you to this blog post: “WHAT DO THEY WANT TO HEAR?!” Here’s the answer: nothing. There isn’t one right answer. Repeat and internalize that. The purpose of these questions, like the Columbia short answer questions, is to get to know you. Think about it: if you heard someone’s favorite snack was a kale salad, you would think of them differently than someone who answered ‘Cheetos.’ Remember that everything you put in any application represents who you are, and while the admissions committee is going to analyze your answers to some extent, don’t freak out. These answers are just an extension of you. It’s not complicated, so don’t overcomplicate it, but by all means be thoughtful. As a rule of thumb, don’t try to stand out by being controversial, and definitely don’t lie. That being said, there truly is no wrong answer as long as you don’t go for the most boring/obvious/provocative option for everything. In summary, we offer the following mantras:  There is no right/wrong answerTrust your gut instinctDon’t take this too seriouslyEmbrace your weirdnessNow let’s get going. Here are the USC Short Answer Questions with our explanations:Describe yourself in three words.First Word:Second Word:Third Word:For this question, we have our students text a minimum of five friends and ask them for three adjectives they’d use to describe the student. Those adjectives always end up falling into a few categories, so we help our students take the answers they receive, and either select or brainstorm the best adjective in each category. For example, if a student receives texts from friends that say, “leader, over-achiever, hard-working,” we might suggest “ambitious.” This is just one of many ways to answer this short answer question, but we find it always produces well-rounded answers. We realize that this says “words” not “adjectives,” so we give you permissions to write “alwa ys eating tacos” if you feel that that’s more of who you are.Rules to follow for this question:Don’t use empty words like ‘nice,’ ‘fun,’ or ‘outgoing.’ These words say nothing about you.Avoid most cultural references, particularly achingly timely ones that may be fleetingâ€"i.e.: don’t write “young, scrappy, hungry” as your answer.If you’re going to go with a funny answer, make sure the answers to the following questions match your tonal mark.What is your favorite snack?Use this question to let the reader into your home. If you have an interesting background or tradition centered on food, this is a good time to show it. So, for example, if you’re Hungarian and your favorite snack is Chicken Paprikash, let them know. It’ll allow a small window into your life. Again, there is no wrong answer here, but again, don’t be boring. Everyone likes pasta. Everyone loves pizza.Favorite app/website:This is your chance to amplify one of your interests. Don’t try to sound smartâ€"your favorite website is probably not The Economist. Go for niche or esoteric websites that they might not have heard of previously, but that you genuinely enjoy checking. We suggest avoiding Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook as answers for all of the obvious reasons.  Best movie of all time:Our students get very anxious about this answer in particular because everyone has opinions on movies and they don’t want their answer to seriously conflict with the opinion of the person reading it. Again, there is no wrong answer. Have we said that enough? Just make sure your answer says something about your personality and interests. Don’t overthink it. (If you’re wondering, we think Spy Kids 2 and Casablanca are the best movies of all time.)Hashtag to describe yourself:Full disclosure: this is the worst short answer question on USC’s application. Our advice here is to be as funny and quirky as possible. Keep it short and sweet, #becausehowcanyoureallydecipherwhichwo rdsarewhichwhenyouchoosealonghashtagitlookslikejibberish. Email us if you want help brainstorming.Dream job:This answer should be loosely tied to whatever your reasons are for attending USC because your application has to have continuity. So if you’re applying to the film school, follow that trajectory by saying you want to be a filmmaker or film editor. If you’re applying to the engineering school, maybe your dream job is to work at SpaceX. Don’t say you want to work in Private Banking for JP Morgan if you’re applying to be an English major.What is your theme song?We like to tie this answer to an extracurricular activity if possible. For example, we had one student who spent upwards of 20 hours a week at her Ballet Academy. As such, her theme song was Raymonda, Act Two: Variation IV by Alexander Glazunov. For this question, you should avoid current popular songs or historically overplayed songs. This question can help you stand out.Dream trip:Again, build off of an existing interest that you have or that you’ve already mentioned. If you’re a surfer, maybe you want to go to Australia. If you’re an admirer of French cuisine, maybe you want to go to Provence. Make sure this answer isn’t random.What TV show will you binge watch next?There is no real strategy with this question other than to not be vapid in your response. Unlike the other short answers, this question allows you to show a side of your personality as opposed to expand on an interest. There’s a difference in the type of person who wants to binge watch Chefs Table vs. the person who wants to binge watch Pretty Little Liars. If you’re genuinely lost, you might want to go with more critically acclaimed shows, like Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, etc.Place you are most content?This is the best question for you to get the reader to empathize with you. The place where you’re most content shows vulnerability and your true colors, so please don’t say “The Habitat For Humanity constru ction site” or the local soup kitchen. Our students have told colleges that the place where they’re most content is their bed, their couch, and their kitchen. You want a real, human answer for this. Think genuine, and go from there. On all counts, really.We understand that these short answer questions are relatively daunting to answer because you don’t have room for an explanation. But fear not! We’re here to help if you need another set of eyes or a brainstorming partner.

Escaping Religion Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and Blankets - Literature Essay Samples

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson and Blankets by Craig Thompson are coming-of-age stories that primarily focus on the religious beliefs of their respective authors. Winterson grew up in an Evangelical household. Her mother was a very religious woman with a totalitarian parenting style. This, in turn, corrupted Winterson’s young mind, and her understanding of the world was greatly skewed. Later in her young adult years, her lesbianism and being shunned by the family she had found within the church allowed her to break through that mentality. Thompson, on the other hand, grew up with similar circumstances. His parents were fundamentalist Christians. They were extremely religious and conservative with a rather abusive parenting style. To add to it, Thompson and his brother were also molested by their babysitter. His parents’ religious abuse and babysitter’s physical abuse placed him in quite the conundrum when it came to his sexuality. To bring e verything full-circle, the upbringing of the authors had an adverse effect on their mentalities. Winterson and Thompson lived their lives in fear of disappointing God and their earthly gods—their parental figures—by attempting to live free of sin and temptation. Winterson’s mother raised her in a very Evangelical, very totalitarian household. Her word was law, and bible scriptures guided her word. The story of Winterson’s adoption is as follows: My mother, out walking that night, dreamed a dream and sustained it in daylight. She would get a child, train it, build it, dedicate it to the Lord: a missionary child, a servant of God, a blessing. (Winterson 10) Her mother wanted to create the perfect child, immaculately conceived by the misguided notions of the Church brainwashed into the mind of her mother. She had dreamed of Winterson being holy and devout, obedient and submissive, a perfect Christian in the eyes of God; and she made sure that Winterson knew just how â€Å"special† she was (3). In her childhood, she was homeschooled by her mother. She was taught â€Å"to read from the book of Deuteronomy because it is full of animals† (Winterson 42). Her religious education left her very closed off from the truths of the world and led her to believe that other people outside of her church were â€Å"Heathens† (54). Once she was to attend public school, she had a very rough time transitioning into the real world. She believed that Hell was a real place and terrorized the other school children with detailed stories of burning in Hell for eternity. When making a sewing project, Winterson chose to add the motif, â€Å"TH E SUMMER IS ENDED AND WE ARE NOT YET SAVED† (39). The other children and her teachers were very concerned by her behavior; however, her mother was glowing with pride. Winterson had proven to be the child that she had always hoped to raise—a devout, submissive, Christian girl. Although her mother was beaming with satisfaction, Winterson herself was spiraling deeper into confusion. She could not understand why the other children did not find what she enjoyed to be as interesting as she did, thusly making her a social outcast, just as Thompson was during his childhood. Thompson and his younger brother were raised in a fundamentalist Christian household. His family was very poor and overtly religious, which led to altercations with other children at school. Like Winterson, Thompson attended public school where he was a social outcast and relentlessly bullied. During a scuffle, some bullies jeered: You know†¦ it’s not just you we hate, It’s your whole family. Your dad looks like a Mexican—too poor to feed you, and your mom is so religious it makes everyone in town sick, and your brother†¦your little brother with his messy hair and stupid voice must be retarded. (Thompson 21) Thompson was resented for something that was entirely out of his control. This began his separation between himself and his religion. He began to despise his religious upbringing due to the backlash that followed, and when he attempted to retaliate, he was thwarted by his teacher for writing â€Å"an eight page poem about people eating—excre ment† (Thompson 28). The teacher chastised him, telling him how embarrassed and ashamed his mother would be because â€Å"she’s a good Christian lady† (Thompson 28). No matter which side he chose, there would always be naysayers to discourage him. He used his religion as a safety blanket because it was the only way of life that he knew. He felt that it is safest for him. After the teacher was finished scolding him, Thompson thought, â€Å"If only God could forgive me for all the times I pictured people eating their own excrement† (29). Even while he was attempting to distance himself from his religion, he still needed God’s forgiveness for thinking such sinful thoughts. The church was the only place where he really felt safe. At the church’s Sunday school, Thompson was farther away from his faith. While one of his teachers was explaining that their Heavenly jobs would be to sing praise to God for all eternity, Thompson explained that he cannot sing and would rather draw his praise to God. The teacher laughed at him and scoffed, â€Å"I mean, ‘Come on, Craig.’ How can you praise God with drawings?† (137). This discouraged young Thompson even more. Drawing was the one thing that he loved to do most in life. He felt that if he cannot praise God in the way that he wanted to, then why praise him at all? Why praise a God that does not accept his children for who they are? Why praise a God that allows abuse and molestation to happen to little boys such as Craig and his brother? His parents were loving and caring but also had very crass methods of punishment that bordered on mental abuse. When Thompson and his brother were very young, they had to sleep in a bed together; their parents could not afford to buy another bed. One night while Thompson and his brother were fighting over the blankets, their father came to intervene. In a feigned diplomatic tone, their father stated, â€Å"Alright. You boys don’t want to sleep together?† (Thompson 14), placed Thompson in their bed, and forced his brother into the cubbyhole in their playroom wall that was used for storage. He was made to sleep there in the dark with spiders and other insects crawling over him all night. His brother was utterly horrified, and Thompson was left to feel like a failure as a big brother because â€Å"[he] neglected [his] protective role in dangerous situations† (18). This also applied to their childhood babysitter who tricked the boys into a room, saying that he had â €Å"a really funny joke. So funny, I can only tell it to you one at a time† (Thompson 29). He then proceeded to molest them, causing Thompson to feel as though he had entirely failed as being his brother’s protector and damaging his view on sexuality even more than his fundamentalist parents had done already. In most religions, sexualities other than heterosexual, sexual intercourse, and anything concerning sexuality are viewed as being sinful. Winterson was taught from an early age that all forms of sexuality were sinful and would send you directly to hell. After coming back from church one day, Mrs. White, her mother, and Winterson were greeted by the sounds of the next-door neighbors engaging in sexual intercourse. This sent her mother off her rocker. She began a retaliatory attack of hymnals and prayers and sent Winterson out to the ice cream truck. Winterson thought to herself, â€Å"I didn’t know quite what fornicating was, but I had read about it in Deut eronomy, and I knew it was a sin† (54). Her mother had engrained this knowledge into her brain. Sexual intercourse was a sin, and so was Winterson’s â€Å"unnatural passions† (105). Her love for another woman was viewed as an abomination under God. Her mother was mortified by her daughter’s sexual identity and attempted to exercise the demon from Winterson. Her mother outed her lover Melina and Winterson to the entire church. The congregation then proceeded to blast them with hymns and bible verses to teach them the Godly way of life—to show them that their love was â€Å"a love reserved for a man and wife† (105)—thusly leaving Winterson to question which she loved more: her sexuality or her God. Thompson was also raised to believe that the many forms of sexuality were sinful. His conservative family dreaded the thought of their son being sexually active in any way. On page 167, the reader sees a conversation between Thompson and his mother where she appeared to be physically disgusted by the fact that â€Å"sex education† was taught in public schools. She then stated, â€Å"Why we let these people teach our children, I’ll never know† (Thompson 167); she shared the same ideals as Winterson’s mother. Thompson’s mother believed that those who are ungodly should not be teaching their children. Although she does not come directly out and say it, her demeanor suggested that she also believes that good Christians were better than everyone else. Another instance of his parents’ fear of sexuality was when they scolded him for his drawing of a naked woman, asking him, â€Å"How do you think Jesus feels?† (Thompson 207). Young Thompson w as ashamed and embarrassed by the prospect of Jesus disapproving of his interest in the female anatomy. Ultimately, this fear of sin and sexuality-shaming had a large effect on Thompson as a teenager. On page 146, the reader sees an image of Thompson becoming sexually aroused by the letters that he and Raina exchanged. Thompson then went on to tell the reader that â€Å"this was the ONE and ONLY time [he] masturbated [his] senior year—but such are the will powers provided by faith† (147). His belief and fear of God were enough to curve his lust and temptation; however, his will power wavered this one time, and he was emotionally distraught over it. After the incident, he laid naked on the floor, in the fetal position, and felt the entire weight of his actions and sins against God (Thompson 148). Thompson felt crushed by the figurative weight of his errant actions. With Raina, however, his fear of losing God’s approval vanished. Teenage Thompson felt that sexual exploration was okay because he was in love with Raina. Thompson associated Raina’s naked body with religious undertones, stating that â€Å"she’d been crafted by a DIVINE ARTIST†¦ sacred, perfect, and unknowable† (429). God beautifully crafted her. Every curve, dimple, and inch of flesh was perfect. He saw Raina as being a perfect individual—God-like, holy. He felt no shame in having sexual contact with Raina because he saw it as an act of worship. His sexuality was no longer an act of sin; it was something that is entirely right because of his love for her. Winterson and Thompson, however, found that they cannot have the best of both worlds. They were forced to choose between accepting their sexuality or remaining with God. They both ultimately lost their religion. After the constant attacks from her mother and the church, Winterson moved out of her house and began to work her way through college. She accepted that it was the only way for her to be happy, stating that, â€Å"It was not judgement day, but another morning† (Winterson 137), on the day that she left home for good. This action thusly renounced her mother’s religious beliefs. Like Winterson, after losing Raina, Thompson too moved out to attend art school, where he was warned not to go because of â€Å"homosexuality† (516). Although by making this decision to go to art school, he had already turned his back on religion (he had originally considered going into ministry). He felt that he needed to find himself, to discover who he truly was, to enjoy the thin gs that made him happiest in life; and that did not include being religious. In an interview, Thompson had told the interviewer that he wrote Blankets as a way to tell his parents that he was no longer religious. In the end, both Winterson and Thompson lost their fear of disappointing their parents and God. They finally chose to live their lives for themselves. Works Cited Thompson, Craig. Blankets. Top Shelf Productions, 2004. Winterson, Jeanette. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Pandora Press, 1985.