How does Alice Walker use the paratactic literary style in her stories from "In Love & Trouble"?

Parataxis, or the paratactic literary style, involves placing independent clauses or phrases next to each other without the use of subordinating or coordinating conjunctions. In Alice Walker's short story "Roselily," part of In Love and Trouble, she writes, "She dreams of ropes, chains, handcuffs, his religion. His place of worship. Where she will be required to sit with covered head" (page 4). Walker does not use conjunctions between the phrases; instead, they are placed loosely next to each other. Another example from "Roselily" is "She thinks of the air, the smoke, the cinders. Imagines cinders big as hailstones; heavy, weighing on the people" (page 5). Again, these clauses and ideas are placed loosely together without any coordinating or subjugating conjunctions. In paratactic writing, each clause has the same weight, as none are subjugated to others. This makes each thought in the writing important, as the ideas do not flow neatly together. It is used to provide pause and weight to each thought. For example, in the sentences above, the reader can concentrate on each word—such as "cinders," "hailstones," and "heavy," without having any of these words subjugated to the others.

What is turmeric as an alternative treatment?

Overview

Turmeric is a widely used tropical herb in the ginger family. Its stalk is used both in food and in medicine, yielding the familiar yellow ingredient that colors and adds flavor to, or spices, curry. In the traditional Indian system of herbal medicine known as Ayurveda, turmeric is believed to strengthen the overall energy of the body and to relieve gas, dispel worms, improve digestion, regulate menstruation, dissolve gallstones, and relieve arthritis, among other uses.

Modern interest in turmeric began in 1971 when Indian researchers found evidence suggesting that turmeric may possess anti-inflammatory properties. Much of this observed activity appeared to be caused by the presence of a constituent called curcumin. Curcumin is also an antioxidant. Many of the studies mentioned here used curcumin rather than turmeric.

Uses and Applications

Turmeric’s antioxidant abilities make it a good food preservative, provided that the food is already yellow in color, and it is widely used for this purpose. Turmeric has been proposed as a treatment for dyspepsia. “Dyspepsia” is a catchall term that includes a variety of digestive problems, such as stomach discomfort, gas, bloating, belching, appetite loss, and nausea. Although many serious medical conditions can cause digestive distress, the term “dyspepsia” is most often used when no identifiable medical cause can be detected.

In Europe, dyspepsia is commonly attributed to inadequate bile flow from the gallbladder. While this has not been proven, turmeric does appear to stimulate the gallbladder. More important, one double-blind, placebo-controlled study suggests that turmeric does reduce dyspepsia symptoms. Another double-blind, placebo-controlled study suggests that, when taken with standard medications, curcumin can help maintain remission in people with ulcerative colitis.

Other proposed uses of turmeric or curcumin have little supporting evidence. Based on test-tube and animal studies, and on human trials too preliminary to provide any meaningful evidence, curcumin and turmeric are frequently described as anti-inflammatory substances and are recommended for the treatment of such conditions as osteoarthritis and menstrual pain. Some advocates state that curcumin is superior to standard medications in the ibuprofen family, because, at standard doses, it does not appear to harm the stomach. However, until turmeric is actually proven to meaningfully reduce pain and inflammation, such a comparison is premature. Also, high doses of curcumin might increase the risk of ulcers, and, contrary to some reports, turmeric does not appear to be effective for treating ulcers.

Animal and test-tube studies suggest (but do not prove) that turmeric might help prevent cancer. Weak evidence hints that curcumin might help prevent the heart and kidney injury potentially caused by the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin.

Some researchers have reported evidence that curcumin or turmeric might generally help protect the liver from damage. However, other researchers have failed to find any liver-protective effects, and there are even some indications that turmeric extracts can damage the liver when taken in high doses or for an extended period.

On the basis of even weaker evidence, curcumin or turmeric has also been recommended for preventing Alzheimer’s disease, cataracts, chronic anterior uveitis (an inflammation of the iris of the eye), fungal infections, and multiple sclerosis, and for treating high cholesterol.

One preliminary study failed to find curcumin helpful for lichen planus, a disease of the skin and mucous membranes. A six-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of thirty-six elderly persons failed to find that the consumption of curcumin (at a dose of up to 4 grams [g] daily) led to improvements in cholesterol profile.

Scientific Evidence

Dyspepsia. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study performed in Thailand compared the effects of 500 milligrams (mg) curcumin four times daily with placebo and with a locally popular over-the-counter treatment. A total of 116 people were enrolled in the study. After seven days, 87 percent of the curcumin group experienced full or partial symptom relief from dyspepsia, compared with 53 percent of the placebo group; this difference was statistically significant.

Ulcerative colitis
. Ulcerative colitis is a disease of the lower digestive tract marked by alternating periods of quiescence and flare-up. Curcumin has shown some promise for helping to maintain remission and prevent relapse. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, eighty-nine people with quiescent ulcerative colitis were given either placebo or curcumin (1 g twice daily) with standard treatment. In the six-month treatment period, the relapse rate was significantly lower in the treatment group than in the placebo group.

Dosage

For medicinal purposes, turmeric is frequently taken in a form standardized to curcumin content, at a dose that provides 400 to 600 mg of curcumin three times daily.

Safety Issues

Turmeric is on the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) list of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and curcumin too is believed to be fairly nontoxic. Reported side effects are uncommon and are generally limited to mild stomach distress.

However, there is some evidence to suggest that turmeric extracts can be toxic to the liver when taken in high doses or for a prolonged time. For this reason, turmeric products should probably be avoided by persons with liver disease and by those who take medications that are hard on the liver.

In addition, because of curcumin’s stimulating effects on the gallbladder, persons with gallbladder disease should use curcumin only on the advice of a physician. Safety in young children, pregnant or nursing women, and those with severe kidney disease also has not been established.

Bibliography

Afaq, F., et al. “Botanical Antioxidants for Chemoprevention of Photocarcinogenesis.” Frontiers in Bioscience 7 (2002): 784-792.

Baum, L., et al. “Curcumin Effects on Blood Lipid Profile in a Six-Month Human Study.” Pharmacol Res. 2007

Cheng, A. L., et al. “Phase I Clinical Trial of Curcumin, a Chemopreventive Agent, in Patients with High-Risk or Pre-malignant Lesions.” Anticancer Research 21 (2001): 2895-2900.

Fowler, J. F., et al. “Innovations in Natural Ingredients and Their Use in Skin Care.” Journal of Drugs in Dermatology 9, suppl. 6 (2010): S72-S81.

Hanai, H., et al. “Curcumin Maintenance Therapy for Ulcerative Colitis.” Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 4 (2006): 1502-1506.

What does "The Tyger" by William Blake mean?

"The Tyger" is a poem written by William Blake for his collection "Songs of Innocence and Experience." These poems support Blake's conviction that "without contraries there is no progression." The "Songs of Innocence" contrast with the "Songs of Experience"; only by understanding each of the contraries can one arrive at a full understanding, according to Blake's view. Therefore, to understand the meaning of "The Tyger," you must read and understand its companion poem, which is "The Lamb." "The Lamb" presents God as a loving Creator who is "meek and mild," "became a little child," and sacrificed himself as the Lamb of God. 

"The Tyger," on the other hand, presents God as an inscrutable, distant, almost mechanical force that created a dangerous and deadly animal, the tiger, and unleashed it upon the world. The poem's series of rhetorical questions spur the reader to question the traditional view of God as loving and gentle toward mankind. It does not accuse God of being evil, but it poses some questions about the Creator's motivations in making the tiger, which can represent calamity and misfortune. 

Taking the two poems as a pair, then, you can see that "The Tyger" lays out the question that people of faith still struggle with. If God is a loving Creator, how can he allow such bad things to happen in the world? As soon as that question is posed, a contrary appears, namely that God makes good things happen, as well, and in fact he became a man and sacrificed himself (as a "Lamb") to redeem a fallen world. These two contraries may be impossible to reconcile, but by considering both, there is "progression" of thought, and perhaps even of faith. 

In Lord of the Flies, has Simon alone grasped what is wrong on the island?

Ralph and Piggy also notice how the boys are falling out of civilized ways and into barbarism. Piggy continually returns to the conch. He remembers how it had been used to organize the boys and establish reason and order. He clearly sees the danger of losing that order. Shortly before his death, Piggy says

"Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?"

Roger continues to drop rocks upon them and this symbolizes his answer: that he (Roger) prefers violence to rules. 

Ralph also sees the danger. He echoes Piggy's sentiments.

"Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?"

In the subsequent paragraph, we have a last image of Piggy, supporting Ralph, still clutching the object that established reason and order: 

By him stood Piggy still holding out the talisman, the fragile, shining beauty of the shell. 

Piggy and the shell are destroyed together. Democracy, reason and order are also destroyed. 

Simon is the most intuitive boy on the island. So, one could argue that he is the first boy to become aware of the potentially dangerous slide into savagery. At the end of Chapter 8, Simon speaks to the Beast. The hallucination (from Simon's own mind) acknowledges that Simon had always known this potential dark side of the boys: 

You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are? 

What are artificial sweeteners? Do they cause cancer?

Government-approved artificial sweeteners: Artificial sweeteners are nonnutritive in nature since they provide no calories or energy to the body. There are five artificial sweeteners aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), saccharin (Sweet’N Low, Sweet Twin, Necta Sweet), acesulfame K (Sunnet, Sweet One), neotame, and sucralose (Splenda) approved for use in the United States by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Two artificial sweeteners that the FDA has not approved are alitame and cyclamate.

Aspartame is two hundred times sweeter than sugar and was approved for use as a general-purpose sweetener in all foods and drinks in 1996. Saccharin is two hundred to seven hundred times sweeter than sugar. It is used as a tabletop sweetener and in soft drinks and chewing gum. Acesulfame K was first approved by the FDA as a tabletop sweetener and is about two hundred times sweeter than sugar. Neotame, which is about seven thousand to fourteen thousand times sweeter than sugar, was approved in 2002 as a general-purpose sweetener in a wide variety of food products. Sucralose is the only artificial sweetener that has three chlorine atoms in its chemical structure and is six hundred times sweeter than sugar. It was approved in 1998 for use in food products, such as beverages, chewing gum, and frozen desserts. Sucralose was approved by the FDA as a general-purpose sweetener in all foods in 1999.

Metabolism: Sucrose, the chemical entity in natural table sugar, binds to special receptor proteins in the taste buds. This binding initiates a cascade of events that finally results in a signal sent to the brain that causes the sensation of sweet taste. Additionally, sugar is a carbohydrate that is metabolized by the body to provide calories. Artificial sweeteners have a greater affinity for the receptor proteins and work by binding two hundred to fourteen hundred times more strongly to the receptor proteins than sucrose. As a result of their stronger binding capacity, the artificial sweeteners are needed in much lower quantities than sugar to produce the same degree of sweetness.

The artificial sweeteners are either excreted by the body or converted to by-products with little or no caloric output. Saccharin, sucralose, and acesulfame K are excreted unchanged by the body and do not provide any calories. The enzymes in the body hydrolyze neotame and produce methanol as a by-product. Aspartame is broken down in the body to produce methanol and the amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine and very few calories compared with sugar. Methanol is further degraded to formaldehyde in the body. Both methanol and formaldehyde are toxic to human beings at high doses. People with the genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU) lack the enzyme that breaks down phenylalanine. Because phenylalanine is produced as a by-product of aspartame digestion, people with PKU should not ingest aspartame. Foods containing aspartame must carry a label warning consumers with PKU that the product is a source of phenylalanine.

Cancer risk: Questions regarding the risk of cancer associated with the consumption of artificial sweeteners arose when early studies indicated that saccharin caused bladder cancer in test animals. Subsequent epidemiological studies of groups of people did not find a definitive correlation between saccharin use and bladder cancer. There are two more controversial reports on the correlation between aspartame use and cancer. One study found more lymphomas and leukemias in rats fed very high doses of aspartame while the other study did not find a link between aspartame use and cancer.

Artificial sweeteners are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Before artificial sweeteners can be launched in the US market, the FDA reviews numerous safety studies conducted with them, including the studies that assess their potential cancer risk. The reviews have not conclusively demonstrated any strong positive correlation between various cancers and artificial sweetener use. Studies continue to be conducted, and the FDA will continue to review and evaluate the results.

Artificial sweeteners are beneficial for people with diabetes and for people on weight-loss plans. The effects of their long-term use on weight-maintenance and cancer risk are controversial because they are not clearly understood. In the light of insufficient experimental data and all the controversy swirling around the use of artificial sweeteners, moderation should be the watchword for everyone using them.

Bibliography

Abegaz, E. M. “Aspartame Not Linked to Cancer.” Environmental Health Perspectives 115.1 (2007): A16–17. Print.

Cantley, Lewis C. “Cancer, Metabolism, Fructose, Artificial Sweeteners, and Going Cold Turkey on Sugar.” BMC Biology 12.8 (2014): n. pag. BioMed Central. BioMed Central, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 Aug. 2014.

Gallus, S., et al. “Artificial Sweeteners and Cancer Risk in a Network of Case-Control Studies.” Annals of Oncology 18.1 (2007): 40–44.

Lim, U., et al. “Consumption of Aspartame-Containing Beverages and Incidence of Hematopoietic and Brain Malignancies.” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention 15 (2006): 1654–659. Print.

Schernhammer, Eva S., et al. “Consumption of Artifical Sweetener- and Sugar-Containing Soda and Risk of Lymphoma and Leukemia in Men and Women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 96.6 (2012): 1419–428. Print.

Soffritti, Morando, et al. “First Experimental Demonstration of the Multi-potential Carcinogenic Effects of Aspartame Administered in the Feed to Sprague-Dawley Rats.” Environmental Health Perspectives 114.3 (2006): 379–85.

United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Natl. Toxicology Program. Report on Carcinogens. 12th ed. Research Triangle Park: Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2011. Print.

What is your opinion about "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost?

This poem, which beautifully exemplifies all of our doubts and concerns about the choices we have made, and the speculation about where our life might have gone had we made other choices, is at the same time a portrait of New England rural living, the physical basis of all of Frost’s poetic works. The subtle mention of "the yellow wood" gives the reader a hint at the season, like a Haiku poem, and the final line -- "and that made all the difference" -- gives a melancholy, end-of life mood to the piece. While in today’s post-modern world the poem’s simple rhyme scheme and gentle cadence may seem simplistic, even naïve, the power of the imagery is still enhanced by the craft Frost has applied to this simple work. It is a philosophic reminder of the age-old universal admonishment: “Regret for the past is a waste of spirit.”  My "opinion" of the piece is that it is a little gem in the gaudy brooch of American poetry.

What is the conflict in Freak the Mighty?

One conflict in the book Freak the Mighty is the internal conflict experienced by the narrator, Max. At the beginning of the book, Max has low self-esteem, believes that his grandparents don't love him, and internalizes the fear that others have of him due to his serial killer father. Max also has a learning disability, and as a result he believes himself to be stupid. When Kevin enters his life, the close friendship between them and the means through which they help one another overcome their limitations convinces Max that he has worth an value.

An external conflict in the text exists between Max and his father. Max fears his father, and his grandparents worry that Max will grow up to be like him. Shortly after Max's father is released from prison, he breaks into Max's room and kidnaps him with the intention of forcing Max to become his assistant. Soon after, Max's father gives up on this plan and decides to murder him by strangling him, just like he had killed Max's mother. This conflict is resolved when Kevin shows up and shoots Max's father in the eyes with a squirt gun full of vinegar and spices. Kevin had also called the police, who enter the apartment to arrest Max's father once again.