Darwins Theory of Natural Selection :: essays research papers fc

Charles Darwin revolutionized biology when he introduced The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859. Although Wallace had also came upon this revelation shortly before Origins was published, Darwin had long been in development of this theory. Wallace amicably relinquished the idea to Darwin, allowing him to become the first pioneer of evolution. Darwin was not driven to publish his finding, which he’d been collecting for several years before Wallace struck upon it, because he had â€Å"never come across a single [naturalist] who seemed to doubt to permanence of species† (Ridley, pp. 70). What follows are the key points of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection taken directly from the two chapters concerning it in his book Origins. In chapter III of Origins Darwin sets up his discussion on Natural Selection by establishing the struggle for existence in nature. By this he means not only an individuals need to fend of enemies and survive its environme nt but also it’s ability to create living, healthy, successful offspring. The first factor concerning this struggle is the ratio of increase in any given species. Darwin explains how this struggle must be occurring otherwise a single species would dominate the entire earth because every single one of it’s offspring would survive. This is due to the fact that every species reproduces exponentially, a rate that would soon produce astonishing numbers if left unchecked. This does not happen however, because nature has a system of checks and balances. Although we may not be able to detect these checks, we can see their effects by the indisputable fact that one species doesn’t completely dominate the planet. These checks consist of enemies eating the young or even adults, the rigors of weather or environment, and countless others. In this way birds, for example, cannot populate beyond their food supply, and the grains they feed on are held in check, because even thoug h they may produce thousands of seeds only a few are able to reach maturity. Darwin goes on to show how all plants and animals compete and relate to each other in this struggle for existence. He does so by relating various personal observations that show the introduction of a different species of plant or animal can have a direct effect on the present survival of the indigenous species and even allow other foreign species to proliferate. This leads to interspecies survival, which Darwin considers the hardest struggle of all, and the one that may have the greatest effect on the evolution of a species through Natural Selection.

Ranch Girl by Maile Meloy from Contemporary American Short Fiction

The story is told in second person, which gives the reader a sense of being in the story, at the same time being an observer. It begins with telling you where you stand in the socio-economics’ and in the eyes of your peers. â€Å"If you’re white, and you’re not rich or poor but somewhere in the middle, it’s hard to have worse luck than be born a girl on the Ranch. It doesn’t matter if your father is the foreman or the rancher – you’re still a ranch girl, and you’ve been dealt a bad hand. † (551) The story goes on, telling you where you where you live on the Ranch, who your father is (the foreman on Ted Haskell’s Running H cattle Ranch) and how you keep your room still decorated from when you were ten. You never have friends over, so you can keep your room that way. You never have friends over because no one wants to come over to a Ranch girl’s house. The second person point of view pangs at the readers emotions. You feel the hunger for attention and flush it creates when Andy Tyler flirts with you. The author re-creates the feelings of a teenage girl, somewhere on the cusp of popularity, in such a way it is almost impossible not to get caught up with the story. I was never a Ranch girl, but when reading the story I felt akin to the feelings of the narrator. The experiences described are vastly different from any of my own child/young adulthood but the universal truths laid out are the same with any person. The narrator has fallen in love with a boy from the rodeo. She goes and watches him fight every Friday. She s sixteen and the Ranchers daughter, Carla, and her curls they hair into perfect ringlets. Trying to catch Andy’s eye. When he gets up from fighting, he asks her to give him a rainbow and she twirls her rainbow gloved hand around his face. The narrator wants to marry Andy Tyler. The blushing hope of picking out her future husband harks back the authors understanding of a young girl. â€Å"Virginity is as important to rodeo boys as to Catholics, and you don’t go home and fuck Andy Tyler because when you finally get him, you want to keep him. But you like his asking. Some nights, he doesn’t ask. Some nights, Lacey Estrada climbs into Andy’s truck, dark hair bouncing in soft curls on her shoulders, and moves close to Andy on the front seat as they drive away†¦. But cowboys are romantics; when they settle down they want the girl they haven’t fucked. † (553) The narrator doesn’t feel too jealous of Lacey Estrada because she knows that Andy is like every other rodeo boy. He won’t marry a girl who he (or anyone else) has fucked. This statement is then contested after Andy Tyler dies in an accident. The paper announces in Andy Tyler’s obituary that he was engaged to Lacey Estrada. When reading this, the author goes on to detail the narrators feelings that you can almost taste the salt tears from being hurt. â€Å"Andy’s obituary says he was engaged to Lacey Estrada, which only Lacey or doctor father could have put in. If you had the guts you’d buy every paper in town and burn them outside that big white house where Lacey took him home and fucked him. Then Lacey shows up on the Hill with an engagement ring and gives you a sad smile as if you shared something. If you were one of the girls who gets in fights on the Hill, you’d fight Lacey. But you don’t; you look away† (556) I think putting this piece into second person was an excellent choice. If the piece were in first person, it might have been too emotionally sentimental, or with too much angst. If the piece was in third, it might not have been able to capture the vulnerability of the narrator. The narrator shuts down after Andy’s death, although it might be because of his death she has more options than if he had been alive. The narrator feels cheated, alone since he died, but she continued through high school where her science teachers (who saw through her ignorant facade) encouraged and bothered her to go to college. In the first course in college, the professor accuses her of plagiarism because she can write. The feelings of frustration and anger, feeling cheated out of a life with Andy to be left alone. The narrator feels the expectations of others enshrouding her, something that would not have been if Andy Tyler had not died in that car crash. â€Å"You are so lucky to have a degree and no kid,† Carla says, â€Å"You can still leave. † (558). The narrator has the world around her telling her how she can still leave, how she has nothing to tie her to the Ranch, or to Montana anymore. She can go. â€Å"But none of these things seem real; what’s real is the payments on your car and your mom’s crazy horses, the feel of the ranch road as you can drive blindfolded and the smell of the hay†¦. But out there in there world you get old. You don’t get old here. Here you can always be a Ranch girl. † (558) The tangible things that tie someone to a place has nothing on the emotional ties. Andy Tyler might have died and left her alone, but he still ties her to the Ranch by his memory. The stolen life taken by a drunk driver took not only Andy Tyler, but also the narrators by taking him from her. She wastes her potential by pining and mourning someone she should have moved on from years ago. The sad desperation is clear in the description, in how the author portrayed the narrator through the second person point of view. The narrator comes off much more sympathetic and her motives are clearly understandable through the second person point of view. I don’t think that any other point of view could have given such a clear view of the narrator life.

The Holocaust And Its Effects On The Jews And The Rest Of...

The Holocaust was a systematic government enforced persecution and murder of the Jews that took place throughout Nazi-occupied territories under the command of Adolf Hitler. Although the rest of the world did not suffer from the abuse, murder and isolation that the Jews endured, the brutal polices against Jews caused major destruction and sparked tremendous outrage globally. World War 2 erupted after Adolf Hitler won the election for Germany’s leader in 1933. Throughout the years, his dictatorship grew and his aim was to abolish the Treaty of Versailles, issued at the end of World War 1, and regain Germany’s power. A study of the Holocaust provides the information on what prompted the holocaust and its relation to the dictatorship that Germany was under, the policies that were involved, including Ant-Semitism, Concentration Camps and Ghettos, and how the Holocaust impacted the Jews and the rest of the world. The Holocaust was prompted by Adolf Hitler’s views on re-introducing Eugenics, a practice aimed to ‘improve’ the human gene pool by controlling who gives birth to children. The Nazi’s policies were heavily influenced by the notion of Eugenics to an extent where the sterilization of Jews was introduced. Hitler believed that the ‘personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew’ (R Smith, 2009). His entire purpose was to create a race of ethnic Germans by developing these policies diminishing the Jewish race’s chances ofShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Importance of Holocaust In the Establishment of Israel900 Words   |  4 PagesThe Importance of Holocaust In the Establishment of Israel The holocaust seems to be a major reason in the establishment of the state of Israel. The state of Israel was created in May 1948; the Jews finally had a homeland of their own. 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