...Happy birthday, 1951 As we follow this certain story, we encounter the mental failure caused by The Second World War. In the short story “Happy birthday, 1951” by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character finds hardness and salvation in life, after his survival of the second world war with a newly born baby Write a summary of the story: “Happy Birthday, 1951” The story starts with an older man and a young boy who are filling out a couple of social papers, which were given to them by a soldier. They begin talking about when the boy wants to have birthday, because the boy was never given a birthday, thus he can choose his own birthday which he wants to be the following day, because it is raining this day. The older man explains him that you are entitled to a birthday present every year when it is your birthday, which does not give him a whole lot of time to figure out what to give the boy. Afterwards the story tells us that they have been living in catacombs in the last seven years, where they have stolen food in the night. The following day, the boy gets an cart as a present and the older man takes him to a peaceful place. They fall asleep and when he wakes up the boy is gone, who he later founds. Characterize the boy and the old man The older man encountered the war, whereas the boy was only born in the end of the war. Therefore the man has experienced the worst parts of mankind's history, which, evidently, has enlighten him that peace is the only “true way”. As he says:...
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...Happy Birthday, 1951 1: Summary Happy Birthday, 1951 is a tale about an elderly man and 7-year-old boy, who lives in the ruins of a war-torn city. Soldiers demand the two to fill out documents with information such as age and name. The elderly man does not know the boy’s age or birthdate. Therefore they decide to celebrate the boy’s birthday the next day, and the man decides to take the boy to a green and living place outside the devastated city. In addition, the man creates a cart for the boy, which the boy rather sees as a tank. On their way to the place, the boy spots an old, rusty tank, which fascinates the boy. The man becomes more and more irritated by the boy’s admiration of things connected to war, which culminates in the man becoming angry with the boy. When the elderly man wakes up after a nap, the boy is gone. The man finds him saying ”Gotcha!” while seated in the tank’s turret pointing towards him. 2: Characterization The young boy was born in the latter half of the Second World War. We can extract this piece of information because of the short story’s title (1951), and because the boy has not gotten any birthday presents in the first six years of his life, which means that the boy turns 7 years in the short story. The boy’s nationality, name and birthdate are also unknown. The boy’s mother was a refugee, who probably delivered her baby to the old man because she feared for her life. The young boy has lived his whole life in a cellar in a shattered city...
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...To what extent did Britain change between 1945 and 1951? The 1945-51 Labour Governments are often remembered for setting up the modern welfare state. These governments passed many changes which aimed to protect everyone in Britain (rich or poor) from the ‘cradle to the grave’. Before 1945 there was help available for people, including those introduced by the pre-World War I Liberal governments. However many people were still very poor and needed more help. Others felt that after a war they should not continue to live in poverty. Indeed,British population knew some impacts that the War did on the economy and society. In fact,the government introduced central planning and the Ministries of Supply and Production organised the war industries. Coal mines and railways came under government direction. By 1945,83% of Britain's public expenditure was on military and defence requirements with the country also having to pay for war camage caused by aerial bombing and the loss of a signifificant part of the merchant naby. Britian had built up a 13£billion debt. World War II has also huge impacts on the society. There was the rationing,policies changes,Air Raid Precautions,a rose of the employment of the women... In 1942 a man called William Beveridge was asked by the wartime government to conduct a study into social problems in Britain at the time. The Beveridge Report (as it became known) was the basis for setting up the welfare state. The Beveridge Report identified five major...
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...Immigrants at Central Station, 1951 The first poem in Peter Skrzynecki’s Immigrant Chronicle is set in Sydney’s main railway station. As it is dated “1951” it is some years after the arrival of the Skrzyneckis here in Australia and also provides us with the context of the poem. The first lines of the poem, “It was sad to hear the train’s whistle this morning...” induces sadness whereas it usually induces joy. This tell us that the Skrzyneckis were sad almost certainly due to the fact that they were about to travel into the unknown. The imagery in the first stanza is a depressing one, “All night it had rained.” The poems tone here is mournful. As the poem goes on it says, “But we ate it all...” This is used metaphorically for positiveness. No matter how gloomy, they enjoy it. In the first line of the second stanza it says “Time waited anxiously with us...” The technique of personification is used to emphasise that the immigrants waited although they did not exactly know what they waited for. “And spaced hemmed us...” depicts the crowded station on that fateful night. Skrzynecki and his family are crowded together, “Like cattle bought for slaughter.” This is a very strong simile in which Skrzynecki is illustrating the appalling and crowded conditions in which the immigrants are experiencing. In the second stanza, it says that the immigrants stood with their families, “Watching pigeons that watched them.” This portrays an image that the immigrants are fascinated by the native...
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...Assignment B – ”Happy birthday, 1951” 1. Summary of ”Happy Birthday, 1951” “Happy Birthday, 1951”, is a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, 2008, which begins in media res. The story is about a young boy and an old man, who is not the father of the boy. The boy was given to him as a baby, by a refugee woman. They have lived in the ruins, for 7 years, after a war and have survived by collecting things they could find or steal. One day soldiers find them and order some documents filled out. For this he needs the boy’s unknown birthdate. The boy selects a day, and becomes entitled to have a birthday and presents. The man makes a present, a cart, for the boy, but also gives him a day away from the war. The boy likes his cart, which he calls a tank. The day away from the war becomes a day to a place the boy never has been before. At the trip he sees some soldiers and a tank witch the man does not like. 2. Characterize the boy and the old man There is not mentioned much about the two characters, we do not know their age, nationality, names or birthdays. What we know is they live by themselves, poor, in the ruins after a war. “… the old man and the boy had lived in the ruins for seven years without documents …” (l. 10-11). They survive on things they steal or dig out of the cellars of the ruins. “But the old man and the boy had found all three for the digging in the catacombs of cellars beneath the shattered city, for the filching at night.” (l. 12-14). The boy is...
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...Were the Conservatives the natural party of government between 1951-2007? (45) There is abundant evidence to suggest the Conservatives were seen as the natural party throughout the initial era of 1951 to 1997. However, after Blair’s New Labour huge and resounding landslide victory in 1997, definitions of a “natural party” have become more complicated; and it being ascribed to the Conservatives far from being accurate. Agree: * Throughout 1951 to 1997, the Conservatives were in power for 35/46 years. No Labour government ever won two successive elections. * Conservatives dominated for long periods between 1951 to 1997, with 3 consecutive victories during 1951 to 1964, and 4 consecutive victories during 1979 to 1992. * The only landslides came from the Conservatives during 1951 to 1997, in the general elections of 1959, 1983 and 1987; they had a majority of over 100 seats during these administrations * Many commentators and books have described the 20th century as the “Conservative century/age”. * Conservatives certainly had the “appetite for power” during 1951 to 1997; their energy and direction was focused on winning general elections * Conservatives have never really been tied to a single ideology, Labour before 1997 focused wholly on socialism and derivatives of it. This meant the Conservatives were able to adapt more easily: Churchill accepted the welfare state, whilst Thatcher was able to reposition the Conservatives towards the right wing of...
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...The Labour party election victory in 1945 was due to changes in social attitudes during the Second World War more than other factors. It produced different political views to that of those before WW2 such as equality and the level of state intervention. This benefitted the Labour party’s electoral victory greatly and outweighs the other reasons that contributed to the victory. Firstly, the social attitudes changed in regard to the significant leftward shift in public opinion and the amount of state intervention that the public wanted. The success of total war showed the public that state involvement was a positive thing and could actually benefit the public. The massive extension of State control, regulation and planning seemed to have led to full employment and a sense of working together for a common goal. Many of the poor population was benefitting from the wartime rationing systems and demand for materials and soldiers as it gave them a substantial meal than what they were used to and they were also able to have a secure income in the household instead of scraping by. The rationing system, along with the conscription of both men and women and the raising of taxes created a feeling of equal involvement and fairness in society, which reflected Labour’s socialist characteristics. The public felt that if these methods were so successful and produced so much positivity in Britain at wartime then they should also be applied in times of peace. Labour’s nationalisation plan...
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...Did the Conservatives Loose or Labour Win the 1945 General Election? The 1945 election came quickly after the aftermath of World War Two and few knew how the election was going to turn out with party politics being pushed into the background during the six years of total war that Britain and her people experienced. This came to a surprise when Churchill’s war government was pushed out in favour of Labour instead and there is much debate surrounding this issue as to who lost and who won this election, or an evolution in voter attitudes? The most important factor in determining whether Labour won or the Conservatives lost was the change in voter attitudes that resulted from six years of total war. During the war, a definitive leftward shift had occurred in the electorate and this steady change can be seen through the work Labour had done in the War Coalition on the Home Front in extending state control where people now viewed Labour’s seemingly ‘radical’ policies as beneficial in helping those in poverty and need. This can be linked to the experiences of the middle classes during evacuation where the level of deprivation in urban areas was exposed and now it only can be seen as natural that the middle classes wanted these issues to be dealt with. As well as on the Home Front, the views of socialism had changed due to the help that Stalin’s Russia had in defeating the Germans and thus was seen in good light. So this trend to the left changed the attitude of many to Labour and can...
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...To what extent was there a ‘post war consensus’ in British politics from 1951 to 1964? (900 Words) Whether or not there truly was a ‘post war consensus’ in British politics from 1951 to 1964 is a highly debatable topic of which historians can often appear to be in two minds about; on one hand, Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson infamously described the period as ‘Thirteen years wasted’, whereas historian Robert Blake (a supporter of the Conservatives’, regards it as a ‘Golden age of growth’. The likes of Kevin Jeffrey’s even argue that consensus had even started before the war. Overall, the central issue was the idea of a mixed economy. If we were to argue that there was indeed a post war consensus in British politics from 1951 to 1964, it would be easy to turn straight away to the legacy of the feats in Clement Atlee’s government policies from July 1945 to October 1951. Atlee’s policies were for the most part successful, leaving him with a reputation of having led a government which actually attained its goals. Perhaps the most prominent part of Atlee’s legacy was the establishment of The National Health Service and The Welfare State, establishments which arguably meant that, despite the long run of Conservative dominance in the years following Atlee’s departure, both society and politics would remain in the Labour mould; Conservative party members proved far less hostile to the concept of a Welfare State due to its popular success, and they were well aware that to revoke...
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...How successful were the Liberal Reforms of 1906-1914 in meeting the needs of the British people? Before the turn of the twentieth century, the government and people of Britain commonly believed in the policy of laissez-faire – the policy of non-intervention in relation to social problems. Due to this, the majority of those in poverty received no help whatsoever. However as time passed, people’s attitudes were changed by the publishing of various findings and the government seeked to help not only the poor but also other groups. The young were helped by aiding their nourishment and inspecting their health. The elderly were helped by supporting them with pensions. The sick were helped by creating insurance which would come to their help during times of sickness. The unemployed were assisted by funding which supported them at times during which they looked for work. Finally, the employed were helped by making their wages fairer and shortening working hours. In 1906 the School Meals Act was passed. This Act addressed the problem of children being undernourished in school as this made them incapable of learning as much as they were expected to. A year later the Medical Inspections Act was passed which made it mandatory that a child goes through at least 3 medical inspections throughout their school career. Finally, in 1908 the Children’s Charter was passed. The Charter protected children in all aspects of life, making sure they were protected from abuse and neglect by making these...
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...In 1951 Churchill was voted in with a 17 seat majority which what can only be described as an ‘Indian Summer.’ Future elections would increase this majority to 100 seats by 1959. A contributing factor to the dominance of the Conservatives was the unelectable Labour, yet the Conservatives did have a strong leadership in their own right. Another important factor in the Conservative dominance was the domestic policy of housing, however, this would not have been possible without the introduction of the economic policy of credit. Therefore, it was the economic policies under the Conservatives, which were the most important reason for their dominance. The introduction of credit was an intricate part of their dominance, allowing money to be borrowed on ‘easy-terms,’ designed to stimulate a sluggish economy, its success can be shown through the sale of cars, which quadrupled from 1.5 million to 5.5 million. This won votes with the electorate since it supported Churchill’s initial claim when the Conservatives came into power that they would put the welfare of the people at the centre of their policies. It also continued the social mobility that had occurred since the war, closing the gap between the ‘haves and the haves not,’ as Butler suggested. However, it could be argued that the Conservative’s economic policies were not as successful as they appeared and were not the basis for Conservative dominance, since the British economy was sluggish with only a GDP of 2.3% in comparison with...
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...not the global is warming compared by the previous year. In addition, the study will assess whether the global climate is changing at a higher rate compared the previous year. This data is based on NASA’s data of average of global climate, and all of temperatures are in Co degree. Hypothesis 1 H0: The mean global temperature for the period 1961 to 2010(µ1) is less than or equal the mean global temperature for the period 1911 to 1960 (µ2). Ha: The mean global temperature for the period 1961 to 2010(µ1) is greater than the mean global temperature for the period 1911 to 1960 (µ2). Hypothesis 2 H0: The mean global temperature for the period 1981 to 2010(µ1) is less than or equal the mean global temperature for the period 1951 to 1980(µ2). Ha: The mean global temperature for the period 1981 to 2010(µ1) is greater than the mean global...
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...------------------------------------------------- DR CRADDOCK’S PATHOLOGY REPORT: DEATH OF GARANWYN ADAMS (CASE DPS_0765) GENDER: Male. ESTIMATED DATE OF DEATH: 18/7/1951 – 20/7/1951. POSSIBLE CAUSES OF DEATH: Severe head trauma, punctured left lung, major blood loss from ruptured pulmonary vein, several gashes in lower torso noted, indicating a knife attack or another form of sharp object used. OTHER INJURIES: large amounts of bruising found in anal cavity– indicator of a violent rape attack, some parts of body found in a rapidly decomposed state where some of the skin had been stripped from the body (flesh exposure to oxygen). (Note: Many similarities in state of victims and same places of death as cases DPS_0756 - DPS_0764). ------------------------------------------------- All trace evidence matches with the pre-mentioned cases – all DNA & semen traces found match. ------------------------------------------------- (EXTRA) Was looking through the tissue and semen samples found from cases DPS 0756-0765, found a possible DNA match with a pre-convicted criminal - Anfri Anwyl? Once convicted on suspicion of an aggravated assault on another male, but was never charged with it. ------------------------------------------------- Will alert police to this issue A.S.A.P. ------------------------------------------------- 12PM – 24/7/1951 – Denbigh Police Station – Report by Superintendent Dillon Prosser PC LLEWELLYN has found a suspect in the famed ‘Galch Murders’. The man was reported...
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... In addition, the study will assess whether the global climate is changing at a higher rate compared the previous year. This data is based on NASA’s data of average of global climate, and all of temperatures are in Co degree. Hypothesis 1 H0: The mean global temperature for the period 1961 to 2010(µ1) is less than or equal the mean global temperature for the period 1911 to 1960 (µ2). Ha: The mean global temperature for the period 1961 to 2010(µ1) is greater than the mean global temperature for the period 1911 to 1960 (µ2). Hypothesis 2 H0: The mean global temperature for the period 1981 to 2010(µ1) is less than or equal the mean global temperature for the period 1951 to 1980(µ2). Ha: The mean global temperature for the period 1981 to 2010(µ1) is greater than the mean global temperature for the period 1951 to...
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...How far do you agree that the ability of the conservatives to remain in office between 1951 and 1964 was because of the Labour party’s weakness? Conservative governments between 1951 and 1964 have managed to achieve a lot and therefore gain the populations trust. But were the conservative candidates elected thanks to their achievements or due to the weakness of their main contender: the Labour party? We will therefore see in this essay what were their different achievements and weaknesses and their contenders own weaknesses. During the thirteen years the Conservatives were in power after 1951, there were four leaders who held office as prime minister. The first one was Winston Churchill (1951-1955). During his time, there were many developments. First, rationing was ended: British finances were disastrously poor after World War 2 and a lot of Britain’s food was imported and Britain didn’t have any foreign currency to pay for the imports. Britain simply couldn’t afford food from abroad and had to ration the little food they had. The rationing ended in 1954. Nationalisation continued during these years, only steel and iron were denationalised because of many serious problems at the time such as obsolescent plants, outdated technology, lack of capital investment funds and plants operating under capacity and therefore at low efficiency. Denationalisation was the best solution for the industries. The Conservative Party also committed itself to building 300.000 houses a year...
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