Characters are similar throughout books Essay Example for Free

Characters are similar throughout books Essay Henrik Ibsens characters are similar throughout his books. There are pairs of characters with similarities in A Dolls House and Ghosts. One such pair is Nora and Mrs. Alving.  Both characters were unhappily married, but had other significant men in their lives. Manders and Dr. Rank both appeared as good friends to the women. This is a similarity, but with the difference that Nora rejected one and Mrs. Alving was rejected by the other. These men helped the women through their problems however and they would do anything for them. To have loved you as much as any one else does? Was that horrid? (A Dolls House, Act II, p. 40) Dr. Rank tells Nora. He is expressing that he has loved her the whole time that she thought they were just best friends.  Mrs. Alving ran away from her husband in their first year of marriage and went to Manders. She had been in love with him, but he respected the sanctity of marriage so had to turn her away. That I was able to turn you from your outrageous intention, and that it was vouchsafed to me to succeed in leading you back into the path of duty and back to your lawful husband. (Ghosts, Act I, p. 89)  Nora and Mrs. Alving both have children that they love very much. Nora is talking to Mrs. Linde, an old friend, when she brings up the topic of her children, So you are quite alone. How dreadfully sad that must be. I have three lovely children. (A Dolls House, Act I, p. 8) Nora often brings up the topic of her children when talking, because she loves them so much and wants to tell the whole world about them. Mrs. Alving loved her son Oswald so much that she sent him away, even though it would be very painful for her, so that he wouldnt become like his father. It was then that Oswald was sent away. He was about seven then, and was beginning to notice things and ask questions as children will It seemed to me that the child would be poisoned if he breathed the air of this polluted house. That was why I sent him away. (Ghosts, Act I, p. 93) She rationalizes her decision. Mrs. Alving and Nora prove that they love their children through their actions in the plays, which are often similar.  As much as Ibsen deliberately made his characters similar, he also made what happens to them different. At the end of A Dolls House, Nora ends being the victor. She leaves her husband because it is what she wants and she knows how to get it. Oh, Torvald, I dont believe any longer in wonderful things happening That our life together would be a real wedlock. Good-bye. (A Dolls House, Act III, p. 68) With this, she leaves her house and the man she was in a loveless marriage with. Mrs. Alving does not have the same fortune as Nora. At the end of Ghosts, her beloved son is left in a vegetative state and she is left to despair over it.  Oswald! What is the matter with you! Oswald! Oswald! Look at me! Dont you know me! I cant bear it! Never! (Ghosts, Act III, p. 128) A main difference in Mrs. Alving and Noras attitudes is that Nora left her husband when she couldnt take it any more and Mrs. Alving waited for hers to die.  Listen, Torvald. I have heard that when a wife deserts her husbands house, as I am doing now, he is legally freed from all obligations towards her. (A Dolls House, Act III, p. 67) Nora tells him. This shows that she is a stronger character than Mrs. Alving, because she actually stood up to her husband and told him that his behavior was unacceptable. I had my little boy, and endured it for his sake I took the upper hand in the house absolutely both with him and all the others. I had a weapon to use against him (Ghosts, Act I, p. 92-93) Mrs. Alving shows that she took the easy way out. She could have stood up to Mr. Alving and taken her son and left, but instead she chose to go along with it, just standing in his shadow and quietly telling him that she was unhappy. The similarities that come out in the characters of Mrs. Alving and Nora are always mixed in with other situations that make them different. Ibsen wanted to prove to his audience that it wasnt always healthy to be in a marriage and by doing this he went against the norms of society. Neither play has a so-called happy ending, because not all the characters have had their issues resolved by the end. The two plays show the different angles that he wanted the audience to be aware of, but their endings repeat a point for clarity.

Assessing The Strengths And Limitations Of Crimes Criminology Essay

Assessing The Strengths And Limitations Of Crimes Criminology Essay Gender, socially desirable responding and the fear of crime: (1) I will be assessing the strengths and limitations of using social surveys to investigate fear of crime. One form of social surveys is questionnaires. It includes a list of written questions. The strengths of these are that the researcher is able to contact a large number of people quickly and efficiently. Another strength of questionnaires is that they explore certain areas more then other methods i.e. crime. The questionnaire can be anonymous which means people can answer them privately. This increases the chances of people answering questions honestly because they will not be intimidated by the presence of a researcher. When questionnaires are used to investigate the fear if crime, it is found that men are more likely to actually become victims of crime. Although women are reported to have a higher level of fear then men are. A limitation of questionnaires is that they include closed questions, which the researcher cannot examine complex issues and go into detail. Issues maybe such as hegemonic definitions of masculinity when men are being questioned about their fear of crime, they tend to hold back. Whereas, women are free to express and can sometimes exaggerate. Another type of social survey is structured interviews. The strengths are that the researcher can explore in depth a particular topic and find out the how the respondent feels towards the topic. For example; crime victimisation and fears of crime. Because women have a higher level of fear then men they tend to stay indoors rather then go out. According to Cohen society is the subject of such periods of moral panic. In his book Folk devils and moral panics: the creation of mods and rockers. A moral panic is a societal response to beliefs about the treats from moral deviants. Cohen used this term as a form of collective behaviour i.e. when a person or a group of people are performing a deviant act which is seen as a threat to society. This is then portrayed by the media and included in newspapers. This moral panic can have an impact on how people view crime in society and begin to feel a fear towards it. Looking at both types of social surveys that I have mentioned, I have found out that structured interviews are more useful when it comes to investigating fears of crime then questionnaires. This is because structured interviews are much more powerful, they provide a reliable response and is more valid then questionnaires. Patterns of crime: (a) Two advantages of using official statistics to measure crime is that, one it gives a general picture of trends in crime. Politicians and the mass media often point to increases or decreases in official figures as a measure of the governments success in tackling crime. Each party places their own interpretation of what the statistics could mean. However, official statistics does show a fear of crime rising. Researchers Pantazis and Gordon (1999) found out the poor are most likely to fear crime. They did a study on household surveys, found out those with the lowest were most likely to fear crime and those with the highest incomes were actually likely, to become victims of crime. Another advantage is that they are readily available. They are accessible for the police and everyone and are cheap to gather information from. (b) I will examining the view that deviance can best be explained by reference to an individuals social background. I will be using material from these areas education and families and households. Charles Murray (1990) a New Right sociologist argues that deviance can be found in those who are from underclass backgrounds. In both British and American society which have a distinct culture and value system. However, Miller (1962) thought crime and delinquency came from the working class cultural values. He said that the lower working class culture was what encouraged lawbreaking behaviour. According to him values passed from each generation encourages working class men to break the law. Delinquency was then formed from this culture. Because of working class deviant behaviour, they did not achieve well in education and so looked at other ways of gaining some form of success. The working class suffer from status frustration, which means that they find it hard to gain success and so turn t o illegitimate ways. Where in this case, they turn to crime eventually. Family can also influence a persons ability to turn to crime. The type of family that you are born into or live in can determine whether you turn to crime or not. Mostly working class people from single-parent families, where they are a lack of male role models, turn to deviant behaviour such as gang violence. Also laws broken in the family can lead to family breakdown and so lead to anomie. However, Functionists Durkheim explained that a little amount of crime is good and necessary in society. This is because crime has a function in society, it allows for social change to occur. Crime can move from functional to dysfunctional when down to the level of crime is either too high or too low. (c) I will be assessing the view that interactionist explanations of crime and deviance fail to consider the reality of crime as measured in official statistics. Firstly, I will be explaining the interactionists explanation of crime and deviance. Interactionist theory became significant in the study of crime and deviance in the 1960s. They are mostly concerned with the meaning people attach to events or people and so study the societal reaction to deviant behaviour. Unlike positivists, their theory assumes that criminals and deviants are somehow different from non-criminals and non-deviants. They dont look at causal factors in the background or social characteristics of individuals and groups, but look at the process of social interaction in which some actions, individuals and groups were labelled as deviant yet others were not. Interactionists are different to other sociological approaches; they are concerned more about the internal factors. People are social actors, they have the ability to do more than simply react to external social pressures. Unlike positivists approaches, they dont see people as largely passive in the way their behaviour is a response to social forces. Interactionists place on the approach the idea that people attach meanings to behaviour. They want to find out why some groups and some behaviour are more likely than others to have the meaning crime or deviance attached to them. Labelling is one of the most basic aspects of human understanding. Howard Becker (1963) gave the best view on labelling theory. He believed that there is no such thing as a deviant act, it is behaviour that other people label others. Informal labelling happens all the time i.e. in school. But formal labelling can only be applied someone by the authority. However, master labels i.e. being called a criminal can take on a huge effect, once applied it is difficult to live down. From some master labels, some people can be stigmatised and rejected from society. This can lead to crime and can take on a self-fulfilling prophecy approach. Edwin Lemmert distinguished primary from secondary deviance. Primary deviance meaning deviant acts before they are being labelled. I.e. teenagers who commit some acts that leads to being called a delinquent. Secondary deviance is produced by the reaction to an act and public labelling. It is far more important than primary deviance because, it is the effect on a persons self-image of the reaction of society. Lemmert did a study on stuttering amongst a group of Native Americans who didnt have the ability to speak publicly. A person who stuttered a little would attract attention from others, which would then make the problem worse. A primary deviance which is lead to a secondary deviance from the reactions of people in society. To help assess this view I will be using Jock Youngs research study. Young did a study on hippies they were viewed negatively by the police because of their unusual lifestyle which was seen as deviant to them. They were involved in little criminal activity and minor use of marijuana. But once they were caught hard by the police, marijuana began to be much more important and was used frequently. This was caused from greater deviance from the police which put pressure on the hippies to become more deviant then at they were at the beginning. Another research study from Stan Cohen on mods and rockers. Official statistics are a form of secondary data. They are published by the Home Office and give information on the numbers of different types of crimes committed and the social background of offenders. Official statistics are publishes annually. The advantages of official statistics are that they are already available to access as well being cheap. Positivists find it of great use as it helps to explain patterns of criminal behaviour. The official statistics is a large sample, all recorded crimes in the UK are included. Because these statistics are produced every year it now follows a long history, so sociologists find it very useful to compare data over a period of time. However, criticisms from official statistics are mainly from Interactionists. They argue that these statistics are socially constructed. Although they are interested in finding out how this happens, they dont see how the statistics can be seen as real. Also crime statistics are produced by those in social control such as the police and can include those who might or might not be labelled as deviant. Cicourel criticises official statistics by saying that the working class youths who are arrested by the police were likely to be labelled as delinquents. This is because they fitted the polices idea of a typical delinquent while the middle class were able to negotiate. Working class youth are overly represented in official statistics and so could be the result of the process of negotiation happening through interaction through the police.

The Defining Moments of My Life Essay -- Personal Narrative, essay abo

All of us can probably point to one or two defining moments in our life. Mine came when I was running across a rooftop with a gun pointed at my back. Something inside me snapped and I just knew I didn't want this to be my life. I stopped running. I grew up on the streets of the city. Each neighborhood has its culture and so did mine. Ours included playing skellie with your friends while your older brother is twenty feet away on the street corner selling crack or weed, or heroin. Do you know what hustling is in the ghetto? It's simply the American Dream for us. You see we're not so different. We all want the same things. Everyone wants respect. Everyone wants a home for their family. Everyone wants to prove themselves; it's just that in New York's poor neighborhoods the only thing young people see that can get them ahead is hustling. As a young boy I watched my older brother and his friends climb the ladder of ghetto success. First we saw them deal weed. Then we saw them move up to crack. We saw people treat them with respect. We saw their expensive clothes and hot cars. We saw them give people money when they needed it to survive. They were our heroes. This was our definition of a hero, and if you heard something else in school, it didn't matter. It mattered what you saw. What you experienced. I started hustling at 16 and I started getting into trouble. It was around this time that I met Rob Geis from... ...e street culture. Antwone left five children. James left two. Seven children that I want to be a role model for. Seven children that represent tens of thousands more that need to see that there is life outside of this neighborhood prison. An alienated person is a dangerous person. If they don't destroy themselves, they will destroy others. We have to stop the isolation that overwhelms young men and women, particularly young African-American boys and girls, in our worst neighborhoods, I ask you, the next time you find yourself in a bad area and you see a kid hanging out, maybe he's wearing a du-rag and baggy pants, please don't just be afraid for yourself, be afraid for him too. His chances are not good. The Defining Moments of My Life Essay -- Personal Narrative, essay abo All of us can probably point to one or two defining moments in our life. Mine came when I was running across a rooftop with a gun pointed at my back. Something inside me snapped and I just knew I didn't want this to be my life. I stopped running. I grew up on the streets of the city. Each neighborhood has its culture and so did mine. Ours included playing skellie with your friends while your older brother is twenty feet away on the street corner selling crack or weed, or heroin. Do you know what hustling is in the ghetto? It's simply the American Dream for us. You see we're not so different. We all want the same things. Everyone wants respect. Everyone wants a home for their family. Everyone wants to prove themselves; it's just that in New York's poor neighborhoods the only thing young people see that can get them ahead is hustling. As a young boy I watched my older brother and his friends climb the ladder of ghetto success. First we saw them deal weed. Then we saw them move up to crack. We saw people treat them with respect. We saw their expensive clothes and hot cars. We saw them give people money when they needed it to survive. They were our heroes. This was our definition of a hero, and if you heard something else in school, it didn't matter. It mattered what you saw. What you experienced. I started hustling at 16 and I started getting into trouble. It was around this time that I met Rob Geis from... ...e street culture. Antwone left five children. James left two. Seven children that I want to be a role model for. Seven children that represent tens of thousands more that need to see that there is life outside of this neighborhood prison. An alienated person is a dangerous person. If they don't destroy themselves, they will destroy others. We have to stop the isolation that overwhelms young men and women, particularly young African-American boys and girls, in our worst neighborhoods, I ask you, the next time you find yourself in a bad area and you see a kid hanging out, maybe he's wearing a du-rag and baggy pants, please don't just be afraid for yourself, be afraid for him too. His chances are not good.

The Nature of Duality in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Essay

The Nature of Duality in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde It has long been debated that there are two sides to the human mind. Many philosophers have stressed on the fact that human beings are 'dual creatures’. There is the duality of good and evil, right and wrong, joy and despair. There always is the desire to do something which is against the society, against the laws, although this varies from person to person. Robert Stevenson brings the possibility of another self in one person to life in his creation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His novel is a rich tale of the duality of mankind. We all have a split personality in a sense, we have two sides to us: right and wrong. There is a Mr. Hyde in all of us: anger, frustration, murderous thoughts all prevail in us although we have evolved so much. Morals, education, helping and unselfishness are the Jekyll side of us. Stevenson believed that people knew they had a bad side, but they all refuse to accept the truth, as the ‘dark side’ is so unpleasant. The novel demonstrates how innocent curiosity about the darker elements of our nature can soon get out of hand, how the evil triumphs over good if let out of control. Stevenson portrays duality in almost all of his characters, mainly Dr. Henry Jekyll. The symbols used, the narrative viewpoints and the language use by Stevenson also puts forward the dual nature of man. The philosophical context of the novella also is another factor which Stevenson cleverly uses. Stevenson creates a novel of gothic genre, which was extremely popular at the time of release. And the bottom line of the novel is to entertain the reader. The nature of duality, the philosophical context, the scientific context, symbolism, and hy... ...onality. Darwin’s theory of evolution and Freud’s creation of psychoanalysis are well portrayed in this novel. Overall, Stevenson clearly implies that humans are a mixture of ‘good’ and evil’ and challenges the ‘human perfectibility’, which was presumed for the upper class at the time. I particularly enjoyed this novel as it was exploring various themes at the same time. One interesting point is that, when Jekyll made up the ‘transforming draught’, it never was intended to turn him evil. It was just his desires which propelled him to being Hyde. The potion just acted as a catalyst and in the end it was Jekyll who destroyed himself. We had discussed this in class and it struck me as it wasn’t an evil potion. This also shows that Jekyll wanted to break through the Victorian laws and meet his inner desires, which leads us back to the ‘nature of duality’.

The Space Shuttle :: essays research papers

The Space Shuttle The shuttle, a manned, multipurpose, orbital-launch space plane, was designed to carry payloads of up to about 30,000 kg (65,000 lb) and up to seven crew members and passengers. The upper part of the spacecraft, the orbiter stage, had a theoretical lifetime of perhaps 100 missions, and the winged orbiter could make unpowered landings on returning to earth. Because of the shuttle's designed flexibility and its planned use for satellite deployment and the rescue and repair of previously orbited satellites, its proponents saw it as a major advance in the practical exploitation of space. Others, however, worried that NASA was placing too much reliance on the shuttle, to the detriment of other, unmanned vehicles and missions. The first space shuttle mission, piloted by John W. Young and Robert Crippen aboard the orbiter Columbia, was launched on April 12, 1981. It was a test flight flown without payload in the orbiter's cargo bay. The fifth space shuttle flight was the first operational mission; the astronauts in the Columbia deployed two commercial communications satellites from November 11 to 16, 1982. Later memorable flights included the seventh, whose crew included the first U.S. woman astronaut, Sally K. Ride; the ninth mission, November 28-December 8, 1983, which carried the first of the European Space Agency's Spacelabs; the 11th mission, April 7-13, 1984, during which a satellite was retrieved, repaired, and redeployed; and the 14th mission, November 8-14, 1984, when two expensive malfunctioning satellites were retrieved and returned to earth. Despite such successes, the shuttle program was falling behind in its planned launch program, was increasingly being used for military tests, and was meeting stiff competition from the European Space Agency's unmanned Ariane program for the orbiting of satellites. Then, on January 28, 1986, the shuttle Challenger was destroyed about one minute after launch because of the failure of a sealant ring on one of its solid boosters. Flames escaping from the booster burned a hole in the main propellant tank of liquid hydrogen and oxygen and caused the booster to nose into and rupture the tank. This rupture caused a nearly explosive disruption of the whole system. Seven astronauts were killed in the disaster: commander Francis R. Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Ronald E. McNair, and payload specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe had been selected the preceding year as the first "teacher in space," a civilian spokesperson for the shuttle program. The tragedy brought an immediate halt to shuttle flights until systems could be analyzed and redesigned. A presidential commission headed by former secretary of state William Rogers and former

How successful were the Labour Government reforms of 1945-51 Essay

From 1945 to 1951, Clement Attlee was prime minister of the Labour Government. He aimed to improve the Social and Economic Conditions. The main aims to improve the social conditions were: to create a fairer society and improve the lives of ordinary people, build on the recommendations of the Beveridge Report, and slay the five giants (Want, Disease, Squalor, Ignorance, and Idleness). The main aims to improve the economic conditions were: fulfilling the Nationalisation programme and reducing unemployment. Labour had to recover from being identified with the failures of the 1930s. The Beveridge Report of 1942, written by William Beveridge, stated the five giants of evil and need to introduce welfare. Attlee wanted to build on these points. The conservatives wanted to try and find the money to fund this, but Labour found the money to pay for these reforms even with their economic hardship. The Labour Government passed a variety of welfare and social reforms through parliament, such as the National Insurance Act in 1946 and the National Assistance Act in 1948. The National Insurance Act provided sickness and unemployment benefit, retirement benefit, and widow and maternity benefit; this act covered most eventualities, but it was still crticised because benefits were restricted- many workers were not included in this scheme. The National Assistance Act provided benefits for people who were not covered by the National Insurance Act, but this scheme had the same problem as the National Insurance Act- benefits were set too low; so, many citizens remained below subsistence level. These acts slayed one of the five giants: Want. Want is involved with the needs of the citizens. Britain was already known as a ‘welfare society’; although, there were still differences in health and living standards between social classes and regions. Disease is another giant that was slayed. The National Health Service (NHS) became effective on July 5, 1948. Citizens could receive medical, optical, and dental services for free. It was established by Aneurin Bevan (Minister of Health and Housing). The NHS covered everyone after 1945. Before 1945, healthcare was not free. Setting up the NHS was not easy because Bevan had opposition. His opposition was Conservatives and people who had vested interests in the medical profession. Bevan needed support from the British  Medical Association (BMA), but the BMA was against doctors being salaried state employees because they believed that it could weaken their professional status. Bevan had to compromise; he said that consultants were allowed to have private patients and work in the NHS. Doctors would get some of their salary from the state and the rest would come from a fee for each patient treated. The NHS did improve health; the number of infant mortalities and patients with tuberculosis and other diseases had decreased. Housing was quite successful in a way (Squalor was another giant); many houses were built. 1.5 million Council houses were built and quarter of a million pre-fabricated houses were built. Although, with the amount of houses being destroyed by bombs, not enough houses were built. It was successful because many people were able to move into one of these homes. Ignorance and Idleness were two of the five giants; ignorance was based around education and idleness was based around employment. Both of these ‘giants’ were part of the economic conditions. Economic policies also included rationing, loans from the USA, and economic planning. They may have suffered more austerity with food shortages and rationing than during the war. Ignorance was dealt with by implementing the Education Act from 1944. This act was proposed by the conservatives but implemente d by the Labour government. The Education Act made secondary education compulsory until the age of 15. All students had an exam at the age of 11 which decided what school they should attend. If they failed this exam, they were not expected to stay at school after they turned 15; these students were the ones who were expected to get the unskilled jobs. The main focus was on the primary sector due to the baby boom. This act was successful because many students learned about being a skilled worker. The negative side of this act was that this did not give working class children equal opportunities. The last of the five giants is idleness. Attlee’s aim was to create and maintain full employment. Full employment was maintained through the period 1945-51; unemployment did not get higher than four percent. Nationalisation was one way in which unemployment was able to stay low. Improving idleness was very successful during this time period. A failure to improve economic conditions was a deficit. Britain’s exports to the USA had declined enough to create a deficit. Creditors lost faith in sterling and recovery wasn’t seen until after the 1951 election Overall, the Labour government was very successful  with their aims to improve the social and economic conditions in Britain. Even though there were some failures and obstacles, such as not enough housing or Bevan’s opposition, the Labour government did improve lives, they slayed the five giants, and they reduced unemployment.

Corruption in the Gangs of New York Essay

The Gilded Age, or as it is commonly referred to as, the era of corruption, took place in 1877 to 1900. This time period was most effectively portrayed in the novel and movie, The Gangs of New York, which was written by Herbert Asbury. The Gangs of New York focused on a time of politicalcorruption during a period of massive increase in immigration in New York. In this essay I will discuss three themes: immigration, Political machines, and bad situations, that helped contribute to corruptions long vibrant history. Due mainly to famine and disease, immigration increased tremendously during the Gilded Age in three large waves to the United States. The first wave occurred from 1815 to 1860, an estimated five million immigrants, mostly English, Irish and Germanic, arrived to the United States. The second wave of immigrants started from 1865- 1890, ten million more immigrants from northwestern Europe arrived to the United States. Finally, the third wave, between the time period 1890 and 1914 consisted of 15 million Turkish, Russian, Jewish, and Italian immigrants. The increase of immigrants created a huge competition for jobs, wages and votes. The immigrants that arrived in the first wave who began to establish themselves eventually developed a sense of citizenship that they became comfortable to call themselves â€Å"Native Americans.† These Native Americans resented the newer immigrants, provoking racism and violence. The negativity towards new immigrants was portrayed best in the scene at the ship docks, where New York civilians cursed and threw objects at the Irish and other new immigrants in The Gangs of New York. The sudden increase of immigrants, increased the population of cities, where opportunities were plentiful. Naturally, jobs became scare, thus following an increase in unemployment, crime, prostitution and poor living conditions. People became more desperate and willing to just get ends meet. For example, in The Gangs of New York, people similar to Cameron Diaz’s character, the accomplished female pickpocket, Gangs like the Dead Rabbit and Bill The Butcher emerged from this society by using violence and theft to survive. Thus politicians took full advantage of this by offering jobs and civil services in return for political favors. Even today government is plagued by corruption, by getting certain bills and laws passed; politicians  obtain favors for their work. The height of political corruption in the Gilded Age was greatly due to political machines. Political machines usually had one, or sometimes several bosses, which oversaw all operations. Under the political boss are election district captains and district bosses, which would be in charge of mobilizing the people and helping the boss make decisions. The other part of the machine would consist of loyalist, who receive the civil service and support the boss. One of the strongest political machines was in New York; Tammany Hall stayed in power from the mid 18th century to the 20th century and was also featured in The Gangs of New York. The last and also one of the most powerful bosses of Tammany Hall was Boss Tweed. Tweed was notorious for many things, one was his nose, and the other was kickbacks. A kickback is a term referred to the money the political machine received for granting contracts to real estate and other projects. The machine will give out a contract, for example a building or bridge. The government will donate money they raise by raising taxes to have the project finished. As a favor returned for the contract, the company who received the contract must give money to the political machine. The machine also takes advantage of the immigrants by giving free bread to immigrants, and giving them jobs for votes to ensure their power. Fires, hunger and any situation that a political figure could use to obtains voters contributed to corruption as well. Politicians would set fires, and show up before the fire engines and help take down the fire in front of the public. Politicians would also give the victims money to get back on their feet. Although these seem like generous gestures, the politicians are only looking for another vote. They would hand out bread to the hungry and promote their name. However, something can not always go wrong for a politician to save the day, so eventually bad situations would be staged to allow a politician the chance to obtain future voters. For example, President George W. Bush’s approval rating soared after waging war with terrorism. An example in The Gangs of New York when the fire broke out, the politicians arrived immediately, and at first hid the fire hydrant, so he could appear to be the hero instead of extinguishing the fire first. As immigration rose in Gilded Age, opportunities were harder to come by thus increasing reciprocity and more chances for corruption. Political machines became in power, basically a business of corruption. Corruption spread in all forms of government even the police. Bad situations also influenced corruption, in that, politicians made sure these unfortunates happened, to make them appear as heroes in order to obtain votes. Thus immigration, political machines, and bad situations have all contributed to corruptions long and vibrant history.