In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of him which was barbaric. He was a man of exuberant fancy, and, withal, of an authority so irresistible that, at his will, he turned his varied fancies into facts. He was greatly given to self-communing, and, when he and himself agreed upon anything, the thing was done. When every member of his domestic and political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature was bland and genial; but, whenever there was a little hitch, and some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more genial still, for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places.

Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of manly and beastly valor, the minds of his subjects were refined and cultured.

But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself. The arena of the king was built, not to give the people an opportunity of hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious opinions and hungry jaws, but for purposes far better adapted to widen and develop the mental energies of the people. This vast amphitheater, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.

When a subject was accused of a crime of sufficient importance to interest the king, public notice was given that on an appointed day the fate of the accused person would be decided in the king’s arena, a structure which well deserved its name, for, although its form and plan were borrowed from afar, its purpose emanated solely from the brain of this man, who, every barleycorn a king, knew no tradition to which he owed more allegiance than pleased his fancy, and who ingrafted on every adopted form of human thought and action the rich growth of his barbaric idealism.

When all the people had assembled in the galleries, and the king, surrounded by his court, sat high up on his throne of royal state on one side of the arena, he gave a signal, a door beneath him opened, and the accused subject stepped out into the amphitheater. Directly opposite him, on the other side of the enclosed space, were two doors, exactly alike and side by side. It was the duty and the privilege of the person on trial to walk directly to these doors and open one of them. He could open either door he pleased; he was subject to no guidance or influence but that of the aforementioned impartial and incorruptible chance. If he opened the one, there came out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon him and tore him to pieces as a punishment for his guilt. The moment that the case of the criminal was thus decided, doleful iron bells were clanged, great wails went up from the hired mourners posted on the outer rim of the arena, and the vast audience, with bowed heads and downcast hearts, wended slowly their homeward way, mourning greatly that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have merited so dire a fate.

But, if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his majesty could select among his fair subjects, and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence. It mattered not that he might already possess a wife and family, or that his affections might be engaged upon an object of his own selection; the king allowed no such subordinate arrangements to interfere with his great scheme of retribution and reward. The exercises, as in the other instance, took place immediately, and in the arena. Another door opened beneath the king, and a priest, followed by a band of choristers, and dancing maidens blowing joyous airs on golden horns and treading an epithalamic measure, advanced to where the pair stood, side by side, and the wedding was promptly and cheerily solemnized. Then the gay brass bells rang forth their merry peals, the people shouted glad hurrahs, and the innocent man, preceded by children strewing flowers on his path, led his bride to his home.

This was the king’s semi-barbaric method of administering justice. Its perfect fairness is obvious. The criminal could not know out of which door would come the lady; he opened either he pleased, without having the slightest idea whether, in the next instant, he was to be devoured or married. On some occasions the tiger came out of one door, and on some out of the other. The decisions of this tribunal were not only fair, they were positively determinate: the accused person was instantly punished if he found himself guilty, and, if innocent, he was rewarded on the spot, whether he liked it or not. There was no escape from the judgments of the king’s arena.

The institution was a very popular one. When the people gathered together on one of the great trial days, they never knew whether they were to witness a bloody slaughter or a hilarious wedding. This element of uncertainty lent an interest to the occasion which it could not otherwise have attained. Thus, the masses were entertained and pleased, and the thinking part of the community could bring no charge of unfairness against this plan, for did not the accused person have the whole matter in his own hands?

This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own. As is usual in such cases, she was the apple of his eye, and was loved by him above all humanity. Among his courtiers was a young man of that fineness of blood and lowness of station common to the conventional heroes of romance who love royal maidens. This royal maiden was well satisfied with her lover, for he was handsome and brave to a degree unsurpassed in all this kingdom, and she loved him with an ardor that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong. This love affair moved on happily for many months, until one day the king happened to discover its existence. He did not hesitate nor waver in regard to his duty in the premises. The youth was immediately cast into prison, and a day was appointed for his trial in the king’s arena. This, of course, was an especially important occasion, and his majesty, as well as all the people, was greatly interested in the workings and development of this trial. Never before had such a case occurred; never before had a subject dared to love the daughter of the king. In after years such things became commonplace enough, but then they were in no slight degree novel and startling.

The tiger-cages of the kingdom were searched for the most savage and relentless beasts, from which the fiercest monster might be selected for the arena; and the ranks of maiden youth and beauty throughout the land were carefully surveyed by competent judges in order that the young man might have a fitting bride in case fate did not determine for him a different destiny. Of course, everybody knew that the deed with which the accused was charged had been done. He had loved the princess, and neither he, she, nor any one else, thought of denying the fact; but the king would not think of allowing any fact of this kind to interfere with the workings of the tribunal, in which he took such great delight and satisfaction. No matter how the affair turned out, the youth would be disposed of, and the king would take an aesthetic pleasure in watching the course of events, which would determine whether or not the young man had done wrong in allowing himself to love the princess.

The appointed day arrived. From far and near the people gathered, and thronged the great galleries of the arena, and crowds, unable to gain admittance, massed themselves against its outside walls. The king and his court were in their places, opposite the twin doors, those fateful portals, so terrible in their similarity.

All was ready. The signal was given. A door beneath the royal party opened, and the lover of the princess walked into the arena. Tall, beautiful, fair, his appearance was greeted with a low hum of admiration and anxiety. Half the audience had not known so grand a youth had lived among them. No wonder the princess loved him! What a terrible thing for him to be there!

As the youth advanced into the arena he turned, as the custom was, to bow to the king, but he did not think at all of that royal personage. His eyes were fixed upon the princess, who sat to the right of her father. Had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in her nature it is probable that lady would not have been there, but her intense and fervid soul would not allow her to be absent on an occasion in which she was so terribly interested. From the moment that the decree had gone forth that her lover should decide his fate in the king’s arena, she had thought of nothing, night or day, but this great event and the various subjects connected with it. Possessed of more power, influence, and force of character than any one who had ever before been interested in such a case, she had done what no other person had done – she had possessed herself of the secret of the doors. She knew in which of the two rooms, that lay behind those doors, stood the cage of the tiger, with its open front, and in which waited the lady. Through these thick doors, heavily curtained with skins on the inside, it was impossible that any noise or suggestion should come from within to the person who should approach to raise the latch of one of them. But gold, and the power of a woman’s will, had brought the secret to the princess.

And not only did she know in which room stood the lady ready to emerge, all blushing and radiant, should her door be opened, but she knew who the lady was. It was one of the fairest and loveliest of the damsels of the court who had been selected as the reward of the accused youth, should he be proved innocent of the crime of aspiring to one so far above him; and the princess hated her. Often had she seen, or imagined that she had seen, this fair creature throwing glances of admiration upon the person of her lover, and sometimes she thought these glances were perceived, and even returned. Now and then she had seen them talking together; it was but for a moment or two, but much can be said in a brief space; it may have been on most unimportant topics, but how could she know that? The girl was lovely, but she had dared to raise her eyes to the loved one of the princess; and, with all the intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric ancestors, she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind that silent door.

When her lover turned and looked at her, and his eye met hers as she sat there, paler and whiter than any one in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her, he saw, by that power of quick perception which is given to those whose souls are one, that she knew behind which door crouched the tiger, and behind which stood the lady. He had expected her to know it. He understood her nature, and his soul was assured that she would never rest until she had made plain to herself this thing, hidden to all other lookers-on, even to the king. The only hope for the youth in which there was any element of certainty was based upon the success of the princess in discovering this mystery; and the moment he looked upon her, he saw she had succeeded, as in his soul he knew she would succeed.

Then it was that his quick and anxious glance asked the question: “Which?” It was as plain to her as if he shouted it from where he stood. There was not an instant to be lost. The question was asked in a flash; it must be answered in another.

Her right arm lay on the cushioned parapet before her. She raised her hand, and made a slight, quick movement toward the right. No one but her lover saw her. Every eye but his was fixed on the man in the arena.

He turned, and with a firm and rapid step he walked across the empty space. Every heart stopped beating, every breath was held, and every eye was fixed immovably upon that man. Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right, and opened it.

Now, the point of the story is this: Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady?

The more we reflect upon this question, the harder it is to answer. It involves a study of the human heart which leads us through devious mazes of passion, out of which it is difficult to find our way. Think of it, fair reader, not as if the decision of the question depended upon you, but upon that hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess, her soul at a white heat beneath the combined fires of despair and jealousy. She had lost him, but who should have him?

How often, in her waking hours and in her dreams, had she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands as she thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the cruel fangs of the tiger! But how much oftener had she seen him at the other door! How in her grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman, with her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph; when she had seen him lead her forth, his whole frame kindled with the joy of recovered life; when she had heard the glad shouts from the multitude, and the wild ringing of the happy bells; when she had seen the priest, with his joyous followers, advance to the couple, and make them man and wife before her very eyes; and when she had seen them walk away together upon their path of flowers, followed by the tremendous shouts of the hilarious multitude, in which her one despairing shriek was lost and drowned!

Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semi-barbaric futurity? And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood!

Her decision had been indicated in an instant, but it had been made after days and nights of anguished deliberation. She had known she would be asked, she had decided what she would answer, and, without the slightest hesitation, she had moved her hand to the right.

The question of her decision is one not to be lightly considered, and it is not for me to presume to set myself up as the one person able to answer it. And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the opened door – the lady, or the tiger?

Lesson 3: A Look at Conflict

Conflict

The conflict within a story is a struggle between opposing forces. Almost every story has a conflict that the main character faces. There are two types of conflict in literature, Internal and External.

Internal Conflict occurs when a character (usually the main character, but not always) has to make a difficult decision or struggles with mixed feelings. For example, a character may have to decide between right and wrong, which path to choose when going on a journey or between two loves. This type of conflict is also known as Man vs. Himself.

External Conflict occurs as a struggle between a character and an outside force, such as society, nature or another character. There are several types of External Conflict as well.

Man vs. Man occurs when a character is in conflict with another character. In the movie The Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow is in conflict with Captain Barbosa.

Man vs. Nature occurs when a character is in conflict with nature. Another popular film, Twister depicts man vs. nature very well. In this film, the main characters are fighting for their lives against wild tornadoes.

Man vs. Society occurs when characters are in conflict within their society. One real life example of man vs. society is the Civil Rights Movement. There were a whole group of individuals in conflict within their society. Another example is Will Smith’s character in the film, The Pursuit of Happyness (Note* Happiness is spelled incorrectly on purpose in the title).

Lesson 3: Reading Comprehension Questions

The Lady or The Tiger

Directions: Please respond to the following questions. Unless otherwise stated, your responses to each question should be 3-7 sentences in length where applicable.

1. Describe the king’s method of administering justice. Support your answer with details from the story.
2. Do you agree with the author that the king’s method of administering justice was fair? Explain your thinking.
3. Why did the king think the princess’s lover would be “disposed of” no matter which door he opened?
4. How had the princess found out what was behind each door? Support your answer with details from the story.
5. In your own words, describe why the princess had difficulty deciding which door to indicate to her lover.
6. How did the princess communicate which door to open?
7. If you were the princess, what option would you have indicated? Explain your thinking.
8. Was there ever a time in your life when you had to choose something you could not see? Maybe a gift, grab bag or a prize? Were you happy or unhappy with what you chose?
9. What conflict does the young man have? Are his conflicts external or internal? Support your answer with details from the story.
10. What internal conflict does the princess have? What motives does the princess have for each possibility? Support your answer with details from the story.
11. Describe a time in your life when you had to make a difficult decision. What were the possible outcomes? Were you happy with the choice you made, or do you wish you would have chosen differently? What would have changed if you had made a different choice? Explain your thinking.

In a 200-300-word response, discuss the performance appraisal and feedback types you have experienced in your professional work. How often were they conducted? What did you learn from these evaluations? How might they have been improved? If you do not have relevant professional experience, you should discuss best practices you would recommend to an employer that is looking to implement a performance evaluation system.

• Embed course material concepts, principles, and theories, which require supporting citations, along with at least two scholarly peer-reviewed references in supporting your answer. Keep in mind that these scholarly references can be found in the Saudi Digital Library by conducting an advanced search specific to scholarly references.
• You need to reply to at least two of your peers’ answers to this week’s discussion question. These post replies need to be substantial and constructive in nature. They should add to the content of the discussion through your evaluation and analysis. Normal course dialogue doesn’t fulfill these two peer replies but is expected throughout the course. Answering all course questions is also required.
• Use Saudi Electronic University academic writing standards and APA style guidelines.

For this class you are working on a number of dimensions of good writing, one of which is effectively writing with readers in mind. The book by Graff and Birkensten, They Say, I Say,(hereafter referred as “Graff”) is intended to learn structures for presenting ideas with readers as the point of the writing. Therefore, every week you’ll be assigned chapters to read and, following the reading, exercises to complete.

Below is the first activity.

Read Graff: Introduction (pp 1-14), Chapter One (pp 19-28).

After completing the reading, complete the following activity:

The following is a list of arguments that lack a “they say” — any sense of who needs to hear these claims, who might think otherwise. Like the speaker in the cartoon on page 4 who declares that The Sopranos presents complex characters, these one-sided arguments fail to explain what view they are responding to — what view, in effect, they are trying to correct, add to, qualify, complicate, and so forth. Your job is to provide each argument listed below with such a counter view, a “they say” to its “I say.” Try to use any templates, or variations of these templates, in Chapter One that you find helpful. I’ve offered you the first one as an example.

The original “I Say”:

Our experiments suggest that there are dangerous levels of chemical X in the Pennsylvania groundwater.

The new version with the added “They Say”:

While some scientists claim that Philadelphia’s drinking water has never been safer, our experiments suggest that there are dangerous levels of chemical X in the Pennsylvania groundwater.

Now you do it for the following claims. Here are the four “I say” arguments for you to add “they say”:

1. Material forces drive history.
2. Proponents of Freudian psychology question standard notions of “rationality.”
3. Male students often dominate class discussions.
4. The film is about problems of romantic relationships.

How to Submit:

Compose your work in a writing program such as Microsoft Word.

Thanks for your post here in week 7. To be honest discussing intelligence for the homeland security enterprise is a very difficult topic for me to talk about in only one forum because I teach an entire course on the subject (HLSS320). At any rate I will try to limit myself and just focus on some core issues — so I have 2 follow up questions on Intel and Homeland Security for you.

My first question is, what other agencies that are not a part of DHS (and its components/field agencies) play a role in intelligence for the homeland? [This is what DHS calls “external partners” and there are some examples in the required reading by Blum as well as the CRS report below by Randol on Homeland Security Intelligence starting on page 15].

Secondly, do you think there should be a domestic intelligence agency here in the U.S. like other nations have? On this point I recommend reading the debate on this exact topic between Richard Posner and Juliette Kayyem (below) and tell us which point you agree with and why.

Of course, I will have a lot more on these topics in my wrap up. Also, this is an important topic since it is the focus of your final paper. On that note I also provided below a link to a recent article on one fusion center that also discusses the important role of the network of law enforcement officers around any given state call Fusion Liaison Officers (FLOs) “the eyes and ears of a fusion center” and is worth your time to read as you write your final paper.

Thank, Dr G.

Posner, R. A. and Kayyem, J. (2006, November 17). Does the United States Need a Domestic Intelligence Agency? The Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from http://www.cfr.org/intelligence/does-united-states… (no longer at link, so attached here)

Does the United States Need a Domestic Intelligence Agency? (also in the resources folder for week 7 readings)

Dahlia, J. (2018, February 4). State Intelligence/Fusion Center staying ahead of next threat. The State Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wvnews.com/statejournal/government/state-intelligence-fusion-center-staying-ahead-of-next-threat-pauley/article_a2c0643c-ad7f-5f65-8c72-97ca72a92694.html

Randol, M. A. (2009). Homeland Security Intelligence: Perceptions, Statutory Definitions and Approaches. Congressional Research Service.Retrieved from https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL33616.pdf

Ritchey, D. (2014, August 1). The Future of DHS Partnerships with Frank Taylor. Security magazine. Retrieved from http://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/85671-the-future-of-dhs-partnerships-with-frank-taylor

Write a helpful response for each one of these. Your response should start with I agree with…..

Each response 1 & 2 should be at least 100 words

1) As I’m reading the book, my first impression is that this book is interesting because the author uses first, second and third person to tell the story. It takes us back in time and brings us to the present as he is telling the story. For instance, at the beginning of the book the narrator describes June as a lonely woman who meets with a man at a bar and decides to have sex with him. When they are done, he falls asleep, and she decides to walk home in the middle of a snowstorm and that is when she dies.

When all the family come together after the dead of June, the narrator becomes a young girl name, Albertine, who is mad at her mom because she didn’t want to tell her about her aunt’s dead. When she arrives to the house, her mom and aunt keep having arguments and show that they don’t like each other. I think the author is telling us how most families behave.

I am not sure what the significance of these chapters are really, but as I was reading, it reminded me of my own family. There were times where I felt like Albertine, pressured by my mom about getting marry and finding the right guy as she described. In other parts of the book when the aunt and mom are criticizing their nephew’s wife, I remember when my bother’s used to do the same with my sister-in-law. So far I like how the author describes each event.

My question is, what is the purpose of this novel, I get it that describes how the families behave, but what does the author wants us to know or learn if anything?

2) Death can be a hard thing for anyone to deal with. That is what the main character, Albertine Johnson, struggles with in the book Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. Her Aunt June passes away and she gets a letter from her mother about the funeral. We see here that she didn’t attend the funeral which results in Albertine not getting closure: “At first it made me so angry that Mama hadn’t called me for the funeral that I couldn’t even feel the proper way for Aunt June” (Erdrich 8). This is part of the reason Albertine struggles with her Aunt’s death. Part of Albertine’s character is revealed when she speaks about her mother not wanting her: “She should have gone up the nun’s hill to the covent, like she wanted, instead of having me” (Erdrich 10). This shows us that Albertine feels like she is not wanted or appreciated by her mom and possibly her family in general. The first section of the book is important because we see background information on the type of person June was, as well as her last night on earth before she died. The second section of the book here is important, because we see how her death effected Albertine, and we also get to see what kind of person she is. The storytelling process we see here is nested loops, because we have seen two different viewpoints of the story so far. My initial impression of the book is that it is going to be a sad drama, but I am interested to see what happens in Albertine’s life and the way she handles her Aunt’s death. The way the book is written and the plot makes me question what kind of life the author had. One question I would have about the book would be to ask why Albertine’s mom is not more nurturing and mother-like. I noticed her mom was not excited to see her after not talking to her for two months, and this is hard for me to understand because my mom is always happy to see me no matter how much time has passed.