How Social Tensions Led To Witchcraft Essays - Magic,

How Social Tensions led to Witchcraft How Social Tensions led to Witchcraft The history of witchcraft during seventeenth century New England is inherently a history of direct confrontations within communities where relationships become tainted with suspicion, revenge and anger. The documents in Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England have retold the events and stories of Puritan New England to give the modern reader an understanding of the repressive social institutions of religion and family structure which were controlling factors that lay behind the particular cases discussed in the book. However, in order to really interpret the structure of witchcraft, it is important to consider that social tensions (most likely a dispute or argument) combined with personal or familial bad luck, were the root of all these occurrences. In New England, the term "witch" in New England served as identification used for punishment, revenge, or both. For the most part, townspeople used this term to belligerent or "troublesome" people. These "witches" were accused for making children sick, causing animal deaths, and inducing pain and suffering. Or they could have been accused due to evidence of strange events, or their mysterious character. Perfect models of this characteristic would be Hugh and Mary Parsons. Mary and Hugh Parsons lived in Springfield, Massachusetts. In chapter 2 of Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England, the introduction clearly conveys that relationships within the Parson family were filled with problems. With the town's houses built so close to each other, it could be assumed that neighbors were able to hear every argument and fight that took place within the Parson household. In the Puritan community, the kind of behavior that was observed of the Parson was out of the ordinary. Consequently, when Mary accuses Widow Marshfield of witchcraft for an unknown reason, it seriously damaged the Parsons social reputation ? something that the Puritans took very seriously (Hall 29). From then on, suspicions and lack of trust started to be associated with the Parsons. Accusations of witchcraft often followed arguments that would increase the social tensions in the community. These damaging accusations were usually the spiteful acts of angry, petty people who were looking for revenge following an argument. Hugh fits these criteria perfectly ? he was a very quarrelsome workman, often displeasing his customers to the extent of where they hate him. A situation that demonstrates this is the case of Blanche Bedortha and her painful fits. Blanche blamed her ailments on Hugh based on an argument between him and Rice Bedortha, her husband. When having her "fits," Blanche distinctly recalled the dispute and at once suspected that Hugh had used witchcraft on her (Hall 36). This demonstrates that Hugh was considered troublesome, and to accuse him of witchcraft would be the perfect punishment ? or reprisal. Actions of a person can also cause social tension among the town. The way a person behaves, acts, and responds can differentiate from the ordinary to the weird. In Puritan society, anything out of the normal is very suspicious, especially when someone does not react to a situation they way society would. Many people were accused of witchcraft because they behaved abnormally to a death of a family member or a neighbor. When Moxon's child died, Hugh did not have any emotions or sympathy. This attitude combined with the past argument that they had, Moxon immediately accused Hugh of witchcraft. Again, this case happened again when his wife Mary accused him of witchcraft. This was due to the fact that Hugh once more had no emotions when his kids died. When accusations were released, the accused would in no way regain their social standing ever again, even if they were found innocent after a trial. Magnified suspicions and distrust increased the social tension between the accused and the public. Therefore, when inexplicable events took place, the people accused were the first on the blame list. This was the case in many seventeenth century New England towns. Again, this situation could easily be seen in Hugh's case. After being tried as a witch, every move, action and word was taken as evidence of witchcraft. Combined with his bad luck, and family misfortune, Hugh was turned into the town's social scapegoat, responsible for every strange and inexplicable event that religion or reason could not explain. A perfect example was the "rusty knife" incident. When Griffith Jones was having dinner, he noticed that his good knives had mysteriously disappeared. He resorted to using a rusty knife in place of them. When he was cleaning the table, he suddenly saw that the good knives were next to the rusty knife. Griffith perceived this a very puzzling

Technology Intergrated Into Our Lives

Technology Intergrated Into Our Lives Free Online Research Papers The recent development of technology made possible for us to live in ways that have never been possible before. From accessing massive information to enriched personal lifestyle, technology continues to push the boundary of our living standard every day. It is undoubtedly true that technology is increasingly becoming an important part of our daily lives. Since Internet was first released, it has changed and improved in many ways. It is foolish to underestimate the change that easy and widespread access to the Internet has made to our way of life. The web is now so popular, fast and common that it has become a part of our everyday life, changing the method of how we share and finding information, staying in touch, real-time online services, and even helping people with disability. Surfing the Internet is a global phenomenon. It has been expanded its reach and influence. It is an individuals online public commentary on whatever takes their interest on a particular day. For instance, Employers want to hire employees; they post job with description and qualification that are looking for that position in their website. The other side, employees who are looking for jobs, search job postings and if they found jobs that are interested in, they sent e-mail or fax their resume. Also they can search the company profile in website where is information of company history, products, and job environment. Actually I am doing this way for searching job as well. Another simple example of the technological improvement bringing changes to our everyday life would be mailing. We used to write letters to stay in touch with those living far away, and if our correspondent was very special, we used our trusty film cameras to take pictures and include them in the letter. The process would have included developing the photographs-waiting anywhere from an hour to days to get the prints. Wed then hand over the cash, go home, put everything in the envelope, stick a stamp on it and post it off. Nowadays, we grab our digital camera, take as many shots as we want, upload them directly on to our PCs, attach a copy to an e-mail and send it off into the recipient. No more delivery charges, no more postage is needed, regardless of the time. It is even possible to send Spam-mails to hundreds of people in an instant! People with certain disabilities can also benefit from the technological advancement People with disabilities can receive enquiries via Internet, phone or fax. They can equip themselves with machines that can help them move, communicate, work or relax. Medical support is made a lot easier with patient monitoring equipments. Future technological discoveries will probably further increase the living of the disabled. A whole new revolution in technology has sprung up dedicated to providing new ways to improve productivity, in the process changing how we communicate and allowing us to fit ever more into our ever busier lives. I wonder what the future holds for us and the Internet, and if services like Google Earth are anything to go by, the future is going to be pretty amazing stuff. Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the internet. Shopping on the internet is quick and convenient and should be no riskier than buying by mail order or on the phone. We have found some great ideas for Birthday gifts, Wedding presents and gifts for all of our friends and family, whatever the occasion. Furthermore, Shopping online is all about comparing prices and finding the best deal possible. It could save time and go though the locations for delivery. Now I can order some Pizza for lunch nearby, special warm knitted sweater for my mother in Korea as well. Research Papers on Technology Intergrated Into Our LivesThe Project Managment Office SystemTwilight of the UAWOpen Architechture a white paperGenetic EngineeringBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationQuebec and Canada

QoS and network monitoring on Linksys consumer devices (Wireless Research Paper

QoS and network monitoring on Linksys consumer devices (Wireless Protocol 802.11e) - Research Paper Example Key words IEEE 802.11e, Diffserv IEEE 802.11, WLAN, Quality-of-Service (QoS) Introduction As technology advances, communication over a wireless network is becoming preferable over other forms of communication. The modern networks are designed in such a way that they support more sophisticated traffic as compared to traditional networks. The advanced features of modern networks enables various traffic such as web traffic, file sharing traffic, and email traffic (Evans & Filsfils, 2010). In recent time, sensitive traffic such as video and voice have been introduced to share common transmission medium. The use of this sensitive medium demands regulated and guaranteed services. Considering the above stated sensitive nature of the data being transmitted, the traffic on transit is susceptible to many communication obstacles. Among the obstacles the sensitive traffic being transmitted meet include Lack of bandwidth, Delay, Jitter, and Data loss. For better, Quality of service tools have bee n developed (Alvarez, 2006). This Quality of Service tools have been specifically designed to provide applications which enable consistent and guaranteed experience to the user. In broadband technology, IEEE 802.11 has become prevalent. This technology is often referred to as the wireless Ethernet basing on Medium Access protocol and the ability to provide transmission rates of up to 54 Mbps. To make the IEEE 802.11 more efficient, the technology has evolved to support quality of service. Consequently, there has been the emergence of the IEEE 802.11e. This research paper is aimed at discussing limitations of IEEE 802.11 standards, Quality of Service methodologies, IEEE 802.11e standards, and to expose existing weaknesses in the Quality of Services architectures. Overview of 802.11 WLANs and its QoS limitations Point coordination functions and distributed coordination functions are the major access functions of the IEEE 802.11 definitions of the MAC sub – layer. Basically, the access function of IEEE 802.11 is the distributed coordination function (DCF). During packet transmission using the IEEE 802.11 standards, the data is exposed to various vulnerabilities as discussed below. Delay (Latency) This is one of the characteristics of a wireless network that can be measured quantitatively. This is the measure of the time packets that are transmitted across a network form end – to – end. The units for measuring latency are fractions of seconds. Measurement of latency can be done either to a single source from a single source ( One-way) or round – trip, which involves measurement from the single source to the destination and back to the original source (Cisco, 2012). In cases where there is fast communication between the devices, the time taken for packet transmission is automatically very low, this is referred to as low latency. On the contrary, when the transmission of the packets takes significant amount of time to be transmitted, betw een the destination and the source, there is an indication that there is high latency on the network. Generally, the occurrence of latency depends on the location of the communicating computers and the available network infrastructure. Occurrence of delay is not point specific. It occurs at any point along the network. Thus delay is also referred to as end –

Wk 4 BA541 Asign Interacting with Customers Essay

Wk 4 BA541 Asign Interacting with Customers - Essay Example (Global Logistics, n.d.) Currently, the company offers business tips, recipes for diet enthusiasts, rebates, membership programs, etc. (Kraftfoodservice, n.d.) To gather data, the company checked sales of their different product lines, conducted customer interviews, used technology like the Internet, etc. Interactivity, email and wireless communication are greatly involved in their strategies as evidenced on their website. Kraft is very successful in being the premier relationship company in its industry with its superconsumers currently estimated at 2.4 million. (Yoon, E., Carlotti, S. & Moore, D., 2014) Ford Motors was able to become a premier relationship company by improving its image and products. The company gets feedback from blogs and chat rooms. It has also come up with several endeavors designed to increase the satisfaction and experience of its customers like setting up self-service websites for visitors and dealers and a direct dialogue channel for car owners. (Ford’s Innovative, n.d.) Interactivity, email and wireless communication also figure in a lot in Ford’s strategy as evidenced by the programs they have implemented. I can say they are successful in being the premiere relationship company in the automobile industry because they have been popular with customers even outside America. Anadarko has made itself closer to its customer by being very visible in their humanitarian endeavors. It supports Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement and United Way and has employed strategies that have allowed it to market around 3 billion cubic feet per day in North America. (Community Involvement, n.d.) On its website, Anadarko has provided links to make the reachable to investors and other queries. As with most companies nowadays, interactivity, email and wireless communication are involved in building their relationships with customers. The email addresses of the key people in their

How to Negotiates an Enterprise Agreement in Australia Research Paper

How to Negotiates an Enterprise Agreement in Australia - Research Paper Example Through an enterprise agreement, employees, employers as well as bargaining representatives (including unions) negotiate to create a set of employee entitlements bridging the gaps between organizational aims and employee interests. Accordingly, an enterprise agreement can have terms that are added to the National Employment Standards in Australia (Aged & Community Services, n.d.). This paper highlights the process of negotiation of enterprise agreement generally followed in Australia. Ways to Negotiate an Enterprise Agreement in Australia An enterprise agreement in Australia is regulated by the New Fair Work System, which was enacted during the year 2009. This agreement works as a tool that allows employers and employees to bridge the misalignment and develop an agreement based on mutual interests concerning the rights that may better suit the needs of the individual in the respective workplace. There are basically three types of enterprise agreements available in Australia, viz., Si ngle-enterprise agreements, Multi-enterprise agreements and Greenfields agreements. Single- enterprise agreements take place between the employees and a single employer emphasizing a particular interest, rather than taking into account multiple interests. Correspondingly, a multi-enterprise agreement is signed between employees and employers involving more than one interest. Unlike the single and multi-enterprises agreements, the Greenfields agreements are made between an employer and an employee in the organization and can be formed both in the manner of a single?enterprise or a multi?enterprise agreement (Fair Work Australian Government, 2013). Commencing  Bargaining The first step of negotiation in signing an enterprise agreement in Australia is to commence bargaining between the employee and the employer. There are the two ways through which a bargaining may start in enterprise agreements in Australia. Initially, the employees and employer need to agree to negotiate, following which, employee bargaining process shall instigate. Correspondingly, the union may approach the employer with a proposed agreement or a list of demands, often regarded as a ‘log of claims’, conveying those attributes they would like to see in the proposed agreement, or the changes they wish to make to an existing agreement. In broader terms, if approached by the union or the employees, the employer must negotiate and must do so in good faith. If the employer refuses to negotiate, the other party may apply to fair work provisions in Australian Fair Work Commission to obtain a majority support determination, mandatory to obtain statutory approval for the negotiated changes (Australian Fair Work Commission, 2013). Low-Paid Bargaining The recently followed negotiating process of enterprise agreements in Australia provides a new scheme of bargaining for industrial development of low paid employees. To facilitate the entry of this particular group of employees, rendering equ al significance to the interests of their respective organizational employers, the provision in Australia provides with a special low?paid bargaining benefit. In precise, the provision dictates that Fair Work Australia may convene and chair conferences and guide the parties through the negotiating process in order to secure the interests of low-wage earners within the economy (Teicher & et. al., 2013). Good Faith Bargaining The Fair Work Commission of Australia is also regarded as a determinant and noteworthy aspect in constructing enterprises agreem

Information Management Systems That Support Organizations

Information Management Systems That Support Organizations ABSTRACT â€Å"An information system can be defined as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making, coordination, and control in an organisation. In addition to supporting decision making, coordination and control, information systems may also help managers and workers analyse problems visualise complex subjects, and create new products† (Laudon Laudon, 2001) 1. Introduction In order for an organisation to fully appreciate the information systems available to them they must appreciate the value of information available. Information Technology and Information Management have experienced tremendous growth. Information is available everywhere and anytime. The Internet has certainly devalued information, before its creation many organisations benefited from gathering, sorting and selling information to stakeholders in need information to grow their business. When printed information is turned into digital information the price drops. Take for example newspapers. It is the norm that Newspapers today publishes part of its information on the Newspapers website for free, if you want to view the rest of the articles you must pay for it at a premium. Meta information providers such as Google pick up this digital information and provide it free over the internet. The value of the information to the providers is obviously monetary but to the consumer of these online products it is ease of access and less time consuming to purchase online information. Although much of information provided is considered to be free, we do pay the internet provider, and the internet provider charges a third party for access to the information. The internet today has turned into the largest library in the world. In the past students when looking for information for assignments, research projects and exams gathered information from books, newspapers and research journals. The internet has made attaining information uncomplicated. 1.1 The Value of Information to the Organisation It does not matter what type of business you are running whether it be a manufacturing business or providing a service the vital ingredient for any organisation is information. It is an organisation most vital asset. Information enables us to determine the need to create new products and services. â€Å"Information tells us to move into new markets or to withdraw from other markets. Without information, the goods do not get made, the orders are not placed, the materials are not procured, the shipments are not delivered, the customers are not billed, and the business cannot survive.† www.referenceforbusiness.com [2] 2. Information Management Systems An Information System (IS) is more than hardware or software. The most important components of the system are the people who design it, maintain it, and use it. While the overall system must meet various needs in terms of power and performance, it must also be functional for the organisations employees. Regardless which Information System an organisation chooses it is a major investment for any firm in todays business environment. A poorly chosen or designed Information System can become an impediment to an organisation in attaining its goals. If the Information system if not capable of collecting, storing and transferring vital information for the business then the outcome can be catastrophic. Customers of the business may be discontented or worse lost. Valuable revenue may be lost due to increased overheads and the business may lose desired business direction due to an ineffective Information System. 2.1 Information Management Challenges It may be essential to design different systems aimed at different levels of the organisation, firms are likely to find rewards in integrating systems, although integrating systems for different levels to freely exchange information can be complicated and expensive. Organisations need to decide what level of systems integration is required and how much it is going to cost. Sustaining a competitive advantage does not necessarily last long. Competitors can reproduce a competitors strategic information management system. Changing market conditions, changes in what the consumer wants today and changes in the business environment all add to the loss of competitive advantage within an organisation if previous standards are not maintained. Updated technology from rival companies can lead to your organisation losing its competitive advantage. Operational Level Systems Knowledge Level Systems Management Level Systems Strategic Level Systems 3. Operational Level Systems 3.1 The Transaction Support System TSS supports managers in the day to day running of the business. It keeps track of basic transactions such as sales figures, lodgements to bank, payments to creditors, payroll etc. The main purpose of the system is to answer questions which arise on a daily basis. Information must be easily obtained and precise. These are fundamental systems that serve the operational level of the organisation. Transaction Support System is a computerised system that executes the daily routine transactions necessary to carry out the day to day tasks of running a business. At the operational level duties, resources and goals are predefined and form the foundation of daily business. Example of which is a bank lending money to customers, the predetermined questions are on the computer if the customer has the capacity to fund the repayments of the loan the transaction support system will give the answer as to whether the loan can be grant or not as the case may be. Typical TPS have five major functional categories, sales marketing, manufacturing production, finance accounting and Human Resource. 3. 2 Knowledge Level Systems Knowledge Work Systems (KWS) supports the organisation employees involved in data processing. The knowledge based system helps integrate new information into the organisation and controls the flow of paper. Knowledge Level Systems are found in workstations throughout the organisation. Normally knowledge workers are people who hold formal university degrees and are often members of professional bodies such as doctors, engineers, lawyers and scientists. Their main role is to primarily create new information and knowledge. KWS, such as scientific or engineering design work stations, promote the creation new knowledge and ensure that new knowledge and technical expertise are properly integrated into the business. 4. Management Level Systems Management Information Systems (MIS) are used to monitor and control decision making and administrative activities. Management level reports provide regular intelligence rather than information on operations. Some management systems centre on less structured decisions from which the information received may not always be clear. These systems often answer the question â€Å"what if† an example of which would be â€Å"what will happen if our sales figures double in the next two months†. Answers to questions often need new data from outside the organisation as well as the readily available data found from the existing operational level system. MIS primarily serve the function of controlling, planning and decision making at management level, depending on transaction processing system for their data. The MIS condense and report on the companys basic operations. This system usually provides managers with weekly, monthly and yearly results. It will provide specified answers to routine questions that have been prepared in advance and have a predefined formula for answering them. For instance, MIS reports might list the amount of coffee used last quarter in a chain of coffee shops, or it can make comparisons between one quarter and another. Management information systems are usually not flexible and they have little diagnostic capabilities, they use simple routine reports such as summaries and comparisons. 4.1 Decision Support Systems DSS also supports management level in the organisation. DSS assist managers make decisions that are exclusive, briskly adjusting, not easy to specify beforehand. They address problems where the procedure for arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined. Even though DSS use internal information from TPS and MIS, they frequently bring in information from external sources, such as product price of competitors or current stock price. By design the Decision Support System have more analytical power that the other systems. Built for the sole purpose with a variety of models to analyse data, or compress large amounts of data into a form where they can then be studied by the decision makers. â€Å"DSS are designed so that users can work with them directly; these systems explicitly include user-friendly software. DSS are interactive; the user can change assumptions, ask new questions, and include new data† (Laudon Laudon. 2001) 4.2 Strategic Level Systems Executive Support System (ESS) assists senior managers attempt to address strategic issues and long term goals within the internal and external environments. The main concern is matching changes in the external environment to organisational capabilities. Information systems also supply major business functions as in sales, marketing, manufacturing and finance, accounting and human resource. A classic system will have each of the information systems designed to give the information required from each of the various departments. The sales function has a sales system on the operational level to record daily sales figures and to process customers orders. A management level system can track monthly sales, can send reports and calculate if there is an increase or decrease in sales. The system can complete sales forecasts for specific periods of time depending on the strategic structure the organisation requires. The ESS serves to address non routine decisions requiring evaluation, judgement and insight as there is no agreed procedure to find a solution. The system creates a sweeping computing and communications environment rather than supplying any fixed application or specific capabilities. The design is such; that the system incorporates data about external events like new tax laws or competitors, but they also illustrate information from the MIS and DIS. The system filters, compresses and track significant data, highlighting the reduction of time and effort in finding information of value to the executives. Within the Executive Support System there is the most advanced graphics software with the ability to deliver graphs and data from many sources without delay. 5. Integration of Information Systems The Transaction Processing Systems plays a key role in turning raw data into information it also provides data to the other systems. The ESS system relies on data from the lower level systems. Data is exchanged between the different functional areas. To aid the exchange of information many organisations are now building enterprise systems, also known as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Enterprise software models mechanise many of the business processes, such as filling an order, or planning a shipment, with the objective of integrating information across the organisation and getting rid of complex, highly priced connections between computer systems in various areas of the business. The flawless stream of information which was previously uneven throughout the organisation can now be sent throughout the various departments seamlessly. The system will collect data from a range of sources within the business process and accumulate them in a single comprehensive data repository where it can be retrieved by other departments of the business. For the managers it means that information is attained in a precise and timely manner. Enterprise systems can improve organisational effectiveness and efficiency, help the managers in the decision making process the difficulties are that the system is extremely complex and difficult to construct. Organisations will need to restructure their business practices to improve how information flows throughout the organisation. In reviewing their practices employees need to be trained to use the system and take on new responsibilities. Enterprise systems require intricate pieces of software and large investments of time, money, and expertise. 5.1 Industrial Networks Some companies are extending their enterprise systems beyond their internal enviroment to share information and synchronise their business practices and proccesses with other other businesses withing their industry. Industrial Networks can also be known as Extended Enterprises, connect together the enterprise systems of businesses within an entire industry. â€Å"For instance, Proctor and Gamble (PG), the worlds largest consumer goods company, have been developing and integrated industry -wide system that coordinatesthe grocery store point-of-sale systems with grocery store warehouses, shippers, its own manufacturing facilities, and its suppliers of raw materials. The single industry-spanning system effectively allows PG to moniter the movement of all its products from raw materials to customer purchase† (Laudon Laudon. 2001)[4] 6. Discussion Depending on the type of business the organisation may have several different types of Information Systems. For Example: An Accounts firm whose main activity is the collation of figures, with a large volume of clients would have various different departments working off a mainframe. Each department within the organisation will have various different levels of access to the centralised computer system. The Human Resource department will have access to the files of the employees working for the company but would not have access to the clients business records. The accountants working for the firm have access to the clients files but do not have access to the files of the employees. Because there are different interests in a firm no single system can give all the information an organisation requires. Information Systems can be made to provide different organisational interests. The use of these systems can provide an organisation with a strategic competitive advantage although unless a business can keep up with technological advances competitors may in fact remove the advantage an organisation has worked hard to retain. 7. Conclusion This report is titled â€Å"Information Management Systems that support organisations† But in order to appreciate what an Information system and integration can do for an organisation it was worthwhile to investigate the value of information. The advantages to organisations are clear raw data processed through Transaction Report Systems and reports are generated to the specifications required for managers. Knowledge Work Systems which is specialised system creating new information operated by professional employees. Organisations and information influence each other. Information systems must be aligned to provide information that is important to each department in the organisation. In order for the organisation to work efficiently and effectively it must be open to the influence of the Information Systems. Keeping abreast of new technologies will essential for organisations in order to sustain competitive advantage. Interaction between information technologies is complex and is influenced by interceding issues, including the structure of the organisation, operating procedures, culture, politics, internal and external environment, and managers decision making. Unless it is understood that Information system changes life in the organisation, they are unable to successfully design new systems or understand active systems within the organisation. Within the organisation managers will decide what systems will be built, what they will do, and how the implantation of the systems will occur. However the cost involved in building Information Management Systems has to take into consideration but can any organisation afford to be without one.

Edgar Allen Poe: A great American Icon :: essays research papers

Edgar Allan Poe’s unique, fearless and morbid writing style has influenced literature throughout the world. He was once titled the "master of the macabre" (Buranelli, 57). One of the aspects in his life with which he struggled was social isolation. He used this as a topic in a number of poems and short stories. Poe's life was also filled with periods of fear and irrationality. He had a very sensitive side when it came to the female gender, any woman he was ever close to died at an early age. Another of his major battles, actually the only one he really lost, was his struggle with alcoholism. Of all these topics, Poe's favorites were the death of a beautiful woman, a feeling, which he knew all too well, and the general topic of death. Edgar Allan Poe endured a very difficult life and this is evident in his literary style. Suffering through several periods of fear and irrationality during his life, Poe included those experiences in many of his more famous works. One of these periods involved experiences in joining the army in order to get away from his foster father after the death of his foster mother (Buranelli, 13). These periods of fear and irrationality were the cause of his misfortune and poor social status. His peers for these episodes looked him down upon. Poe expressed this theme throughout almost all of his short stories and poems. "Many of his stories exhibited abnormal states of mind and are constructed in terms of a single mad obsession†(Buranelli, 28). His insane ways made his work stand out from the normal short story, or poem. He was able to twist his stories and poems around in a way that almost seemed real, and was definitely intriguing. An example of this could be found in the â€Å"Black Cat†(Harrison, 257). The character took the eyes out of the first cat and then killed it. After that he proceeded to "accidentally" kill his wife with an ax, and bury her in a wall. Another example of Poe's insanity demonstrated within his works was located in â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† (Harrison, 555), where Edgar stalked a man and eventually killed him. He then dismembered the body, took out his heart, and buried the man under the house. He later confessed to the police because he believed he could hear the heartbeat of the man.