“Chicxulub,” a short story by T.C. Boyle, is story is about a couple, Ted and Maureen Biehn, getting a phone call late at night from the hospital saying their daughter, Madeline Biehn, had been hit by a car and is in surgery. They rush to the hospital and wait for hours, stressing about their daughter. Later, come to find out that the girl in the hospital was Madeline’s friend, Kristi Cherwin, who had Madeline’s I.D. so she could get into an NC-17 rated movie. Yet, come to find out later, their daughter was at home all along. Throughout the narration of the story, sections of the story are interrupted with facts and statistics about meteors; most specifically Chicxulub, the meteor that ended the lives of the dinosaurs. The story uses the elements of figurative language, symbolism and exposition in conjunction with the meteor and the story itself to convey a sense of how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Boyle uses the meteor, Chicxulub, as a metaphor for the events that are happening and the fate of the Biehn’s as stated, “the rock is coming, the new Chicxulub, hurtling through the dark and the cold to remake our fate. But not tonight.” The meteor came crashing down and struck the dinosaurs’ lives, much like how the Biehn’s lives got struck with the phone call that something tragic has happened to their daughter. It is linked to every scene of the story; it leads to the next part of the story and cuts the story off to give the reader that feeling of the
The paramedics found their daughter’s I.D. according to the paramedics. “She was hit by a car. She’s-- they don’t know. In surgery. What hospital? Did they say what hospital?” This shows, the parents are scared that their daughter got in an car accident and are trying to rush to the hospital. “And then there’s Chicxulub. 65 million years ago, an asteroid collided with Earth. Judging from the impact crater, which is a hundred and twenty miles wide… was some six miles across… 75% of all known species were extinguished.” The show, the man is comparing the meteor to the news. The news being Chicxulub and it hit him so hard he couldn’t do
She interacts with many other scientists, using their facts and her own experiences to create almost forty pages of notes and sources in the back of her book which is exquisite proof of the epistemological aspects of the book for fellow scientists. Her information is greatly supported by her and fellow scientists experiences, for example, “A few days after I read Wake and Vredenburg’s article, I booked a ticket to Panama.”(8) adding on to her Of course, though it is highly obvious to even the youngest of children that dinosaurs are extinct, Kolbert grazes their history in the early chapter of her book to prepare readers for what is to come, blowing the minds of every person to pick up her book. She then masterfully displays the toxic behavior of humans causing and adding to the extinction of several species
Alan Watts once said, “Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way”. This means that it is better to have a short, enjoyable life rather than a long, dreary one. Similarly, if one knew they were going to pass away, they would want to spend the rest of their life happily. In The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Agustus is told his fatal situation of a relapse of cancer. He then makes the most of the last months of life so that during his final moments, he could look back with content. This moral is clearly shown in James Hurst’s The Scarlet Ibis. This short story is about a young boy, Doodle, and his brother. Doodle has hydrocephalus; he is extremely delicate and constantly in danger
Large amounts of iridium – a chemical element that is not a part of the Earth’s crust composition – were originally found in rocks of Europe and United States, and have been found everywhere ever since. Iridium, common in meteorites, is a testable evidence of the disaster hypothesis. Gould continues that the Cretaceous debacle, which is one of five episodes of mass dying, occurred at the same time as the large comet might have smashed into the Earth. The author believes this is not merely a coincidence, rather, it is a proof of the cause-effect relationship. The demise of a wide range of habitats along with the extinction of dinosaurs gives an inestimable advantage to the disaster theory over other claims, the author adds. The comet struck the Earth, and habitats, from terrestrial to marine, died with geological suddenness. Finally, this hypothesis has had an impact on the study of an atomic war and its consequences. A nuclear war, Gould says, may cause a huge drop in temperatures and result in the extinction of humanity. Testable evidence, study, development, contribution – all this makes good science.
In the story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, Hurst uses the power of love to demonstrate how hard one can push themselves to be happy. In addition, how pride within a person can cause destruction around them if used in selfish or negative ways. Psychologically, a child’s need to be proud is mostly to avoid feeling shame, much like this story. This means our actions, though they may be wrong, are helpful to alleviate our own embarrassment. May it be of a family member, the way they look, the clothes they wear, and many other reasons, one can be shameful of many things. Usually, the author shows this by using symbolism. In this tale, James Hurst portrays the color red and dying as key symbols of pride and pushing past one’s limits.
The article explains the consequences of their efforts to drill into the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, the site where the asteroid supposedly struck. There was a lot of arguments as to which scientist would take the core section to analyze. In the end
In the book series, Flawed and Perfect by Cecelia Ahern, the setting is set in the future where everyone stays between the lines. There are two groups in this society: there are those who are perfect which make up most of the population, and there are those who are flawed. Flawed people are treated poorly and are forced to follow much stricter guidelines because they had done something that society no longer accepted. Celestine is one of the few who decide to do what is right even if it is against what others think. One theme that is presented in this book series is sometimes people have to go against society’s views to do what’s right.
The theme is the important issue of the intolerance towards Deviations it is shown through the extreme reaction of Joseph to David’s comment. In the Chrysalids, the main theme is Deviation. if they had been accepted by society, the telepaths would not have had to run away from society. This attitude consists of hatred and even had an intention of killing them.This can be seen from Joseph’s furious when he heard what David said. When David said “If only I had another hand” it was enough to make Joseph paranoid and made him had an intolerance for Deviations. He yelled at David, made everyone pray for forgiveness, and even punish David, physically. It shows how Deviations are
A symbol, is a representation of a thought or an idea. In the Story of an Hour Kate Chopin does a great job of using many examples as symbolism. She uses these symbols to represent the main theme she wants to get across to the readers. And the idea she wants to get across is the renewal of Mrs. Mallards life. The three major examples of symbolism are, when she says blood coursed through her body, the use of nature, and when she welcomes her new life with open arms.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys face troubles when their plane gets shot down and leaves them stranded with no adults on a deserted island. The boys must learn to govern themselves and attempt to get rescued as quickly as possible. With the blow of a conch, all of the boys unify; with the destruction of the conch, the boys separate and turn evil. The conch serves as a symbol of civilization and order; without it, it becomes human nature to turn into a savage.
It is difficult to envision that one of the greatest impact craters on Earth that measures up to 180km wide and 900m deep could just vanish just from sight. There have been many different dinosaur extinction theories offered in the recent decades. These range from poisonous plants to mass suicide by dinosaur herds. Although one concept as to how the dinosaurs became extinct has gained a wide acceptance since the 1980’s, involving a major earth impact by a meteor or comet (Icr.org, 2014). This horrific catastrophic event is thought to have extinguished up to two thirds of all animal and plant species, leaving behind a large crater found in Chicxulub, Mexico (LiveScience.com, 2014).
According to Gould essay, the theory of disasters is “a large comet or asteroid struck the Earth some 65 million years ago, lofting a cloud of dust into the sky and blocking sunlight, thereby suppressing photosynthesis and so drastically lowering world temperatures that dinosaurs and hosts of other creatures became extinct.’(50).The theory of disasters proves worthy of more research when compared to the theory of sex and drugs. This is because the disasters theory “generates tests, provides us with things to do, and expands outward” (55). Cowell’s hypothesis (the theory of sex) “has generated nothing for 35 years” because scientists can do nothing with it and the theory of drugs “will win a few press nots and fade into oblivion (54-55). Although talking about asteroids, dust and darkness is no more entertaining than talking about fried testicles or terminal trips “it’s the iridium – the source of testable evidence – that counts and forges the crucial distinction between speculation and science.”(55).The iridium bridges the gap between science and speculation because it is a source of testable evidence. The iridium is testable because geologist determined when high iridium first formed and related it to the comet that struck the Earth. Therefore, the theory of disaster is the most superior evidence for dinosaur extinction when compared to the method of sex and drugs due to its abundant
Many people often assume the asteroid completely wiped off the land and marine species with just the impact of the asteroid, but was rather the tipping point of what came next. In fact Choi stated that “ "We have shown that these events are synchronous to within a gnat's eyebrow, and therefore, the impact clearly played a major role in extinctions, but it probably wasn't just the impact.” ( Choi). The ultimate reasons for the dinosaurs and other species extinction was the blockage of sunlight which initially darkened and chilled to earth to extreme temperatures ( Jones). At this point many animals and even plants started to die off because of the chilling conditions, but that wasn't the only reason for the extinction of these species. Soon after the dust had settled and the earth was able to receive light, the planet initiated a greenhouse affect. Which not only put the remaining species at high temperatures, but their food also became inhabitable (Choi). The evidence of an asteroid theory is supported by the impact crater, rare metal, melted rock, fractured crystals, and the fossil record (Jones). The impact crater is actually one the main key examples of why the asteroid may have been responsible for the cretaceous mass extinction. It showed the asteroid landing on the Yucatan peninsula, and traveling at 30 kilometers per second (Jones). Not
The fossil deposits at the Chicxulub site suggest that the mineral layer in the crater was deposited after the impact, but before the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species. Keller proposes two possible explanations for this. The first explanation is that the sediments were deposited as the backwash of a giant tsunami that occurred after the impact (Keller 2004).
Courage is something that heroes have and the weak don’t. Courage can be defined many ways, but the honest and truly best definition is someone faces his fear and goes beyond the line of fear and protects what loves and cares for. Sword art online connects to courage in many ways. The main character kirito is the hero of the story. He faces his fears even in the darkest times to protect what he loves and cares about.