After The Bomb - Book Summary Essays - House Of Battenberg

After The Bomb - Book Summary Essays - House Of Battenberg After the Bomb - Book Summary After the Bomb written by Gloria Miklowitz is a thrilling novel that takes place before, during, and after a bomb which supposedly was sent from Russia by accident. L.A. and surrounding cities are all altered by the disastrous happening. Philip Singer a teenager is in a position as leader of the family. His brother Matt is awfully sick, possibly from radiation, his father was away at work during the blast and for all Philip knows he might be dead, and his mother was desperately injured and needs immediate attention. Hospitals are flooded with injured and dying people and the government doesn't send help for a few days. The badly injured don't even get the chance to be helped because the hospitals have to send the ones that are likely going to live to hospitals that specialize in burns. His mother is so badly burned that the hospitals put her on the bottom of the list to be flown to burn centers. By the end of the novel Philip has taken charge, snuck his mom ahead to be flown to a burn center, and in a sense saved his town from thirst. He truly survived the terror, shock, and danger of the bomb. The novel goes through a couple of settings such as, Philip's struggle to keep his family alive, and the conflict between the nature of a nuclear bomb against the Los Angeles area. When the bomb hits he is playing around in a playroom shelter with his brother and his girlfriend. They go out to find out what had happened and found burning houses, their house only left with one wall, rubble on the ground, debris all over the place, and people running frantically for shelter. Philip's brother became sick after finding his mother and bringing her back down to the shelter, and found that his mother had been burnt severely and needed immediate medical attention. Philip struggles to keep his brother from getting even more sick than he was and to bring his mother to a hospital. Philip's family weren't the only people affected by the bomb. the entire surrounding area of Los Angeles was pounded by a devastating bomb. Churches, Hospitals, and streets were flooded with sick, dying, and even dead people. Hospitals that were built to only withezd 200 people now have thousands, and hospitals lack food, doctors, and water. Philip's struggle for survival, and the devastating blow against L.A. was only the beginning of the disastrous bomb. The setting is practically the whole plot of the novel showing Philip's struggle to get his mother to a burn center that could save her life, bring his family to safety, and to save his town from thirst. When Philip arrives at the hospital with his mom the government and hospital had already started flying patients to burn centers, but his mom was too sick and burnt so the hospital didn't care for her. She was placed on the bottom of list to be flown away. Philip secretly switches the tag on her mom with one that says and earlier number so that she would be flown out more promptly. He does so and she is flown out early and he most probably saved her life by doing so. Another example was when the bomb had just struck and Philip's family was in the shelter which wasn't very safe and stable. He went up to the surface to check out his neighbor's house which was miraculously intact. Philip found the owner and his wife in good shape and arranged to bring his family over to the neighbor's cool basement for safety and refuge. A third example was when the hospital in his town was almost pout of water and Philip was asked by a nurse to find a worker that works with the town' s plumbing at his house and manage to get water to the hospital. He did so and after a while drained water from a resident's pool and had it flown down to the hospital. These are some examples of how the setting functions in the novel. After the Bomb is an exciting and stimulating novel which shows the leadership of a teenager over

Beauty Standards in Heian Japan, 794 - 1185 CE

Beauty Standards in Heian Japan, 794 - 1185 CE Different cultures have varied standards of female beauty. Some societies prefer women with stretched lower lips, or facial tattoos, or brass rings around their elongated necks. In Heian-era Japan, a beautiful woman had to have incredibly long hair, layer after layer of silk robes, and an intriguing make-up routine. Heian Era Hair The women of the imperial court in Heian Japan grew their hair as long as possible. They wore it straight down their backs, a shining sheet of black tresses (called kurokami). This fashion began as a reaction against imported Chinese fashions, which were much shorter and included ponytails or buns. The record-holder among Heian hair-growers, according to tradition, was a woman with hair 7 meters (23 feet) long! Beautiful Faces and Makeup The typical Heian beauty was required to have a pouty mouth, narrow eyes, a thin nose, and round apple-cheeks. Women used a heavy rice powder to paint their faces and necks white. They also drew bright red rose-bud lips on over their natural lip-lines. In a fashion that looks very odd to modern sensibilities, Japanese aristocratic women of this era shaved off their eyebrows. Then, they painted on misty new eyebrows high on their foreheads, almost at the hair-line. They achieved this effect by dipping their thumbs into black powder  and then smudging them onto their foreheads. This is known as butterfly eyebrows. Another feature that seems unattractive now was the fashion for blackened teeth. Because they used to whiten their skin, natural teeth ended up looking yellow in comparison. Therefore, Heian women painted their teeth black. Blackened teeth were supposed to be more attractive than yellow ones, and they also matched the womens black hair. Piles of Silk The final aspect of a Heian-era beautys preparations consisted of piling on the silk robes. This style of dress is called ni-hito, or twelve layers, but some upper-class women wore as many as forty layers of unlined silk. The layer closest to the skin was usually white, sometimes red. This garment was an ankle-length robe called the kosode; it was only visible at the neckline. Next was the nagabakama, a split skirt that tied at the waist and resembled a pair of red pants. Formal nagabakama could include a train more than a foot long. The first layer that was readily visible was the hitoe, a plain-colored robe. Over that, women layered between 10 and 40 beautifully patterned uchigi (robes), many of which were adorned with brocade or painted nature scenes. The top layer was called the uwagi, and it was made of the smoothest, finest silk. It often had elaborate decorations woven or painted into it. One final piece of silk completed the outfit for the highest ranks or for the most formal occasions; a sort of apron worn at the rear called a mo. It must have taken hours for these noble women to get ready to be seen in court each day. Pity their attendants, who did their own simplified version of the same routine first, and then helped their ladies with all of the necessary preparations of a Heian-era Japanese beauty. Source: Source on silks: Sara M. Harvey, The Juni-hito of Heian Japan.