The greatest gifts one can give do not always come in small packages. Sometimes the greatest present a person could receive is the utter extinction of a person’s very existence. Through death, we can sometimes benefit even if it evokes mixed deep uncomfortable feelings. Death for the sake of ritual and or tradition is an act that has been practiced throughout history. By today’s standards this seems morbidly disturbing. Death for relief, revenge, and or for the opinionated bettering of society has also occurred as long as recorded history. This cold homicidal act is usually considered psychotically driven even if most everyone, whether secretly or openly, wanted the demise to occur. A death for acceptance, understanding, and or love is another gift of death as old as time itself but when the death is a self sacrificing act imposed on oneself for a loved one it does not diminish the sorrow and heartfelt pity it leaves the survivors for whom the victim died. Literature is wrapped with numerous examples of these three ultimate gifts of death. Let us explore an example of each and further our understanding of this great, grisly gift.
In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson’s death is a prime example of the accepted expected traditional ritualistic demise. Tessie‘s life is randomly sacrificed for the greater good of her community and their belief that it will bring a prosperous harvest (Jackson 334). Tessie’s life is the price paid for a year of good luck and fortune for her whole community. To her family and friends it is irrelevant that Tessie is the victim. What becomes relevant is that for the greater good someone in the town must die by the vicious hand of the other townsfolk. As brutal as it seems the annual murdering of an innocent being has long been practiced in many cultures. Look at the ancient Mayans and who they used ritual sacrifice to appease their gods. Whether the sacrifice is to please ones god or to manipulate the fate of the future for some traditional belief it is not that uncommon in fiction or fact. We may not agree with this way of thinking and acting, but nonetheless, Tessie’s personally unwanted but presumably self-foreseeing gamble towards demise is a gift seen by her peers as necessary, fair, and just. It is a gift of death enveloped be a visco...
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... and ribbons, no matter how ornate the parchment used is, the reality is that death is still death. In these three literary examples, no matter how the deaths occurred and no matter how they made you personally feel, they can arguably be construed as gifts to someone. They all, from someone’s point of view, were justifiable. Whether it be a peer, a madman, or the victim themselves they all saw the deaths as a reasonable solution bestowed upon a twisted situation. It is said that the biggest gift of all may sometimes come in a small package, but as we have discovered, the biggest gift of all is sometimes the exact same size as a coffin.
Works Cited
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Literature: The Humam Experience; Reading And Writing. Shorter Eighth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004: 328-34.
Poe, Edger Allen. "The Cask Of Amontillado." Literature: The Humam Experience; Reading And Writing. Shorter Eighth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004: 970-75.
Lawrence, D H. “The Rocking Horse Winner.” Literature: The Humam Experience; Reading And Writing. Shorter Eighth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 1018-29.
Jackson, Shirley.. "The Lottery." Trans. Array Literature, An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. . Seventh. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, 2013. 250-256. Print.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, is a law designed “to improve portability and continuity of health insurance coverage in the group and individual markets, to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in health insurance and health care delivery, to promote the use of medical savings accounts, to improve access to long-term care services and coverage, to simplify the administration of health insurance, and for other purposes.”1 HIPAA mandates that covered entities must employ technological means to ensure the privacy of sensitive information. This white paper intends to study the requirements put forth by HIPAA by examining what is technically necessary for them to be implemented, the technological feasibility of this, and what commercial, off-the-shelf systems are currently available to implement these requirements.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “ The Cask Of Amontillado.” Heritage Of American Literature .Ed. james E. Miller.Vol.2.Austin:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,1991.20.Print.
Michelson, D. The historical reception of Shirley Jackson's "the lottery". In: KURZBAN, Robert; PLATEK, Steve. 18th annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. 2006.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) affects every aspect of health care from patient privacy to insurance coverage. The federal act was first passed in 1996, yet the first major rule did not go into effect until 2003, protecting patient privacy. HIPAA ultimately came into effect due to the issues regarding patient privacy, security and coverage. Another major concern for both health care workers and the public was the exchange of patient information from one facility to another. Until the relatively recent decision to enforce HIPAA, a patient’s medical record was primarily recorded and maintained on paper and stored in locked cabinets or drawers. Not only was this method inefficient, but patients were also starting to become increasingly concerned over the privacy of these documents.
HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) was put in place by the Federal Government for several reasons; better portability of health insurance for employees, to prevent fraud and abuse within the healthcare delivery system, and simplification of administrative functions associated with healthcare delivery (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). Due to sensitive healthcare information being shared federal regulations were also put into place, resulting in the “Privacy Rule” and “Security Rule”. The Privacy Rule limits the use and disclosure of patient information. The Security Rule protects the patients’ healthcare information from improper use or disclosure, to maintain information integrity, and ensure its availability (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). Both regulations apply to protected health information (PHI) which is any form of health information that can be used to identify an individual patient. Practitioners who refer to HIPPA are not referring to the act itself but the “Privacy Rule” and “Security Rule” (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2012). It is extremely important to understand these concepts as a student in the clinical setting and how each hospital enforces these concepts. Before starting at any clinical site there is an extensive orientation about HIPPA regarding what is appropriate and not appropriate when it comes to patient information and the repercussions of violating HIPPA. In this paper I will discuss Akron General’s rules and policies regarding their EHR, PHI, EPHI, and social media.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, and Dana Gioia. 4th ed. Boston: Longman, 2012. 643-54. Print.
Collier, C. D. Abby. "Tradition, Modernity, And Postmodernity In Symbolism Of Death." The Sociological Quarterly 44.4 (2003): 727-49. Print.
Health information opponents has question the delivery and handling of patients electronic health records by health care organization and workers. The laws and regulations that set the framework protecting a user’s health information has become a major factor in how information is used and disclosed. The ability to share a patient document using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is a critical component in the United States effort to show transparency and quality of healthcare records while protecting patient privacy. In 1996, under President Clinton administration, the US “Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)” established national standards for the safeguard of certain health information. As a result, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 or (HIPAA) was established. HIPAA security standards required healthcare providers to ensure confidentiality and integrity of individual health information. This also included insurance administration and insurance portability. According to Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), an organization must guarantee the integrity, confidentiality, and security of sensitive patient data (Heckle & Lutters, 2011).
During adolescence, I began reading and writing through a fundamental learning program called, "Hooked on Phonics." This program consisted of long hours spent reading short novels and writing elementary phrases which were commonly taught in the second and third grade. With the motto, "Improve your child's reading and writing skills in just four weeks!" I was bound to become the next Mark Twain. The method of this course specialized in the improvements of word acquisition rates as well as reading speed; however, it lacked in the area of teaching comprehension. At a young age, I was instilled with the dire need to be highly educated and although I was unable to experience a fun and adventurous childhood like many other children, I am grateful for being raised with a greater knowledge and wisdom than that ingrained in many.
Shirley Jackson's “The Lottery” is a short story about the annual gathering of the villagers to conduct an ancient ritual. The ritual ends in the stoning of one of the residents of this small village. This murder functions under the guise of a sacrament that, at one time, served the purpose of ensuring a bountiful harvest. This original meaning, however, is lost over the years and generations of villagers. The loss of meaning has changed the nature and overall purpose of the lottery. This ritual is no longer a humble sacrifice that serves the purpose of securing the harvest but instead is a ceremony of violence and murder only existing for the pleasure found in this violence.
Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. 5th ed. Ed. Laurence Perrine. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Publishers 1998.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of Amontillado." Trans. Array Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing. . 5th. Glenview, IL: Pearson , 2012. 226-230. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” A Portable Anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner. Boston: New York: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2013. 242-249. Print.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. 4th Compact ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2005. 211-218.