The Downward Spiral

The movie Rudderless, directed by William H. Macy, reveals the life of a grieving father who slowly spirals downward into depression because of the loss of his teenage son. Sam, the main character, loses his son, Josh, to a shooting at the college he attended. When the drastic news hit television, many families were affected, especially Josh’s. Sam turned to drinking, quit his job, and moved out of his house and into a sailboat. Two years later, Sam received a box full of his son’s…

sings in a lower register and saddened tones. Todd’s warning “You will learn,” is followed by two rising notes of hope, only to fall back down again with two notes of sorrow. A woman enters, her melody is chromatically inflected, and follows a downward spiral. After she is given money the music changes, thick tones of brass enter, the tempo of her lyrics increase and her words become agitated. They swirl around, quickly returning…

world, it is important to look at foreign exchange rates to see if you have sufficient funds available to get into countries and exchange your currency for theirs. Economies that have high interest rates that are left unchecked can expect a downward spiral not too long after the interest rate stays peaked. People take out investments that they have, most people do not have as much money to spend freely as the price of goods and services also increase. If the interest rates in a country increase…

correlating dropouts and crime, District Attorney Seth Williams was quoted saying, "…Too many people…will tell you it's one of the worst decisions they ever made. You get frustrated and depressed and turn to drugs and alcohol to ease that. It's a downward spiral” (Miller). He and others often point to the fact that crime increases after a student leaves high school.…

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is a novel centered on a sacrifice that was made, in which the character did not realize that it would affect him and everyone else in his life. What we value, often times, is determined by sacrifice, for better or for worse, for self benefit or for the benefit of others. Dr. David Henry, from this novel, made a split second decision giving up his newborn daughter, born with down syndrome, and who may potentially die due to health defects. At this…

The Power of Daily Positive Affirmations Sally was devastated when her boyfriend, Alex, dumped her for another girl. He had lost interest after Sally started gaining weight due to her anti-depressants. The breakup only caused Sally to spiral downward further. She began to drink and soon slipped back to her former alcoholic ways. Fortunately, the psychiatrist she was seeing suggested that Sally surround herself with positivity through Daily Positive Affirmations - daily reminders and action…

Dorian stated “Conscience and cowardice are really the same things”. He believed that his conscience is what made him truly scared and afraid of himself. He was afraid of what he had done to himself and those around him. Inadvertently he destroyed his own life and those of whom he was close to. Dorian’s conscience caused him intense paranoia.“Was it true? Had the portrait really changed? Or had it been simply his own imagination that had made him see a look of evil where there had been a look of…

My grades were on a downward spiral as I could not focus on classes anymore. I needed help but I alienated everyone close to me at this…

I enjoyed reading Unbroken, a book that showed preservation, redemption, and admiration all in one character. Throughout the book, Laura Hillenbrand displayed how a human could overcome grueling struggles, but she also conveyed how traumatizing experiences such as a death of a loved friend or receiving beatings from a ruthless prison guard can scar a person’s mind for a long time through the use of symbols. One of the symbols that Unbroken portrayed is alcohol. Many people who have anxiety and…

The modern tragedy is much different from the other tragedies like Shakespearean and Aristotle, for a very few reasons such as the main character having a positive outcome weather through death or realization of their downfall. The hamartia of the tragedy has more to deal with the responses from society on their flaw or flaws rather than the internal and personal flaw that they have committed. The literary model of a tragic hero can also be applied to real life people and characters such as…