Compare/Contrast Essay

Swimming Indoors vs. Swimming at the Beach Swimming is a fun and leisurely activity that can be enjoyed indoors or outdoors. Swimming pools are generally located indoors inside of homes, hotels, recreation centers or places where people would normally go to take a load off and relax. Beaches are strewn about outdoors along many coast lines throughout the world providing a haven for swimmers and other beach goers. To enjoy a swim indoors at the pool, or outdoors at the beach, can be a tough choice since both can provide a variety of experiences.This essay aims to contrast those experiences by talking about some of the temperatures in the environment at the swimming pool and at the beach; the activities that can be done there, the cleanliness that can generally be found in the areas and some of the safety measures that are typically in place at both locations. I’ll first discuss indoor swimming pools. Normally, indoor pools have a temperature gauge that can be set so that the te mperature of the pool’s water will always remain the same. While the temperature of the water in the pool can remain constant, so can the temperature of the room that the swimming pool is located in.This means that swimmers can have their ideal temperatures set for when they walk into the swimming area and their ideal temperatures set for when they step foot into the swimming pool. It’s hard to find better swimming conditions than that. Activities like water polo, water volleyball and water aerobics can be enjoyed in indoor swimming pools because the water temperatures there are usually set to a warmer temperature that can be enjoyed year round. With indoor pools there are usually chlorine tablets floating somewhere out of sight to help with the cleanliness of the water.There is a modicum of relief knowing that most indoor pools have a chlorine and septic system to help maintain the cleanliness of the water. Cleanliness is next to the safeness of indoor swimming pools. Indoor pools are safe from the weather which leaves the pool water free from leaves, dirt and other debris. This makes swimming indoors ideal compared to what may be experienced outdoors at the beach. While outdoors at the beach, temperatures can range from a sweltering heat, to a blustering cold, depending on the type of day it is outside. This means that temperatures in the waters will roughly match the temperatures of the weather outside.This is not always ideal for swimming. The beach is enjoyed mostly on hot summer days where the most outdoor activities can be done. Some of those activities can be surfing, jet skiing, body boarding, fishing, jogging, tanning, windsurfing and a bevy of other activities not just committed to being inside of the water. However, with a lot of activity comes a lot of waste. Beaches will commonly have trash and debris littered about since they are more frequented by beach goers and the waters at the beach can wash up waste along the shorelines where beachgoers spend their time at.Most beaches have plenty of trash depositories and staff in place to help maintain the cleanliness of the beach, but it can become more difficult to control compared to an indoor swimming pool because its size. Swimmers may be reluctant to venture into beach waters since the safety of the waters can put swimmers at risk. Sharks, jellyfish and other dangerous sea life are always a threat when swimming at the beach. While it isn’t always effective, beaches do try to contain this threat with various nets to prevent them from wading into the swimming areas.This can make swimming at the beach a bit unsafe, but most people still find plenty of pleasure in the waters regardless of the threat since there are so many activities that can be done while there. Whether it’s to enjoy the consistent temperatures of the indoor pools, or the multitude of activities that can be done while at the beach, there is certainly a degree of entertainment, relaxat ion and, at times – risk, that can be found while swimming at either location. I prefer the sanctuary of an indoor, heated and clean swimming pool over the outdoor, sometimes shark infested, volatile waters of the beach. Compare/Contrast Essay The Battle of Somme Abstract From 1914 through 1918 the world was at war. Described as â€Å"The Great One†, World War 1 affected everyone; man, and woman, combatant and non-combatant. This was a war defined by the advent of new technology. World War 1 saw the implementation of the Machine-gun in 1914, the armored tank in 1916, and, with the advent of the airplane in 1903, the first fixed wing airplane modified for combat occurred in 1911. The perspective of combat had also changed. What had once been a stand in rank and fire at the enemy across vast fields had become a war fought in the trenches.The lone presence of an isolated field doctor had become that of an entire medical corps stationed behind the lines in vast field hospitals waiting to tend to the wounded. The very nature and scale of war had changed drastically. As a result, where you were, whose side you were on, and the role you fulfilled, the same battle had very different ramifications and opposing perspectives. This essay will discuss the contrasting views between Private Ernst Junger, a German shock troop in Storm of Steel to that of Vera Brittain, a British nurse in Testament of Youth, through one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of World War 1. World War I†, â€Å"The Great War†, as suggested by these references, was a confrontation on a global scale unlike any other war in history. For the first time technology had changed the face of armed conflict, the landscape of battle had transformed its mission from two forces firing upon each other across broad fields with muskets and cannons to a vast subterranean trench system that traversed hundreds of miles. Between the opposing forces lay barren waste lands covered by machine gun fire and directional barbed wire.These fields were aptly known as â€Å"no-man’s land†. The trench systems and adjacent wastelands covered the distance of what had once been empty fields between opposing forces to spanning the borders between multiple countries forcing unimaginable gridlock, standoffs lasting not days, but months, as in the Battle of Somme, and even years in rare occasions. It was not only the landscape of battle that had changed but also the personnel.In 1901 the Army Nurses Corps was established and in 1908 the Navy Nurse’s Corps was created. Women were an official part of the war effort and by the end of World War 1 their numbers had grown from an initial 8,000 members to an astounding 70,000, a sight and valuable perspective unseen in any previous war. After reading the books Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger and Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, I contemplated on how best to highlight the subtle comparisons and stark contrasts that appear in both texts.I originally thought that nothing jumped off these pages; that there was no clear delineation; after all, he was a trained soldier, and she was nurse; where he was on the front lines unleashing chaos, she was in the hospital car ing for wounded; while he was an aggressor she was on the defensive; and as he chased glory, she chased love. Then it occurred to me that as I read, one word had been featured prominently in both texts: â€Å"Somme†. Somme, a battle in which both participants had a role; a battle that, no matter the outcome, both authors had a perspective and both perspectives were clearly different.This would be my focus. First and foremost for the unaware, a little background about Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive; the battle took place between July 1, and November 18, 1916 at the river Somme in France. During the battle the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army mounted a joint offensive against the German Army that had occupied most of northern France since 1914. The Battle of the Somme was one of the largest battles of the war. By the time fighting paused in the fall of 1916, the forces involved had suffered more than 1 million casualties, making it the bloodiest militar y operation ever recorded.With those numbers it should come as no surprise that both authors would have a unique and pointed perspective on that front. From the German shock troop’s vantage point, although the British were aggressing, the attempt would be in vain. â€Å". . . while the British made various, fortunately unsuccessful, attempts on our lives, either by means of high angled machine-gun fire or sweeping the road with shrapnel. We were especially irritated by one machine-gunner who sprayed his bullets at such an angle that they came down vertically, with acceleration produced by gravity.There was no point trying to duck behind walls. † (Junger, 2004) In this passage the author practically mocks the British effort of a mounted attack on the clearly superior German forces finding a single machine-gunner merely irritating. Meanwhile beyond the wire, past the vast no-man’s land, and safely behind the friendly lines of the British army, the account of Briti sh Nurse Vera Brittain is starkly different. In contrast as she tends to those being brought to the nearest hospital, her vivid account of waiting for the inbound shipment of wounded paints a graphic picture of how grim the situation appeared. Throughout those â€Å"busy and strenuous days† the wards sweltered beneath their roofs of corrugated iron; the prevailing odour of wounds and stinking streets lingered perpetually in our nostrils, . . . Day after day I had to fight the queer, frightening sensation-to which, throughout my years of nursing, I never became accustomed-of seeing the covered stretchers come in, one after another, without knowing, until I ran with pounding heart to look, what fearful sight or sound or stench, what problem of agony or imminent death, each brown blanket concealed. (Brittain, 1933) Although Nurse Vera Brittain was safe and nowhere near the front line her account of the Somme offensive is drawn from a direct line of sight of the carnage that was being produced on the field of battle is in bold contrast to that of the German shock troop located directly on the frontline.While Brittain was well away from the firing, Private Junger was in the line of fire, yet he was tucked safely away in his protected trench line unable to physically see the battle, she was witness to the horror of bodies produced by the battle. She was a non-combatant in support of the war effort duty bound to care for the wounded, he was a trained soldier on the front line trained to administer death. Their accounts of the very same battle differ greatly in perspective.History would later show that both perspectives although correct are not an indication of inevitability. Both perspectives were correct in that on the first day of the offensive July 1, 1916 the Germans easily handled the British attack. Their newly implemented machine-guns and directional barbed wire amassed a record setting 58,000 casualties on the first day, this is why private Junger was so easily tucked away in his protected entrenchment while nurse Brittain saw nothing but death.The British would ultimately prove victorious at the battle of Somme, on November 18, 1916 when the offensive was called off the British had pushed roughly six miles past the German lines winning the battle of Somme, however the war would continue for nearly two more years. Finally on November 11, 1918 the Armistice of Compiegne was signed marking a victory for the allies and complete defeat for Germany, yet â€Å"The war to end all wars† as it was called by H.G Wells in August of 1914 in total would cost more money and damage more property than any previous war and would amass 27 million casualties before it was over. References Brittain, V. (1933). Testament of Youth. (pp. 279-280). New York: Penguin Classics. Duffy, M. (2009). Battles- the Battle of Somme. Battles- The Western Front, Retrieved from http://www. firstworldwar. com/battles/somme. htm Junger, E. (2004). Storm of Stee l. (p. 78). Strand, London: Penguin Books.