Individual Choice In A Clockwork Orange English Literature Essay

Individual Choice In A Clockwork Orange English Literature Essay A Clockwork Orange is a novel that shocks with its explicit violent images, its savage protagonist, difficult language and a cruel prophesy of the future. It is a novel which, with a help of Stanley Kubricks film adaptation, became the main work associated with the name of Anthony Burgess. Burgess, however, was a very prolific artist. He wrote thirty-four works of fiction, fifteen nonfiction books including reviews and criticism, two biographies, plays, screenplays, translations and a great deal of music (Keen 10). Burgess never considered A Clockwork Orange his best novel and have always stayed disappointed that only this one brought him such a huge public attention. He believed he wrote far better, mature books and worried that he would become something of a shadow behind Kubricks film adaptation (Clockwork vii). The authors anxieties came true, in a way, but the truth remains that although it is Stanley Kubrick who made A Clockwork Orange famous, it is Anthony Burgess who created a rare masterpiece that very few readers could stay indifferent to. As Burgess himself admitted, A Clockwork Orange is a rather didactic novel. At one point of his life he became aware of the growing aggression and violence among the youth. In A thousand words before breakfast interview Burgess admitted, that however he despised teenage gangs, he strongly opposed to the proposals of using Pavlovian techniques to deal with violent citizens. He always believed in free will and freedom of choice. Burgess, as a Catholic, was sure, that only by choosing to do good ones soul can be saved. A Clockwork Orange condemns human conditioning and intends to promote the notion of individual choice (Clockwork ix). According to Burgess, it is better for human being to choose evil than not to have a freedom of choice at all. Free will is humans greatest gift that should never be taken away. Burgess admitted, that promoting mens freedom is what he have always been trying to do in his work. What distinguishes A Clockwork Orange from other of his works, is also the speci al language he created for the novel and the fact, that for the first time he made such an explicit use of violence. As an author of a book such full of cruel and sexual images, Burgess was exposed to much criticism and accusation of promoting violence. The novel became to be read as a pure controversy and the intended didactic role was by many readers overlooked. Have the book became famous for its moral values, and not been read as a shocker, it would bring Burgess a completely different fame. Unfortunately for the author, for most people he would always be the one who dared to describe most abhorrent acts of violence and young people with a taste for hatred, blood and rape. But Burgess, in fact, does not like violence and presenting sex in his books. During the interview in Italy in 1974, Burgess said that he also included a biographic element in the book. His first wife have been attacked by a group of soldiers and despite it has not been a sexual attack but the act of robbery, it resulted in her having a miscarriage and supposedly, her eventual death. Burgess wrote a novel that seems to be pornographic but at the same time tries to preach, because such combination had a great chance to make A Clockwork Orange popular. In the same, Italian interview, Burgess stated: Pornography and violence, and the teachy, preachy quality; and when you get these two together you normally produce a book that can become a bestseller. A Clockwork Orange is a very controversial novel. Some call it pornographic, for others its violent imagery is almost impossible to stand. But Anthony Burgess surely did not mean to write a shocker. He aimed the novel to preach, even more than any of his previous works did before. Burgess meant to promote freedom of individual choice and to criticize anyone who would ever dare to take this precious gift away from the human being. Man is not to be conditioned and manipulated, since when a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man (Clockwork 63). 2. Pelagian and Augustinian points of view on Original Sin and Free Will and their reflection in Anthony Burgesss A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess frequently returned in his works to the conflict of authoritarian and libertarian ideas, which he called Pelagian and Augustinian points of view. Pelagianism is named after a monk who argued against the notion of Original Sin, Pelagius. According to G.F. Wiggerss Historical Presentation of Augustinism and Pelagianism from the Original Sources, Pelagius stated, that each infant is born in the same state as Adam has been before he sinned. Adams sin injured only him and not his posterity, so there is no propagation of sin on the following generations. What follows, bodily death is not a punishment, but a necessity of nature. Pelagius believed that man was given free will and salvation is in humans hands, so he is able to do both good and evil. Man is even able, through repentance, to become good again after he has sinned. Consequently, there is an abstract possibility that all man can be perfect. Pelagius, thus, appears as an advocate of libertarian views. The doctrine of Augustinism was quite the contrary. First of all, Adams sin was propagated among all men, so each child is born with the Original Sin. The sin will always be propagated by the sensual lust in the act of procreation and all men are under the power of the devil from the very first moment they are born. As a consequence of the first sin, people suffer the punishment of physical death, pains of parturition and toil of labourers. Augustinism denied the notion of free will, and stated that the only freedom that man has is to sin. Freedom to resists sin has been lost also as a punishment. According to Augustinians, the nature of man is entirely corrupted. Man is always more likely to choose evil rather than good and the only help for a human being is Gods grace (Wiggers 83-115). Burgess often presents history as a cyclical shifts of Pelagian (libertarian) and Augustinian (authoritarian) parties. With authoritarians in power, stability is achieved by strict rules, laws and societal control. The faith in human perfectibility is growing, strict control of authoritarians seems unnecessary and finally, libertarian government gains control. This brings more freedom to the society, but with the contentment comes anarchy and the social stability is lost. There again, society cries for law and order and the new authoritarian party comes to rule. Such a change of governments in power is visible in A Clockwork Orange. The novel begins clearly with a portrayal of an anarchic society and Pelagians in power. After Alex, the protagonist, is released from jail, he realizes that new laws were established and the police forces grown bigger, which indicates that the country is run by Augustinians (Rabinovitz 43-46). The conflict of Pelagianism and Augustinism is also visible in the novels characters. The writer F. Alexander is a libertarian. He believes in human perfectibility. F. Alexander is an author of a book, A Clockwork Orange (a fair gloopy title (Clockwork 18), according to Alex) which presents its authors strongest libertarian views. For F. Alexander, human being is a creature of growth and capable of sweetness (Clockwork 18). Later in the novel, however, his hypocrisy comes to light, and when F. Alexander learns that Alex is the one who raped his wife, he agrees to the plan of driving the young criminal to suicide. Burgess here, by the inability of F. Alexander to stick to his faith, seems to slightly criticize Pelagianism. Young Alex, in opposition to F. Alexander, has many Augustinian characteristics. He is brutal, enjoys crime, holds power (at least at the beginning of the novel) among his droogs and does not believe in the goodness of the human being. 3. Radical behaviourism limiting the freedom of individual choice Burgess strongly opposed to politicians who openly discussed possibilities of introducing conditioning as a way of eliminating criminal instincts. Very popular at that time became the doctrine of B.F. Skinner (1904- 1990) called radical behaviourism. According to Skinner, human behaviour can always be explained in purely physical terms and it can be shaped by operant conditioning through reinforcement and punishment (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Burgess was very much frightened by these new ideas of people-control, conditioning techniques and behaviourists methods of reforming criminals. After the attack on a cat-lady, Alex is deceived by his gang who no longer wants him as a leader and is caught by the police. This is a significant moment in the novel, since for the first time, Alex would be charged with a real punishment. He is taken away to Staja (State Jail) and becomes 6655321 and not your little droog Alex not no longer (Clockwork 57). But however hard is life in prison for the young protagonist, Alex manages to adapt to the conditions rather well. He becomes a help to the prison chaplain and is allowed to listen to his beloved classical music of J.S. Bach or G.F. Handel. What is more, Alex finds a way to enjoy violence by reading the Bible: I would read of these starry yahoodies tolchocking each other and then peeting their Hebrew vino and getting on to the bed with their wives like hand-maidens, real horrorshow. That kept me going, brothers. (Clockwork 60) Alex also, while listening to the classical music, imagines himself helping in the crucifixion of Christ and he generally concludes that being in Staja 84F was not all that wasted (Clockwork 60). Despite everything, however, Alex wanted to be free and saw his chance in Ludovicos Technique. He hears about this new treatment in prison and volunteers to take part in the experiment. Alex is sure that the technique would get him out of prison, he thinks it would be the beginning of his freedom. Ludovicos Technique turns out to be a cruel conditioning method, turning Alex into a mindless and weak machine. The Ludovicos Technique rests on Alex being strapped to a chair and forced to watch movies that consists of cruel and disgusting scenes of violence. He has both his hands and legs chained to the chair, and clips on his forehead so that he could not close his eyes. The movies scenes include the beating of an old man by the young boys, with lots of blood all around, or a multiple rape on a young girl. He is also presented with a film about a Japanese torture during the World War II, where the soldiers are fixed to trees with nails, with fire set under them. The soldiers have their tongues cut off and there is also a scene of one soldiers head being sliced off with a sword. One of such movies is accompanied by the music of Ludwig van Beethoven so from then on, Alex is no longer able to listen to it, which means he is being bereaved of the one and only passion he has got apart from violence in his life, his love for classical music. Watching all the movies is a great torture for Alex, he screams, cries and feels really sick. But the reason of it is not his aversion to blood and violence, it is only the effect of the injections he gets. His personal, psychological attitude toward violence does not change at all. When the Discharge Officer asks him whether he want to hit him, he does, when asked about a job he might get after being set free, his first thought goes to theft. Day by day, however, Alexs organism begins to associate the sight of violence with the feeling of nausea. One time, he begins to crash his head against the wall out of desperation, but has to stop as soon as he realizes that this kind of violence is just like the violence from the films he sees every day. Alex feels sick at the very thought of violence but the treatment still goes on: Every day, my brothers, these films were like the same, all kicking and tolchocking and red red krovvy dripping off of litsos and plots and spattering all over the camera lenses. It was usually grinning and smecking malchicks in the height of nadsat fashion or else teeheeheeing Jap tortures or brutal Nazi kickers and shooters. And each day the feeling of wanting to die with sickness and Gulliver pains and aches in the zoobies and horrible horrible thirst grew really worse. (Clockwork 87-88) The Ludovicos Technique succeeds in making Alex a good boy. He cannot commit any act of violence any longer as gets sick even when thinking about crime. But the state of Alexs consciousness does not change, he does not understand that his violent ways were evil. He is now simply conditioned not to raise his fists against anyone, to the point that he is not even able to defend himself. Anthony Burgess creates a portrait of a human being deprived of his freedom and the right to choose, stripped out of his humanity. The Ludovicos Technique creates a clockwork- machine, which without understanding how and why, never again would dare to think about any acts of force. 4. The concepts of liberty What is liberty has been discussed by philosophers from the beginning of our times. Generally, two kinds of liberty can be distinguished: the abstract one in our minds, the inner feeling of being free and freedom that we achieve by not being restrained by external circumstances. One can lack freedom to achieve goals because he/she has not got enough courage, power or abilities. The amount of freedom can also depend on laws, political order and other external forces. The two basic notions of liberty has been thoroughly discussed by Isaiah Berlin, the British liberal philosopher. In Berlins Two Concepts of Liberty he established the notions of positive and negative liberty. The negative liberty defines to what degree one has, or should have control over his/her actions without the interference of other people, whereas the need of a person to be the master of ones own will and not to feel restrained by others is described as the positive liberty. Restricting ones freedom by others is usually considered a negative phenomenon. However, the individual freedom cannot stay entirely unrestricted as it would lead to a complete social chaos. Philosophers such as Locke and Mill in England, or Constant and Tocqueville from France agreed, that there should exist a minimum amount of personal freedom that cannot be violated under any circumstances. The violation of such freedom makes the moral growth impossible, it prevents one from setting and pursuing goals. The line between the private life of the individual and the public authority should be drawn very clearly (Berlin 117). Philosophers which were optimistic about human nature believed that it is possible to have a wide area of personal freedom and maintain the social order at the same time. Others, such as Hobbes, argued that humans need strict control of authorities to avoid their mutual destruction (121). Mill also agreed that coercion is to be justified whenever we want to prevent depriving people of each others freedom. 4.1. The concepts of positive and negative liberty in A Clockwork Orange before the operation of the Ludovicos technique At the beginning of the novel, Alex is completely free, meaning that he does whatever he wants and whenever he wants it. The police and the authorities are unable to control the young criminalist and he is fully aware of that. Alex breaks the law constantly but until the incident at the cat-ladys house, he has not suffered any consequences of his violent activities. Referring to the terminology of Berlin, the novels protagonist enjoyed a total positive freedom, as he was self- confident and convinced of his impunity. The government, at least at the beginning of the novel seems powerless and unable to control the society, so Alexs negative freedom also stayed unrestricted. The reader may get the idea of how carefree is Alex about the violence and crime just in the very first paragraphs of the novel: Our pockets were full of deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings divided by four, not to do the ultra- violent on some shivering starry grey-haired ptitsa in shop and go smecking off with the tills guts. (Clockwork 3) Alex talks about the horrid violent activities as if they were simple childlike games. Neither does he care about his victims, nor he fears being punished. It seems like for him, other human beings are just puppets which can be used whenever he needs to steal money or have a little fun over the sight of their blood. Alex and his friends spends their time in a Korova Milk Bar, drinking milk laced with drugs, waiting for the drugs to start to kick, so they could go out and enjoy themselves in stealing and assaulting other citizens. When they attack an innocent man, rip his clothes, books and beats him very hard, Alex refers to it as of the nice beginning of the evening: We hadnt done much, I know, but that was only like the start of the evening and I make no appy polly loggies to thee or thine for that. The knives in the milk plus were stabbing away nice and horrorshow now. (Clockwork 8) Later that evening they attack a nearby shop. The boys are then sure to provide themselves with the alibi by buying drinks to some old women sitting at the bar but that does not mean they are afraid of being caught by the police. Indeed, when two young police officers come and ask questions, they are unable to arrest the young criminals although they seem to know they are guilty of the assault. The authorities appear as having no control at all over the gang and Alex comments on the whole situation: But myself, I couldnt help a bit of disappointment at things as they were those days. Nothing to fight against really. Everything as easy as kiss-my-sharries. (Clockwork 12) The society in the first chapters of A Clockwork Orange is given too much of a negative liberty, there is chaos and nearly anarchy. Another Alexs victim, the old drunkard singing on the side of the road complains bitterly about the current state of the world. He doesnt want to live in a stinking world like this (Clockwork 12). When men are flying to the moon and spinning around the earth, there is no attention paid to earthly law nor order no more (Clockwork 13). Again, after the bloody fight with the rival gang (this would be real, this would be proper, this would be the nosh, the oozy, the britva, not just fisties and boots (Clockwork 13)) the police comes but the boys manage to run away and the police officers does not even make an attempt to chase them. As Alexs Post-Corrective Adviser, P.R. Deltoid comments, nobody can prove anything about anybody (Clockwork 30). Out of the two groups, the authorities and the young criminals, it is the latter who appears much smarter, while the police is slow and clearly powerless. Still during the same night, Alex and his gang arrives (with the stolen car) at the cottage outside the town borders. The place is called HOME and to Alex, it is a gloomy sort of a name (Clockwork 17). The passages that follows here are filled with a horrible descriptions of violence and hatred. Ironically, the resident of the house, F. Alexander, is an author of a book, A Clockwork Orange, which preaches about the belief in human goodness and praises liberal values. Alex manages to read an excerpt from it: The attempt to impose upon man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily at the last round the bearded lips of God, the attempt to impose, I say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation, against this I rise my sword-pen. (Clockwork 18) What happens to the person who believes in the human race, is that he is being cruelly beaten up and is made to watch his wife being raped by all of the young criminals in turns. In Stanley Kubricks movie the scene was made even more revolting, as the gang members, while raping the innocent woman, were humming the joyful song- Singin in the Rain. To many readers, the violence in the novel is so horrifying that it is hard to stand and the protagonist seems to be a psychopath. But Alex is fully aware of his actions. He knows what is right and what is wrong and he consciously chooses to be bad. He finds evil a natural part of human nature and is irritated with all the discussions about the causes of it: But brothers, this biting of their toe-nails over what is the cause of badness is what turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They dont go into the cause of goodness, so why the other shop? If lewdies are good thats because they like it, and I wouldnt ever interfere with their pleasures, and so of the other shop. And I was patronizing the other shop. More, badness is of the self, the one, the you or me on our oddy knockies, and that self is made by old Bog or God and is his great pride and radosty. But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they of the government and the judges and the schools cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self. And is not our modern history, my brothers, the story of brave malenky selves fighting these big machines? I am serious with you, brothers, over this. But what I do I do because I like to do. (Clockwork 31) Alex is surely a very bright boy. His thoughts very often struck the reader with quite an intelligence as for a teenager. He is right about the natural existence of both good and evil in the world and very accurately notices a general tendency to discuss the causes of human bad and not good behavior. Alex also argues for the human right of individual choice and opposes all the attempts to restrict his personal freedom. What Alex does not realize, is that he already has a great amount of freedom. No authorities hold any power over him, neither the police, nor school or his parents. He lives in nearly a lawless world in which came true the most pessimistic ideas of philosophers: human beings, when given too much freedom, turn against one another and create a dark and chaotic kind of world. Another aspect of which Alex seems to be completely unaware of is the fact, that while enjoying his freedom to act as he pleases, he infringes the rights of others. The freedom of an individual should end when it starts to violate the liberty of another human being. 4.2. The end of Alexs limitless freedom At the beginning of the novel Alex is presented as an unquestionable leader of his gang. But the other boys slowly grow tired of the dictatorship and decide to rebel. During the attack on the house of the rich old lady, Alex is tricked by his friends and is left behind to be caught by the police. This is the first time that the young criminal would meet the consequences of his actions. The police treats him badly. He is being beaten and offended, just as he used to treat his own victims. Nevertheless, Alex seems to be rather shocked that he can actually become a victim of violence too and the thought that he is being fairly punished does not ever cross his mind, not even after his victims death. After his imprisonment, Alexs moods switches from feeling pity for himself (I was not your handsome young Narrator any longer but a real strack of a sight (Clockwork 51)), humiliating himself (like some real bezoomny veck, I even said: Sorry, brothers, that was not the right thing at all. Sor ry sorry sorry. (Clockwork 52)), to real anger and the feeling of injustice (I thought to myself, Hell and blast you all, if all you bastards are on the side of the Good then Im glad I belong to the other shop (Clockwork 53)). The last of Alexs thought carries a very important message for the whole novel. It underlines the hypocrisy of those, who called themselves good people. The ones who are supposed to be the epitomes of goodness and defend the law, come out as capable of the same vulgarity and violence as Alex and his gang. Anthony Burgess manages to show how difficult and risky it is to classify the world in terms of goodness and evil. On the one hand, Alex only gets what he deserves, but on the other, how can the good be distinguished from the evil, if both turn out to be capable of committing a great wrong? While doing his time in prison, one day, Alex hears about the new like treatment that gets you out of prison in no time at all and makes sure that you never get back in again (Clockwork 62). Alex becomes excited about the new technique but is not aware that what seems as an easy way to regain his freedom, would actually be a brutal end of it. From the very beginning, the prison chaplain warns Alex, that not only is the treatment still in its experimental stage, but it is also an extremely drastic technique. It seems that Anthony Burgess expresses here his deepest concern, the one about the necessity for the human being to have a freedom of individual choice. The very fundamental doubt, for the prison chaplain, is whether a man can be artificially made good: The question is whether such technique can really make a man good. Goodness comes from within, 6655321. Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man. (Clockwork 63) The chaplain also thinks, that perhaps the one who chooses to be bad is in some way better than a person who has goodness imposed upon him (Clockwork 70). Also the Governor is against the Ludovicos Technique, as he sees a desire to get ones revenge as a natural part of human nature. Despite everything, however, after Alex beats another prisoner to death, he gets a chance to become a volunteer for the new treatment. He sees the event as the new beginning of his freedom. Now his criminal instinct will be killed. The evil will be turned into good. At the beginning, Alex feels wonderful and very lucky. He is taken to a new white building, has a whole cell with a bed for himself, he gets a new clean pajamas, and is told that the whole treatment consists only in watching movies and getting an injection of vitamins after every meal. Ludovicos Technique however, turns out to be a cruel form of medical conditioning. Alex is stripped to a chair and forced to watch very drastic and abhorrent movies. The scenes he watches do not disgust him, as Alex himself used to take part in many awful acts of violence, but the injections he gets causes illness. His organism begins to associate the sight of the movies and nausea, so that he begins to feel sick even at the very thought of violence. After the treatment Alex is no longer violent, he is not even able to fight back or defend himself. A day before Alex is to be set free, he goes through a trial. He is given his clothes, boots and razor back and is put in the middle of the big room with a full audience of important figures watching him. After the lights goes down and the spotlight comes on Alex, he sees a man coming up to him. The man welcomes Alex, referring to him as a heap of dirt (Clockwork 92. He stamps of Alexs feet, scratches his face with a fingernail and goes on with offending him. When Alex attempts to get his razor out of his pocket, he immediately feels very sick. Knowing that to stop nausea he has to change his way of thinking, he becomes over-polite and even gets on his knees and licks the mans shoes. Later, on the scene appears a young and very beautiful girl. Alex comment on the impression that she made on him is very point-blank: She came up towards me with the light like it was the like light of heavenly grace and all that cal coming with her, and the first thing that flashed into my gulliver was that I would like to have her right down there on the floor with the old in-out real savage (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) (Clockwork 95) But again he is quickly overtaken by the feeling of nausea and headaches and he has to think of some other way to get close to the girl. Alex assumes a very courteous tone, let me worship you and be like your helper and protector from the wicked like world, he says, let me be like your true king (Clockwork 96). Everyone except the prison chaplain is impressed by how the new techniques changed Alex. The chaplain although alcoholic and a slightly pathetic figure in the novel, is the only person who realizes the great wrong that has been done to the boy and he is certainly a spokesman for Burgesss views in a book: Choice. He has no real choice, has he? Self-interest, fear of physical pain, drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. Its insincerity was clearly to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature of moral choice. (Clockwork 94) What Burgess presents is not the success of the behavioural conditioning, but a man stripped out of his freedom of choice and what follows, of his humanity. Even Alex, at first so excited about the Ludovicos Technique, suddenly realizes what have been done to him: Am I just to be like a clock-work orange? (Clockwork 94), he screams at one point. Alex is turned into a true, but clockwork Christian. He is now always ready to turn the other cheek, ready to be crucified rather than crucify. He feels sick even at the thought of killing a fly: And that was right, brothers, because when he said that I thought of killing a fly and felt just that tiny bit sick, but I pushed the sickness and pain back by thinking of the fly being fed with bits of sugar and looked after like a bleeding pet and all that cal. (Clockwork 96) Burgesss message is very clear. An ideal citizen should always decide for himself and not only be artificially made to be good. To have a chance for salvation, man has to choose good over evil. Either conditioned by Pavlovian, Skinners or invented by Burgess Ludovicos technique, human being becomes not only weak but is also deprived of his dignity. What makes the man is his freedom, pride and ability to choose. Without them, he becomes nothing more but a machine, powerless creature in the hands of overwhelming science. 4.3. A clockwork orange set free When Alex is set free again and out in the world, from the local newspaper he gets to know that the world he knew has changed dramatically. The streets are now clean, there is no anarchy anymore and the police is much tougher with the local crime. The freedom of citizens, especially their negative freedom has been restricted. The peace-loving ladies and gentlemen can stroll through the streets again, without the fear of being attacked by any young hooligans. Alex no longer feels like he rules the world, what surrounds him is all unknown to him, he feels sick all the time and do not have a place to go. He is no longer welcome to his home, his possessions have been sold and the new guy called Joy has taken his place and acts like a son to Alexs parents. People look different, fashion has changed and the music shop is now filled with pop music. But Alex in no longer able to enjoy his beloved classical music: It was that these doctor bratchnies had so fix things that any music that was like for the emotions would make me sick just like viddying or wanting to do violence. It was because all those violence films had music with them. And I remembered especially that horrible Nazi film with the Beethoven Fifth, last movement. And now here was lovely Mozart made horrible. (Clockwork 104) Feeling horrible all the time, Alex thinks of committing suicide and goes to the public library to find how to do it without pain, but again he gets nauseous at the sight of illustrations in medical books and the attempt to read the Bible fails him too. He is hopeless and cannot find himself in the new world. When he begins to cry and a very old man tells him he is far too young to die and still has everything in front of him, Alex replies bitterly: Yes. Like a pair of false groodies (Clockwork 107). Alexs situations goes from bad to worse, when

Evolution of Zombies on Film

The term zombie is referred to as a corpse reanimated through unnatural means, and in some cases, is usually depicted to have a knack for human flesh (Clute & Grant, 1999). Zombies are believed to have originated in the Caribbean Republic of Haiti where witch doctors revive dead people to do their bidding (Chevallier, 2006). This concept and origin of the Zombie was first introduced to the United States by W. S. Seabrook's Magic Island (Mumble-Jumble,1940). Seabrook's publication then spawned other works encompassing resurrected mindless corpses which subsequently became elements elements of interest for filmmakers. From paper to reel, the process of creating Zombies has tremendously evolved with the birth of computer generating image technology. The Epic of Gilgamesh (1960) also alluded the Zombie's concept, as the goddess Ishtar pledged to â€Å"knock down the gates of the Netherworld, and let the dead outnumber and devour the living. † Though the epic does not give any description of the appearance of the dead, the concept of flesh eating dead creatures are still synonymous to the idea of Zombies. While William Seabrook's Magic Island brought the idea of Zombies to the United States, Howard Phillips Lovecraft's Herbert West – Reanimator fully furnished the concept of Zombies in American Popular Culture (Braun, 2008). The story entails scientist Herbert West reanimating corpses that result to vile horrible beastly creatures with violent tendencies (Joshi & Cannon,1999), The Idea of Zombies was first introduced to the motion picture industry upon the release of the 1932 independent cult film, White Zombie. The film drew its idea of Zombies from the Haitian folklore of using paranormal powers to revive the dead. As the film's title suggests, the story revolves around couple, Neil and Madeleine who decide to accept an invitation Charles, a common acquaintance, to exchange vows in his plantation in Haiti. In an attempt to fulfill his hidden desires for Madeleine, Charles persuades the former to marry him instead. Madeleine immediately rejects Charles, who in return vindicates himself by consulting voodoo master Legendre to momentarily turn her in to a Zombie, to fake her death, send Neil back to the United States grieving, and bring Madeleine back to reality to pursue her again. Legendre meanwhile has his own selfish ploys which are thwarted by Charles with the aid of a missionary who goes by the name Dr. Bruner (Halperin & Halperin, 1932). In white Zombie, there is simplicity in presentation, as far as the Zombies appearance is concerned, considering that it is the first film to tackle such subject, the Zombies appeared a little close to human, but the mindless unwilled personality is already obvious. Though there is not much technique or technology available during the time, it is quite blatant that the Zombie interpretation was innovative. While the film was considered pioneer in Zombies, the concept of reanimated corpses do not have apocalyptic implications similar to later films, the concept of the Zombie strictly conformed to the Haitian voodoo practice which does not involve any scientific procedures or freak accidents. Soon after the release of White Zombie, Zombies on film have evolved, notable films such as Things to Come and Plan 9 From Outer Space further shaped the zombie as an element of horror. 936's Things to Come did not really focus on Zombies that were reanimated as living dead but the effects of a viral outbreak that causes the infected to mindlessly ramble without a definite purpose, which is synonymous to the mindlessness of zombies. In he film, the Zombie like creatures do not stray away from human appearance. Science Fiction met with Horror as 1959's Plan 9 From Outer Space tells the story of aliens who planned to stop human endeavor on a Doomsday Weapon that would bring the Universe in to oblivion . The aliens then executed plan 9 which concerns reanimation of the dead to divert human attention. The appearance of zombies in the film do not differ from human appearance, the only distinctive quality among zombies are the absence of the pupil. Though special effects were not sophisticated, zombies reanimated by alien technology is still a conceptual breakthrough. Despite the seemingly incompetent zombies of classic horror films, George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead became the mother of all zombie films, and is considered the greatest zombie movie of all time (Braun, 2008). The film is highly influential in the tradition of zombies as it revolutionized the zombie appearance in motion pictures and influenced zombie oriented films. The secret behind the horrifying appearance of the zombies in Night of the Living Dead is credited to the use of primitive techniques for special effects. (Williams, 2003). In night of the Living Dead, costumes consisted of second-hand apparel and the zombie appearance was complemented by mortician wax (Hardman & Eastman, 1997). Some of the blood used were just chocolate syrup, it looked like blood smears when shot on black and white (Homepage of the Dead, 2008). The materials used proved to be a little stingy for a successful film, but the efficiency of it has set a standard in the field of special effects. George Romero's follow up to Night of the Living Dead produced a better and more believable look for the zombie, special effects master Tom Savini has created a look with tremors still being imitated today but never surpassed. Savini primarily applied gray make up to give the zombie cast a more undead appearance. The zombies with close-up shots were had latex applied on their faces to emphasize wounds and other causes for their being undead (Savini, 1983). Savini adds that the zombies were supposed to appear as people recently killed, so he tried to make them look like victims of car accidents and fatal ailments. There is even one zombie that appear well groomed, Savini's intention here is to make that zombie look as if he just had been to an undertaker (Savini, 1983). Savini casted specific body parts to hydrocal and had them painted with red and black on the bottom to match the flesh colors in order to make bite-scars more believable (Savini, 1983). For the zombie killed in the truck, Savini sculpted a face lay over and filled it with blood and sealed with a layer of dermwax for the zombie actress (Savini, 1983). The effect was for a zombie who was shot in the head with an exit wound in the face (Savini, 1983). In Day of the dead, there are slight differences in the appearance of the zombie, the only notable difference came in the green color which emphasize the vestiges of decomposition (Savini, 1983). The development of zombies also came in speech as one zombie manifested the ability of speech (Rubenstein & Romero, 1985). Nonetheless, the film still takes pride in the advanced special effects. In a different note, the 80s saw a decline on zombie films, however there are some satirical innovations that proved to be arguable developments such as Return of the Living Dead (Fox, Henderson & O'Bannon) where zombies are shown to have a hunger for human brains, this garnered some recognition, most notably on an episode of The Simpsons Halloween special. The breakthroughs of modern technology in special effects and other cinematic techniques became a big help in developing zombies far better than they last appealed viewers. For nearly 2 decades, the zombie film was in hibernation, however, recent productions such as the movie adaptations of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and I am Legend revitalized the zombie film. The motion picture resident evil utilized computer generated imaging technology to some extent, but most of the furnishings for the zombies are done with make-up (Anderson, 2002). The motion picture gives a new approach to zombies as some of them wielded weapons such as the hatchet held by the first zombie who appeared (Anderson, 2002). Another groundbreaking addition in resident evil is the zombie dog which is a total departure from the usual human undead (Anderson, 2002). The sequel to the first Resident Evil film brought about fresh ideas in zombie films wherein sophistication and advanced movements such as climbing stairs and opening doors have become part of zombie abilities. The introduction of the super zombie Nemesis is also a first, since the aforementioned can wield heavy armaments such as gattling guns and missile launchers, and it can also filter its victims via a remote controlled targeting system (Witt, 2004). Zombies on film have progressed since its humble beginnings in White Zombie, and most motion pictures serve as testimony to the immortality of the zombie as an element in horror. The extensive innovations in make-up and special effects applications has given rise to evolution of zombies on cinema, from simple mindless speechless individuals, to decapitated decomposing flesh hungry monsters, to weapon wielding, stair climbing semi-intelligent beasts, the film industry has done a great job in revolutionizing an idea that seem to be lame and childish. Moreover, the advent of modern technology has also aided the evolution of zombies on film.

John Locke An Influential Philosopher - 845 Words

John Locke was perhaps one of the most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke discusses the move from a state of nature and perfect freedom to a then governed society in which authority is given to a legislative and executive power. His major ideas included liberalism and capitalism, state of nature, state of war and the desire to protect one’s property. In his Second Treatise on Government Locke focus’ on liberalism capitalism, defending the claim that men are by nature free and equal against the idea that God had made all people subject to a king. He argued that people have ‘natural rights’, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that hold the foundation for the major laws of a society. He says, â€Å"†¦we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit.† (2nd Treatise, Chapter 2, sec 4). John Locke used this claim, that all men were naturally free and equal, for understanding the idea of a government as a result of a social contract. This is where people in the state of nature transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better guarantee the steady and comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. In the state of nature, natural law governs the behavior of each individual. This means that each person has the ability to implement that lawShow MoreRelatedInfluence Of Enlightenment On The American Revolution898 Words   |  4 PagesThe Enlightenment period initiated several new ideas about freedoms and rights. These ideas were discussed in meetings called salons in France, where they discussed new ideas. 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Anglican and possessing Puritan sympathies, Locke’s fatherRead MoreJohn Locke, a British Philosopher, Studied the Knowledge of the Human Mind635 Words   |  3 Pages John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Lockes monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is one of the first great defenses of empiricism and concerns itself with determining the limits of human understanding in respect to a wide spectrum of topics. It thus tells us in some detail what one can legitimately claim to know and what one cannot. Lockes association with Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the First Earl of Shaftesbury)Read MoreViews of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau815 Words   |  4 PagesArden Bentley AP Euro 3/9/13 Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Racques Rosseau were philosophers who stated their belief of human nature and how we should govern mankind. 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College essay topics to write about Salinity - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 15 Words: 4419 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Engineering Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Literature Review The aim of this literature review is to assess current research on the impact of salinity of pore water on the engineering properties of the soil, including shear strength and classification of the soil, ideally using Atterburg limits. The review focuses on the study of different soils and the impact of salinity on the engineering properties of the soil, addressing the types of experiments, the procedures in setting up the samples and the tests conducted as this will provide background information for the tests conducted in this dissertation. The literature review also examines the results of these tests as this will be useful for comparison of data during the analysis stage of this dissertation. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "College essay topics to write about Salinity" essay for you Create order Engineering Properties of Soil According to Ajam et al. (2015, p.350) the engineering characteristics of fine-grained soils, particularly clayey soils are influenced by a range of factors including density, porosity, and structure, as well as the history of tension and granulation, type of clayey minerals and plastic property. The engineering characteristics are also influenced by the type of minerals and the volume of these minerals in the pore water. This suggests that any change in these characteristics will lead to a corresponding change in the physical and mechanical characteristics of the soil. Engineering properties such as density, shear strength and the plasticity of soil are important as these properties affect the structural performance of the soil particularly under foundations and in other civil engineering applications. In basic engineering theory on soil mechanics, it is commonly assumed that the pore water and solid particles are chemically inert, in other words there is no chemical interaction b etween the different phases. However, Ajam et al. (2015, p.350) point out that the surface of clayey mineral particles is negatively charged which means that electrochemical forces exist between the solid, liquid and dissolved phases which influences the mechanical behaviour of clayey soil. In addition, it is known that the quantity and nature of electro-chemical forces depends on the type of anion and cation in exchange phase and the impact of this interaction on the cation exchange capacity. Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1419) make the point that the properties of water used in construction activities such as mixing concrete is governed by regulations and international standards, however there are fewer standards, governing the properties of water used in works associated with soil for example in the construction of earthen dams. Yet there is evidence to suggest that some minerals such as salt can affect the mechanical properties of soil. Bouksila et al. (2008, p. 254) suggest that t he impact of the saline on the soil is dependent on the solubility of the soil. Suganya and Sivapullaiah (2015, p.913) argue that the behaviour of the soil is dependent on the microstructure which in turn can be influenced by the water content and the chemical content of that water. Lolaev et al. (1997, p.215) suggests that the temperature of the soil and the chemical content of the salt can influence the bonds between particles within the micro-structure which in turn affects the engineering properties of the soil. Chaney and Demars (1985, p.219) point out that salt in pore can affect soil behaviour particularly in leaching which in a slope can lead to a landslide. Salinity and Microstructure The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the change in shear strength in the sample soil by considering the effect of values 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 100% of pore water salinity and it is therefore prudent to examine similar studies, to determine the types of tests conducted and the results of those tests as this can then be used in assessing the outcomes of the dissertation research. According to Santamarina (2003, p.25) soils are particulate materials which means that the behaviour of soils is determined by the forces particles experience, including forces due to boundary loads which are transmitted through the skeleton of the soil and particle-level forces such as gravitational and buoyant forces as well as hydrodynamic forces. Soil particles are also influenced by contact level forces such as capillary, electrical and cementation reactive forces. It is the balance between these forces that determine soil behaviour and very often laboratory testing can be used to understand a nd predict this behaviour. Sassa et al. (2007, p.143) makes the point, for example that the shear strength of mudstone is dependent on the chemistry of the mineral and their reaction with saline. It is clear therefore that there is a link between saline pore water and the engineering performance of soils, however it can be difficult to predict and simulate this behaviour. Tiwari et al. (2005, p.1445) suggest that an inward diffusion of the salt into clay can lead to an increase in the mean aggregate radius, which changes the structural component of the soil into what can be described as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“irregular aggregationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . In soils that have more than 10% clay content the use of a saline pore water fluid can affect the physicochemical structure of the soil, affecting changes strength and compressibility of the material. For example, Kenney (1967, 1977) cited by Tiwari et al. (2005, p.1445) showed that increasing the NaCl concentration in pore fluid could lead to an increase of up to 200% in residual shear strength. Gratchev and Sassa (2013) One of the difficulties with understanding the impact of salt on soil behaviour is that according to Chaney and Demars (1985, p.219) it is difficult to match the salinity in the field with laboratory testing because of the interstitial nature of pore-water salinity. Research on Saline Pore Fluid and Soil According to a study conducted by Nagase et al. (2006, p.209) the concentration of salt (NaCl) in the pore fluid affects the mechanical properties of soil as evidenced by the fact that during a recent earthquake in Japan, the saline concentration of the soil decreased due to leaching and there was a corresponding decrease in the cyclic strength of soil. Messad and Moussai (2016, p.301) studied the impact of saline on sabkha soils which are typically low strength and high compressible materials in which it is difficult to design and construct foundations. In this study the effect of salts on water content and Atterberg limits of the sabkha soil was conducted with tests using distilled water and natural sabkha brine along with saline solutions with different salt concentrations. The results revealed that the liquid and plastic limits decrease with pore fluid salinity when using conventional water content. However, it was also noted that liquid limit and plastic limit increase when th e fluid content method is used. van Paassen and Gareau (2004, p.327) also studied the effect of pore water salinity on shear strength and compressibility of remoulded clay. The study sought to compare the results with marine clay from the Caspian Sea which has a known lower shear strength than anticipated as well as a higher moisture content. This clay also has lower pre-consolidation pressures than the calculated in-situ effective stress which indicated under-consolidation. The results of the study revealed that increasing pore water salinity, led to a decrease in the moisture content of normally consolidated clays and the remoulded shear strength corresponded to these moisture content changes. The compressive behaviour of the clay is explained using the modified effective stress concept which takes account of the pore pressure and effective pressure as well as the electrochemical repulsive and attractive forces between the clay particles. van Paassen and Gareau (2004, p.327) fo und that the laboratory tests on the remoulded clays revealed the opposite results to those obtained by taking the measurements in the natural soils, which is attributed to the effects of soil structure and preconsolidation pressure. In addition, the results showed that the measured pre-consolidation pressure depends largely on the salinity of the permeating fluid and it was concluded that it is possible to approximate pre-consolidation pressure close to the known geological stress in marine clays with high pore fluid salinity, using a brine solution that closely resembles the pore fluid chemistry. Yan and Chang (2015, p.153) studied the effects of pore fluid salinity on the shear strength and earth pressure coefficient at rest (K0) of three fine-grained soils including kaolin, bentonite and a marine clay. The K0 coefficient and the critical state friction angle (à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢) were determined using triaxial stress path testing on remoulded normally consolidated samples. The Atterb erg limit test and sedimentation test revealed that the inter-particle force and soil structure of bentonite were affected by the salinity, whereas the other materials were insensitive to the pore fluid salinity, as shown in Figures 1 to 3. In this study Yan and Chang (2015, p.154) estimated the value of K0 using empirical formulas such as Jakyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s formula and Atterberg limits. It was found that Jakys formula satisfactorily predicted K0 for kaolin in all conditions with consistent underestimates for marine clay. In contrast prediction using the Atterberg limits failed in all cases, especially for the particularly for bentonite at low salinity. Figure 1 Triaxial stress path of testing bentonite with different salt contents (Yan and Chang 2015, p. 156, Figure 4) Figure 2 Triaxial stress path of testing of kaolin with different salt contents (Yan and Chang 2015, p. 156, Figure 3) Figure 3 Triaxial stress path of testing of marine clay with different salt contents (Yan and Chang 2015, p. 156, Figure 5) The laboratory tests found that the pore fluid salinity has little impact on the value of K0 and à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ in the kaolin samples and the marine clay. However, it was also found that an increase in pore fluid salinity has a corresponding significant increase in à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ for the bentonite and a decrease in the K0. These findings were attributed to the microstructure of the minerals in the materials (Yan and Chang 2015, p.157). Zhang et al. (2013, p. 69) conducted tests on undrained shear behaviour of loess that was saturated with different concentrations of sodium chloride solution. The aim of the tests was to investigate the effects of NaCl concentration in pore water and desalinisation on the shear behaviour of the samples in undrained conditions. The samples of loess were taken from the ground surface in China and were saturated by de-aired, distilled water with different concentrations of NaCl. Each sample was then su bjected to shear in undrained conditions. The samples were then remoulded and re-set into a shear box and re-saturated by passing through de-aired, distilled water and essentially desalinised, and subjected to shear testing, again in undrained conditions. The results of both sets of tests were compared and it was found that variation of NaCl concentration in the pore water affects the shear behaviour of saturated loess, with increases in peak shear strength and steady-state strength corresponding to increases in NaCl concentration until a peak value after which shear decreases with increases in NaCl concentration. It was also noted that the effects were reversible as the peak shear strength and steady-state strength of the desalinised samples recovered to those found in the original sample. Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1422) conducted a study to assess the impact of salt water on the behavioural parameters of fine-grained soil. The tests started by determining the basic characteris tics of the soil and water samples, followed by laboratory tests including Atterberg limits, standard compaction and consolidation tests as well as direct shear testing and dispersion tests including the pinhole test and chemical method. The soil sample was graded in compliance with ASTM D 4318 on soil passing no. 100 sieve, consisting of 37% gravel and sand, 35% silt and 28% clay. An XRD analysis of the material revealed that the fine grains of soil consist mainly of quartz, calcite and dolomite with some gypsum and 5% of the clay mineral montmorillonite. The samples of this fine soil were subjected to three different type of water with varying salt content, namely distilled water, half saline and fully saline water. Atterberg Limits. The tests were performed according to ASTM D 4318 on soil passing no. 100 sieve. For half saline and saline water, this test was performed at 0, 24 and 48 hours after soil and water exposure. The compaction test was used to impact of the type of wa ter on optimum moisture content and maximum dry density. The test was carried out according to ASTM D698-70 on soil passing no. 5 sieve with the saline test carried out at 24 hours and 48 hours after soil and water exposure. consolidation test was performed according to ASTM D2435 on soil passing no. 60 sieve and the process involved compacting a sample at optimum moisture content in a 20mm thick consolidation ring with a 70 mm diameter. The mould was left under loading equipment and a load of 1 kPa was applied on it and the sample was immersed for 24 hours. Then the sample was loaded with the stresses of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 and 2.5 kg/cm2. In the direct shear test, performed according to ASTM D3080 on soil passing no. 5 sieve the soil was compacted at optimum water content in 10 x 10mm mould apparatus at stresses of 0.5, 1 and 2 kg/cm2 and shearing velocity was 0.35 mm/min. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Before shearing at each stress, the sample was immersed and consolidated during 24 hours under th e same stressà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Ajalloeian et al. 2013, p.1421). According to Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1424), the results showed that plastic limits with distilled, half saline and saline water are 21.31, 20.43 and 20.12 respectively. Salinity has little effect on the plastic limit however this depends on the moisture content of the soil which could affect the interaction between soil and solute in water. But in liquid limit, in which soil moisture is higher, the effect of salinity will be more. The liquid limit has decreased 5 and 17 percent with half saline and saline water respectively. Mahasneh (2004) cited by Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1425) attributed the decrease in liquid limit and plastic index by using saline water of Dead Sea to substitution of water molecules by salts that led to the decrease of the double layer thickness and water content and subsequently it stiffened the soil. Ajalloeian et al. (2013, p.1424) also cites Mansour et al, (2008) who indicate that the pr esence of high valence exchangeable cations in Dead Sea brine decrease the repulsive forces in the soil microstructure thus influencing soil behaviour. This means that the Vander Waals attractive forces are dominant, which increases the capillary stress between particles boundaries. Ultimately this reduces the available surface for interaction with water as shown in the Atterberg limits. In the present study, the lower part of changes of Atterberg limits are attributed to decrease in the double layer thickness and most of the changes can be attributed to sediment salt in the soil pores, because the XRD analysis showed montmorillonit content in the soil was approximately 5%. On the other hand, salt crystals were seen in the soil after drying it. The plastic index also decreased along with the liquid limit because of the increase in salinity of the pore water fluid. The results showed that the Atterberg limits, compression index and swelling index as well as the coefficient of volu me compressibility (mv) and coefficient of compressibility (av) decreased as water salinity increased. In addition, it was clear that the coefficient of consolidation and shear strength parameters increased with increase water salinity. These impacts were attributed to the increasing attractive force between soil particles, which establishes a bond between them, forming salt crystals in pores soil and effectively acting as a cement. Despite the fact that the concentration of saline water is 50 times more than that of half saline water, the difference between soil properties is not noticeable and it appears that the variations on the soil properties decreases as water salinity increases. However, the study also found that excessive concentration of water tends to cause cations to combine with anions to form salts before they can influence the clay minerals. This means that an increase in concentration of water does not have significant impact on the behaviour of the soil. The consoli dation tests showed that soil behaviour with all three types of water is similar at high pressure, attributed to the fact that inter-particles bonds are broken at high pressures. In another study, Otoko (2014, pp.9-10) investigated the impact of saline water from the Atlantic shore on three type of soil including a clay, clayey sand and base course material. Prior to testing 10kg of each of these soil types were dried at 100oC, sieved to establish grading in accordance with ASTM D421 and ASTM D422, as shown in Figure 4 and stored at room temperature. Figure 4 Particle Size Distribution of clay, clayey sand and base course samples (Otoko 2014, p.10, Figure 2) An analysis of the physical properties of the above soils indicate that the clay sample has the highest specific gravity of 2.75, with the base course sample having the lowest value of 2.50. The moisture content was also measured and ranged from 15% to 29% for the clay soil, 13% to 15% for the clayey sand sample and 11% to 14% for base course (Otoko 2014, p. 14). A series of six samples were prepared using 3kg of each of the materials; one mixed with tap water and the other with saline water from the Atlantic Ocean salty for each type of soil. Compaction tests were then carried out to establish optimum moisture content and dry unit weight in accordance with ASTM D698 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 78, ASTM and AASHTO T180 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 90, with results shown in Figures 5 to 7. Figure 5 Compaction Curves for Clay soil using tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 204, p. 11, Figure 3) Figure 6 Compaction Curves for Clay sand using tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 204, p. 11, Figure 4) Figure 7 Compaction Curves for Base course sample using tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p. 12, Figure 5) These figures indicate that the maximum dry unit weights of the clay were 20.9, with the clayey sand and the base course material having dry u nit weights of 22.5 and 19.5kN/m3 respectively when mixed with tap water. The maximum dry unit weight for the clay decreased from 20.9kN/m3 to 17.5kN/m3 when the material was mixed with saline water. However, it was noted that there was an increase in the maximum dry unit weight for both clayey sand and base course from 19.5kN/m3 to 20.5kN/m3 and from 22.5kN/m3 to 23.2kN/m3 respectively. This is attributed to changes in the intermolecular structure, where in the clay sample the saline induced repulsive force between the salt molecules and the clay intermolecular structure, which increased the intermolecular distances and void ratios in the sample whereas the increase in the dry unit weight of the base course is attributed to a chemical reaction between the salt molecules and soil particles, thus hardening the material and increasing the dry unit weight (Otoko 2014, p.14). A further 100g of the materials were mixed with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water for the Atterbergà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Limits test. Six paste specimens were prepared to determine the Atterberg limit of the soils. The results of these tests showed that each of the soils tended to stiffen with decreased Atterberg limits for the samples with salt water as shown in Table 1. Table 1 Effect of Saline water on Atterberg limits and compactions (Otoko 204, p. 13, Table 1) The samples were also subjected to unconfined compression testing that had been compacted to optimum water content and placed in a cylindrical shaped mould measuring 112.5mm height and 50.0mm diameter as specified in ASTMD 2166 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 85. The results of these tests are shown in Figures 8 to 10 (Otoko 2014, p.11). Figure 8 Stress strain relationship for Clay soil with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p.13, Figure 6) Figure 9 Stress strain relationship for Clay sand sample with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p.13, Figure 7) Figure 10 Str ess strain relationship for Base course with tap water and Atlantic Ocean saline water (Otoko 2014, p.13, Figure 6) In the above figures, the relationship between the unconfined shear strength and strain from three soil types using tap and salty water show that the clay soil sample and the clayey sand sample have higher unconfined compressive strength for the saline state. This is attributed to the fact that the clay soil has à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“multi layers of gibbsite and silica sheets with hydrogen bonding linking these sheetsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  which become closer under axial compression, which increases resistance to compression and leads to higher shear strength (Otoko 2014, p.14). In contrast, the structure of base course contains compacted calcium oxide molecule, which as shown in Figure 10, fails à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“more rapidly than clayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ , with the saline water enhancing the shear strength of the base course, largely because of the conversion of the calcium oxides and hydroxide into calcium chloride, which can resist higher values of shear (Otoko 2014, p.15). A study conducted by Gratchev et al. (2007, p.349), into the cyclic behaviour of bentonite-sand mixtures that were treated with salt, found that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“cyclic shear strength at lower concentrations of salt was greater than that obtained at higher salt concentrationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Gratchev and Sassa (2013, p.1817) studied the cyclic behaviour of soil under different physico-chemical conditions by conducting a series of undrained cyclic stress-controlled ring-shear tests on a natural soil permeated with solutions of NaCl, sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) to examine the cyclic behaviour of soil with different pore fluids. The study concluded that an increase in NaCl concentration from 1 meq/L to 11 meq/L leads to a corresponding decrease in the shear resistance of soil to cyclic loading. In addition, it was found that the soil environment affects the behavio ur of the soil, for example in acidic and alkaline environments, it was found that the cyclic shear strength of soil decreases compared to specimens with distilled water. The changes in the cyclic behaviour of soil with different pore fluids are attributed to changes in the diffuse double layer of clay, whereby large concentrations of NaCl, NaOH, and H2SO4 can decrease the thickness of the diffuse double layer, thus producing soil structures that are less resistant to cyclic loading (Gratchev Sassa 2013, p.1820). Summary of Literature Review The engineering characteristics of fine-grained soils, particularly clayey soils are influenced by factors such as density and porosity, structure, type of minerals and plastic properties. Any change in these characteristics will ultimately change the physical and mechanical characteristics of the soil. The addition of salt to pore water can affect the behaviour of the soil by influencing the electrochemical forces exist between the solid, liquid and dissolved phases. It is acknowledged that it is possible to conduct laboratory tests to understand the impact of saline pore water fluid on soil behaviour although it is difficult to mirror actual site conditions. A number of different research experiments were investigated, which revealed that: the concentration of salt (NaCl) in the pore fluid affects the mechanical properties of soil. the impact depends on the type of soil; for example, the impact of saline pore water on low strength, highly compressible soils, such as sabkha, increases the liquid limit and plastic limit. increasing pore water salinity in some soils can decrease in the moisture content of normally consolidated clays and the remoulded shear strength, whereas variations of salt content in materials such as loess increases the peak shear strength and steady-state strength. in some soils, such as kaolin, the Atterberg limits and compression index, as well as the swelling index and the coefficient of volume compressibility decreased, as water salinity increased. shear strength parameters increase with increased water salinity, attributed to the increasing attractive force between soil particles, which establishes a bond between them, forming salt crystals in pores soil and effectively acting as a cement. in cyclic behaviour of soil under different physico-chemical conditions an increase in NaCl concentration leads to a corresponding decrease in the shear resistance of soil to cyclic loading. the soil environment affects the behaviour of the soil, for example in acidic and alkaline environments, cyclic shear strength of soil decreases compared to specimens with distilled water. 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