Humanitarian Intervention Essay

By way of analogy, one should think of the world as a large neighborhood where people live and go about their business. Naturally, whenever one would ask for help, they would approach their neighbor for it and it is up to the latter to render that help or not if it is within their capacity to provide that help. The issue here now is what if help is not asked for and yet a neighbor sees trouble. Would he let them be or get involved to address the issue? Viewing it from a bigger picture, the world stage also faces this kind of problem. There are states that also face a similar situation. The challenge now is, should other states intervene even if they are not â€Å"invited? † This is the dilemma facing members of the international community today and even the United Nations, supposedly the first line of defense and the court of last resort of states that are in danger of becoming failed states or where political instability is too much for national governments to handle on their own or they became repressive towards their own people that the latter have nowhere else to turn to. There are some states that want to intervene in the affairs of other states precisely for this reason, which is primarily to help, nothing more. But this would present a dilemma. Which is more important or carries more weight, (international) human rights, or (national) sovereignty? Is there a distinction between â€Å"humanitarian intervention† and imperialism? What could be well-meaning intervention to help the poor and oppressed people of a particular country could be viewed as an invasion or an encroachment or violation of sovereignty and thereby earn the condemnation of the rest of the international community. The issue now is if the intervention undertaken is legitimate. Legitimacy of actions is not definite and is subjective, depending on how one views it. The Following are cases of humanitarian interventions conducted in the past and how did the international community react to it: East Pakistan (Bangladesh) – 1971: When British India became independent from Britain in 1947, it had adverse consequences, independence also led to the partition of India which saw the creation of a separate Muslim state of Pakistan. Pakistan, in turn, was divided into West Pakistan, where the seat of government is situated and East Pakistan, located along India’s eastern border. These two states are separated by India. Furthermore, despite carrying the same name â€Å"Pakistan,† these two states are culturally different despite being Muslim, those in the east speak Bengali, a language that is related to that of the Indians. The east Pakistanis did not feel any cultural affinity with those from the west and they feel marginalized. Because of this â€Å"cold† treatment from the west, they began batting for autonomy led by the Awami League of Sheik Mujibur Rahman. The leaders in the west saw it as an act of secession and moved swiftly to suppress it through military intervention. What happened next was a virtual civil war as the East Pakistanis, or Bengalis resisted the West Pakistanis, seeing them more as invaders and the latter responded with severe repression that saw countless atrocities being committed. The matter was brought up the United Nations (UN) where the actions of Pakistan was condemned yet no severe action was taken as the UN Security Council was divided with the United States and China backing up Pakistan and the Soviet Union on India’s side. The partiality of the superpowers prevented any punitive measures taken against Pakistan. India had been covertly supporting Bengali resistance served as the latter’s staging area for attacks against Pakistani occupiers. This led Pakistan to believe India joined the battle and the Third India-Pakistan War broke out. Eventually, Indian forces prevailed. India’s victory also assured the independence of East Pakistan which was renamed Bangladesh (Wheeler, 2000, pp. 63-64). Somalia (1992-1993): UN involvement in this East African nation stemmed from the famine that has nearly devastated Somalia. This was further exacerbated by the increasing anarchy brought about by the lack of a central government and with competing warlords vying for control as civil war broke out in 1991. The UN organized a peacekeeping mission called United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) calling for the establishment of a security force of 50 UN troops in Somalia to monitor the ceasefire. Despite the UN’s efforts, the ceasefire was ignored by the warlords, especially Mohammed Farid Aidid. Fighting continued and further intensified, jeopardizing UN relief efforts as they were targeted for attacks as well. The harassment of UN personnel prompted the intervention of the United States in what became Operation Restore Hope to ensure the continuation of the relief efforts and what makes American presence different was that it was authorized to utilize â€Å"all necessary means† to ensure the protection of the relief efforts which it initially did, conducting proactive military operations against militias until October on 1993, following the â€Å"Blackhawk Down† incident in October of 1993, the Clinton Administration, in a knee-jerk reaction to the casualties incurred (18 US soldiers killed and one captured), ordered the pull out of US forces from Somalia (Wheeler, 2000, pp. 172-176). The absence of American military muscle also led to the pull out of UN forces from the region as well and Somalia is still what it was 10 years ago where lawlessness still prevailed and this was further evidenced by the proliferation of pirates along the Indian Ocean which used Somalia as the base of operations owing to the lawlessness there. Rwanda (1993-1994): In the case of Rwanda, ethic conflict broke out between the Hutus and Tutsis. The UN intervened through the creation of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) on October of 1993 to oversee the peace efforts in the region. The biggest contributing countries along with Belgium were Ghana, Tunisia, Bangladesh, and Canada. In the latter part of 1993, both Hutus and Tutsis appeared to be honoring the Arusha Accords, and reaffirmed such commitment to creating a new, broad-based transitional government by the end of the year. However, things went sour following the downing of the aircraft carrying Rwandan President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntarayima of Burundi. It inflamed hatred and a killing spree ensured. Among the first targets of the genocide were Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and 10 Belgian members of UNAMIR after handing over their weapons to Rwandan government troops. In a knee-jerk reaction similar to what the Clinton Administration did following the international embarrassment the United States suffered in Somalia in 1993, Belgium pulled out its troops from UNAMIR and other contingents followed suit. UNAMIR was left with 270 soldiers supported by less than 200 local authorities. The UNAMIR did the best it could with what forces remained. As individuals and as a group, members of the UNAMIR forces did manage to save the lives of thousands of Tutsis in and around Kigali and the few areas of UN control. Despite their best efforts, to the eyes of the world, they appeared to be apathetic or indifferent, standing idly by as Hutus were murdering Tutsis on a larger scale. The French deployed troops following the outbreak of the genocide yet it was for the purpose of evacuating their embassy as well as several members of the late president’s cabinet (Wheeler, 2000, p. 219). The genocide eventually abated with the arrival of a multi-national force from several African states. Yugoslavia (1995-Present): Following the collapse of the communist regime in Yugoslavia, age-old ethnic hatreds reemerged as pre-World War I states began to come back into existence as the nation Josip Broz Tito once ruled disintegrated. This was very apparent in the hatred towards the local Muslim population, particularly by the (Bosnian) Serbs. There were eight UN PKO’s in the former Yugoslavia and they were made up of over 20 member states. Despite signing a truce, the civil war resumed and it was the Bosnian Muslims, and later the Kosovars who bore the brunt of Serb brutality which was presided over by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and Serbian leader Radovan Karadic. They invoked nationalism to inflame the passions of the Serbs who then proceeded to conduct â€Å"ethnic cleansing† which was underscored by the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995 which was supposed to be a UN â€Å"safe area† and this happened after Serb forces drove a UN peacekeeping contingent out when the latter could not defend themselves against a larger Serb force and had to pull out. In retaliation, there were some peacekeepers even held hostage by the Bosnian Muslims and used as human shields to force the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into attacking the Serbs. Seeing the ineffectiveness of the UN PKO, NATO began to intervene to add more political muscle starting with air strikes to bring the Serbs back to the negotiating table and eventually deploying troops to enforce the peace in the troubled region as a â€Å"stabilization force† and took it upon themselves to go after Serbian war criminals (Wheeler, 2000, p. 16). Analysis: Upon close analysis, all these situation involved humanitarian intervention which called for the deployment of a military force to make humanitarian relief efforts possible. Among the given cases, it would be nearly impossible to determine which is the least justified. If there needs to be one, it would have to be India’s intervention in Pakistan’s civil war which became its war against Pakistan as well. It would be least justified if it is seen from a legal perspective. India was interfering in what seemed to be an internal dispute between Pakistan. Beyond the legal however, one has to take into consideration that India is flanked on both side by East (Bangladesh) and West Pakistan and strategically she would be in peril considering that her relationship with Pakistan is anything but cordial and as such would rather the face one opponent instead of two. Secondly, the Bengalis were closer to them than the Pakistanis despite being Muslim. Somalia, as well as Rwanda’ would turn out the ones that badly need humanitarian intervention. Given the utter lawlessness and chaos that has visited the country, it appears that the Somalis and Rwandans could not seem to address their problems and this thereby necessitates humanitarian intervention given the fact its people are suffering from famine and genocide respectively. Aid could not get through to them since there is virtually no government there to bring order and it is the warlords who are in charge and they care about is power. After seeing the UN as weak in enforcing its will, the United States, under the first Bush Administration, took the lead in bringing order back into Somalia but unfortunately the Clinton Administration took a different approach especially after the â€Å"Blackhawk Down† incident. Instead of following through to bring Aidid to justice, they decided to pull out. The same thing can be said in Rwanda as well, especially after the murder of the Belgian peacekeepers. Putting them together, the west appeared to be somewhat unwilling to make sacrifices to help address the problems of the Somalis and Rwandans, especially after the deaths of their people. It is as though they felt Africans were not worth saving or dying for and this has sent a wrong message – the west is unwilling to sacrifice for Africans and this also contains racist undertones and has placed a sense of embarrassment to the west for their apparent apathy or â€Å"cowardice† towards Africa. Yugoslavia proved to be the application of the lessons learned from Somalia and Rwanda as the Serbs went on an â€Å"ethnic cleansing† spree, killing Muslims. When news of the atrocities became known throughout the world, they took a stand and finally acted upon it with the deployment of NATO forces to enforce the peace but at the same time, operate with rules of engagement that would enable them to defend themselves appropriately while carrying out this vital mission. Wheeler’s point is that moral considerations should be taken into account. It can be inferred in his work that human life is the most precious thing on the planet and these are wasted or sacrificed needlessly by their own people and government for the sake of power or out of spite. Governments are supposed to look out for their citizens and if they cannot do this, who can the people turn to? This is a symptom of a failed state and it should be the moral responsibility of the international community to help restore order. The problem with laws, both national and international is that it is not perfect. Just because things are put into law does not mean it is perfect and explicit. Laws are inherently implicit as loopholes will be found and used to get around it and this is what prevents humanitarian interventions from taking place or condemn those who do intervene. Nevertheless, Wheeler presents a valid point in emphasizing the moral factor which he feels, as well as most of the world probably feels as well that as a (global) community, â€Å"neighbors† should look out for each other as well because what may seem an internal matter might someday move to their doorstep someday. This has to be addressed the soonest to preserve the peace and order in the community.

Components of curriculum and curricular approaches Essay

Aims of Elementary education( education act of 1892) In the elementary level, schools through their curricula should aim to: Provide knowledge and develop skills, attitudes, values essential to personal development and necessary for living in and contributing to a developing and changing society; Provide learning experiences which increase the child’s awareness of and responsiveness o the changes in the society; Promote and intensify knowledge, identification with and love for the nation and the people to which he belong; and Promote work experiences which develop orientation to the world of work and prepare the learner to engage in honest and gaining work. Aims of Secondary education In high school or secondary level, educational curricula aim to: Continue to promote the objectives of elementary education; and Discover and enhance the different aptitudes and interests of students in order to equip them with skills for productive endeavor and or to prepare them for tertiary schooling. Aims of tertiary education Tertiary education refers to college and university formal education based on the curricula of the different courses. The different courses should aim to: Provide general education programs which will promote national identity, cultural consciousnes,moral integrity and spiritual vigor; Train the nation’s manpower in the skills required for national development; Develop the professions that will provide leadership for the nation; and Advance knowledge through research and apply new knowledge for improving the quality of human life and respond effectively to changing society. School’s Vision is a clear concept of what the institution would like to become in the future. -It is the guiding post around which all educational efforts including curricula should be directed. EXAMPLE 1.A model performing high school where students are equipped with knowledge, skills and strength of character to realize their potential to the fullest. School’s mission School’s mission statement, spells out how it tends to carry out its Vision. -The mission targets to produce the kind of persons the students will become after having been educated over a certain period of time. EXAMPLE 1.Commits to the total development of individuals for life adjustment and to the upliftment of the economically deprived but deserving students through quality instruction, updated facilities and curricula responsive to the needs of the times. School’s goals The school’s vision, and mission are further translated into goals which are broad statements or intents to be accomplished. EXAMPLE 1.Build a strong foundation of skills and concepts 2.Efficient and effective administration responsive of the needs of the university and community. Educational objectives Benjamin Bloom and Robert Mager Defined educational objectives in two ways: 1.Explicit formulations of the ways in which students are expected to be changed by the educative process, 2. Intent communicated by statement describing a proposed change in learners. Objectives direct the change in behavior which is the ultimate aim of learning. Three(3) big domains of objectives Cognitive Domain (Bloom et al 1956) – domain of thought process 1.Knowledge-recall, remembering of prior learned materials in terms of facts, concepts, theories and principles. 2.Comprehension-ability to grasp the meaning of material. 3.Application-the ability to use learned material in new and concrete situation. 4.Analysis-ability to break down material into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. 5.Synthesis-ability to put parts together to form a new whole. 6.Evaluation-ability to pass judgment on something based on given criteria. Affective Domain(Krathwohl, 1964) Domain of valuing, attitude and appreciation 1.Receiving-student’s willingness to pay attention to particular event, stimuli or classroom activities. 2.Responding-active participation on the part of the students. 3.Valuing-concerned with the worth or value a student attaches to a particular phenomena, object or behavior. 4.Organization-concerned with bringing together different values and building value system. 5.Characterization by a value system or value complex-developing a lifestyle from a value system. Psychomotor Domain(Simpson,1972) -domain of the use of psychomotor attributes. 1.Perception-use of sense organ to guide motor activities. 2.Set-refers to the readiness to take a particular type of action. 3.Guided response-concerned with the early stages in learning complex skills. 4.Mechanism-responses have become habitual. Performance skills are with ease and confidence. 5.Complex overt responses-skillful performance with complex movement patterns. 6.Adaptation-skill well developed that the ability to modify is very easy. 7.Origination-refers to creating new movements patterns to fit the situation. Component 2 CURRICULUM CONTENT OR SUBJECT MATTER Curriculum Specialists Content or subject –another term for knowledge. -It is a compendium of facts, concepts generalization, principles and theories. -This is the subject centered view of the curriculum. Gerome Bruner  Ã¢â‚¬Å"knowledge is a model we construct to give meaning and structure to regularities in experience. Example of the broad subject areas or general education. Communication Arts -It include skills in listening ,speaking, reading and writing as well as the effective use of language in daily living. Social Studies -Include basic elements of Geography, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics,Civics,Political Science and Psychology. What subject matter will be taught in the different clusters in order to achieve the ogjectives? What criteria should be used in selecting the content? Here are some criteria which can be utilized in the selection of subject matter content or knowledge for the curriculum. 1.Self-sufficiency -According to Scheffler (1970) the prime guiding principles for content selection is helping the learners to attain maximum self-sufficiency in learning but in the most economical manner. 2.Significance -When content or subject matter will contribute to basic idea, concepts ,principles and generalization to achieve the overall aim of the curriculum. 3.Validity -The authenticity of the subject matter. 4.Interest -For learner-centered curriculum,this the key.A learner will value the content it it is meaningful to him or her. 5.Utility -Usefulness of the content or subject matter may be relative to the learner who is going to use it. 6.Learnability -Subject matter should be within the range of the experiences of the learners. 7.Feasibility – The subject matter or content be learned within the time allowed, resources available, expertise of the teacher and the nature of the learners. There are other considerations that may be used in the selection Of the learning content. As a guide, subject matter or content can be selected for use if these are: a. frequently and commonly used in daily life; b. suited to the maturity levels and abilities of students; c. valuable in the meeting need and the competencies of a future career; d. important in the transfer of learning. In organizing or putting together the different learning contents- Palma,1992 PRINCIPLES BALANCE -Curriculum content should be fairly distributed in depth and breadth of the particular learning area or discipline. ARTICULATION -When each level of subject matter is smoothly connected to the next, glaring gaps and wasteful overlaps in the subject matter will be avoided. SEQUENCE -The logical arrangement of the subject matter. INTEGRATON -The horizontal connections are needed in subject areas that are similar so that learning will be related to one another. CONTINUITY -The constant repetition, review and reinforcement of learning. COMPONENT 3 CURRICULUM EXPERIENCES This section will link instructional strategies and methods to curriculum experiences, the core or the heart of the curriculum -The instructional strategies and methods will put into action the goals and use the contents in order to produce an outcome. -The action are based on planned objectives, the subject matter to be taken and the support materials to be used.  Teaching methods ( time-tested methods,inquiry approaches,contructivist and others). Educational activities( field viewing, conducting experiments, interacting with computer programs, field trips and other experiential learning) Some guide for the selection and use of methods 1.Teaching methods are means to achieve the end.They are used to translate the objectives into action. 2.There is no single best teaching method. Its effectiveness will depend on the learning objectives, the learners and skill of the teacher. 3.Teaching methods should stimulate the learners desire to develop the cognitive,affective ,psychomotor, social and spiritual domain of individual. 4.In the choice of the teaching methods, learning styles of the students should be considered. 5.Every method should lead to the development of the learning outcomes in the three domains:cognitive,affective and psychomotor. 6. Fexibility should be a consideration in the use of the teaching methods. COMPONENT 4 CURRICULUM EVALUATION Worthen and Sanders -all curricula to be effective must have the element of evaluation. Curriculum evaluation -refer to the formal determination of the quality, effectiveness or value of the program, process, product of the curriculum. Tuckman(1985) -define evaluation as meeting the goals and matching them with the intended outcomes. Model of evaluation Stufflebeams’s CIPP -In CIPP, the process is continuous and is very important to curriculum managers like principals, supervisors, department head, deans and even teachers. C-context I- Input P-Process P-Product Context -refers to the environment of the curriculum. The real situation where the curriculum is operating is its context. Input -refers to the ingredients of the curriculum which include the goals, instructional strategies, the learners, the teacher, the contents and all the material needed. Process -refers to the ways and means of how the curriculum has been implemented.. Product -indicates if the curriculum objectives accomplishes its goals. Suggested plan of action for the process of curriculum evaluation 1.Focus on one particular component of the curriculum. -Will be the subject area,the grade level,the course,or the degree program? Specify the objectives of evaluation. 2.Coolect or gather the information. -Information is made up of data needed regarding the object of evaluation 3.Organize the information. This step will require coding,organizing,storing and retreiving data for interpretation. 4.Analyze information -An appropriate way of analyzing will be utilized. 5.Report the information -The result of evaluation should be reported to specific audiences. Reporting can be done formally in conference with stakeholders, or informally through roundtable discussions and conversations. 6.Recycle the information for continuous feedback, modification and adjustments to be made. CURRICULAR APPROACHES Behavioral Approach Frederick Taylor Anchored on the behaviorist principles, behavioral approach to curriculum is usually based on a blueprint. in the blueprint, goals and objectives are specified, contents and activities are also arranged to match with learning objectives. Managerial approach The managerial approach became a dominant curriculum approach in the 1950’s and 1960’s.The principal is the curriculum leader at the same time instructional leader who is supposed to ne the general manager. The general manager sets the policies and priorities, establishes the direction of change and innovation, and planning and organizing curriculum and instruction. Curriculum managers look at curriculum changes and innovations a they administer the resources and restructure the schools. Some of the roles of the Curriculum supervisors (Ornstein and hunkins,2004) 1.Help develop the school’s education goals. 2.Plan curriculum with students,parents,teachers and other stakeholders. 3.Design programs of study by grade levels. 4.Plan or schedule classes or school calendar. 5.Prepare curriculum guides or teacher guides by grade level or subject area. 6.Help in the evaluation and selection of textbooks. 7.Observe teachers. 8.Assist teachers in the implementation of the curriculum. 9.Encourage curriculum innovation and change. 10.Develop standards for curriculum and instructional evaluation System approach The system approach to curriculum was influenced by system theory. In this approach the parts of the total school district or school are examined in terms of how they relate to each other. The organizational chart of the scholl represents a systems approach. George Beauchamp -The system theory of education see the following to be of equal importance are 1.adminstration 2.counseling 3.curriculum 4.instruction and 5.evaluation Humanistic approach This approached is rooted in the progressive philosophy and child-centered movement. This approach considers the formal or planned curriculum and the informal or hidden curriculum. It considers the whole child and believes that in curriculum the total development of the individual is the prime consideration. The learner is at the center of the curriculum

African philosophy

Among Southern African communities ubuntu is associated with the maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which, loosely translated into English, may be construed to mean that to be a human being is to affirm one? s humanity by recognising the humanity of others and, on that basis, establish humane relations with them (Ramose, 2002; Ramphele, 2001): a point which Sindane (1994:8-9) underscores, saying that â€Å"ubuntu inspires us to expose ourselves to others, to encounter the difference of their humanness so as to inform and enrich our own†. Letseka (2000), one of the philosophers who have written on ubuntu argues that this concept illuminates the communal embeddedness and connectedness of a person to other persons and also highlights the importance attached to people and to human relationships (Letseka, 2000:183). It is essential to understand that ubuntu does not wholly reject material wealth acquired through individual effort, as is evidenced by this saying among the Sotho communities: „U tla phela ka mofufutso oa phatla ea hau? which loosely translated means „you will live by the sweat of your brow? (Letseka, 2000:183). Ubuntu rejects competition and arrogance arising from being rich, as these can be detrimental to cooperative living within the community. Individual effort is good as long as it generates resources for the maintenance and sustenance of human life. The main concern of ubuntu is the welfare of others. This is why when two Africans meet in the street, it is likely they will enquire about the health and welfare of family members rather than the weather as most Westerners would do (Letseka, 2000:183-184). For Venter (2004:159), ubuntu/botho/menslikheid/humaneness is a philosophy that promotes the common good of society. It contains the potential to enable South Africans to succeed in their quest for reconciliation and nation building

To introduce learners to the concept of business ethics and to examine Essay

To introduce learners to the concept of business ethics and to examine its relevance when considering business objectives and responsibilities - Essay Example The company wants to make itself an integrated global organisation. But for its business growth & achieving its objectives the company took some major wrong steps which involved the company into a scandal in1996. This affected the ethical issues of the company also. Pfizer introduced a drug named Trovan. At that time a large outbreak was spread in Nigeria and the company tested the drug on infected children under hasty concision. The company did not inform their parents about the experimental drugs. The adverse effect of this drug killed fifty children & disabled many children. This action affected the ethical issues of the company like individualism, Kantianism, utilitarianism. The company disobeyed the government laws & ethical standards to maximize its profit. Pfizer only considered its business growth without focusing on its customer happiness. The goodwill of the company was hampered as it only focused on money making and ignored the value of people life. The company neither exe cuted the trial for good cause nor did it create happiness. Without evaluation the problems associated with the results of the trial Pfizer implemented it and ended with lawsuits. Pfizer did not respect its customers and took irrational actions (Altier 64-67). The company behaved in an inhuman way with the Nigerians and produced fake letter. As a results of this ethical issues Pfizer was deceitful to the US as the company did not informed the country about this incident for a long time. The company showed its coward nature by not admitting the facts that unethical standard was followed during the time of its medicine testing. It did not consider about the correct ethical guideline which should be followed. This is how the business objectives of Pfizer affected the ethical considerations (Baier 88-89). A person who invests in the company is known as stakeholder. They contribute a

Week 2 project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Week 2 project - Essay Example Systematic Strategies: for this lesson, the value added approach will be most efficient. This is a blend between the emergent literally approach and the explicit systematic instruction. In emergent literally approach, the child learns primarily from environmental stimuli for instance a print rich classroom. In explicit systematic instruction, the student is deliberately exposed procedures that enable them to acquire knowledge, for instance, the teacher can do a picture walk of the book while introducing key concepts and vocabulary. Closure: at this point, the teacher does an in-class evaluation to determine the success of the instructions thus far. The students group themselves depending on whether their names start with a vowel or end with a vowel. Extended Follow-up Activities: the teacher will later divide the class into unbiased groups where the students will place into different colored baskets sequencing cards depending on whether the word on the card starts with a vowel or ends with a vowel or both. Placing the students in groups makes it easy for ELL students to get help from native English speaking students in the given tasks. The teacher should ensure that the group is intellectually heterogeneous so that the students with a higher ability can help the other challenged students such as those with autism. There is a lot to learn about phonemes and this lesson is just but an introduction. While the chosen text is not custom made to fit the needs of a teacher intending to teach vowel phonemes it is an exciting read for the children and this is what any instructor need to capture the students

Dialogue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dialogue - Essay Example Seventh floor. Sixth. Fifth. Fourth. Third. The door opened. I said to myself â€Å"This is it†. As I walked towards the hallway, I felt conscious. It seems that everyone was looking at me although the truth is – they were all busy with their work. I stood in front of Room 305. I was about to knock on the door when it was opened by an elderly man who is actually the police inspector. His gray suit revealed his position and demeanor. He was gentle-looking but something about him revealed a tough character. He asked , â€Å" Where were you that night when the laptops were stolen?†He was searching me for any clues that might reveal my secrets. The ring on his finger showed that he belonged to a secret society. â€Å" I was at home entertaining friends†. Obviously, it was a lie. However, I can easily ask my friends to cover for me and testify that they were with me that fateful night. I added, â€Å"One of my close friends celebrated his birthday at my place. Besides, at that time of the night, I am usually home relaxing on any given weekday.† I was trying to evaluate what I have said. Was there any clue that I was defensive? I hope not. He was suspicious of what I said. â€Å" You mean to say you do not spend overtime?† Apparently, he was not satisfied with my previous statements. â€Å"It is highly unlikely that you don’t stay late in the office since you are a busy man in a busy department.† A mixed feeling of fear and guilt was inside my chest. I could hear my heart beating loud. Nevertheless, I defended myself by saying† Am I not allowed to relax after work?†. I knew it was an indirect answer. Suddenly, the room was getting

Advertising Targeting Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Advertising Targeting Children - Essay Example In most cases, what raise an alarm are the commercial programs targeting children. This is because of the influence of format and the audiovisual techniques meant to capture children’s perception of things. The effects of characters in commercials advertisements, exceptional offers, self-concept appeals, the volume food advertising, and repetition of commercials, and medicine advertising have all been proved to have a high level of influence of the children (Simona, 2010). I concur with this article because I feel that violence and unsafe acts in commercial advertisements directed to children is unsafe and very influential in their perceptions towards life. These kinds of advertisements have an effect on the consumer socialization in this case children, with their parental relationship. I also believe that children in any state or country deserve the same level of protection against advertising similar to that offered to adults. However, the current law is precise in necessitating that commercial messages be unmistakably recognizable as such to their intended audience. Unquestionably, it would be unbearable to safeguard young kids from exposure to all advertising on television, thus necessitating a differentiation for an advertisement targeting children and one targeting adults. With the development of innovative media techniques and the inventive marketable practices that are now being focused to children, it is indispensable that the arena of marketing and the associated social sciences give a boost to their consideration of how young people comprehend and are predisposed by contemporary publicizing messages. By doing so, the world will gain a better comprehension of how a young people’s mind works, in addition to providing critical experiential confirmation to help form the future of both public guiding principle and accountable marketing industry practice in this arena. Advertisers are well aware that their efforts inspire children viewers, and they

Rolls-Royce and the Stock Market Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Rolls-Royce and the Stock Market - Case Study Example Factors that are apt to influence the market are inflation, exchange rates, government takeover and marketing needs. In this paper an effort will be made to determine why Rolls-Royce plc had such serious difficulties in the 1970s and how they either have, or should try to, offset any difficulties that might arise. Over the past 20 years, with successful deregulation and innovation in important areas of the economy, Britain has been doing well, and in keeping with that economy, Rolls-Royce has also been doing well. This was not always the case for the company. The 1970s were a time of instability for Rolls-Royce, so much so they almost went out of business completely, declaring bankruptcy in 1971. At the end of the decade, Rolls-Royce was in trouble again when their exchange rate predictions went awry. Could the company have foreseen the difficulties they would be facing in their engine production and was their financial crisis due to lack of foresight or a roll of the dice With empirical research, up-to-date news, government articles and papers on the business economy, an effort will be made to answer this question. Henry Royce built the first motor car in 1904 and joined with Charles Rolls to manufacture and sell a range of cars in Britain under the name Rolls-Royce. The company was formed in 1906 and within a year, the Silver Ghost, a six-cylinder car, was lauded as the best in the world. At the start of World War I, Royce designed his first aero engine, the Eagle, which provided half the horsepower used by the Allies in the air war. With the production of the "R" engine, business continued and Rolls-Royce gained the technological base to develop the Merlin, used in the Battle of Britain during World War II, and the gas turbine for the civil aviation market which led to the Comet, the first turbo jet to enter transatlantic service . In 1960 the Conway engine in the Boeing 707 became the first turbofan to enter the airline service ("History: Timeline, 2004; "The History of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars" [online]). Rolls-Royce was enjoying success as the only "British aircraft engine company that cou ld contemplate competing in global markets" (Lazonick and Prencipe, 2004, p.6). In 1966, Rolls-Royce and Bristol Siddley merged and continued production of the Rolls-Royce aero engines in both companies. However, with each company retaining old loyalties, integration was never complete, perhaps creating the first crack in the veneer of the heretofore financially solid, growing business. At the same time, American Airlines in the United States announced a contest for a new trans-Atlantic aircraft. Both Douglas and Lockheed responded with designs, the DC-10 and the Lockheed L-1011, respectively. The designs were

Smart air conditioner Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Smart air conditioner - Research Paper Example As energy is conserved this way, the amount of pollutants from such sources would also be reduced therefore protecting the university environment from pollution. Additionally, smart air conditioner would keep the university environment clean by reducing on the pollutants released from air conditioners. Air conditioning units are said to contain refrigerants. According to Northern Ireland Protection Agency (2014), these refrigerants contain hazardous substances like fluorinated gases (F-gases) and ozone depleting substances (ODS). Some air conditioners have deodorants which could release chlorofluorocarbons, CFC, when in operation. These compounds gradually damage the university environment, depleting the ozone layer, the reason for global warming. The smart air conditioner mitigates this menace by reducing the time of operation of air conditioners by programming operation only when in use (Karol, 2014). This minimizes on the amount of these compounds emitted and also reduces the environmental exposure time thus curbing on the pollution of the university’s

Assimilation of US Snipers back to the Society Research Paper

Assimilation of US Snipers back to the Society - Research Paper Example As the paper stresses it is important to undertake critical analysis of the psychological realignment that these people undergo when they are in this work and the complications associated with their transition from service back to the society. The nature of any job creates a new person in somebody and the military snipers are not exceptional. It therefore tend to take some process and time to get them assimilated back to the society after they retire or get their jobs terminated under some condition. Due to the type of the training they go through, their mentality gets altered towards some code of conduct and this significantly affects their interpersonal skills. Appropriate approaches of rehabilitating this special group of people who has served the nation to conform to the ordinary society system need to be investigated. This report declares that it is important to explore the personal attributes of a sniper which are partly acquired through training and partly by birth. One of the conditions to be a sniper is having worked as a government security agent or a military officer with in-depth prior knowledge of handling different types of guns and rifles. The concept of knowing the various concepts about the arms is not limited to use but should cover even the ability to understand their structural components. The training of a sniper is costly and requires perseverance of the highest degree with maximum self-discipline. This explains why a single sniper is worth more that several untrained rifle users. These people go through a series of thorough physical and mental training that steadily realign their perception about various issues within the confines of social order (Austin, 1992). Due to their critical role in the military operations, snipers are people with high intelligence that goes beyond shoot ing .They also have internal psychological understanding of any social environment and that is the reason they are able to camouflage and single out the target from a crowd without interfering with non-target (Perline & Goldschmidt, 2004). Their ability to take any angle and take into consideration the physical factors like wind and other environmental impediments that

Keeping Appointments Essay Example for Free

Keeping Appointments Essay Doctors appointments are missed each and every day by people who either forget to show up or choose not to call and cancel their appointment. This article will look at some of the reasons why it is important to try to and keep doctors appointment and what to do if you must cancel. At my previous doctors surgery (office) in the UK, the surgery would regularly post the latest numbers of people who had not shown up for their doctors appointments. I was amazed at the staggering amount of people who failed to show up for their appointments. It was not just a few individuals who did not show up. A large number of people regularly missed their scheduled doctors appointments. If you are a receptionist it can be very frustrating to work under these conditions. You will have to call patients when it is their turn to see the doctor and be left standing when no one appears. Then you must inform the doctor that the patient did not show up. One of the reasons why it is best to try and keep your doctors appointment is because it is the polite thing to do. Would you arrange a job interview with a company you were serious about working for but then fail to show up? It is highly unlikely. Yet, members of the medical profession routinely have to deal with patients who do not show up for their appointments. It is also important to keep your appointment if you will be receiving the results of blood tests, and other test results that will determine your medical condition. This in turn will help doctors see what the next step should be in your courseof treatment. If you miss the appointment, you are not only wasting your doctors time. You could also place your health at risk if you do not start your treatment as quickly as possible. Sometimes, it is just not possible to keep a doctors appointment. It may clash with a business meeting at work or your childs emergency visit to the dentists. If you can, try to inform your doctors surgery of the cancellation 24 hours in advance. But if that is not possible, let them know as soon as you can. That way, your appointment slot can be given to someone else who may be in need of a last minute appointment. Keep in mind that breaking an appointment without first calling to cancel can prevent someone else from being seen and it wastes the time of doctors and the rest of the team.

Ideological Messages in Film: The Blindside

Ideological Messages in Film: The Blindside Select a television drama or a film. Using relevant terms and concepts derived from genre analysis, narrative analysis, critical discourse analysis, semiotic analysis, or auteur analysis (you may use any or all of these methods), show how your chosen text constructs ideological messages. You must use secondary readings to support your analysis and include an APA bibliography at the end of your essay. Do not choose a television drama or a film covered in class. This essay will use a variety of different methods of analysis to show how the film The Blind Side constructs ideological messages. The film The Blind Side depicts the struggle of a Black American man to assimilate as part of a predominantly white American society. Michael Oher, the main protagonist presents the idea from the outset regarding how a black man experiences maltreatment and discriminative treatment from the white community, something that appears as a common trend in American mainstream ideologies. The film is hugely responsible for the deconstruction of the traditional perceptions, through the presentation of the Tuohy family creating alternative ideologies to dispel them. A persons ideology makes the culture more informed and therefore better adapted to make a judgement. Ideology differs from culture, in that it adds a political dimension to the discussion on culture. It suggests that relations of power shape the cultural and ideological landscape. (Storey, 2009). The Tuohys ideology is vastly different from the standard culture of the society. Because they play an influential role in the community, they have the audacity have to express their ideologies. It is hard in the beginning to show their different point of view, but they win the battle against their adversaries because Michael shows that he is different from the stereotypic character of a Black American. The ideology created here is formed mainly of concepts surrounding power, and this produces a platform for the prejudice to be dismissed. In this movie, the director shows how White Americans like the Tuohy family accept Michael for who he is. The ideological message portrayed is that he Is of an equal ability and have a right to the same right to the principles upheld by the family. The Tuohys become Michaels enduring guide as he makes a vast transformation, obtaining social acceptance, and involvement. From this sense, it can be perceived that Hancocks film depicts an ideology as it emphasizes the different issues of the society such as racism and cultural interaction, and how these are being dispelled by gracious acts from an unexpected source. Throughout the discussion of Michaels life, the film is depicted with flashbacks to contrast his past life from the current occurrences. In many cases such as the depiction of Michaels mother, these create ideological themes, enabling the audience to follow the wider story as it progresses. They are also vitally important details that help establish the main characters personality, through his protective and instinctive natures. The ideologies this creates are solely to gain and obtain an emotive engagement from the audience, giving context of the misfortunes he has undergone and the transformation he is now making. The film depicts the dilemma of Black Americans and integration into a White American family, and this ultimately provides this moral dilemma. Regardless of the magnitude of the gesture, the family are still going to be judged heavily for their kindness. The director, however, presents the the moral undertaking in a positive light throughout the film. Although negativity is presented, it is always eliminated. This ideological message portrays them as holding a hugely controversial moral standpoint. The large majority of the people actively looking to adopt in this country are white and for the most part they want white children, at least initially. (Bartholet, 1991) However, the ideology of repulsion is presented as a conflict of the film, within the Tuohys social surroundings. Since the socialite family are instrumental individuals, because of their wealth and notoriety people around them think that adopting Michael taints their good reputation. This is one of the major battles presented of the film as they choose between self-preservation and their controversial moral standpoint. Blacks are purposely portrayed in films with negative stereotypes that reinforced white supremacy over them. This has had a tremendous effect on our view of blacks since motion pictures have had more of an impact on the public mind than any other entertainment medium in the last ninety years. (Sampson, 1995) The contradictory theme in this, is that he is presented honourably, promoting his abilities rather than his skin colour. The further ideological messages of racism are made within the within the classroom. According to John Storey (2009), race and racism are not natural or inevitable phenomena; they have a history and are a result of human actions and interactions. He additionally is subject to discriminatory behaviour inside his classroom. His teacher demonstrates a recognition of his differences from the other more able students. It is a form of stereotype that the media continues to express towards its audience, in this case through subtle hints at his poor intellectual capacity. Another ideological construction that exists in this film is the socialites and the significance of their lifestyle in his transformation. This ideology shows the contrast of how a wealthy white woman is perceived in comparison to Michael and his inability to fend for himself due to his disadvantaged background. (Sorey, 2012) explains that the social construction of culture, and culture as a particular way of life, or expression of this particular way of living helps us to establish an understanding of the shared values of a group or class of people. Being a wealthy, successful independent woman she is perceived as being of a high social order and highly intellectual. She is described as a flawless and sophisticated character that has special abilities and an exceptional eye for taste when it comes to her personal needs. Culture also plays an important role in establishing ideologies in the film. People have different culture, but through cultural relativism, they become connected. There is no doubt that cultures differ in substantial ways, and that these differences have substantial psychological effects on the members of the culture. (Rozin, 2003) The Tuohys acknowledge Michaels cultural differences even though his social and family background seems improper because it contains imperfections. This message shows the Tuohys have a specific set of moral values. They believe that Black Americans are unacceptable within their community or surroundings because they are the root of negativities in the community. The Tuohys do not change this norm, but they create their own values by accepting Michael and believe in him and his capabilities as a person. Bibliography Bartholet, E. (1991) Where do black children belong? The politics of race matching in adoption, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 139(5), p. 1163. doi: 10.2307/3312364. Lam, E.R. and Szekely, K.S. (1987) Blacks in television: A selective, annotated bibliography, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 14(4), pp. 176-183. doi: 10.1080/01956051.1987.9944224. PORTRAYAL OF MINORITIES IN THE FILM, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES (1998) Available at: https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm (Accessed: 24 February 2017). Rozin, P. (2003) Five potential principles for understanding cultural differences in relation to individual differences, Journal of Research in Personality, 37(4), pp. 273-283. doi: 10.1016/s0092-6566(02)00566-4. Sampson, H.T. (1995) Blacks in black and white: A source book on black films. 2nd edn. New York, NY, United States: The Scarecrow Press. Storey, J.W. (2009) Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction (5th edition). 5th edn. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman. Storey, J.W. (2012) Cultural theory and popular culture: An introduction (6th edition). 6th edn. Harlow, England: Pearson.

Speech The purposes of public speaking

Speech The purposes of public speaking Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, â€Å"Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.† There are many purposes of public speaking. Among many other things, it is used to inform, convince, provide entertainment or honor. One of the best ways to create a positive and effective image is to master the art of public speaking. To achieve good results, the speaker has to capture, interest and convince the audience, in addition to building a unique trust with it. Nowadays, the art of presenting is needed in every part of life. Speech presentation is an integral part of all corporate settings, school and religious events. Since most people perceive public speaking as a necessary skill, successful speeches require extensive preparation to meet the high quality demand of the public. I work at Intel Corporation, and speeches are part of my every day business life. My day consists of multiple meetings that always require public speaking on variable topics, depending on current projects. The main purpose of my speeches is to educate and inform my coworkers and clients. To create a cohesive working environment, I have to make sure that I provide laconic communication about project outlines, features, progress, milestones and impediments. One of the most important preparatory steps in public speaking is audience analysis. Prior to presenting a range of services that my group provides, I must research my audience. From my experience, one of the best ways to find information about a company or department, which I will be presenting to, is to call them directly ahead of time to better understand their interests, ambitions, and business needs prior to writing my speech. Also, phone introduction prior to a meeting is often perceived as a good gesture. Including specific details and remarks about the clients and their company is always very helpful. To customers, this shows the speakers professionalism, genuine interest in them as potential partners, and investment in successful outcome. Also, it is very important to make sure that the level of detail is appropriate for the specific audience. I constantly interact with many people that hold different company positions, ranging from technical staff to vice presidents. Therefore, I have to carefully select an appropriate information set based on my audience. For example, technical information and low-level details are not suitable for program management, and marketing information should never be presented to technical staff. Additionally, speaking to new customers can have its restraints, such as making sure to avoid project-related technical jargon and cumbersome details. Initially, I was struggling with using appropriate vocabulary, based on my listeners level of knowledge. From my experience, I found that when there was a discrepancy between the terminology I used and my customers level of understanding, I could easily lose the customers attention and potentially put a business deal in jeopardy. For a successful public speaker, ability to predict future audiences mood, understand its ambitions and tensions is very important. It is a common business practice to schedule overview meetings at the end or in the middle of a project. For the most part, these types of meetings are scheduled after the projects completion date, and their main purpose is to illuminate positive and negative sides that were discovered in the process. Unfortunately, not every project is flawless. Occasionally, I have to give a speech in which I have to admit process flaws, take responsibility for my teams actions, and present a process change that will allow my team to avoid future issues. For these types of speeches, it is crucial to research and determine the level of information the audience possesses regarding this issue, understand how much they were affected by it, and predict how they might react to it. Admitting and addressing a problem generally has a positive effect on the audience. Moreover, a ll issues should be presented as potential positives. This emphasizes the speakers willingness to learn from past mistakes. After audience analysis, to reach maximum effect and predetermined goals, the speaker has to work on gathering data and creating an outline of the speech. Depending on the type of speech and presentation, the methods of collecting data are different. In Information Technology industry, finding necessary information is easy, as Information Technology strives on centralizing data collection and providing complex tools for running highly customizable reports. In the modern world, many companies are transferring their documentation and records into electronic formats. Some companies store information in a secure environment, while others post it on the Internet for public availability and use. The World Wide Web is a great tool for research. Today, everything from published books and scientific journals, to booklets and essays are easily accessible. The sources used for speech preparation have to be reliable and available if any audience member chooses to verify them. Prior to writing any speech, supporting material should be categorized so that it could be easily inserted into the body of the speech. Even though not every piece of the information is used in the speech, it is a good practice to keep the extra information handy, as it could be used to answer any questions that arise at the end of the presentation. Creating an outline is also an integral preparatory step in writing a successful speech. Depending on time availability, the outline can be either very detailed, or extremely brief. Regardless of the level of detail, the outline should serve as a scaffold and guideline for the rest of the speech. Understanding the purpose of the speech and how it can be used to benefit the speaker is very important, as every piece of information can be fit to serve the main purpose. The rest of the information can be easily added if the outline is built around and emphasizes the speakers thesis. Speech structure is essential and should reflect the speakers understanding of systematic use of an effective opener, authoritative speech body, and focused and concise conclusion. Organization of the speech should take into account that, usually, the audience is more open and attentive at the beginning of the speech. Therefore, the speaker has to effectively open the speech and establish a connection with the audience within the first few sentences. If an opening is interesting and captures listeners attention, they will be more perceptive to speakers ideas and will pay closer attention to the rest of the speech. On the contrary, if the first few sentences are not well thought-out, there is a huge risk that the audience will not care for the rest of the speech. The body of the speech usually consists of the detailed information that the speaker is trying to provide for the audience. This is the most informative and the largest part of the speech. Every effective public speaker knows how to capture the audience and keep its interest throughout the entire speech, regardless of its length. Because audiences attention span is not infinite every presentation should be limited to the most salient features the speaker is trying to convey. In the closing stages of every speech, the presenter has to effectively and clearly summarize the whole speech in a few sentences, with specific emphasis on the most significant details. I found that my most successful speeches were the ones that I concluded immediately following the most important and interesting part. Therefore, every time I present, I try to end the speech once I feel that the audiences interest has peaked. Not only the content of the speech is extremely important, but also the way it is presented. Creating stereotypes is a part of the human nature. Audiences impression of the speaker is directly dependent on his or her ability to articulate, project and animate when presenting. Based on the tempo, dynamics, and tone of someones voice, the audience can easily open up to the presenters message or completely reject and ignore it. A speech presentation that is too fast and jumpy might come across as being unrehearsed and irrelevant. Also, monotonous voice may decrease the audiences interest and prevent the message from being effectively conveyed. Clear articulation is essential in every public speaking setting. Depending on the speech context and timing, articulation and tone dynamics have to be modified. For example, if a speech is being presented at the end of a long conference, the speaker must take into account the audiences attention span and decreased receptiveness. Therefore, the presenter has to be even more articulate and dynamic in his or her presentation. Moreover, the speakers tone and dynamics have to reflect his or her passion and enthusiasm for a given subject to have a successful presentation. Other than verbal, there are many ways through which the speaker can communicate with the audience. Every speech has to be reinforced by nonverbal variables. Gesticulation, body language, and mimics are very important public speech elements. University of San Francisco in Organizational Communication OB321 course outlines eight ways through which information can be shared with the audience. They include ambulation, touch, eye caontact, posture, tics, sub vocals, distancing, gesturing, and vocalism. All of these elements help the speaker succeed, since they are sending subconscious messages reinforcing and emphasizing key points to the audience. Regarding gesturing, Laurie Schloff writes, â€Å"The best thing hands can do is to convey naturally, without much orchestration, the conviction and enthusiasm of your message. To discover exactly what your hands should be doing in front of an audience, take a look at how you use them when you think no one is watching in one-to-one conversation, at dinner, or on the telephone.†(20) Every speaker has to be aware of body language at all points of the presentation. Gesturing can reveal nervousness, anxiety, stage fright, deception, and lying. However, if used correctly, it can convey the speakers enthusiasm, preparedness, honesty, and topic knowledge. Just like sharing appropriate information, the speaker has to take into consideration appropriate wardrobe selection. For example, for a formal dinner speech, casual jeans would not be appropriate. On the contrary, an every-day meeting does not require a tuxedo and bow tie. In addition to the speakers verbal and non-verbal variables, use of visual supplements enhances the quality of every speech. Depending on the kind of presentation, different visual modalities, such as charts, graphs, videos, handouts, and sample items, may be used. If the presentation room is equipped with a computer and a projector, the speaker may easily use software, such as PowerPoint to display presentation slides, or show a video. However, if the technology is not available, the speaker must find other ways to present supplemental visual information. Handouts, booklets, and sample items would be good choices in such situations. Regardless of available resources, visual supplements allow the speaker to present information that could be otherwise difficult to put into words. Therefore, graphs, charts, and other techniques should be employed as often as possible, without overwhelming the audience. Successful speech presentation should incorporate all of the preparatory, structural, verbal, and non-verbal elements. Mark Twain said, â€Å"It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.† This quotation reflects the importance of proper speech preparation. Often the more time one spends preparing for a speech, the more flawless and natural it seems to the audience. Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. ThinkExist Web. 19 Mar. 2010 Schloff, Laurie, Speaking For Success:Best Practices In Presenting.The Speech improvement Company, 2007. Print. Twain, Mark Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. Organizational Communication OB 321. Supplemental Materials. University of San Francisco, Web. 19 Mar. 2010

The experience of European administrators in Nigeria :: Essays Papers

The experience of European administrators in Nigeria The vast majority of administrators had little notion of what to expect in Nigeria. It appears as if their ideas of Nigeria were as vague as the Nigerians' views of England and Englishness, a fact well represented in Mister Johnson. Neither the coloniser nor the colonised had any real insight into the alien cultures they were faced with. A major obstacle to overcome were the huge distances involved. Yet the problem was not just coming to terms with the vast geographical distances involved, but also the huge cultural gulf. Britain and Nigeria were entirely different worlds, with nothing in common other than a history of slavery. One important area of postcolonial studies is establishing some status of relationship between coloniser and colonised, whether the relationship is manufactured, or whether it is naturally present and needing only to be developed. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the relationship between Britain and Nigeria was manufactured to suit British demands. It seems inevitable that Britain achieved more out of the relationship than Nigeria ever would. For European administrators, arriving in Nigeria in early colonial times was like stepping back into European history and encountering an almost medieval society of feudalism and patriarchy. Abdul JanMohamed has noted that it was ''an atmosphere of idealistic, paternalistic despotism'' (Manichean Aesthetics, 18). There was a completely different feel to Nigeria than Europe, and the administrators soon felt their king-like presence in this barbaric land. It seems inevitable that disillusionment would follow such elevated expectations. Due to problems of language and finances, many administrators ended their time in Nigeria disillusioned, isolated, and highly ambivalent in their opinions of both natives and the Imperial project. The language barrier presented problems to indigenous peoples and Europeans alike. It presents a potent reflection of the shortcomings of Europeans administrative training. As Abdul JanMohamed has noted, when Joyce Cary arrived in Nigeria as a colonial employee of the Nigerian Political Service, he understood virtually nothing the natives were saying. Ironically, before leaving England, he had confidently passed all his Hausa language courses. This rendered even simple conversations with the natives an immediate problem. Postcolonialists have often harshly criticised the European employees for making little attempt to interact with the Nigerians. Yet perhaps the language was a major factor in this apparent unwillingness. Achebe's Things Fall Apart is instructive in showing the real difficulties encountered due to language.

Sherlock Holmes :: Essays Papers

Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as many know, is the prestigious author and creator of the sharp witted, fictional character of Sherlock Holmes. However, he had written on subjects other than that of his brilliant mystery stories. For example, he wrote historical novels such as The White Company, Sir Nigel, and Micah Clarke. There were many events in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s life that had a direct effect on why he became a writer and the subject matter that he wrote on. He was born in Edinburgh in May of 1859. His mother Mary was Irish, and could trace her ancestry back to the famous Percy family of Northumberland and from there to the Plantagent’s line. As a result of this fact, the young Conan Doyle was introduced to many tales that reeked of historical knowledge, which gave him a good base to later write such novels as the ones listed earlier. Life was fairly difficult for the young Arthur Conan Doyle. He was one of ten children, who were raised on the meager income of a civil servant, his father, Charles. Charles Altamont Doyle was the son of John Doyle, a famous caricaturist. Charles’s brothers, which would be Conan’s uncles, all had made a name for themselves: James wrote The Chronicles of England; Henry became the manager of the National Gallery in Dublin; and Richard became famous for being an artist. With all of this fame and appreciation for â€Å"the arts† that was floating around him, it is no wonder that Conan Doyle grew up to become a writer. Charles Doyle had a few artistic talents as well, but chose only to use them as a spare time leisurely thing to do. Besides this, he had also lost his drive to work, which in turn resulted in the loss of his post in the Office of Works in Edinburgh. He slowly began turning to alcoholism as a means to drown his sorrows, which caused his epilepsy to become slowly worse. He was put in an institution for the last few years of his life until he died in 1893. The alcoholism of his father affected Conan Doyle very significantly. Conan decided to leave the exact details of this crisis out of his autobiography Memories and Adventures, but the subject of alcoholism was not taken lightly in his later fictional stories.

Reader-oriented Theories and Their Application to Ernest Hemingway’s Hi

Reader-oriented Theories and Their Application to Ernest Hemingway’s Hills like white elephants From the very beginning of the literature people tended to criticize the literary works according to some certain criteria. Some critics claimed that the text itself is important and some other said the author and his style is the thing that should be focused on. Form and content were the other significant elements in the history of the literary criticism. In addition, the social and political influences of the time that the work was written were also considered as important. However the reader who reads the work and his thoughts and his interpretations were not as valuable as the other criteria until late 19th and early 20th century. From then on we come up with a new approach, reader-response. The aim of the present paper is to give some basic tenets of the reader-oriented theories and their application to the work â€Å"Hills like white elephants† by Ernest Hemingway. We can say that Reader-oriented theories have no single or predominant philosophical starting point. There are quite different writers that commented on the reader response and they belong to different traditions of thought. They seriously challenge the predominance of the text-oriented theories of New Criticism and Formalism. As for them it is impossible to talk about the meaning of a text without considering the reader’s contribution to it. We see an interesting explanation about reader-response criticism by Tompkins. She claims that â€Å"reader response criticism is not a conceptually unified critical position, but a term that has come to be associated with the work of critics who use the words reader, the reading process, and response to mark out an area for investig... ...n and fertile part of the country was a symbol of the productive part of the woman and the barren part is the symbol of the man who did not want the baby. And the other readers stated that these two different parts of the land were a reflection of the inner part of the woman. The reason for the man not to want a baby was considered as an obstacle for him to travel. It was observed that the woman readers were supporting the woman in the story and the man readers were supporting the man’s part of the argument... Finally we can say that the discussion in the class and the differences in the interpretations showed us clearly the differences between the perceptions of the readers on the same work. In the lights of the reader-oriented theories one can claim that there is no single truth or meaning derived from the text, the responses will change as the readers change.

The Concept Of Teaching Practicum Education Essay

Teaching practicum concerns readying of instructors and its usage has embraced all the learning experiences of pupil instructors in schools. The intent of reexamining related literature is to research thoughts of learning practicum. This reappraisal will discourse three chief thoughts, viz. , overview of the construct of beliefs and learning practicum, theoretical model and related research surveies.2.1 The construct of learning practicumTeaching practicum is about universally recognized today as the flood tide of a instructor ‘s professional readying in pre-service instructor instruction plans. Harmonizing to the surveies of Gower & A ; Walters ( 1983 ) , the instruction pattern programme is the major indispensable constituent in professional instruction. Teaching practicum is defined as those periods of uninterrupted pattern 12 hebdomads ( depends on the peculiar instructor preparation college or university ) in school constitute an obligatory portion of the class in colleges or universities of instruction. This period of practical experience is besides called by assorted term, clinical experience, pupil instruction, learning pattern every bit good as practicum. During the instruction practicum, pupil instructor conducts schoolroom lessons and performs the responsibilities of a instructor in school. Harmonizing to the Teacher Training Division Guidelines on practicum for pre-service instructor preparation ( 2005 ) , learning practicum provide chances for pupil instructor to pattern theories in instruction and acquisition patterns and to develop single instruction and learning theories. The chief purpose of learning practicum is to bring forth effectual school instructors and non simply schoolroom instructor. Student instructors are besides provided with chances for a assortment of brushs with kids in schools. This means that pupil instructors are non merely cognize how to learn efficaciously in category but are besides able to manage co-curricular activities as good. In short, learning practicum programme is to fit future instructors with the indispensable experiences which can take to the development of their professional competences. Teaching practicum purposes for pupil instructors to maestro and pattern all the constructs, rules, accomplishments and values in order to go a p rofessional instructor.2.2 What is belief?Harmonizing to Michaela Borg ( 2001 ) , belief is a proposition which may consciously or unconsciously held, is appraising in that it is accepted as true by the person, and at that place imbued with affectional committedness ; farther, it serves as usher to thought and bahaviour. On the other manus, Fishbein and Ajzen ( 1975 ) define belief as information, factual, and nonfactual knowledges. Cognition is described as â€Å" what person knows or assumes to be true † ( Berkowitz, 1980, p. 275 ) . No affair what is one ‘s belief, the beliefs still play an of import function in many facets of instruction, every bit good as in life. It is because these beliefs help persons make sense of the universe, act uponing how new information in perceived, and whether it is accepted or rejected. Nevertheless, beliefs differ from cognition, although they are related to each other, in that beliefs do non ever represent the truth. Beliefs are non merely considered as discipline-dependent ( Tsai, 2002 ) , but beliefs besides include apprehensions, premises, images or propositions that are felt to be true ( Kagan, 1992 Richardson, 1996 ) .2.3 Theoretical model2.3.1 Teachers ‘ BeliefsShulman ( 1986 ) claimed that a instructor needs to cognize about the capable affair, to cognize a assortment of general instructional schemes, and to cognize about the specific schemes necessary for learning peculiar capable affair. Most of us would besides hold that the good instructor transforms curri culum ends and guidelines in such a manner that a peculiar pupil is able to get the hang and understand the related content. Dan Lortie states that one ‘s personal sensitivities are non merely relevant but, in fact, stand at the nucleus of going a instructor. Teachers ‘ belief is a term normally used to mention to teacher ‘s pedagogic beliefs, or those beliefs of relevancy to an single instruction. The countries most normally explored are instructors ‘ beliefs about instruction, acquisition, and scholars ; capable affair ; self as a instructor, or the function of a instructor ( Calderhead, 1995 ) . Besides that, instructors ‘ beliefs do play a cardinal function in the procedure of instructor development. Those beliefs form portion of the procedure of understanding how instructors ‘ conceptualize their work as a instructor. Tatto ‘s ( 1996, p. 155 ) of import work on beliefs concluded â€Å" laic cultural norms among enrollees are strongly ingrained and that most teacher instruction, as it is presently structured, is a weak intercession to change peculiar positions sing the instruction and direction of diverse scholars † . Another survey shows that â€Å" a individual ‘s belief system has permeant effects in different domains of activity- ideological, conceptual, perceptual, and esthetic † ( Rokeach, 1960, p. 288 ) . In add-on, Brown found that certain philosophical beliefs and educational beliefs were effectual in foretelling agreement-disagreement with experimentalism of schoolroom pattern. â€Å" Indications were that professed educational beliefs had a generalised consequence on learning behaviour ; specific cardinal beliefs were most powerful in act uponing specific schoolroom behaviours † ( Brown & A ; Webb, 1968, p. 215 ) . To back up those beliefs, Clark and Peterson ( 1986 ) proposed that: The most resilient or ‘core ‘ instructors ‘ beliefs are formed on the footing of instructors ‘ ain schooling as immature pupils while detecting instructors who taught them. Subsequent instructor instruction appears non to upset these early beliefs, non least, possibly, because it seldom addresses them. If instructors really seek out a peculiar invention which does non ab initio conform to their anterior beliefs or rules and the invention proves helpful or successful, so adjustment of an alternate belief or rule is more possible than in any other circumstance. For the notice instructor, schoolroom experience and twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours interaction with co-workers has the possible to act upon peculiar relationships among beliefs and rules, and, over clip, consolidate the person ‘s substitution of them. However, it seems that greater experience does non take to greater adaptability in our beliefs and, thereby, the forsaking of strongly held pedagogic rules. Quite the contrary in fact. The more experience we have, the more reliant on our ‘core ‘ rules we have become and the less witting we are making so. Professional development which engages instructors in a direct geographic expedition if their beliefs and rules may supply the chance for greater self-awareness through contemplation and critical inquiring as get downing points for ulterior version. The instructors ‘ conceptualisations of, for illustration, linguistic communication, acquisition, and learning are situated within that individual ‘s wider belief system refering such issues as human nature, civilization, society, instruction and so on. Consequently, instructors ‘ belief about the importance of learning have a great impact on their instruction patterns ( Salmon, 1988 ) . The following subdivision will look at instructors ‘ belief about learning practicum.2.3.2 Teachers ‘ belief about learning practicumThe term ‘practicum ‘ is used generically to mention to the different types of school fond regard ; viz. , school experience, learning assistantship, learning pattern and so forth that pre-service pupils will be undergoing as portion their initial instructor readying programme. The school-based practicum is designed to enable pupil instructors to detect a instructor ‘s existent work of work, and to use and polish the cognition and accomplishments acquired through course-work in schoolroom instruction. Student instructors are to utilize the chances during the practicum to incorporate instruction theory and pattern and to widen their practical experiences. In the context of learning practicum, a pupil instructor is expected to use what they have learned theoretically. To maximise the public-service corporation of practicum, it is of import that instructor trainers actively promote the effectual acquisition during the practicum period. Effective acquisition should be concerned with the acquisition of organized wholes of cognition. It is a procedure that involves developing the ability to place the aims one is seeking and, within a flexible model, optimising a programme to run into these aims, in line with single acquisition properties. Effective acquisition besides needs to accomplish transference of cognition from the artificiality of a preparation class, to practical application where the trainees adapts acquired cognition to the sensed demands of a peculiar job or state of affairs ( Robotham, 2003 ) . Many researches claim that learning practicum is a cardinal component in most pre-service instructor instruction programmes. Many besides debates about the appraisal of the pattern of pupil instructors frequently reflect ongoing philosophical arguments about the nature of instructor instruction ( Brown, 1996 ) and traditional barriers between instructors and faculty members ( Groundwater-Smith, 1997 ) . A set of written standards used to measure the competency of pre-service secondary instructor instruction pupils during practicum. The dimensions of the appraisal protocol did non look to be based on any articulated theory of good instruction pattern, and there were important uncertainties about the extent to which the assorted groups of stakeholders had a shared apprehension of the criterions implied in the standards. In instruction what we label as criterions are socially constructed and often fuzzed ( Sadler, 1987 ) and require the shared apprehension of a concept in a community of pattern ( Wiliam, 1996 ) .2.4 Related Research Studies2.4.1 Pre-service instructors ‘ beliefs about learning practicumPrior to existent instruction experiences, pre-service instructors derive their initial positions on learning from at least two beginnings. First, it comes from their personal experiences as pupils, dwelling of their interactions with and exposures to assorted instructors throughout their school life, with such factors holding a inclination to act upon their grounds for calling pick, every bit good as beliefs and patterns on their professional lives ( Ben-Petetz, 2003 ; Bramald, Hardman, & A ; Leat, 1995 ; Saban, 2003 ) . Second, it consequences from pre-service instructors organizing their conceptual repertories as they undergo the formal preparation provided by teacher educational plans ( Bermald, 1995 ; Dunkin, Precian, & A ; Nettle, 1994 ; Nettle, 1998 ) , ab initio dwelling of theoretical cognition through foundation and methods classs, and finally come o ning or climaxing into the application of such theories via the alleged pattern instruction. Few surveies have been done in pre-service instructors. The undermentioned premises are cardinal to a justification of pattern as a portion of the preparation of instructors: Teaching is behavior, and as behaviour is capable to analysis, alteration, and betterment. Much of the accustomed behaviour which persons have developed in other contexts is inappropriate for the instruction state of affairs. Under present conditions, much instruction is conducted under conditions of emphasis. Teaching is an highly complex sort of behaviour, affecting the full scope of idea procedures, communicating and physical action. Teachers, through pattern can larn to analyse, knock and command their ain instruction behaviour. Practice has the double intent of preparation and the riddance of the unfit. Practice provides the experience which gives intending to many other facets of direction in instruction ( learning ) . The beliefs of pre-service TESL instructors have may deserve their ain geographic expedition. These beliefs may act upon pupils in acquisition of cognition, choice and definition of specific learning undertakings, and reading of cognition, and reading of class content. Puchta ( 1999 ) asserts that ‘beliefs are steering rules of our pupils ‘ behaviour and strong perceptual filtersaˆÂ ¦ they act as if they were true ‘ . On the other manus, Dunkin ( 1994 ) claims that how student-teachers ‘ positions on instruction may be influenced by formal learning practicum programme. Kennedy ( 1996 ) hypothesizes that ‘real and effectual alteration in instructors ‘ patterns can merely happen through a alteration in their beliefsaˆÂ ¦ the manner instructors behave ‘ .

American Literature

Edwin Arlington Robinson- father/mother/ 2 brothers died. Love of life married brother. Never Married. Wanted to be poet since age 11 and chose to live In poverty. Wrote traditional poems. Old-fashioned but deals with modern problems. Philosophy: Behind â€Å"the peaceful and genteel communities of small-town America† lies a substrata of failure, â€Å"loneliness, and terror. † Conflict with light and dark with the individual. Major Works; The Children of the Night, The Man Against the Sky, and The Man Who Died Twice. Quotes; I finally realized I was doomed, or elected, or sentenced to life, to the writing of poetry†¦Major Works; A Boys Will, North of Boston, West-Running Brook. Quotes; â€Å"l am not a teacher but an awakener. † ; Education is the ability to listen† ; â€Å"Poets are eke baseball pitchers. † ; â€Å"In three words I can sum up everything† ; A poem begins In delight and ends in wisdom† ; â€Å"The world Is full of willing people† ; â€Å"And where an epitaph to be my story I'd have a short one ready for my own. † Mending Wall, Home Burial, The Road Not Taken, Birches, Fire and ice, Stopping by Woods, Desert Places, Design, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Out Out, Departmental. T. S. Eliot; The Hollow Men, The Love Song of J. Alfred Frock.William Carols Williams- pediatrician. Images, suggest rather than offer, present concrete Images, strive for Pictures from Brushes, Paterson, The Farmer's Daughter and Other Stories. Quotes: â€Å"If you can bring nothing to this place† ; â€Å"The better work men do is always† ; â€Å"When they ask me, as of late† ; â€Å"If they give you lined paper, write the other way. † ; â€Å"It is difficult to get the news from poems† ; â€Å"Poets are damned but they are not blind† ; â€Å"One thing I am convinced more and more is true and that is this† ; Tract, The Great Figure, The Red Wheelbarrow, This Is Just to Say, A Sort of Song.E. E. Cummings- 3 months in French prison, Harvard. Unorthodox punctuation, compressed spacing, literary cubism. (Grasshopper) Images: avoid click ©s, create new rhythms, use common speech. Philosophy; spontaneous, rebellion against conformity, authority, exploitation of life, romantic and sexual love. Major Works; Tulips and Chimneys, XSL Poems, ViVa, No Thanks, 1 * 1, Agape: Seventy-One Poems, The Enormous Room. Quotes; â€Å"The most wasted of all days is one w/o laughter. ; â€Å"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing† ; â€Å"A political is an erase upon which† ; â€Å"The poems to come are for you and me† In Just, My Sweet Old Etcetera, I sing of Loaf glad and big, If There are any heavens, Plato Told, I thank you God, she being brand-new, Jimmies got a soil, Old age sticks, Pity this busty monster unkind, L(a), Next to of course God America l, look at this, who are you, little l, Maggie and mills and molly and may, I carry your heart with me, I like your body when it is with your. Longboats Hughes- Lawrence, Topeka.Black writer. Rhythms of Jazz and blues. Oral tradition of black culture. Philosophy: direct engagement with people, pride of heritage, promotion of racial Justice. Major Works; The Dream Keeper, Montage of a dream deferred, Not Without Laughter. Quotes; â€Å"A dream deferred is a dream denied. † ; â€Å"l have discovered in life that there are ways† ; â€Å"Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it. ; â€Å"Like a welcome summer rain† ; â€Å"l swear to the Lord† ; â€Å"l will not take but for an answer. † ; â€Å"Well I like to eat sleep drink and be in love. ; â€Å"Oh god of dust and rainbows† ; â€Å"7 * 7 + Love = † The Energy Speaks of Rivers, The Weary Blues, Song for a Dark Girl, Trumpet Player, Motto, Harlem, Dream Variations, I too sing America, theme for English B. F. Scott Fitzgerald- named af ter cousin who wrote star spangled banner. Wife was Zelda. Heavy drinker. Zelda became mentally ill. Clear lyrical prose. The American Dream. Philosophy: The lost generation, all gods dead, all wars, fought, all faiths hake. Major Works; The Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tales of the Jazz Age, Tender is the Night, The Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.Quotes; â€Å"In a real dark night† ; The test of a first-rate† ; â€Å"Sometimes it is harder† ; â€Å"First you take a drink† ; â€Å"Either you think or else others have you think for you† ; â€Å"Family quarrels are bitter things† ; â€Å"I'm a romantic† ; â€Å"It is in the thirties† ; â€Å"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. † ; â€Å"The world as a rule† ; â€Å"The faces of most American women† ; â€Å"Show me a hero and I will write you a ragged. † ; â€Å"There are no second ac ts in American Lives. † Babylon Revisited allegory, gothic romance. Philosophy; southern memory, reality, myth.Major Works; Sartorial, As I lay dying, light in august, Abyssal, the unvanquished, go down Moses, intruder in the dust, the sound and the fury. Quotes; â€Å"Given the choice† ; â€Å"The young man or woman writing today' ; â€Å"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do† ; â€Å"If I were reincarnated† ; â€Å"A mule will labor 10 years† ; â€Å"Loving all of it even while he had to hate some of it† ; â€Å"I believe that man will not merely endure. He will prevail. A Rose for Emily Ernest Hemingway; mother dressed him as a girl until he was 6. Suffered from malaria, skin cancer, anemia, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure.Etc. Survived 2 plane crashes in 2 days. Athletic prose, iceberg theory writing style. Major Works: The Sun also rises, in our time, men w/o women, a farewell to arms, death in the afternoon, the snows of Kilimanjaro, for whom the bell tolls, the old man and the sea. Quotes; â€Å"Always do sober† ; â€Å"But man is not made for defeat. † ; â€Å"Courage is grace under pressure. † ; â€Å"Every mans life ends the same way.. † ; â€Å"Madame all stories if intended far enough end in death† ; â€Å"Never think that war no matter how necessary' ; â€Å"The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger at the broken places. The Hemingway Hero; suffered traumatic experience and lives.. Code Hero Big Two-Hearted River John Steinbeck; Journalistic, lyrical, biblical rhythms. Philosophy; fight against poverty/ social injustice, combo of realism, romanticism, and naturalism. Major Works; Tortilla Flat, The long valley, the red pony, of mice and men, the grapes of wrath, the pearl, the log from the sea of Cortez, cannery row, east of Eden, the winter of our discontent, travels with charley. Valued privacy. Wrote screenplay for Lifeboat . American Literature ?American literature is any written work of art that is created in the United States. American literature is like all literature, it has literary experiences and contextual history of America. It depicts how America has changed is still changing today. American literature has changed over time just like most canons of literary works. The uniqueness of American literature is that America from its beginning had a special philosophy of life and freedom. The special philosophy of life and freedom that made American literature so unique was reflected in its writings.Americans believed and had faith that God was and is the given of all our rights and freedom. We as Americans had faith in ourselves that we could succeed in anything that we try doing. The literature that we Americans wrote made life worth living because it was displayed for the world to read and understand that life was what we made it. Also by Americans having the ability to spring back from diversity made life worth living and George Washington was a perfect example of this. Literary canon is basically a suggested list of readings that belongs to a country or a certain period in time.Literary canon contains literary works that is mainly by authors who are accepted as an authority in their field and their writings constituting a serious body of literature in any given language. The works that are collected that is included in a literary canon is approved largely by cultural and academic institutions and is observed as literature of that language. Literary work’s popularity is not based only on the quality, but on the relevance of what matters to the context historically, socially, and artistically.Literary canon relate very well to what is going on in society because of what is most important at that time work is being written. The context of the society, whether it is historical, social, or artistic, that is basically the topic. Ethnic writers express the special challenges of realism, natural ism, and regionalism within the American literary experiences. Realism labels a movement in English, European, and American literature that gathered force from the 1930s to the end of the century.Realism attempted to record life as it was lived rather than life as it ought to be lived or had been lived in times past. William Dean Howells stated that realism â€Å"is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material. † Present-day literary theorists are probably more aware of what may be called â€Å"the crisis of representation†-the difference between representation and the thing represented-than were these realists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.Naturalism is understood by some as an extension or intensification of realism. It introduces characters from the fringes and depths of society whose fates are determined by degenerate heredity, a sordid environment, and/or a good deal of bad luck. Regionalism writing, another expression of the realist impulse, resulted from the desire both to preserve a record of distinctive ways of life before industrialization dispersed or homogenized them and to come to terms with the harsh realities that seemed to be replacing these early and allegedly happier times.By the end of the twentieth century, every region of the country had a â€Å"local colorist† to immortalize its natural, social, and linguistic features. Ethnic writers define literature as literature that is written by people of a different culture, language, religion, or race. It differs from the canon of traditional American literature because literary canon is a list of work from American instead of from a different race or religion. The historical, socio-political, and cultural topics that might be covered by ethnic writers would be slavery and how the slaves were treated during that time.Slavery is a topic that can be covered under all three. Government issues are a topic that could be covered under so cio-political. The debate against government issues such as health care and taxes could be something that ethnic writers could write about. It does not differ from the canon of traditional American literature because the writings have to be by authors who are accepted as an authority in their field and their writings of literature in any given language. American Literature A . Some of the best names that come into mind when one speaks of modern English literature and fantasies are Editha, and Kate Chopin. Their works stand tall in the golden pages of modern literature, influencing most people of this generation and many more to follow. They have painted and breathed life into each character of the novel, The Awakening, with great magical artistic skills. Such is the greatness and purity of the artists that they are believed to have given birth to a completely new form of writing that the modern Literature is so proud of.Hence they are considered premodern. There are some more writers such as Tolkien who have contributed immensely towards this. â€Å"I believe, Mr. Tolkien has succeeded more completely than any previous writer in this genre in using the traditional properties of the Quest, the heroic journey, the Numinous Object, the conflict between Good and Evil while at the same time satisfying our sense of historical and social reality† (W. H . Auden, 1956). The greater the power, the more dangerous is the abuse. The truth in the statement is well proved in Tolkien’s The Hobbit.The author makes his political report in this twentieth-century fable that could be relished as an elating and exhilarating story. He, very well comments upon the abuse of political power and how the poor and down trodden fall prey to the diplomacy of sly rulers. In the midst of haziness between an imagination and reality this twentieth-century fable portrays the evil in Middle-Earth as totalitarian evil and that war is an immense ingredient of this malevolence. Many premodern authors have flourished on the fantasy genre. Age cannot wither their novels nor custom stale their infinite variety.The best, modern novels seem inexhaustible. They are a permanent source of inspiration for humanity. Fantasy literature generally encompasses unreal, nonhuman creatures, unusual powers, created mythologies and imaginary settings. Frost, who can also be termed as a premodern poet remains faithful to the spoken language of his time. His language, in the poem, is a mixture of playfulness and seriousness. He portrays regionalism with its rich stock of images, situation and anecdotes. This in turn provides an abundant source for metaphors and symbols.The conversational tone and the dramatic situation in the poem strike the readers. The picture at the core of â€Å"Mending Wall† is striking. Two men convene on terms of good manners and sociability to put up a barricade between them. The wall is erected out of convention, out of tradition. Nevertheless the very ground works against them as well as makes their task thorny. The two neighbors thrust stones, back on top of the wall; however as a result of hunters or elves, or the chill of nature’s imperceptible hand, the boulders topple downward yet again.The informal fashion and lack of rhyme masquerade the ploy in Petit the Poet. Some of his most praised and entertaining work s involve Petit the Poet and Seth Compton, marvelous creations of Edgar Lee, best reveal his blending of wit with humor. His personal and conversational style makes the reader involved in his tone and mood. He takes the reader into confidence through his easy and delightful pace. Furthermore it appears quite realistic with some witty descriptions.The tone is very somber and the reader cannot help but a distinct hopelessness, of the plight of human beings not being able to choose what they remember, and also that the memories cherished today, will be much different than the memories cherished tomorrow. C. Mending Wall Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, U. S. A, in 1874. Disenchanted with the lofty subjects of many American poets, Frost opted to write about country life with which he was most familiar. In the poem, â€Å"Mending Wall† shows sound posturing, a form of writing based on the tones of everyday speech.In his collection, North of Boston (1914), Frost began to exp eriment with poems of monologue and dialogue, which critics have called his dramatic poems. The present poem, â€Å"Mending Wall† too reflects his interest in dramatic and natural speech. The stanzas of the poem â€Å"Mending Wall† are straightforward also sound more akin to an extraordinary human frame of mind than a fuming portrayal of the poet’s neighbor. A breakdown of the rhyme scheme sends the reader into a mesmerizing situation and the words is comparatively free from portentous and dark imagery. Robert Frost’s poetry is well known for its intensely personal and touching theme.A great deal of Frost's verse is confessional and reveals his life experiences through metaphor or explicitly. â€Å"Mending Wall† asserts his abhorrence for a wall or a barrier between human beings. This Frost does through the exercise of powerful imagery articulated through language, structure, and tone. A wall divides the poet's land from his neighbor's. They get to gether to saunter to the wall and mutually mend it, when it is spring time. â€Å"Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun,And makes gaps even two can pass abreast†. (Lines 1-4) The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept–there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls. The neighbor chooses to stick to his father’s words: â€Å"Good fences make good neighbors. † The poet remains skeptical and impishly forces the neighbor down to come across the outdated interpretation. However his neighbor will not be persuaded. The poet visualizes his neighbor as a leftover from a reasonably obsolete time. He is an existing paradigm of an old orthodox.Nevertheless the neighbor merely goes back over the saying. Frost retains five stressed syllables designed for each line; however he shows a discrepancy in the fee t widely to maintain the usual dialogue in the rhyme. The dearth of radiance, gloom and unhappiness, have been brought into play. Perceptibly the wall is thought of as a vengeance for transparency, light and security. The turnaround of proceedings in the poem reiterates the dismay of hostilities and the futile misfortunes that could have been evaded if those drawn in would have scrutinized the dealings they were caught up with.Even though the reader of the poem gets the notion of the neighbor portrayed in the poem by Frost, he does not subsist outside of descriptions of men from the past or historical pictures. The poet’s neighbor is, in many senses, of a weak temperament rather undeserving of examination because there is nothing that detaches him an ordinary human being. There is realization that hostilities are but a ploy to gain power and supremacy over the feelings of people. A sense of guilt revolves around the entire novel and expresses that wars are unfortunate and onl y a gamble where the leaders resort to exploit the poor, down trodden masses.â€Å"Mending Wall† is a lingering recollection of life events and dreams that have spiraled out of control due to hostilities. The hopes and dreams that once seemed so right and so justifiable become shattered because of the wall that inflicts the very core of the poet’s soul. Frost remains faithful to the spoken language of his time. His language, in the poem, is a mixture of playfulness and seriousness. He portrays regionalism with its rich stock of images, situation and anecdotes. This in turn provides an abundant source for metaphors and symbols. The conversational tone and the dramatic situation in the poem strike the readers.The picture at the core of â€Å"Mending Wall† is striking. Two men convene on terms of good manners and sociability to put up a barricade between them. The wall is erected out of convention, out of tradition. Nevertheless the very ground works against them a s well as makes their task thorny. The two neighbors thrust stones, back on top of the wall; however as a result of hunters or elves, or the chill of nature’s imperceptible hand, the boulders topple downward yet again. â€Å"The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone,But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,†(lines 5-8) Even then, the neighbors carry on with their work of mending the wall. The poem, consequently, looks as if it contemplates typically on themes like, human construction of blockades, separation, and hostility. What sets in motion in unsophisticated candor ends in intricate symbolism. This wall-building work appears primeval, as it is portrayed in formal, conventional terms. It engrosses â€Å"spells† to work against the â€Å"elves,† and the neighbor comes into view as a Stone-Age savage at the same time as he lifts and carries a boulder. â€Å"We have to u se a spell to make them balance:‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned! ‘ We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out-door game,†(lines 18-21) Frost’s treatment of objects of nature shows that he does not idealize or glorify them. His attitude towards the stone wall is not actually that of a realist, nor so much of a romantist. Frost’s poems on natural objects are not dealt with as the starting point for the mystical meditation. Like other poems, â€Å"Mending Wall† carries a moral but the moral is indirectly presented either as a dramatic situation. Frost’s poems are profoundly philosophical in spite of their homely diction.In â€Å"Mending Wall†, he uses symbolism to communicate a deep rooted principle. The symbolism in the poem comes out as an indirect method of communication. The poem has a surface meaning but it also shows a deeper significance, which is understood only through a closer scrutiny of the poem. D. Edgar Lee Masters is acclaimed as one of the leading humorous poets of the world. He has produced some of the best works of his time. His readers have long appreciated him for his classical interpretation of human nature and several critical thematic concerns of society but yet in a most humorous, easy and light hearted representation.One of the simplest and easy flowing poems of Edgar Lee is Petit the Poet. The informal fashion and lack of rhyme masquerade the ploy in Petit the Poet. Some of his most praised and entertaining works involve Petit the Poet and Seth Compton, marvelous creations of Edgar Lee, best reveal his blending of wit with humor. His personal and conversational style makes the reader involved in his tone and mood. He takes the reader into confidence through his easy and delightful pace. Furthermore it appears quite realistic with some witty descriptions.The tone is very somber and the reader cannot help but a distinct hopelessness, of the plight of human beings not being able to choose what they remember, and also that the memories cherished today, will be much different than the memories cherished tomorrow. The poem is composed to 18 lines. The concluding verse shows an analogous allusion. â€Å"Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick, Tick, tick, tick, what little iambics, While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines? † The concluding part of the poem brings us backwards in time, which allows the reader to view true accounts and suffering that people have to endure in a village.Thus Petit the poet, no doubt is thought to appall us yet again but with a twist. Thus the irony in, Petit the poet, comes through as we read it. The analytical issue of Seth Compton is beautifully depicted with a humorous disposition. The poet describes human behavior through the process of loving and forgetting. The poet tactfully and with an aroma of humor, describes the social and moral matters of the modern times from the perspective of a clean hearted human being. He craftily incorporates humor to the arena and at the same time, trying to bring into light the disgrace of corruption.For this kind of his writing, he has been also long criticized for his more moderate representation of the extents of social illness of the time. The Poet is distressed to see the state of the people after death. The circulating library that he constructed was son disposed off. â€Å"When I died, the circulating library Which I built up for Spoon River, And managed for the good of inquiring minds, Was sold at auction on the public square† The poem gives a feeling that Seth Compton has been keeping a note of all the happenings after his death.During the period when the poem was written, although seemingly flowing in a positive direction, human relations were beginning to withstand new strains, trapped now in a cleverer and more civilized society. These relations were more official and formal than social and personal. This new form of the society was less institutionalized but at the same time was more difficult to resolve or combat. This new tactic, intoxicated with the velvety diplomacies of pity, care and tolerance, made things even worse. Very ironically and rightly, the Poet criticizes the aspects of morality in terms of critical social concerns. American Literature Mark Twain's celebrated novel Tom Sawyer (1876) has generally been considered by literary critics to slightly less accomplished on a technical and thematic level than its purported sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, (1885).Although many reasons for this discrepancy in the level of critical reception of the two works may be reliably cited, one of the contributing factors to the critical reception of Tom Sawyer both on its initial publication in the nineteenth century and during its present status in critical estimation is the function of literary realism. In short, because Tom Sawyer represents to most literary critics a â€Å"less sophisticated† execution of Twain's literary technique, it also functions a less developed example of Twain's expression by way of literary realism.Important, also, is that fact that Twain was and is viewed by critics as one of America's foremost realist writers and Twain's realism is regarded as having had a liberating influence on American literature as a whole: â€Å"It led him to make use of the vernacular and ultimately to develop popular speech, as an instrument for character portrayal and effective narrative, to near perfection,† (Long 102) which, in turn, led to the first authentically American idiom in fiction.However, as in Huckleberry Finn, the aspects of realism (or verisimilitude) which permeate Tom Sawyer, also function as â€Å"scaffolding† for mythic ideas and iconographic expression which directly contradicts the purpose and function of literary realism itself. In essence, by regarding realism in Tom Sawyer not a governing principle of Twain's aesthetic, but rather as a tool or a literary device which is used to convey a deeper theme or aesthetic — namely romanticism — can be identified.In Twain's case, the romantic or idealized strains of his theme in Tom Sawyer relate directly to the myth of American expansion and prosperity which were as prevalent cultural fascinations in nineteenth century America as they are in twenty-first century America.Before Tom Sawyer itself can be examined in light of its use of realism as a literary device, it is important to restate what the (critical) understanding of literary modernism is really all about and what literary modernism meant to the writers who comprised the movement in its earliest stages and what literary realism means to contemporary literary critics, and specifically those critics who have turned their energies to explicating Tom Sawyer.It should also be pointed out that Twain presents special problems even for the most studious and energetic of critics because his work is founded, first adn foremost upon humor, which is a very difficult literary premise to quantify and define in critical terms. Despite the fact that â€Å"criticism is notoriously helpless in the presence of writing that is really funny† (Smith 1), specific aesthetic principles and influences can be rooted out and separated to so me extent from the over-riding satirical vision in Twain's work.Any attempted critical understanding would be greatly aided in first accepting Twain as a literary realist as this designation is the most expedient as to opening a â€Å"clear window† into the purported purpose and themes of Twain's writings. Literary realism comprised an artistic response to the changing social conditions beginning in the 19th century which saw a dominant rise of industry, science, and rationality in western culture. Realism attempted to develop a literary idiom which was able to convincingly portray the actual events and circumstances of life.The movement toward realism can be seen as an artistic mode of grappling with changing and frightening circumstances of western culture. In addition to seeking out themes of social significance, writers such as Zola, Dos Passos, Eliot and Flaubert — advanced a narrative technique which â€Å"jettisoned rhetoric–a stylized language of elevat ed expression designed to demonstrate that the writer had mastered the tradition of polite letters–for everyday speech, (Borus 22) so that highly-stylized narratives still evoked the realism of everyday speech and everyday life.Part of the technique of literary realism involved the use of dialect, sometimes extensively, to create the sense of verisimilitude which was essential to the realist aesthetic. The combination of real-world dialect and the studies technique of the realist writers resulted in a unique blend of linguistic styles which resulted in a generating a set of readers who considered themselves â€Å"cultivated readers of dialect, † (Barrish 37). because realist writers sought to evoke in extensive detail, the living settings of their works, many realist writers were committed to regionalism — that is, they wrote about the world they experienced directly.Examples of this are Faulkner who wrote extensively about a fictional Southern county which was based on counties which actually existed. Realist writers desired to create fiction that felt and read as close to real life as possible in order to allow readers to â€Å"see† and experience aspects of life which would otherwise have remained unknowable to them. With this bit of critical history in mind, one further aspect remains quite important relative to Twain and that is the fact that â€Å"realism as a guiding principle of criticism† (Smith 5) has been rigidly and thoroughly applied to Twain's work with the resulting conclusion that â€Å"shortcomings [†¦] have led to its gradual abandonment during the last quarter of a century on both sides of the Atlantic. † (Smith 5). What are these shortcomings, specifically? The answer to that question is complex and lies in the seemingly comprehensive nature of Twain's realism. The fact that Twain's realism is distinct from naturalism or purely journalistic writing is his sophisticated employment of realism as a device, rather than as a guiding principle of theme or overall technical approach.In other words, because â€Å"Mark Twain's realism does not stop at externals† (Smith 29) that same realism must by necessity engage emotional, psychological, and â€Å"spiritual† (or mythic) concepts and identities which are by definition elusive of any â€Å"realistic† depiction. By delving deeper than â€Å"externals† Twain must, by necessity, abandon verisimilitude as a guiding aesthetic principle and instead accept it as a device, like a single color on a painter's pallette.In order to illustrate this somewhat elusive point, it must be emphasized that Twain's external realism is devastatingly powerful adn accurate, almost â€Å"photo-realistically† so. Twain is obviously quite capable of conveying â€Å"the special atmosphere of each characteristic environment† (Smith 29) and from this mastery of description of the external world, the reader is led to â €Å"trust† that Twain's excursions into the â€Å"inner† world will be just as faithfully rendered and just as obviously based on â€Å"reality.† However, a clear, if subtle, distinction separates Twain from â€Å"photorealistic† artists. A key aspect to Twain's particular use of realism is that â€Å"His purpose is not to say everything, nor even to present everything in an objective way† (Smith 30) but render the impression that what is described, whether it be a river, or a young boy's stream-of-consciousness inner-monologue, is a faithful representation of the actual world.By rendering the impression of realism rather than a rote â€Å"copy† of nature, â€Å"Twain allows himself to pursue his inquiries into reality with varying intensity, to support his observations with a wider or a narrower range of evidence† (Smith 30) and, by doing so, achieves an acumen which is capable of â€Å"misleading† he reader into mistaking wha t is actually a mythic or romantic impression as a realistic observation.To demonstrate this concretely, a single mythic aspect of Tom Sawyer can be isolated and compared with Twain's realistic prose-style to indicate the duality of his narrative idiom, where realism generally indicates, if at an oblique angel, a mythic undertone. For example, the â€Å"treasure-hunt' sub-plot of Tom Sawyer conveys the uniquely American myth of â€Å"striking it rich† through pure luck adn adventure.This is in fact a very durable American myth, the myth that anyone despite his or her stature in life can â€Å"hit pay-dirt quickly, blindly, almost accidentally† (Coulombe 16) and like Huck and Tom become â€Å"rich entirely by good luck† (Coulombe 16). Such a myth was used by Twain not only in Tom Sawyer and in his other of his fictional works, but also as an attribute of his own author-persona.Twain cultivated a deliberate distortion of his biography by attempting to further the notion that his accomplishments were â€Å"effortless and intuitive—a rustic genius rising naturally to the top† (Coulombe 16). In this case, literary biography plays a contributing role to thematic explication because Twain's true experience belied the myth he inserted into Tom Sawyer regarding wealth adn the pursuit of adventure. In reality, Twain was a careerist â€Å"who worked diligently, even desperately, to earn success and money† (Coulombe 17).The aforementioned biographical detail is mentioned merely to illustrate that Twain,had he been truly interested in being a literary realist and depicting the authentic world he had experienced would have obviously dismissed any mythical ‘treasure hunt† ending in blind, wild fortune as being over-the-top romantic, and perhaps even foolish. At this point, it is useful to examine the manner by which Twain attempts to insert verisimilitude into what is essentially a mythic fantasy.he does so retrospective ly by describing what appears to be a very convincing description of the rection of the little town of St. Petersburg to the boys' discovery of treasure: THE reader may rest satisfied that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement.Every â€Å"haunted† house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for hidden treasure–and not by boys, but men–pretty grave, unromantic men, too, some of them. (Twain 285) This attempt to balance a romantic myth with a deliberately anti-romantic description of the aftermath of the discovery is thorough right down to Twain's choice of diction.The word â€Å"unromantic† is specifically clever and powerful in forwarding a sense that Twain's treasure hunt is grounded in reality and not in a boyish, culturally incited fantasy. Every detail seems to have been accounted for right down to the observation that â€Å"The village paper published biographical sketches of the boys† (Twain 285) which made them celebrities. Here it is interesting to note that Twain's romantic urge and his urge to restrain his story in verisimilitude are operating at equal strength and simultaneously.If Twain is capable of obscuring what are essentially romantic myths beneath a veneer of realism as was demonstrated by the preceding description of his expression of the â€Å"rags to riches† myth of America, what other myths might be discovered under the narrative surface of Tom Sawyer? Obviously, because Twain embraces the presence of violence in American as a part of his role as a realist writer, depictions of violence and of death in Twain deserve special attention in regard to the myths they may o r may not express beneath the highly detailed and unusually accurate level of narrative description employed by Twain.While it is true that — for Twain â€Å"The sight of a pistol blazing or knife flashing, followed by the red blood gushing from a death wound, was actuality † (Long 99) it is also conspicuously true that Twain's depiction of violence in Tom Sawyer is â€Å"not prevailing, and as in the realism of Howells,† and that in Twain â€Å"happiness, not sorrow, was the general rule† (Long 99) despite the actuality of violence and death in human experience.One might rightly ask: how is such a proposition: that violence and death do not preclude human happiness based in realism? Plainly, one does not require an observational adn descriptive acumen that is equal to Twain's to readily perceive that violence and death in the real world often do preclude human happiness. Clearly, Twain's depiction of violence, like his depiction of material ambition and the attainment of wealth, partakes of a mythic rather then realistic expression.This mythic appraisal of violence and human mortality allows Twain to establish the entire framework of Tom Sawyer on the mythic scaffolding of death and rebirth. In fact, † The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is constructed on a loose framework whose major elements include games of death and games of resurrection† (Aspiz) and these â€Å"games† are purely mythic rather than realistic both in conception and execution.Because it is mythic violence and mythic death that Tom interacts with in the novel, he and the other characters depicted in the novel seem to â€Å"exist on the manic edge beyond which lurks the menace of destruction and the unknown† (Aspiz) but the teetering over and falling â€Å"over the edge† which is repeatedly depicted by Twain in Tom Sawyer results in â€Å"the illusion that all experience is ultimately reducible to entertainment† (Aspiz).Imagination is stronger than the mere presence of death and its associated pains in Twain's fictional world, which is propelled in part by startlingly realistic descriptions and observational details. The result is paradoxical: Murder, grave-robbing, the withholding of life-saving evidence, impulses to suicide, simulated disasters, numerous close brushes with death, the violation of sanguinary oaths, wrenching fear and guilt, and numberless suppressions of the truth and miscarriages of justice are all transformed, through masterful orchestration and narrative control, into entertainment.(Aspiz, 108) Of course it is the power and depth of Twain's â€Å"masterful orchestration and narrative control† which drives the perception on the reader's behalf that Twain's mythic expressions of pain, death, and sorrow are as meticulously accurate as his objective descriptions of rivers, school-houses, and grave-yards. The paradox is born out of the divergence of the mythic and realist strains of Twai n's own consciousness and his narrative expression. The character of Tom Sawyer is, himself, an expression of this paradox and duality.Tom is ultimately portrayed as heroic, but also realistically, so that his flaws can be easily spotted and used to increase the ironic impact of the novel. In fact, careful study of Tom's behavior throughout the novel reveals that â€Å"Tom was neither noble nor pure. Rather, he was often vindictive, violent, and obscure—much like the natural world to which he was linked† (Coulombe 129) and — ironically — it is within this construction of nature, as a character, that Twain achieves a more dour and realistic expression.Twain's impulse to romanticize even human bigotry is evident in his depiction of Injun Joe and Muff Potter, during the trial-scene when Muff fallaciously confesses to murdering the Doctor. Historical reality dictates that it was white men who cam and tricked the native American tribes out of their lands and d estroyed their culture, a fact readily available to anyone, even in Twain';s time, who cared to exert minimal energy doing research.However, rather than seizing on this massive historical reality, Twain opts to facilitate the extant prejudice against racial types that existed in his time, and continue to exist, by positing a mythic â€Å"half-breed,† Injun Joe, who is more cunning and diabolical than the white society he despises. During the trial scene, Muff Potter is confronted with his knife which was used by Injun Joe to slay the Doctor in the cemetery.Potter's reaction is pitiful â€Å"Potter lifted his face and looked around him with a pathetic hopelessness in his eyes. He saw Injun Joe, and exclaimed: â€Å"Oh, Injun Joe, you promised me you'd never– † (Twain 100) and then, slowly, Potter realizes that he must confess to his crime. The reversal of historical reality is chilling. In reality, Native Americans were often controlled and victimized with liquo r and in Twain's depiction, the half-breed, Injun Joe, has turned these realities on their head.It is the Indian who is dastardly and manipulative; and it is the white man, Muff Potter, who is drunkenly victimized and falsely sentenced to death. Such reversals under the fluent realism of Twain's technique can only be considered, rightly, as propaganda. By no stretch of the imagination can propaganda ever be regarded as realistic or objective, so it is obvious that on at least three major themes: materialism, mortality, and racial prejudice, Twain embraces a mythic, rather than realistic, mode of expression in Tom Sawyer.Again, as in the treasure-hunt scenario, Twain attempts to balance his mythically driven conceptualization of race with what appears to be a cogent adn realistic description of the court-room itself and the boys' reaction to Potter's confession: â€Å"Then Huckleberry and Tom stood dumb and staring, and heard the stony-hearted liar reel off his serene statement, the y expecting every moment that the clear sky would deliver God's lightnings upon his head,† (Twain 100).This passage, in fact, only strengthens the essentially culturally chauvinistic impulse of the courtroom scene by positing the half-breed no only as a notorious murderer but as an enemy of the white man's God. Twain's romanticism may be rightly regarded as determinant in the thematic expression of Tom Sawyer. In every case, it is mythic impulse rather than natural or historical realism that drives both the conceptualization and execution of the scenes in Tom Sawyer and the associated themes which these scenes express.Rather than solidifying the aesthetic ideas of literary realism, Twain's use of the idiom in Tom Sawyer is sublimated to his interest in forwarding culturally resonant, American myths which would ostensibly engage and entertain his audience. It is quite possible that Twain's own material ambitions, as previously mentioned, drove, at least in part, his decision to make a literary concession throughout Tom Sawyer to romantic myths, a concession which completely eradicated any claim that might be made on Twain's behalf that the novel embodied literary realism.Works Cited Aspiz, Harold. â€Å"Tom Sawyer's Games of Death. † Studies in the Novel 27. 2 (1995): 141+. Barrish, Phillip. American Literary Realism, Critical Theory, and Intellectual Prestige, 1880- 1995. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Borus, Daniel H. Writing Realism: Howells, James, and Norris in the Mass Market. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.Coulombe, Joseph L. Mark Twain and the American West. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2003. Long, E. Hudson. Mark Twain Handbook. New York: Hendricks House, 1957. Smith, Henry Nash, ed. Mark Twain: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. New York: P. F. Collier & Sons, 1920. American Literature If I was teaching a course in American Literature since 1865, the texts that I would choose to teach would be â€Å"Tulips† by Sylvia Plath, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Sula by Toni Morrison, Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Daisy Miller by Henry James, and Drown by Junot Diaz.I feel that it is important to chronologically span the 150 or so years of literature in this time period, to choose a diversity of authors in terms of gender, race and sexuality, to represent the nation regionally as well as possible, to include texts that focus on important issues in the nation including immigration, gender equality and race relations, and to focus on texts that are relatively accessible and reflect the time period in which they are written. With these texts, I feel that this is accompl ished.Chronologically, this list is relatively complete – there are texts that represent the period of reconstruction (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and that are from around ten years ago (Drown). Indeed, different aspects of this list speak to the Industrial Revolution and ever-changing face of America through technological advancement, and others discuss the ways that race and gender exist in the time period in which they are written (â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and Sula, for example).Further, not only do these texts represent a breadth of time periods, but they also show different regions of the United States, including the South (Wise Blood) and the West (Housekeeping), with the typical representation of the Northeast and many texts that are not necessarily central to any specific region.Through providing a diversity of chronological and regional representation, I feel that students, especially in a nation that is not as familiar with the United States as we are, would be able to get a better feel of how the United States changed over the past 150 years and how the different regions of the United States face different challenges. Just as it’s important to represent different literal aspects of the United States, it’s just as important to represent the diversity of people that make the nation up.By providing works from authors like Toni Morrison and Junot Diaz, students would get a perspective on the African American and immigrant experience in the United States, respectively. Indeed, America exists differently for the immigrant characters in this collection of Diaz short stories than it does for the characters seeking the American Dream in The Great Gatsby, and it’s important for students to explore these differences among communities in the U. S.Indeed, this collection of texts also reflects issues that are of the utmost importance in the United States – â€Å"Tulips† and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaperâ €  discuss what it means to be a woman and how motherhood or marriage can trap women, for example. Wise Blood explores the intricacies of religion, and more specifically Christianity, in the South, and Sula thoroughly discusses how black Americans live in the â€Å"Bottom† while whites live at the top long after the conclusion of the Civil War.Students reading my list of texts would be exposed to a breadth of issues, while also reading canonical literature that explores natures such as Leaves of Grass and the work of Henry James and his take on relationships and people. All of the works that are included in this list cover so many different aspects of American Literature, and together they paint a picture that represents the time period and nation as well as any ten-piece collection can.Regionally, canonically and chronologically, the list covers all of the essential points present in American literature, and it also touches on multiple issues of diversity within the texts as well as issues central to American culture in these different time periods. These poems, short stories, novellas and novels are an excellent window into American Literature as well as the ever-ubiquitous American culture, and I would be excited to teach these texts to any classroom. 2nd Essay: Southern Literature is fraught with guilt, struggle and a resistance to dominant American cultural norms.Three of the most important authors in Southern Lit, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, are all incredibly attentive to issues important to all Southern people, but they each discuss Southern life in a different form. While all three deal with the integral issues of race relations in the South, the constant struggle with the separation of the North from the South, and what exactly it means to have a Southern identity, each of these authors does this in a very different manner.Hurston focuses on African American dialect and unique experiences within those communities, Faulkner traditionally discusses close-knit small town communities in a stream of consciousness and highly narrative manner, and O’Connor takes a highly moralistic tone, with a focus on religion and community in the South. Hurston’s â€Å"Sweat† is similar to her most famous Their Eyes Were Watching God in that gender struggles and dialect within African American communities are showcased. Indeed, one of the central conflicts in â€Å"Sweat† is the struggle for dominance within the relationship between Delia and Sykes Jones.Even though aspects of Southern femininity and masculinity are inherent to this struggle, femininity is the focus as this is typical of Hurston and the protagonist, and thereby where the reader’s sympathies more dominantly lie, is with Delia Jones. The work focuses on how African American communities exist, with a focus on Delia’s humming and the music that’s present, thereby demonstrating a focus on a n oral tradition that doesn’t necessarily exist within Faulkner and O’Connor’s work.Further, the end of the short story demonstrates how women are able to obtain dominance in relationships, if they ever are able to do so, through Sykes’ horrifying death. Indeed, this story demonstrates many of Hurston’s focuses, and it shows typical struggles within Southern African American communities in terms of gender relations and oral traditions versus dominant narratives. Faulkner’s â€Å"Barn Burning† is different from this in that its focus is on a father and son, and also on the town in which the characters live.Indeed, the story begins in â€Å"The store in which the justice of the Peace's court was sitting† and continues to focus on the actual location and Southern-ness of the setting. Like Hurston, the dialogue of â€Å"Barn Burning† is uniquely Southern, with the characters saying the word â€Å"it† as â€Å"hit,â⠂¬  thereby demonstrating Southern dialect and accents in a way that separates it from any Northern dialogue. Also like Hurston’s work, the story discusses race relations in the South, though necessarily from a white perspective instead of a black perspective.Because of this, the community at the center of the story is a white community instead of a black community, and it thereby emphasizes race relations and oppressive institutions within Southern society instead of exploring the ways in which African American communities form themselves. While there are no explicit O’Connor works on the syllabus, it would be remiss to discuss Southern writing without using O’Connor as an example.In her â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find,† for example, the explicit focus of the narrative is on what it means to be a good person, and how a criminal is not necessarily a more evil and corrupt person than a grandmother without good intentions. While the criminal who murders t he family who are at the center of the story is clearly not a â€Å"good man,† neither is the matriarchal grandmother who is central to the story: indeed, she would have been good if â€Å"it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.† O’Connor discusses Southern society in terms of morality and religion throughout her novels and short stories, and within this discussion also exists issues of race relations, Southern society and dialect, and other things. Indeed, O’Connor, Faulkner and Hurston all recognize the differences between the South and other regions in the United States, the unique moral and community systems that exist there, and demonstrate these aspects differently. 3rd Essay: William Carlos Williams’ â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† and e.e. cumming’s [my sweet old etcetera] both rely on unconventional, modernist poetic form and use this form to convey separate messages. Williams’ poem uses its form t o put emphasis on a dependence on the smallest things – indeed, the form and subject of â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† hinge on the wheelbarrow itself, and demonstrate how form and subject are both integral to a poem’s ultimate message. Similarly, cummings’ unconventional form is different from almost any other poet and uses multiple definitions of etcetera.Both poems show how form is as essential to function as subject and literal messages are, and both use this form to reiterate the meaning of the poem. Williams’ â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† is from a time period in which poets were able to play with form and think more consciously about how a poem can be unconventional in form and still convey a message. Indeed, this poem more or less relies on form to convey that message. What is so interesting about this poem is that there is no terribly clear message in the poem; in fact, it initially seems to not say much of anything and instead to toy arou nd with words.However, the way the poem is structured, the seemingly insignificant nouns are placed at the forefront. As the poem reads, â€Å"so much depends / upon / a red wheel / barrow† (lines 1-4). Here, the poem does in fact depend on the â€Å"barrow† – every couplet in â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† hinges upon a second one-word line that consists of a relatively common and insignificant noun. The nouns continue to locate the poem. The red wheelbarrow is â€Å"glazed with rain / water / beside the white / chickens† (lines 5-8), showing that while each couplet is grounded by the final one-worded line, the entire poem is grounded by the wheelbarrow.Indeed, all of the lines refer back to it: it is the thing that is glazed with rainwater, and it is the thing that is beside the white chickens. The first couplet itself makes it increasingly clear that the wheelbarrow is at the center of this poem in multiple ways: everything in the poem depends on it literally, as is stated in the first two lines, but it is also structurally at the center of the poem. William Carlos Williams is able to use this unconventional form to make a statement about what is important – after all, how can so much depend on a wheelbarrow unless Williams demonstrates it in this unconventional way?Similarly, e. e. cummings poem [my sweet old etcetera] challenges ideas of what the â€Å"etcetera† of the poem is by introducing it in a form that allows multiple interpretations. Indeed, the poem begins with â€Å"my sweet old etcetera / aunt lucy† (lines 1-2), and also includes references to it as â€Å"not to / mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers / etcetera wristers etcetera† (lines 11-13), â€Å"my / mother hoped that / I would die etcetera† (lines 13-15), â€Å"my / self etcetera lay quietly† (lines 19-20), and â€Å"dreaming, / et / cetera, of / Your smile / eyes knees and of your Etcetera† (lines 23-27).All o f these uses of etcetera are different and challenge what exactly the word means: indeed, the word literally refers to a continuing list of things, but here sometimes it’s used in an apathetic sense, sometimes as a euphemism, and other times as its definition connotes. Like â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow,† this poem hinges on the definition of one word, and because of seemingly spontaneous line breaks and capitalization, that word carries entirely different meanings at different places in the text.Interestingly, in the last parenthetical notation, etcetera refers to both the never-ending list of actions of the speaker and also, presumably, the body of the woman who is being described, thereby showing the many definitions of the word. Both â€Å"The Red Wheelbarrow† and [my sweet old etcetera] use relatively unconventional form to challenge traditional notions of established words and concepts. By relying on a different method of poetry and description, both writers a re able to disrupt these ideas that are so closely tied to the words, and also to redefine both the words and the poetic form that they are using to describe them.4th Essay: If I could choose any two authors to explore more fully, I would pick Zora Neale Hurston and Henry James to look at further. Not only are these two authors very different in terms of their writing styles, but they also are from different time periods and different literary perspectives, with Hurston generally describing communities and concrete people more fully while James writes conceptually and canonically in a way that focuses on narrative and other literary forms.Both authors speak to different audiences, both of which I at least partially identify with, and I look forward to reading more by each author. In this course, we read â€Å"Sweat† by Hurston, which I wrote about for one of my other essays. I really enjoy this work not only because I enjoy Southern literature, but also because it focuses on a different aspect of identity than many of the authors that we’ve read in this course.Indeed, Hurston focused on African American oral narratives, and was actually often involved in sociological work and gathering African American folktales to preserve in writing instead of simply within an oral tradition. Because her life was not always spent in looking at writing through a strict literary lens, I think that she has a unique perspective in representing life as it truly exists within communities that are not typically discussed in popular fiction.She herself grew up in an African American town, and is particularly knowledgeable and gifted and representing these types of communities. I would love to read Their Eyes Were Watching God if only because it is similar to â€Å"Sweat† but, as a novel instead of a short story, allows more time to delve into a character’s mindset and to develop a sense of what it means to live within an African American community. Furthe r, I think that Hurston has a unique and powerful style that explores language in a way that many authors simply don’t.She is able to write using heavy symbolism and metaphors throughout her prose, but she’s also able to interesting, intelligently and authentically portray the language that exists within black southern communities, something that most authors would not even think about discussing. Indeed, because of her early life in a unique community that most canonical authors do not understand, her sociological work on oral narratives within black communities, her interesting view on language and style, and her emphasis on women’s issues and gender equality, I would love to look more closely at Zora Neale Hurston’s body of literature.Henry James is also an incredibly important figure in American Literature, but for very different reasons than Hurston. Indeed, James style is not as accessible or engaging as Hurston’s often is, and he is much mor e cerebral in the issues that he chooses to tackle. As Daisy Miller demonstrates, though, James has a terrific understanding of how to manipulate narrative to show multiple dimensions of characters, and his other work demonstrates this even further.The novel which I would most like to read by him is The Turn of the Screw, primarily because it is both a frame narrative (similar to the Canterbury Tales), which provides many unique and interesting insights into narrative, and also because it is a unique version of a ghost story that is much more literary in style than most of what gets represented in popular culture today. Because James is so able to take on narrative, I enjoyed Daisy Miller thoroughly: not only were the characters deep, complex, round and interesting, but the timeline was also challenging.I really enjoy reading Henry James because he is, in many ways, timeless – while his work is obviously dated in certain ways in terms of subject and the setting, the human con dition is so central to everything that he writes that it can be understood outside of this context. Because of his narrative abilities, interest in the human psyche and innate human struggles, challenging prose that pushes different ideas of symbolism and identity, and the innovative subjects that he chooses to write about, I would also very much enjoy looking at what else Henry James has written.