The Heart and Mind the Message in R.S. Thomas Remembering Essay Example

The Heart and Mind: the Message in R.S. Thomas Remembering Essay Kyla Matthews Sobey English 1302-002 09 November 2012 The Heart and Mind: The Message in R. S. Thomas’ â€Å"Remembering† â€Å"R. S. Thomas writes about the people of his country in a style that some critics have compared to the harsh and rugged terrain† (R. S. Thomas). Thomas grew up with a father who was a sailor and lived in British ports with his mother. He started his early schooling late which was â€Å"only pursued sporadically until his father found steady work with a ferry boat company† (R. S. Thomas). Following his early education, he set out to study Anglican Priesthood. In 1936, Thomas was ordained deacon in the Anglican Church. . . In 1937, he became and Anglican Priest† (R. S. Thomas). Thomas didn’t actually start writing poetry seriously until he met the woman who would later be his wife. That being said, â€Å"No Truce with the Furies† was not published until 1995. This book holds Thomas’ poem, â€Å"Remembering ,† which essentially calls both the heart and mind into love; in this case, the love of his wife in their old age. In any relationship that is wanted to last love cannot exist with just one or the other; it must have both the heart and the mind to exist in any substantial form. Love is a matter of the heart. Because of this, love means something different to every person. The Webster dictionary provides thirteen different definitions of love alone. The first definition is, â€Å"Strong affection for another rising out of kinship or personal ties† (LoveAbout). This definition is one most people would relate to at least while growing up. Webster’s continues with another definition saying, â€Å"attraction based on sexual desires: affection and tenderness felt by lovers† (LoveAbout). This kind of love is experienced as people grow older. This also is the kind of love experienced in R. S. Thomas’ â€Å"Remembering†. The poem starts by reminding the younger readers to love what they have now because one day the relationship will change. Thomas states, â€Å"Love her now for her ecstasies, her willingness to oblige. There will come a time she will show her love for you in her cooking, her sewing; in a bed made up for passionless sleeping† (1-8). In this part, the reader realizes the couple is older and the relationship the couple is in is now much less exciting than when they started. The love is still there. We will write a custom essay sample on The Heart and Mind: the Message in R.S. Thomas Remembering specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Heart and Mind: the Message in R.S. Thomas Remembering specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Heart and Mind: the Message in R.S. Thomas Remembering specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer It is just shown in a different way. In 1 Corinthians it says, â€Å"[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres† (New International Version, 1 Cor. 13:7). The last part of the verse is what really stands out in Thomas’ poem. The last part of his poem says, â€Å"Her eyes that were a find day will cloud over and rain down desultory tears when, as she infers, you are not looking. Your part then will be to take her hand in your hand, proving to her that, if blind, it is not dumb† (13-20). 1 Corinthians 13:4 says, â€Å"Love is patient, love is kind. . ,† (New International Version). In Thomas’ â€Å"Remembering,† he has to be patient with his wife in understanding that she knows as well as he that she is not young or exactly beautiful anymore. He must be kind to her and hold her hand through everything so she knows that even if the relationship changes, the love, though shown differently, has not, and â€Å"[it] alwa ys perseveres† (New International Version, 1 Cor. 13:7). Throughout the poem, readers will realize that love is obviously something people feel in their hearts. Truth be told, though, it is also a matter of the mind. Sometimes people get into relationships thinking they are ready for it, ready for anything that means they do not have to be alone or just for the sake of saying they are in a relationship. Their hearts are not really in it. Other times people are reading in relationships and believe the love is real until they rethink some of the things that have happened in the relationship or just think maybe this person they are with is not who he/she thought they were. The physical attraction begins to matter more than the love, which it turns out never really existed. The mind was just clouded by what they thought they felt or what they wanted to feel. In â€Å"Remembering,† the middle of the poem talks about how the woman has changed in physical appearance over the years: â€Å"The wrinkles will come upon her calm though her brow will be under time’s blowing. Frost will visit her hair’s midnight and not thaw. Her eyes that were a find day will cloud over† (9-14). The man’s mind has come into play. His thoughts have overtaken his love for the moment. The difference between this man and other immature or premature â€Å"love,† this man has loved his wife for years. Although the man is thinking about her physical appearance now in comparison to years ago when their love first began, this man’s love is unchanging; Old, young, beautiful, or wrinkled. He remembers the past but his heart remains true with love for his wife. Though this is often not the case, in this poem, in his life, â€Å"[love] always perseveres† (New International Version, 1 Cor. 13:7). In all that has been said, love being a matter of the heart and of the mind, the truth has come to surface. Love cannot exist without both. If love existed without the mind, every person would, as the saying goes, â€Å"wear their heart on their sleeve. † Love would not really be love. It would be more of an obsession. However, if love existed without the mind, love would be nothing more than an attraction because the emotional connection that is needed for a relationship to last would not be possible. Love is not just attraction or a simple emotion. In, â€Å"Remembering,† Thomas proves that by saying, â€Å"Your part then will be to take her hand in your hand, proving to her that, if blind, it is not dumb† (17-20). The man had fallen for a woman who was young and beautiful. He looked on the past, remembered her as she once was, and still his love remained strong. His heart and mind agree that his love for her is real. 1 Corinthians 13:8, â€Å"Love never fails. . . ,† (New International Version, 1 Cor. 13:8). That is true for this couple. Their love will never fail. In the end, that is the goal of any relationship; finding that the heart and mind agree with each other so that the love in the relationship will never fail because love cannot exist with just one or the other. It must have both to exist in any substantial form. Works Cited New International Version. [Colorado Springs]: Biblica, 2011. BibleGateway. com. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. LoveAbout Our Definitions: All Forms of a Word (noun, Verb, Etc. ) Are Now Displayed on One Page. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n. d. Web. 09 Nov. 2012. R. S. Thomas. : The Poetry Foundation. N. p. , n. d. Web. 09 Nov. 2012.

Free Essays on Ella Minnow Pea

A Change In Time Culture gaps are inevitable within families, between parents and children, grandparents and children, even aunts and uncles. Every generation grows up with different values, different beliefs and a different outlook on what life should be like – that’s ‘normal’, as society and expectations on life change as time rolls by. The key to dealing with these cultural gaps is to understand and except one simple fact; Things change. In my small, but rather complicated family, the problem arises with my rather stubborn, and set-in-her-ways grandmother. Esmay, or grandma, as she is better known, grew up in England, already she was bound to be ‘a proper lady’. She comes from a wealthy family, whose value in women was about that of the servants they owned. Esmay was taught to worship her man, and that a woman’s place was in the house, doing kitchen duties and laundry, and having everything perfect for when the man of the house returns home from a horrendously troubling day at the office. Along came my mother†¦ Esmay never liked my mother, she called her a ‘wicked’ child, and told her that no man would ever want her. In Esmay’s eyes, my mother was the closest thing to the devil that walked this earth. She was outspoken, and wanted to do things for herself, rather than have a man to have to rely on, which was normal for those growing up in the 60’s. And, much to grandma’s surprise, my mother married, and had 3 children. But was later divorced, which delighted Esmay to bits, because her point was proven. In her eyes, mum had failed and that was entirely due to the fact that my mother was independent, and men don’t like that in women. And then there was me†¦ It’s kind of hard to describe yourself, but if I have to put me into one simple sentence, I would have to say this; I am my mother. I grew up taking in everything my mother taught me; Stand-up for what you believe in. Don’t ev... Free Essays on Ella Minnow Pea Free Essays on Ella Minnow Pea A Change In Time Culture gaps are inevitable within families, between parents and children, grandparents and children, even aunts and uncles. Every generation grows up with different values, different beliefs and a different outlook on what life should be like – that’s ‘normal’, as society and expectations on life change as time rolls by. The key to dealing with these cultural gaps is to understand and except one simple fact; Things change. In my small, but rather complicated family, the problem arises with my rather stubborn, and set-in-her-ways grandmother. Esmay, or grandma, as she is better known, grew up in England, already she was bound to be ‘a proper lady’. She comes from a wealthy family, whose value in women was about that of the servants they owned. Esmay was taught to worship her man, and that a woman’s place was in the house, doing kitchen duties and laundry, and having everything perfect for when the man of the house returns home from a horrendously troubling day at the office. Along came my mother†¦ Esmay never liked my mother, she called her a ‘wicked’ child, and told her that no man would ever want her. In Esmay’s eyes, my mother was the closest thing to the devil that walked this earth. She was outspoken, and wanted to do things for herself, rather than have a man to have to rely on, which was normal for those growing up in the 60’s. And, much to grandma’s surprise, my mother married, and had 3 children. But was later divorced, which delighted Esmay to bits, because her point was proven. In her eyes, mum had failed and that was entirely due to the fact that my mother was independent, and men don’t like that in women. And then there was me†¦ It’s kind of hard to describe yourself, but if I have to put me into one simple sentence, I would have to say this; I am my mother. I grew up taking in everything my mother taught me; Stand-up for what you believe in. Don’t ev...

Ciudadana americana por servir en el Ejrcito de USA

Ciudadana americana por servir en el Ejrcito de USA En reconocimiento al servicio prestado a Estados Unidos, los militares no ciudadanos pueden solicitar la ciudadanà ­a Americana por un procedimiento especial. En realidad, hay dos tipos de caminos, uno el regular, que aplica a casi todos los militares y otro especial para profesionales a travà ©s del MAVNI. Adems, en este artà ­culo se informa sobre quà © extranjeros pueden servir en el Ejà ©rcito y cules son los posibles beneficios migratorios para los familiares inmediatos de militares. Tramitacià ³n regular para militares para adquirir la ciudadanà ­a por naturalizacià ³n El servicio al paà ­s debe haber sido en: Ejà ©rcito de Tierra, Mar, Aire, Marines y Guardia Costera, asà ­ como ciertos miembros del Cuerpo de Reserva y de la Guardia Nacional. Estos son los trmites que se deben realizar: Rellenar el formulario N-400.Permitir que se tomen sus huellas digitales y rellenar el formulario de datos personales B-325B.Proporcionar dos fotografà ­as.Poseer buen carcter moral.Probar conocimientos suficientes del idioma ingles.Aprobar un test sobre conocimientos cà ­vicos e histà ³ricos sobre los Estados Unidos.Y si fueran residentes permanentes legales, proporcionar una copia de la green card. Para cumplimentar estos formularios el Servicio de Inmigracià ³n y Naturalizacià ³n (USCIS, por sus siglas en inglà ©s) ha entrenado a funcionarios para atender especialmente a los militares que pueden llamar al 1-877-CIS-4MIL. Adems, cada instalacià ³n militar cuenta con una persona especialmente designada para ayudar con este proceso a los militares que asà ­ lo deseen. Caracterà ­sticas especiales de la solicitud de ciudadanà ­a para los militares Los militares no tienen que tener presencia fà ­sica o residir en Estados Unidos.No pagan las tarifas por tramitacià ³n del formulario N-400.No pagan la tarifa por tramitacià ³n de formulario de datos personales y huellas digitales B-325B.En determinados periodos designados oficialmente como de hostilidades, los militares pueden solicitar convertirse en ciudadanos por naturalizacià ³n de Estados Unidos aunque no sean residentes permanentes.Desde 2004 es posible solicitar, tramitar, realizar la ceremonia de naturalizacià ³n y jurar lealtad a los Estados Unidos en el extranjero.Es posible recibir la ciudadanà ­a tras haber fallecido cuando militares fallezcan a consecuencia de enfermedades o heridas recibidas durante hostilidades, incluyendo los casos de muerte en combate. La solicitud de la ciudadanà ­a pà ³stuma debe ser solicitada por los familiares directos del difunto en los dos aà ±os siguientes a su fallecimiento. Cundo pueden los militares pedir la naturalizacià ³n Durante tiempo de paz, la solicitud puede presentarse si se es residente permanente, se ha servido con honor al menos por un aà ±o, y se sigue estando active en el Ejà ©rcito o se presenta la peticià ³n dentro de los seis meses siguientes a dejar de prestar servicio. En tiempo de Guerra, cualquier extranjero que sirve en el Ejà ©rcito puede presentar la solicitud para hacerse ciudadano en cualquier momento. Una orden ejecutiva presidencial es la que determina en cada momento si existe o no esta situacià ³n. Procedimiento especial para adquirir la ciudadanà ­a a travà ©s del programa MAVNI Este es un programa que se extiende anualmente y permite a ciertos profesionales que se comprometen con el Ejà ©rcito adquirir la ciudadanà ­a americana de forma muy rpida, frecuentemente en cuestià ³n de apenas unas semanas. Pero,  ¿quà © extranjeros pueden servir en el Ejà ©rcito de los Estados Unidos? En la actualidad, estas son las reglas. Y estas son las especà ­ficas que aplican a las personas extranjeras que residen en USA en situacià ³n migratoria de indocumentadas. Familiares de militares ciudadanos que han fallecido El viudo o viuda, los hijos y los padres de un soldado ciudadano, incluidos los casos de ciudadanà ­as concedidas despuà ©s del fallecimiento, pueden solicitar la ciudadanà ­a Americana para sà ­ mismos. En estos casos, no es necesaria la residencia o presencia fà ­sica en EEUU.  Asimismo, hay que destacar que el viudo o viuda de un militar americano podr solicitar la naturalizacià ³n incluso si se vuelve a casar. Beneficios migratorios para indocumentados Los indocumentados que son familiares inmediatos de soldados, oficiales, reservistas o veteranos podrà ­an beneficiarse del programa conocido como Parole in Place que otorga proteccià ³n frente a la deportacià ³n y es un camino hacia la regularizacià ³n. A tener en cuenta Aunque tradicionalmente la participacià ³n de los hispanos en el Ejà ©rcito ha sido inferior en relacià ³n a su porcentaje en la poblacià ³n estadounidense en general lo cierto es que en las à ºltimas dà ©cadas esta tendencia ha comenzado a cambiar, particularmente entre las mujeres. Y es que en la actualidad aproximadamente el 16 por ciento de los nuevos soldados son hispanos, sin duda atraà ­dos no sà ³lo por la posibilidad de servir a los Estados Unidos sino tambià ©n por los beneficios e incentivos de los que es posible disfrutar. Tener en cuenta que si se toma ventaja e algunos beneficios, como es la obtencià ³n de la ciudadanà ­a por naturalizacià ³n por haber servido en el Ejà ©rcito, à ©sta puede ser revocada si el militar dejar de prestar sus servicios militares en condiciones no honorables y no ha servido con honor al menos un total de cinco aà ±os. Finalmente, haber servido con honor en el Ejà ©rcito es uno de los requisitos que los Dreamers pueden cumplir para solicitar el beneficio de la accià ³n diferida  (DACA), esto para casos antiguos porque en los à ºltimos aà ±os no es posible para indocumentados servir en el Ejà ©rcito, excepto precisamente   los que tienen DACA aprobado. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

Coursework in financial reporting & corporate governance Essay

Coursework in financial reporting & corporate governance - Essay Example The emergence of the concept of corporate governance can be attributed to certain events in the recent past which have shaken the business world. Accounting frauds such as Arthur Anderson, Enron, Satyam and World Com etc in the last decade resulted in loss of shareholder in the way the companies are governed. These disclosures along with the dot com bust which itself had its own share of corporate mis-governance made people loose confidence in the stock markets and the way that the companies are governed. The resulting market fall along with the tremendous impact on the society (loss of jobs, and damage to customers, and financiers) made it necessary to have a systemic framework which shall define the working of a public listed company. More recently, the financial slowdown of 2008-09 has once again raised concern over the governance of such large organizations. The greed to make profits while ignoring risks involved and the eventual loss to the society has made it necessary to have a strong board of directors which has the complete knowledge of the companys operations, policies and business. In a nutshell, the following reasons can be listed for the growth in importance of Corporate Governance: There have been many steps in setting out the standard for safeguarding the interests of the society and stop the occurrence of happenings like the Enron, Maxwell Communications and so on. Amongst the first one was the Cadbury report titled â€Å"Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance† published in the year 2002 (The Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance, 1992). Subsequent standards were set up in the form of OECD Principles of Corporate Governance in the year 1999 and the Guidance on Good Practices in Corporate Governance Disclosure. British Airways (BA) and British Petroleum (BP) are the two large UK plcs that we will be comparing for the purpose of this paper. British

Respond post Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Respond post - Essay Example Safety remains essential aspect in engineering. A company is trying to cut its production cost while comprising the safety of the user is a huge mistake, especially automobile company. The life of the driver of a vehicle is dependent on the efficiency the vehicle when the safety of the driver is not put into consideration while manufacturing the car, and it exposes the driver to any risk. Competing in a market where profit is incurred in cost reduction have result companies like GM not recall faulty cars in order to protect their market share from dropping.This method should not be the best when the business products involve human safety. There should be measure that control business operating in product that risk to human beings The business that is leaving the market due financial loss that lead them been bankrupt is questioning that has no answer. Many of these instances occur due to poor management. The business has failed in providing quality products. This obligation is neglected in search of financial gain. Customers are making their decision on purchases based on the value and quality. If a business fail to meet the demand, it is likely to have a drastic reduction in its sale. Business should put quality as a core of its operation to survive the dynamic

Types of informal research method Essay Example for Free

Types of informal research method Essay o What type of informal research method did you use? o How was your research method similar to research methods used by psychologists? o If given another opportunity, what would you have done differently? When thinking about a time I had to test a theory there are many that come to mind. One thing that comes to mind is when my middle daughter had a situation at school where she was being labeled with ADHD and the school demanded her to be put on medication. I wanted to make sure that if there was any issue then we could start at step one. I wanted to make sure that it was not something that was causing this or if it was something medically wrong. My theory was my daughter was bored and just acting out because she was not being challenged. Once I was given the information by the school to get my daughter on medication I used the information and looked online to find out if my daughter had any of the symptoms that the scyhool had described. I used Google to find out the information I needed and was directed to WebMD. I found out that many of the symptoms the school had described were not any of the symptoms I had seen in my daughter myself. I also contacted several groups and asked many questions. One of the most helpful was being able to contact not only my daughters’ pediatrician but I was able to contact several other doctors with informal questions. I also kept a log of my daughters’ behavior for a few weeks as well as have a few conversations with my daughter. It was almost like a process of elimination with changing diets, changing sleeping patterns and changing the home routine for a little bit. With her pediatricians advice I was also asked to do some of the things I had already done to see if that would make a difference. In the end it was just the school not being a good fit for my daughter and she was not being challenged properly while in school and once we relocated her to another school it seemed things slowed down and straightened out. If given another chance to help my children out properly or myself in a situation like this I would definitely do it again. I think  that we give in to the world of medication these days and rely too much on a magic pill to fix everything instead of going through the process of elimination to find out what is wrong with our daily lives and making sure what we do makes us really happy. How did the world function 20 years ago before the magic pills we are prescribed today? It is something to think about.

Biosphere 2 :: Papers

Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2 is a supersealed â€Å"greenhouse† enclosing an area of 3.15 acres. Exit and entry is through a double airlock. It consists of several different ecosystems within the â€Å"greenhouse.† It houses a tropical rainforest, savannah, scrub forest, desert, fresh- and salt-water marshes and a miniocean that even contains a coral reef. This biosphere is inhabited by over 4000 species in all. The biosphere is able to preserve it environment because; water vapor from evaporation and transpiration of plants is condensed to produce high amounts of rainfall over the tropical rainforest. From there the water runs back towards the marshes and ocean as is filters through the soil, providing for an ample supply of fresh water for the humans as well as the ecosystems. The carbon dioxide released from respiration is absorbed for photosynthesis and necessary oxygen is replenished. Thus, meeting the necessary requirements for a sustainable biosphere. Biosphere 2 is not completely self-sufficient, it does depend on solar energy, and the energy demands that are created to power the necessary machinery, would require another 30 acres of solar collectors. The conclusion of the â€Å"cycle† is that not everything went exactly as planned. The oxygen level at one point dropped and additional oxygen had to be added to compensate for the underestimated amount of oxygen used by the decomposers in the soil. Larger amounts of carbon dioxide were used because of chemical reactions with exposed concrete. A large number of the species introduced especially insects necessary for pollination, died off, requiring pollination of many plants by hand. Despite these drawbacks the water, soil, and nutrients they started with were the same as when finished, having gone through the cycle a countless number of times. We have learned from this experiment that it is possible to build a biosphere, that integrates humans, and have it function within the tolerable limits of sustainability. Future versions of this experiment may be used in constructing permanent space stations or for long distance space exploration. If we continue mistreating our present biosphere we may end up living in structures similar to Biosphere 2. In my opinion this experiment proved to be very valuable if we wish to set up colonies on the Moon or other planets. This experiment is the beginning of the necessary information that will be needed to construct a completely self-sufficient biosphere.

Op-Ed Summary

Summary: Don’t Blame the Eater The Op-Ed piece, â€Å"Don’t Blame the Eater,† by David Zinczenko talks about the issue of obesity in America and whose fault it really is, the eater or the people providing the food. His claim on the subject is that it is the industries fault for the obesity in America and not the peoples fault because finding an alternative to eating cheap food on the go is nearly impossible. He makes an example of himself right in the third paragraph, explaining how his mom had to work long hours to pay the bills and his choices for food were pizza hut or KFC because that was the only affordable choice for him.He also employs a lot of logos in the following paragraphs by mentioning statistics on the matter of diabetes, and the amount of money put into treating it as the years progress. Shooting down opposing arguments also plays a factor in Zinczenko’s essay when he asks the reader â€Å"shouldn’t we know better than to eat two mea ls a day in fast-food restaurants? † He states that this is one argument, but then makes the point of where are consumers, particularly teenagers, supposed to find alternatives.He also introduces the concept of not knowing any information on the food that we are consuming, and the misleading advertising in fast food products where certain â€Å"healthy foods† are really just masked by misleading serving sizes and lack of dressing and noodles and almonds for say a healthy salad. I believe he sums up his essay by saying that the companies should be sued for not having these warning labels the same way tobacco companies are. Overall it is their fault and not as ridiculous as it seems.Summary: What You Eat Is Your Business â€Å"What You Eat Is Your Business,† is an Op-Ed piece on the same subject but from a different, and in my opinion more agreeable, perspective. His claim is almost opposite from Zinczenko’s in that he believes that it is our responsibility to take care of our own bodies rather than the food industries. He phrases it nicely when he mentions â€Å"bringing government between you and your waistline,† which is essentially what Zinczenko argued for.He says how this is the wrong way to fight obesity, that instead of manipulating what is available to us and how it is available to us, we should instead foster a sense of responsibility in our own health and well being. I think what he is basically saying is that we are just pointing fingers at what is our own faults, and that when the government acts for â€Å"us,† they are only acting for the public numbers rather than for the people themselves. Balko also mentions that by doing this, and having the government intervene, we have less incentive to actually put down what is causing our heart attacks.He employs ethos when he mentions names in New York Times magazines and specials on TV’s that plead for government intervention. What I liked about this Op-Ed p iece is that it makes sense and obesity should not even be in the public health concern. After all it is only there because we have to pay for the consequences of it. He provides his own stand and sticks firmly to it providing us with what he thinks would be best. The insurance companies should reward healthy lifestyles and penalize poor ones, not raise all our premiums because the rate of heart attacks are rising because the government is taking the wrong route.It is our responsibility to diet, exercise, and worry about ourselves. Response to Both I think I take a clear favorite out of the two essays. The second one works for me better because I already had a viewpoint on the topic. The first op-ed says that it is the governments fault for providing such cheap, unknown products that seem to be our only option when it comes to eating. I think this is a ridiculous argument. It certainly is not our only choice in eating out that just sounds like an excuse to me. The people like the fo od, so they keep eating it instead of looking for an alternative, and then point fingers.Sure there is diabetes and a lot of money put into treating it, but in the end the root of the problem is those people eating those foods and then making up excuses for it. This is why I agree with the second essay more. People have the ability to say no, they have the ability to look for healthier food at the same prices. They can pick up the food they are eating, and look at the nutrition facts, and look at the serving sizes. It’s not like you don’t see people living healthy life styles in the same economically classes.You don’t need to drink soda, in fact, water is free. Even if it were true that some things did not have nutritional facts on them, don’t you think you shouldn’t eat it then, or even if that was the case, can’t people use their common sense? Obviously the bucket of fried chicken glistening in trans fat is not going to harm your coronary artery in any way. In fact, a majority of people these days have smart phones, they won’t hesitate to look up the nearest McDonalds, but how about looking up some nutritional facts on it, or reading about how to live a healthy lifestyle.Balko is right, what you eat is your business, stop turning to the government and telling them its their fault they need to make you skinny. No they don’t, you need to stop fueling McDonalds, stop letting them think its okay to serve fries that never spoil because you claim they are the best fries you’ve ever had. It is your responsibility to diet, and exercise, and eat right, finding healthy food is not impossible, stop kidding yourselves.

Critically discuss Michel Foucault’s concept of knowledge/power

In â€Å"The Order of Things† (1973) Michel Foucault describes an episteme as the combination of institutions, discourses, knowledges and practices that organise the way we do things, making some actions acceptable and others unthinkable. He also says these processes of organisation in society are generally invisible. Critically discuss Michel Foucault's concept of knowledge/power with reference to Arthur Miller's film â€Å"The Crucible. † Michel Foucault's is a theorist who demonstrates a modernist way of thinking. Based on one of David Morley's definitions of the postmodern phenomenon being â€Å"a form of cultural sensibility and a mode of thought, particularly appropriate to analyzing the period† (Morley: 1996, p. 50), Foucault could be considered a postmodernist and a poststructuralist. However, some may consider his earlier works, like The Order of Things, to be structuralist as it may have possibly reflected a lack of distinction at the time it was written and received. Rather than narrating the nature of reality, Foucault intended to give descriptions of a variety of structures of knowledge also referred to as episteme. Arthur Miller's film â€Å"The Crucible† explores issues that are parallel to Foucault's thoughts of power and knowledge, however, Miller uses actual historical events as the background for his modernist ideas. The concept of knowledge and power explored in Foucault's text The Order of Things can be critically analysed with reference to more contemporary work of Arthur Miller, allowing one to draw distinctions between Foucault's theories and the concepts of collective evil, personal conscience, guilt, love and redemption explored in the film. In The Order of Things, Foucault can give up the philosophy of the subject without depending on ideas from social issues in society, which, according to his own analysis, are confined the modern form of knowledge. Foucault had studied the form of knowledge that appears with the claim of rescuing the intelligible from everything empirical, accidental, and particular, and that becomes especially suitable as medium of power in particular on account of this â€Å"pretended separation of validity from genesis† (Kelly: 1995, p. 82). This lack of empiricism in Foucault's thoughts reflects a modernist way of thinking. The article â€Å"Conclusion: Speaking as Deputy Sheriff† by Osborne and Lewis, has evidence of a similar modernist approach to thinking and lack of empirical theories. It is less focused on the idea that what ever is true should be measured; instead it makes statements and develops an analysis based on sciences or theory. An example is when it suggests that â€Å"a more historically aware approach to thinking about communication in Australia would be a useful place to start† (Lewis & Osborne: 2001, p212). This modernist approach to thinking about knowledge determines â€Å"the ensemble of rules according to which the true and the false are separated and specific effects of power attached to the true† (Kelly: 1995, p. 82). At the beginning of The Order of Things, Foucault claims for a will that consists of truth for all times and all societies: â€Å"Every society has its regime of truth, its ‘general politics' of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes it function as true. † This ideology is reflected in Arthur Miller's film â€Å"The Crucible† which is set in a small town, Salem. The entire village becomes consumed by certain beliefs and certain truths which include their indisputable faith in God and the existence of witches, witch craft and the devil. The Order of Things is the story of the â€Å"return of language† which explains the fundamental position of literature in our culture. Ours is a period in which language is taken to be at the source of all thought, and this is what highlights the importance of modernist writing. Language is â€Å"the strict unfolding of Western culture in accordance with the necessity it imposed upon itself at the beginning of the nineteenth century† (Rajchman: 1985, p. 3). The significance of language is also reflected in ‘The Crucible' when John Proctor refuses to sign a false confession, claiming â€Å"you can not take away my name†. He believed this would have happened by signing the confession onto paper, epitomising the impact that language has when printed on paper. In The Order of Things, Foucault paints a picture of modernist culture in which there is no character of man and science is no longer independent or universal. All scientific, aesthetic, and moral problems are reduced to problems of language, and languages have no warrant or foundation beyond themselves. Rajchman states that â€Å"Language becomes the limits of our being. It is only in transgressive writing that these limits are transcended; writers are the heroes of our age. This is a picture of what I call ‘post-Enlightenment literary culture. ‘† Many literary modernists, including Rajchman and Foucault, tell the story of how language had returned as the fundamental problem of our period, and our literacy culture which thus â€Å"finds itself† to be telling its own history. Foucault claims that â€Å"literature in our day†¦ s a phenomenon whose necessity has its roots in a vast configuration in which the whole structure of our thought and our knowledge is traced† (Rajchman: 1985, p. 25). In The Order of Things, it is clear that Foucault is hostile to the culture that reifies Man, and urges the reader to embrace the post-humanist age he foresees. Foucault rejects the traditional (Enlightenment) idea of progress and science, instead he constructs his history of knowledge with a lack of connection, and his literary history contains a hidden teleology giving way to immediate links to â€Å"The Crucible†. Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben describe the Enlightenment idea of progress as â€Å"the idea that the natural and social condition of human beings could be improved, by the application of science and reason† (Hall & Gieben: 1992, p. 22). â€Å". Both Miller and Foucault are modernist thinkers as they reject this Enlightenment concepts of progress, for example, the film â€Å"The Crucible† does not end with an improved social condition and happiness instead it comes to an abrupt end by the death of a central character and hero. In The Order of Things we find an attempt to â€Å"de-anthropologise† the concept of freedom. In â€Å"The Crucible†, John Proctor found freedom in the form of death. By not giving up his name in the confession he was condemned to be hung. However, his knowledge of what the real truth was allowed him to be free in his own sense of the word. This relates to Foucault's idea of power that he describes as â€Å"a way in which certain actions modify others† (O'Farrell: 1989, p. 119). But because of the freedom of the acting subjects, no matter what violence or seduction actions that make up power choose to exercise, the object of power can ultimately escape and refuse power even if only through death. This idea was taken from Foucault who said â€Å"the exercise of power may produce as much acceptance as may be wished for: it can pile up the dead and shelter itself behind whatever threats it can imagine. In itself the exercise of power is not violence; nor is it a consent which implicitly is renewable† (Foucault: 1977, p. 228). O'Farrell and Foucault's ideas are epitomized in the film ‘The Crucible', when John Proctor refused to sign the confession or in this case refused power, he was set free even if it were to be through death. These power relationships were then abolished once the subject was freed and hence there was no possible point of reversal hence the film was forced to an abrupt end. Foucault also believes there is no suspicion that our language, our work, and our bodies might determine the description of our actions and our world in ways we do not realise and can't change. However, there are many reasons why this theory should be questioned, an example existing in the film â€Å"The Crucible†. The young girls who were accused of witchery manifested power over their bodies and their language in order to convince the courts and an entire village of the existence of ‘their world' and the fact they could see the devil. All this was done in a quest to cover up their actions that was dancing naked around a fire in the forest. This idea creates a contradiction to Foucault's theory. However, Foucault also says that our problem becomes â€Å"not the possibility of knowledge but the possibility of a primary misunderstanding† (Rajchman: 1985, p. 13) which indeed was true in the case of the young girls of the film. In The Order Of Things, Foucault challenges new intellectual writings in regard to the change in utopian thought. In the classical period, utopia was the dream of an ideal beginning in which everything would perfectly fit into Tables of Representation. In Foucault's argument he states that â€Å"The great dream of an end of History is the utopia of casual systems of thought just as the dream of the world's beginnings was the utopia of the classifying systems of thoughts. In â€Å"The Crucible† the idea of witch craft challenges this world of utopia and one can question who has the authority to classify utopia, Miller or Foucault? Foucault's ideas challenge many of the ideas that run through â€Å"The Crucible† as he wishes not only to â€Å"de anthropologise† any nineteenth century utopian imaginations, dissociate our hopes of ever realising meaning and separate our freedom from philosophical theories about our nature. Much of Foucault's work is contradictory and this confuses anyone trying to analyse meaning in his writings. In The Order of Things he had looked at the way in which the human subject is defined through scientific discourse as a working, living, speaking individual (O'Leary: 2002, p. 59). However, Foucault deals with a collective and a great deal is to do with his unconscious ideas of perceptions; individuals play almost no role in his work. He is not concerned with the discoveries of scientists or other philosophers. However, it is difficult to imagine the human sciences without specific individuals. Thus, Foucault uses individuals such as Ricardo, Cuvier and Bopp in his work, however they â€Å"are not depicted as real people, no reference is made to their lives and little consideration is given to the controversies surrounding their ideas, since these issues are regarded as merely surface phenomena† (Spier: 1983, p. 166). As a result, the reliability of Foucault's work can be questioned because a crucial part of critical thinking and analysis when investigating other theorists work is their background and what may be the reasons behind their specific way of thinking. However, Foucault justifies himself explaining that he â€Å"tries to explore scientific discourse not from the point of view of the formal structures of what they are saying, but from the point of view of the rules that come into play in the very existence of such discourse† (Spier: 1983, p. 166). Spier raises an interesting critic of Foucault bringing his status as an author-subject into question. â€Å"If language rather than man speaks, as he claims, and if the statement â€Å"I am writing† is a contradiction comparable to â€Å"I am lying†, then who is the author of the order of things? (Spier: 1983, p. 167). This raises the question, is Foucault a universal voice of our time or is he merely speaking for himself. If he is speaking for himself as he suggests, then does he claim that what he is saying is a lie? Much of Foucault's work makes contradictory statements and thus is not necessarily reliable when looking for truths, instead his writing is the developing process of his thoughts and is often experimental so should be read with an open mind and thought about critically. Foucault's analyses may be regarded as a contribution to an understanding of the historical conditions of possibility of the human sciences and their social and political effects. The underlying connection within Foucault's work is the assessment of the relation between forms of rationality and forms of power, or of the relation between the emergence of particular forms of knowledge and the exercise of specific forms of power. Foucault believes that power is exercised upon the dominant as well as on the dominated and that there is a process of self-formation or auto-colonisation involved (Smart: 1983, p. 4). If we put this theory into practice within â€Å"The Crucible† one can suggest that Foucault's idea of power is quite naive. In â€Å"The Crucible† the young girls were from the dominant culture in Salem and exercised their power over the lower classes (or the dominated). However, there was no retaliation and so power was not exercised onto the girls (the dominant) in any case. Thus, Foucault theory is merely a generalisation and not appropriate as a rule on the whole. Power relations, Foucault claims are â€Å"‘intentional' and ‘non-subjective'†¦ They are imbued, through and through, with calculation: there is no power that is exercised without a series of aims and objectives† (Dreyfus & Rabinow: 1982, p. 187). This idea states that at the local level there is often a high degree of conscious decision making, planning and plotting. Foucault refers to this as the local cynicism of power (Dreyfus & Rabinow: 1982, p. 187). In â€Å"The Crucible† the young girls execute power over the village through their conscious actions to protect themselves, many were young and naive, and fear was driving them to accuse the innocent. Their actions would ultimately lead the execution of innocent and respected members of the town. Some of the elder girls such as the head Abigail knew very well of her actions and used strategically planned methods of power. The following phrase by Foucault epitomises power very accurately when in relation to these girls from â€Å"The Crucible†; â€Å"People know what they do; they frequently know why they do what they do; but don't know is what they do does† (Dreyfus & Rabinow: 1982, p. 187). This theory on power is an example of how both Foucault and Miller may have been influenced by other modernist thinkers such as Max Weber, a modernist thinker. He believed that power is the †chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will in a social action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action† (Max Weber, Basic Terms-The Fundamental Concepts of Sociology: 1942) In much of Foucault's writing there are seeming contradictions especially in this return to the traditional philosophic view or Enlightenment idea that description and interpretation ultimately must correspond to the way things really are. However, Foucault does admit to his somewhat unreal approach to writing. â€Å"I am fully aware that I have never written anything other than fiction. For all that, I would want to say that they were outside the truth. It seems plausible to me to make fictions work within truth, to introduce truth-effects within a fictional discourse†¦ † With this is mind one can say that Foucault's writing is still informative and helpful in its own right and reveals more about society and its practices than about ultimate reality. In The Order of Things, Foucault does describe an episteme as the combination of institutions, discourses, knowledge and practices that organise the way we do things, making some actions acceptable rather than unthinkable. In many ways Foucault's concepts of knowledge and power are contradictory to his own existing theories. While many of Foucault's ideas are parallel with Arthur Miller's film, â€Å"The Crucible†, some of his ideas reject Miller's way of thinking. This non-uniformity in Foucault's analysis can however be justified, because it is hard to believe that in any given culture and at any given moment, there is only one episteme that defines the possibility of all knowledge, power relations, the concepts of freedom and truth, whether it be in a theory or demonstrated in practice or action.

Old Man and the Sea Term Paper Essay Essays

Old Man and the Sea Term Paper Essay Essays Old Man and the Sea Term Paper Essay Essay Old Man and the Sea Term Paper Essay Essay Essay Topic: The Old Man and the Sea Through times of battle. worlds resort to memories and thoughts to assist them through struggle and hardship. In The Old Man and the Sea. Ernest Hemingway’s supporter. Santiago relies on his connexion with the sea and with nature. his relationship with a immature male child. and past memories and dreams to acquire through his battles with a big marlin. which he catches after 84 yearss with no fish. Ernest Hemingway uses Santiago’s bravery. love of nature and his experience to assist him overcome hardship. The novel takes topographic point largely out-of-doorss and at sea. This scene is of import. because the sea and nature both are of import parts of Santiago’s life. Santiago makes a populating off of the sea. He besides feels a strong connexion with both the sea and nature. The sea is what makes Santiago’s life worth life and is ironically what causes his hardship. Santiago uses the sea to take his head off the hurting he experiences in his organic structure. but the sea is besides what causes that hurting. In the beginning of the novel. he was depicted as old but cheerful. Everything about him was old. except for his eyes. They were the same colour as the sea. cheerful. and undefeated. Yet subsequently in the novel. his vision got blurry because he was ill. dehydrated. and worn out because of his battle with the big marlin. Besides. â€Å"he ever thought of the sea as La March which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her†¦ The old adult male ever thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours. and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could non assist them† ( Hemingway 29 ) . Unlike many others. the old adult male loves and respects the sea. because he sees its beauty. Despite the battle the sea creates for him. he knows that it merely creates adversities because it can non forestall them. The old adult male besides uses nature to quiet himself down. so he stops worrying about the hungriness and hurting ( Hemingway 109 ) . This is besides shown in the quotation mark. â€Å"Remember we are in September. The month when the great fish come†¦ Anyone can be a fisherman in May† ( Hemingway 18 ) . This quotation mark shows that anyone can get the better of the easy times. but it takes bravery and strength to get the better of the unsmooth times. Santiago’s battle with the sea by and large is what causes his hardship in the novel. yet besides portion of what helps him get the better of it. Santiago is an old fisherman in Cuba. . who has gone 84 yearss without a fish. He is â€Å"thin and gaunt with deep furrows in the dorsum of his neck†¦and his custodies had deep-creased cicatrixs from managing heavy fish on the chords. But none of these cicatrixs were fresh. They were every bit old as erodings in a fishless desert† ( Hemingway 10 ) . These cicatrixs show Santiago’s life-time of experience and hurting. However. his cheerful eyes. that are the colour of the sea. demo his juvenility. and his hope. This hope. juvenility. and finding is what helps him overcome hardship and travel out fishing after 84 twenty-four hours of unluckiness and catch a marlin. Through his actions. we learn that Santiago is relentless and hopeful. despite his fortune. and sentiments of the other fisherman. Besides in the novel. as Santiago’s hurting becomes harder and harder to cover with. he starts to unknot. and the reader can see a deeper side of him. As he both flashes in and out of world. the reader besides learns of what help’s Santiago maintain traveling. and cover with this hurting. The reader besides see’s Santiago’s purposes change somewhat. At first it was more about desiring glorification. and desiring to acquire rid of his bad fortune run. â€Å"Then he began to feel for the great fish he had hooked. He is fantastic and strange†¦ Never have I had such a strong fish†¦ What a great fish he is† ( Hemingway 48 ) . Santiago begins to detect the fish’s beauty. and strength. and feels bad for the fish ; this shows Santiago’s regard for the fish. Santiago goes even further in this statement by stating â€Å"Fish. I love you and esteem you really much. But I will kill you before this twenty-four hours ends. † Santiago says this. because he doesn’t want to kill the fist. because he has begun to care for it. and it reminds him of himself. but he knows he has to. for nutrient. and partly for his ain demand to cognize that he caught something. and that he wasn’t merely a sap for traveling out at that place ( Hemingway 54 ) . Santiago besides begins to see great hurting in his custodies. and he feels nauseating. He needs something to cover with that hurting. To get the better of this obstruction. and hardship. he relies on his dreams. memories from his young person. and baseball. â€Å"He lived along the seashore now every dark. and in his dreams he heard the breaker boom. and saw the native boats come siting through it†¦ . He dreams of topographic points now. and king of beastss on the beach† ( Hemingway 24 ) . His doggedness and his willingness to get the better of hardship. instead than merely give up. shows both Santiago’s strength and his bravery. These are two of the things that make him a Hemingway hero. Hemingway’ besides uses pride as Hemingway’s ruin. and what makes him the hero he is. A epic adult male like Santiago should hold pride in his actions. and as Santiago shows us. â€Å"humility was non scandalous and it carried no loss of true pride† ( Hemingway 14 ) . At the same clip though. Santiago’s pride is besides what presses him to go perilously far out into the sea. â€Å"beyond all people in the universe. † to catch the marlin ( Hemingway 50 ) . And while he loved the marlin and even called him his brother. Santiago admits to killing the fish for pride. and he was besides excited at the chance to conflict such a worthy opposition. It could besides be interpreted. that the loss of the marlin in the monetary value that Santiago had to pay for his pride in going out so far in hunt of such a gimmick. In the terminal. Hemingway suggests that pride in a occupation good done. even if pride is what drew Santiago into an unneeded state of affairs. is a positive trait. Another ground behind this could be Santiago’s need to experience worthy. Santiago is obsessed with turn outing his worthiness to those around him. He had to turn out himself to the male child: â€Å"the 1000 times he had proved it meant nil. Now he was turn outing it once more. Each clip was a new clip and he neer thought about the yesteryear while he was making it† ( Hemingway 66 ) . And he besides felt the demand to turn out himself to the marlin. This demand. is a large portion of what makes the novel. If Santiago. didn’t feel the demand to turn out himself to everyone. to the male child. to himself. or to the marlin ( the sea more by and large ) . so there wouldn’t be a narrative. His pride wouldn’t have pushed him out that far. because he wouldn’t have felt the demand to travel. This is a large portion of what makes his character overcome the odds. and hardship. Santiago’s relationship with the sea shows that with finding. one can get the better of the adversities in life. and go on to contend.

Case Study Of John Wayne Gacy English Literature Essay

Case Study Of John Wayne Gacy English Literature Essay John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer who was born in Chicago, Illinois, was the only son in John Samuel Gacy’s family of three children. He grew up in a family where they had an affectionate mother but a cruel father, an alcoholic, who used to discipline Johnny, as his mother called him, using a belt. The father used to be both physically and verbally abusive to the entire family; he would call Gary a â€Å"mama’s boy† and a sissy. Gary faced some extra hard childhood problems, including being molested by a family friend at only nine and being struck by a swing right on his forehead when he was eleven. The result was a head trauma that became root to a blood clot that was first noticed five years later; that is when he started suffering from black outs (Sullivan he attended four different high schools, dropped out of every single one of them and, at the end, never graduated. After a quarrel with his father when he was twenty years old, john decided to move to Las V egas, Nevada, where he got a job as a mortuary attendant for about three months. He then returned to Chicago, where, without having to go back to high school to seek graduation, he registered at the Northwestern Business College and graduated there. After his graduation, he managed to secure a management trainee position at a shoe company and made some major leaps in life after that, including getting promoted as a salesman in Springfield, Illinois, in 1964 and getting married to Marlynn Myers the same year (Kozenczak he constructed a basement at one of the restaurants where he opened a bar. Here, he used to take teenage male employees and forced them to perform oral sex on him. He also claimed to perform scientific research when he paid the teenagers fifty dollars each to have sex with each other; he called them homosexual experiments. Things got a little thick for Gacy in 1968 when two teenage boys claimed having being sexually assaulted by him; he got away with it when there was no evidence found. The same year, a youth confessed against Gacy; he had hired him to molest one of the two boys, trying to intimidate them. This time, he got ten years in jail after getting convicted of sodomy and on the same day, his wife filed for divorce – he never saw his children again and his father died while he was in prison, after which he had a pretty hard time trying to secure a compassionate leave to go and bury his father; he never succeeded. In 1971, Gacy was accused again by a young boy who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by him but the case got dismissed since the young boy never showed up in court. In 1972, another accusation for Gacy came up when he was arrested and accused of battering a young man. The man was claimed to have been battered when Gacy flashed a Sherriff’s badge, impersonating a police officer and luring him into his car. He allegedly forced him to fellate him but the case was dismissed after claims of the man trying to blackm ail Gacy for money were raised. Gacy continued to commit more crimes after 1972 including murdering many people, most of them young boys and men, committing rapes on teenage boys and other major crimes. Between 1972 and 1978, Gacy had raped and killed thirty three teenage boys.

Puerto Rico Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Puerto Rico - Essay Example Its original inhabitants were Aboriginal people. Christopher Columbus discovered it. It was a Spanish colony who transformed its culture and physical landscape. European knowledge, customs and traditions including Roman Catholicism, Spanish language, agriculture, stone constructions and the printing presses. In the present day, its people are American citizens and the region has a local constitution. They elect their own governor although they lack voting members in Congress and is a subject of the plenary jurisdiction of the United States under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950 (Luis, 2009). Its economy is a high-income economy and the most competitive in the Latin America. This economy is mainly driven by the manufacturing and service industries. The manufacturing industry comprises of pharmaceuticals, textiles, petrochemicals and electronics while the service industry is of finance, insurance, real estate and tourism. The Unites States controls its foreign affairs exerting trading restrictions especially in its shipping industry. It is also a small island lacking natural resources and depends mostly on imports (Duany, 2003). Puerto Rico experienced recession from 2006 to 2011 and again in 2013. However, it has managed to maintain a relatively low inflation in the past decade at the same time maintaining a purchase power higher than 80% of the world. It is unable to become a self-sufficient and self-sustainable economy since it has a public debt equal to 68% of its gross domestic product (Sanchez, 2009). It is, therefore, poorer than other American states, even Mississippi, with 41% of its population below the poverty line. Puerto Rico does participate in globalization through activities such as consumerism of society, attracting industries, computers and through its tourism program. On the other hand, globalization has greatly affected Puerto Rico’s natural environment. The future of the country is greatly jeopardized by the