Shakespeare carefully develops language to suit his characters and the mood of the play Essay Example

Shakespeare carefully develops language to suit his characters and the mood of the play Essay Shakespeare carefully develops language to suit his characters and the mood of the play. By referring to the characters and events in Romeo and Juliet show how he does this. Discuss different interpretations of the characters giving you opinion of them. Romeo and Juliet was written in the late 16th century by William Shakespeare, a time when the language was very different to the English we speak today. We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeare carefully develops language to suit his characters and the mood of the play specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeare carefully develops language to suit his characters and the mood of the play specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Shakespeare carefully develops language to suit his characters and the mood of the play specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer I have seen several different productions of Romeo and Juliet: Firstly, Baz Luhrmanns modern film, which I really enjoyed and easily understood. This was because Luhrmanns version transposed the action into the 21st century, with drugs, alcohol, car, firearms and a modern set, so that I could easily identify and relate to it. Zefferilis old-fashioned film is probably more how Shakespeare imagined his play to be, as it is portrayed with a set and costumes from the 16th century. Finally I saw a theatrical production in Warwick which helped Shakespeares words come to life, and gave me a clearer idea of each characters role in the play. Gregory and Sampson In Romeo and Juliet, the opening scene involves two of Capulets servants, Gregory and Sampson, who are armed with swords and bucklers. This straight away gives the impression that they are aggressive and ready for a fight. Both men are chatting together, very crudely, about sex and women. Like typical men they are boasting about their sexual prowess, turning everything into crude jokes, using word-play such as stand, thrust, maidenheads, tool and weapon. They are very sexist referring to women as being the weaker vessels. They think that they can over-power women and that women look up to them as superiors. As Sampson says; Me they shall feel while I am able to stand and tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh. This vulgar and crude talk about sex, is very different to the love Romeo and Juliet share for each other later on in the play. Their love is pure and true, and is much more than just sex! Luhrmann captures this crude boastful talk about sex very well, and it isnt over stated, so you can get the full affect about what they are talking about, shown when one of the characters licks his nipple! The Warwick Arts production was effective too, with Gregory and Sampson using vulgar movements to go with their crude jokes, for example, when Sampson pretended to urinate against the wall! Further into their conversation, Sampson and Gregory boast that they are superior to the Montagues, A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montagues, Which means if one of those dogs (Montagues) stirs them into a temper, Gregory and Sampson will stand their ground. This illustrates the characters nature showing that they are rough and ready for a fight. This opening scene in Romeo and Juliet is important, as it is such a contrast to Romeo and Juliets love. The play starts in prose to reflect the casual, informal way the boys speak and the way they behave. This is a scene of violence and comedy. When Romeo enters later on, and when he falls in love with Juliet, Shakespeare changes this style of writing, and uses poetry as it is sophisticated, more formal and emotional. He often uses rhyming couplets for example, when Romeo expresses his emotions. Such as O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright . It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night. Mercutio Mercutio is one of my favourite characters, because of his larger-than-life personality, and the funny but crude jokes he makes. His name comes from Mercurial which means lively and unpredictable. Throughout the play we can see that his name reflects his personality. When he speaks his Queen Mab speech it is imaginative and Mercutio seems to lose touch with reality. Another character whose name has been chosen to suit his character is Benvolio. His name comes from benevolent which means kind, and the inclination to do good. Benvolio is a Montague, and a good friend of Romeos. These two characters, Mercutio and Benvolio, are both different. Mercutio is very confident, outspoken and extrovert, prepared to fight, whereas Benvolio is a peacemaker who is not interested in fighting or aggression, saying Part fools, put up your swords, you know not what you do. Benvolio is very cautious, unlike Romeo. The Montagues and the Prince can trust his word. Benvolio seems to be used as a contrast to the other characters in order to emphasize their aggression. I think Baz Luhrmanns film is the best production of Romeo and Juliet, because he manages to transpose the action into the 21st century with his use of guns, drugs, cars, and a modern set. However I feel that he portrays Benvolio as too trendy, with an open shirt and baggy trousers, as if he is not kind or good natured. When Benvolio tries to part the Capulets with Gregory and Sampson, he draws out his gun and uses it as a weapon of intimidation, which is not how I picture Benvolio behaving. It seems aggressive and out of character. Mercutio is neither a Capulet nor a Montague, but is close friends with Romeo. He is first introduced to us in Act one scene four, when they are on the street outside Capulets mansion. They are carrying masks and torches, preparing to visit the Capulets party. Mercutio, with his lively personality and crude jokes, tries to cheer Romeo out of his sadness: Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. He also says, If love be rough with you, be rough with love: Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down, which is typically sexually suggestive. When Romeo refuses to be cheered up, and has no wish to join the dance, Mercutio begins to tell the tale of Queen Mab. Mercutio is funny, and very descriptive, going into the finest detail about the chariot, and the fairies midwife. Mercutio starts his speech with O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you, which sounds comical and magical. In Luhrmanns production, the Queen Mab speech is delivered very well, with the idea that Mercutio has lost touch with reality, because he has taken drink and drugs. This makes Mercutio feel relaxed, unconcerned about what people think of him, or what he is saying. Mercutio continues his speech with the finest detail saying; She comes in shape no bigger than an agate-stone on the forefinger of an alderman, drawn with a team of little atomi. Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, and Her wagon spokes made of long spinners legs. From this we can see that Shakespeare develops Mercutios language to emphasize Mercutios lively personality. This detailed description builds up an image in my head of Mercutios perception of Queen Mab: she is a fragile, beautiful, magical fairy. However his magical description becomes violent and disturbing, talking about how, She driveth oer a soldiers neck, and then dreams he of cutting foreign throats. Romeo and his friends, who are listening to Mercutios speech become very disturbed and anxious, and Romeo replies Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace!. They do not want to hear any more disturbing or unpleasant thoughts from Mercutio. Mercutio is next shown, mocking Romeos love for Rosaline, when they are outside the Capulets mansion. He pretends to be a magician saying, Romeo! Humors! Madam! Passion! Lover! Appear thou in the likeness if a sigh. Mercutio also seizes every opportunity to make sexual puns, such as demesnes, stand, spirit, and medlar. At this point Mercutio does not know about Romeos undying love for Juliet, and still thinks Romeo is in love with Rosaline. I found this scene very funny and entertaining at the theatre, where Mercutio was extremely extrovert and larger than life. The most disturbing and upsetting scene is in Verona, in a public place when Mercutio is laughing at Benvolios fears of meeting the Capulets, as Benvolio knows a fight will surely break out, I pray thee, good Mercutio, lets retire: The day is hot, the Capels are abroad, and if we meet we shall not scape a brawl, For now these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. This means that, as the day is hot, and people become very tired and touchy, if any Capulet insults or infuriates any one, a challenge to a fight would not be turned down. When Tybalt enters, Mercutio taunts Tybalt, but Tybalt ignores his insults, because he is seeking Romeo. However Romeo refuses to accept Tybalts challenge to fight, and tries to placate him saying, I do protest I never injured thee, But love thee better than thou canst devise, Till thou shalt know the reason of my love; and so good Capulet , which name I tender as dearly as mine own, be satisfied. The reason why Romeo is against a fight with the Capulets is because he has fallen deeply in love with Juliet and married her. It is already hard enough that they are from different families who are enemies, but becoming engaged in a physical fight would certainly make their relationship even more difficult. Mercutio is angered by Romeos refusal to fight, and challenges Tybalt to a fight himself. Romeo who was against the fight in the first place, tries to make peace. However his intervention is fatal to Mercutio, who becomes mortally wounded when stabbed by Tybalt under Romeos arm. Even when Mercutio is dying he continues to play on words, and he is very comical. He persists with his light-hearted jokes saying, Ay ay, a scratch, scratch, marry, tis enough. Because of this none of his friends realize or believe that he is fatally wounded. In fact they laugh at the act that they think Mercutio is putting on. Mercutio curses both the Montagues and the Capulets saying A plague a both houses! I am sped. Is he gone and hath nothing? In Zefirellis production I feel that this scene was made too comical and funny and light-hearted, as I pictured Mercutio to be aggressive and violent. After Mercutio (and Tybalt) die, there are no funny, comical or crude scenes. This happens so that more emphasis can be directed towards Romeo and Juliet. After Mercutio has said those words a plague a both houses! the whole story seems to go down hill, becoming very much more serious and solemn. At the theatre production, the audience seemed frustrated and upset that Mercutio, the life of the play had died. This increases peoples hatred of Tybalt, the murderer. The Nurse In Act one, Scene three, we are introduced to the Nurse when she is in conversation with Lady Capulet and Juliet. The Nurses position in the Capulet household is rather different to that of a normal servant. She was once Juliets wet nurse, and from then on they have been close, just like a mother daughter relationship. Juliet has taken the place of the daughter that the nurse once had, and everything the Nurse does, she does for Juliet. She has been totally devoted to Juliet like a mother. The Nurse immediately comes across as an enthusiastic, very confident and down to earth character, and quite crude as she says, Now by my maidenhead at twelve year old, I bade her come. What lamb! What, ladybird! God forbid, wheres this girl? What, Juliet!. I was quite surprised that the Nurse was admitting she lost her virginity when she was twelve. I would expect the Nurse to be polite and courteous, as her job is dependent on Lady Capulet. Juliets nurse is very talkative and relates a story from Juliets childhood until she is interrupted. She uses sexual references when talking such as, Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit and A bump as big as a young cockrels stone! After watching two different versions of Romeo and Juliet on video, which showed the Nurse as being crude and dramatic, I felt that the Nurse was portrayed as too sophisticated and formal in the theatre production to make any of her crude jokes entertaining or funny. Lady Capulet and Juliet are very reserved with each other, not like the Nurse and her now dead husband. Juliet refers to her own mother as madam and Lady Capulet relies greatly on the Nurses support when it comes to making decisions for Juliet as she says; This is the matter. Nurse, give leave a while, We must talk in secret. Nurse come back again, I have remembered me, thou s hear our counsel. This shows that Lady Capulet is too scared to talk to Juliet in private without the Nurse present as she feels that they are not very close, and the Nurse can deal with the situation better. To show that the Nurse is not very well educated she does not speak in poetry. Instead she speaks in prose, which shows she is not very sophisticated. Shakespeare used language to give his characters different personalities and to make them come to life. He also changed the tone of the play by altering the way different characters spoke. He uses language to set a crude and bawdy scene and then changes the tone of the play into a romantic and emotional scene again, by using more sophisticated poetry. He also uses language to establish a characters intellect, and to emphasize their position in society, for example the Nurses crude references, as opposed to the Friars.

Free Essays on Dysfunctional

Dysfunctional is usually applied to families, but also to describe anything from a broken appliance to society at large. To qualify as dysfunctional, obviously the thing in question has ceased to function, or perhaps never functioned in the first place. A family cannot function if the individual members don ¹t communicate their ideas, feelings, needs, and desires. Lack of communication is usually embraced and reinforced by a stringent set of unspoken rules. The same theory can be applied to organizations. Unfortunately I have been part of a dysfunctional organization, although the main problem was contained in one department, but much like teams, an organization is only as strong as their weakest link. I was a Director of Servicing Operations for a major mortgage lender in California. I had recently graduate from college and I had 5 years of servicing experience with the organization and I felt this would be an excellent opportunity for advancement in my career. I was well aware of the departments problems prior to taking the position, but for some reason I felt as though I would be the one to go to bat for my subordinates, reduce turn-over, increase productivity and finally bring the mortgage delinquency down to a respectable percentage. This was a huge order, but I was up for the challenge. Throughout my undergrad I learned many definitions of Leadership and I was determined to be a Leader rather than a Manager. Little did I know how much support I needed from upper management and colleagues to make this possible. When I first started with this company I was attracted to the scores of smart, motivated, and talented people that populated this organization, although I did notice that they do not often pull in the same direction at the same time. When they did, they can execute brilliant, breakout strategic moves, but the organization typically lacks the discipline and coordination to repeat these successes on a consistent basis... Free Essays on Dysfunctional Free Essays on Dysfunctional Dysfunctional is usually applied to families, but also to describe anything from a broken appliance to society at large. To qualify as dysfunctional, obviously the thing in question has ceased to function, or perhaps never functioned in the first place. A family cannot function if the individual members don ¹t communicate their ideas, feelings, needs, and desires. Lack of communication is usually embraced and reinforced by a stringent set of unspoken rules. The same theory can be applied to organizations. Unfortunately I have been part of a dysfunctional organization, although the main problem was contained in one department, but much like teams, an organization is only as strong as their weakest link. I was a Director of Servicing Operations for a major mortgage lender in California. I had recently graduate from college and I had 5 years of servicing experience with the organization and I felt this would be an excellent opportunity for advancement in my career. I was well aware of the departments problems prior to taking the position, but for some reason I felt as though I would be the one to go to bat for my subordinates, reduce turn-over, increase productivity and finally bring the mortgage delinquency down to a respectable percentage. This was a huge order, but I was up for the challenge. Throughout my undergrad I learned many definitions of Leadership and I was determined to be a Leader rather than a Manager. Little did I know how much support I needed from upper management and colleagues to make this possible. When I first started with this company I was attracted to the scores of smart, motivated, and talented people that populated this organization, although I did notice that they do not often pull in the same direction at the same time. When they did, they can execute brilliant, breakout strategic moves, but the organization typically lacks the discipline and coordination to repeat these successes on a consistent basis...

Business Case Formulation for a successful SAP (ERP System) Literature review

Business Case Formulation for a successful SAP (ERP System) Implementation - Literature review Example Aladwani (2001) elucidates that, businesses are operating in environments that are undergoing continuous experiences of dynamic changes and as a result, many organizations are striving hard to remain competitive. Nonetheless, the changes pose challenges for most companies as they focus on improving their business practices and procedures, as a way of maintaining a strategic influence in the competitive market using the current forms of information systems. More significantly, the advancements have seen organizations adapt support information systems with advanced operations that include Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which enhance companies maximization of strategic management of its resources by allowing maximum potential use of diverse enterprise systems that suit the organizational needs (Peffers, Gengler & Tuunanen, 2003). In most cases, the ERP systems implemented are based on the extensive knowledge of the industry, readily usable assets besides proven ERP processes, strategies and technologies. Kerimo & Uluhan (2003), emphasis on the fact that the use of clearly implemented ERP systems for a suitable company practices provide viable solutions that remain significant in achievement of business advantages in the competitive global markets. Nah & Delgado (2006) describes the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as being of great importance to companies as it offers integrated, enterprise-wide systems that can be used in the provision of automated support. As a result, the automated support system will allow effectiveness and efficiency of business procedures as it is considered essential for standard business processes within and outside operations of organizations. More considerably, companies have found it beneficial to adopt an ERP system that allows for improvements in management and decision-making. More considerably, the implementation

Reflection 5 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflection 5 - Research Paper Example There are however industries/businesses that will be immediately and severely affected with this crisis. In particular, banks will be the first hit because they adopt a cautionary stance in lending out money because they are uncertain if borrowers can repay given the current dismal economic condition. Second is the housing industry. A home is the single largest investment that an individual will make and it is very unlikely that an individual will make his or her largest investment during a crisis. Without a market or having a market that is overly cautious, housing industry will surely contract. Third are the manufacturing companies who needs infusion of capital to finance its fix assets for expansion. As lending institutions are in doubt of the economy’s future, they will be heistant to lend money to industries. The manufacturing industry in effect will not have enough funds to finance its expansion resulting for it to contract. 2. Giving the current trend both in the US and Canada where consumers eating habits are changing, both food manufacturers and grocery stores has to adjust. For food manufacturers, they have to realize the increasing preference of consumers towards discounts and buying in scale to save money. Such, they may want to reconsider their packaging that would accommodate the increasing preference for scale and value. For grocery stores, they now have to reconfigure their service to include delivery as consumers now are preferring to have their groceries delivered to save on gas. 3. There is an increasing trend for consumers to use social media. Research showed that adults spend at least six hours per week in social media and this would continue in the future. Such, marketers may want to adjust their marketing plans and diversify to non-traditional media such as social media (facebook, twitter, etch) to capture the market to are frequenting these sites. Also the trend in technology purchases such as smartphones may

Causation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Causation - Essay Example For instance, in Empire Jamaica (1955),2 the owners sent a vessel out to sea, and it crashed because the pilot fell asleep. The only negligence that the owners were guilty of were that the officers did not have their licenses. But this had nothing to do with the crash, so, even though there was a negligent act, it was not the cause of the damages. Similarly, in Christopher Andrews v. Barnett Waddingham LLP and RAJ Waddingham3 there was insufficient causation between the negligence of the financial advisors and the loss that was suffered by the claimant. Moreover, there is a general rule in English law that there are certain acts that would break the chain of causation. For instance, the acts of a third party are likely to break the chain of causation.4 This often when the defendant does not have control over the third party's actions, but, if the actions of the third party are foreseeable by the defendant in any way, the chain of causation is not broken.5 While these are torts cases, there are criminal cases as well, and these criminal cases define the boundaries and the contours of causation in the criminal courts. In criminal law, there must be an action (actus reus) combined with the state of mind (mens rea), and the actus reus plus the mens rea must have caused the actual crime.6 Moreover, there might be instances where there is a supervening or intervening cause that would break the chain of causation.7 There are exceptions to this, of course. For instance, there might be a case where somebody does great bodily damage to somebody else, but does not do enough damage to kill the person. But, the person might be a Jehovah's Witness and refuses a blood transfusion. If the transfusion was received, then that person would have lived. The defendant would still be guilty of manslaughter or murder, because of what is known as the ?hin skull rule- this means, generally, that you take the victim as you find him or her.8 At the same time, there are times when an omiss ion might give rise to criminal liability, such that a crime can be heightened if the person does nothing for somebody who was damaged by the criminal defendant.9 For instance, if somebody beats somebody up, and doesn't get medical attention for the person, and the person dies, then that person is guilty of murder or manslaughter.10 Likewise, there is also an issue regarding intervening causation.11 One of the leading cases for this is R v. Cheshire.12 In R v. Cheshire, the appellant attacked and shot a man in a fish and chip shop, and he underwent surgery. When he was in surgery there was a negligent act, in which the doctor could not diagnose the reason why the patient died. The doctor misdiagnosed the reason behind the patient's breathlessness and respiratory obstruction. However, it was found that the only way that the causation would be broken would be if the medical staff was reckless, not merely negligent. Therefore, the defendant in this case was found to be liable for the d eath, because he put the causation into motion with his battery in the first place.13 That said, there can also be a case where the negligence of a third party would break the chain of causation, such that the defendant who put the act into motion would not be negligent for the

Child Support Agency: Critical Analysis of its Current State

Child Support Agency: Critical Analysis of its Current State Support that Needs Supporting: A Critical Analysis of the Current State of the Child Support Agency Abstract: On November 17, 2005 Prime Minister Tony Blair stated to the House of Commons that the CSA has fundamental problems. And this is the current opinion amongst many of the users of the service. This project will critically analyse the issues which have caused the agency to fail in its provision of support to some of the most vulnerable people in society; children. Table of Contents (Jump to) Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Investigation Chapter 2: Adjudication Chapter 3: Enforcement Chapter 4: Technological and Staffing Problems Chapter 5: The Future for the CSA Conclusion Bibliography Table of Cases and Statutes Preface This dissertation examines the current state of operation of the United Kingdom Child Support Agency, an organisation beset with criticism and administrative difficulties. It was hoped that the CSA, which has the two-fold role of assessing and collecting child support payments, would solve many of the problems of the court-based regime it was designed to replace. However, after 13 years of operation and several intervening attempts to reform the Agency these early ambitions have not proved well founded. In the following paper various areas of institutional weakness are identified and discussed, and conclusions are drawn on the basis of the observations made. Introduction The Child Support Agency (â€Å"CSA†) commenced operations in April 1993. It is an executive agency of government and a branch of the Department for Work and Pensions. The CSA is obliged to implement the 1991 Child Support Act and all relevant legislation relating to child support.[1] Child support, which is more popularly known as child maintenance, can be defined as the contribution made by a non-resident parent towards the financial costs of raising their child and it is usually paid to the person (usually the other parent) with whom the child resides. Before the establishment of the Child Support Agency disputes regarding child maintenance were dealt with by the courts. It was hoped that the introduction of the CSA would solve many of the problems associated with the old system in particular its inability to trace parents and its tendency to impose arbitrary and unfair settlements. The CSA was charged with the duty to assess payments on a consistent basis against a standard formula and thereafter to collect and distribute child support in an efficient manner. There is no doubt that this is a very sensitive and difficult area of public policy to manage but it is hard to avoid the assertion that the Child Support Agency has performed poorly. Criticism has been levelled at the CSA since its inception. In 1998, Prime Minister Tony Blair accepted that the CSA had â€Å"lost the confidence of the public†. He described the Agency as â€Å"a mess, in need of urgent reform†.[2] Various costly and comprehensive reforms were indeed implemented but the Agency’s performance deteriorated yet further over time. In November 2004, Doug Smith, the head of the CSA, resigned after wide-ranging criticism of the CSA systems..[3] Chairman of Work and Pensions Committee Sir Archy Kirkwood was moved to describe the situation at the CSA as: â€Å"a systemic, chronic failure of management right across the totality of the agency..† In November 2005, confronted by reports that for every  £1.85 that is collected for child support, the CSA spent  £1 on administration, Tony Blair acknowledged that the CSA was â€Å"not properly suited† to its function.[4] Blair proceeded to admit to the House of Commons that the CSA has â€Å"fundamental problems.† It is submitted that this is now the view of the overwhelming majority of commentators and clients of the CSA’s services. There is now a strong likelihood that the CSA will be subject either to radical reform or be scrapped altogether. At the time of writing in June 2006 it is anticipated that the government’s plans for the CSA will be laid before Parliament before Parliament rises for the summer. These are therefore important weeks for the Agency. This project will critically analyse the issues which have hindered the CSA in its efforts to provide support to some of the most vulnerable people in society; the children of failed relationships. Chapter 1: Investigation â€Å"†¦I make no defence of the current situation. The CSA is in an extremely difficult position†¦it is the investigating agency, then it is the adjudicating agency, then it is the enforcement agency†¦.The basic problem remains†¦It is extremely difficult to make this operation cost effective when the agency is the investigating, adjudicating and enforcing authority†¦.The truth is that the agency is not properly suited to carry out that task† Prime Minster Tony Blair House of Commons, 16 November 2005[5] Perhaps the first point to make is that the CSA caseload is very heavy. Changes in society are producing more and more broken families and thus child support claims, and many of these may prove to be highly complex cases. The investigation-stage of a case is clearly resource-intensive and the plain fact of the matter is that staffing resources and internal efficiency protocols have never been adequate to meet the demands of the burgeoning caseload. It needs hardly be said that the process of investigation of child support cases is often a very difficult and thankless task. Non-resident parents will often make great efforts to conceal and misrepresent facts so as to circumnavigate, obfuscate and frustrate the work of the Child Support Agency and it is unfair to blame the Agency for the behaviour of those with whom it is charged with dealing. Anecdotal evidence suggests that parents have taken extreme steps such as changing jobs or rendering themselves unemployed to defeat CSA investigations aimed at building a case to require them contribute financially to the upbringing of their children. It is likely that evasive or duplicitous parents create many times the amount of work for the Agency that a cooperative parent does and it is perhaps unreasonable to lay that responsibility at the door of the CSA. However, it is submitted that the style of management and administration systems operative at the Agency has exacerbated the profou nd external difficulties it faces, magnifying inevitable difficulties and allowing other problems that could be avoided under a tighter and more cogent regime to manifest themselves causing additional costs and delays. Perhaps the greatest weakness in the CSA investigation system the policy organisation’s policy that â€Å"the non-resident parent has a right to be believed† which ties the hands of Agency staff. This policy is clearly in place to reduce the administrative burden on the CSA but it is manifestly susceptible to abuse, if not, frankly, ripe for it. If a parent with care is fully aware that the non-resident parent has several jobs but has disclosed only one job to the Agency, then telephones the Agency to disclose this fact, the Agency will respond by repeating the aforementioned mantra and refuse to take further action unless â€Å"pay-slips from other jobs can be provided†, which in almost every case is an impossible demand. This is a ridiculous state of affairs, and one that gives non-resident parents full and open licence to deceive the Agency and avoid paying the proper amount to the children who are supposedly the priority in the system.. It is also submitted that the CSA, being an administrative entity, is not best suited to dealing with some of the highly complex and contentious cases that fall for its attention.. Such cases, which would probably be better suited to solution within the court system, serve as logjams in the Agency’s workload, and delay the progress of many more straightforward cases.[6] CSA investigations have been hampered not only by clumsy managerial procedures and organisation, but also by the information technology systems upon which it relies. The problems with the CSA’s IT systems have been well-publicised and are so extensive as to merit specific discussion later in this paper.[7] However, with regards to the issue of case investigation in particular, it has been impossible for management accurately to scrutinise and evaluate the performance of the Agency, and thus set in place long term strategies and goals, because of failings and incongruities within its information technology infrastructure. As the Commons Work and Pensions Committee commented in 2005: â€Å"It is difficult to exaggerate the Agency’s already low reputation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ .[8] It is submitted that the credibility of the CSA is perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to its case investigation work. The Agency does not enjoy the unqualified respect of parents on either side of the child support equation, and this probably understates the truth. The CSA is widely perceived to be a disorganised and failing entity. Given that effective investigation is heavily reliant on prompt and fulsome compliance by parents, the credibility of the Agency itself has become a major factor in reducing its effectiveness as an organisation. In simple terms, parents are not scared of the CSA or intimidated by the consequences that dilatory or obstructive behaviour on their part might provoke. When one contrasts the reputation of the CSA with that of the Inland Revenue or the Police it is clear that the Agency is its own grea test enemy, in particular in regards to its role as investigator something which is so dependent on its relationship with and image in the eyes of parents, many of which already harbour a recalcitrant agenda. CSA investigation has also been hampered by weaknesses and omissions in the range of powers made available to the Agency for the fulfilment of its case investigation work. For example, Liberal Mps David Laws and Danny Alexander recently claimed that the CSA has had to shelve 46,000 cases where the non-resident parent cannot be traced, noting, almost incredulously, that there is no obligation on non-resident parents to inform the Agency when they change either their job or their address.[9] This position has been labelled as â€Å"absurd† by the Work and Pensions Select Committee.[10] It can be argued that such lacunae in the powers awarded to the CSA have made a significant contribution to the inefficiency of its case investigation operations.. Moreover, in this regard it should be noted that the ability of the Agency to obtain information about a non-resident parent’s income at the investigation-stage from Government bodies and other organisations and is woefully inadequate, and this weakness predictably generates a huge amount of unnecessary delay. The CSA’s inability to access confidential information such as credit cards records clearly hampers the organisation’s activities although there is a limit on just how far enhanced legal powers could assist in bringing the most assiduously evasive and duplicitous non-resident parent to book. Ironically, given that the future of child support may well lie in that direction, it is submitted that there has to date been poor communication and ineffective cooperation between the Child Support Agency and the Inland Revenue.. Unfortunately, even in cases where both parents offer full cooperation, due to the CSA’s parlous communication networks families rout inely have to wait many months before a child support assessment is made and a maintenance liability is established, and of course over this period extensive arrears may build up. Another factor which has frustrated CSA investigation work is that the rules and frameworks under which it operates have been subject to constant and comprehensive change over the course of the life of the Agency. Seemingly well-meaning â€Å"reforms† have been implemented with such regularity that the CSA is in a constant state of learning. For example, The Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 introduced a wholly new system[11] (known in the literature as the new scheme†) which entered into force for new cases as of March 2003. The intention was that the new scheme, which incorporated much simpler calculations, would elevate the problems of the Agency, however, it is submitted that this attempt to improve the situation at the CSA only made things worse, because the Agency now had to deal with a new an unfamiliar system alongside the old rules which remained applicable to earlier cases. Further work was generated by the need to convert cases from the old system to the new. These demands inevitably had a negative effect on the on-going case investigation work of the Agency, further depleting morale and resources. Other weaknesses in the investigation process may prove simply intractable. Under the rules of the CSA men are liable to start paying maintenance from the moment they are named by the mother as the father of the child. Unfortunately, almost one in five men who challenge the claim and ask for a DNA test discover that they are not the father of the child in question (3034 of 15909 1998-2004).[12] Refunds to the men are paid by the taxpayer, no attempt has been made by the CSA to recover any of the money wrongly paid over to the women in question. Labour MP and ex-social security minister Frank Field has commented: â€Å"The situation in the CSA is getting so absurd that even Lewis Carroll would have rejected it as a script for Alice in Wonderland.†[13] However, this is just one example of the difficulty faced by the CSA in attempting to impose an administrative framework and order in its investigative case work over such complex, sensitive and fraught personal relationships. The very latest report on the Child Support Agency’s performance, published on 27 June 2006 by Independent Case Examiner (ICE) Jodi Berg (who is charged with the responsibility of monitoring the CSA) expresses â€Å"deep concern† about the standard of its investigation work and the weakness of the basic administration of the Agency.[14] Berg reported that complaints against the Agency rose 5 per cent over the past year and noted that more than fifty per cent of all complaints were associated with delays or errors in the case investigation process. This increase in complaints follows on the back of record increases in the past two years.[15] Given the problems identified above this is perhaps not surprising. Berg recommended in more than half of all complaints ultimately investigated (1,348 over the last year) that the CSA should offer some form of financial recompense to the complainant.. The examiner concluded that the Child Support Agency would only be able to deal wi th its poor levels of customer service if it achieved the establishment of â€Å"sound fundamental administration processes†.[16] It is submitted therefore, in summation on this issue, that the CSA operates under a weak and pregnable administrative system, and that holes and ambiguities in the system are exploited by non-resident parents determined to avoid paying child support by any means. This commentator asserts that this combination of factors is in large part responsible for the poor performance of the Agency’s work on case-investigation. Chapter 2: Adjudication Alongside its role as investigator, the Child Support Agency is charged with the responsibility to adjudicate the cases that come before it. It is clear that the Agency has dramatically under-performed in this area just as it has in other spheres of its activity. The National Audit Office (NAO) has qualified its opinion on the CSA’s account in every single year since the Agency’s inception due to the level of error detected in maintenance assessments.[17] The NAO has reported that more than a quarter of receipts from non-resident parents and, astonishingly, more than three quarters of maintenance assessment debts are incorrect under the CSA‘s accounts. The NAO has also estimated that overstatement errors run to more than  £20 million pounds per year and that understatement errors may amount to around twenty times that amount.[18] This is an appalling state of affairs, and one which prejudices, in particular, the interests of children which the CSA is supposedly duty bound to hold high. The CSA Standards Committee provides the Chief Executive with a independent review of the quality of decision making within the Agency, and on the mechanisms in place for quality assurance. The Committee expected an improvement in the standard of adjudication achieved by the CSA after transition from the old to the new scheme, however it noted in its 2003/04 annual report that the new IT system was unable to deliver the anticipated results.[19] The report indicates an overall accuracy figure of 81.8%, which is below the 90% target imposed by the Government. It is submitted that this figure, which suggests mistakes in around 20 per cent or one fifth of all adjudications is unacceptable and that it cannot be explained merely by blaming IT difficulties. It is argued that staffing issues and poor management and surveillance play a significant part in erroneous adjudications and this is one aspect of the work of the Agency that cannot be defended by pointing at the behaviour of recalcitra nt non-resident parents.. The accuracy of decisions exclusively made in maintenance assessments is put at 79.8 per cent by the Committee, which is a steadily improving figure. (accuracy was put at 75% in 2002/03 and 71.6% in 2001/02). The report suggests that the primary causes of â€Å"inaccuracy† under the old scheme were: miscalculation of earnings errors regarding housing costs supersession errors[20] insufficient documentary evidence..[21] The Committee expressed disappointment that similar errors appeared to be creeping into the operation of the rules under the new scheme, and reported that these included mistakes in the setting of effective dates, elements of client contact and erroneous earnings calculations.[22] In March 2005 the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee delivered its report: The Child Support Agency: Government Response to the Committees 2nd Report of Session 2004–05. In this report the Work and Pensions Committee expressed continued concern at the â€Å"lower than expected level of accuracy of maintenance calculationsâ€Å". The Select Committee noted, the findings of the Agency’s Standards Committee as discussed above and recommended adherence to policies set down in the Transformation Programme designed to smooth the problematic transition from the old scheme to the new. These policies include double-checking for the most commonly made errors, and measures ensuring that all decisions are correctly documented (inadequately documented decisions are classified as inaccurate even if the calculation is correct). The Select Committee noted that a series of measures would be developed to further improve the adjudication process and these include: The adoption of a Standardised Adjudication Form – completion of which should be mandatory in the case of all â€Å"off-line decisions† unsupported by the system. It is submitted that this should support the documentary trail supporting these decisions. The introduction of a risk-based checking system – It is suggested that this policy should target surveillance and quality control resources on stages in the adjudication process known to be error-prone. In terms of opportunity-cost it is clearly prudent to make such stages a priority in this regard, but that is not to say that other less commonly arising mistakes should be ignored. Centralised Checking Teams – It is submitted that, in theory at least, this is also a well-founded policy. A centralised quality assurance mechanism, could more efficiently improve consistency and standardisation within the Agency and it is perhaps surprising that such a resource has not been in place within the CSA since its inception. Introduction of Quality Support Officers – again it is surprising that it took 12 years of operation before the creation of such posts were seriously considered. It is argued that the prior lack of such officers goes someway to explain the poor performance of the Agency since its establishment.. Such officers could quickly draw adjudication errors to the personal attention of the decision maker and the relevant Team Leader to ensure that misunderstandings are promptly and effectively rectified through focused coaching and targeted support.. Enhancements in Staff Training – Again it is noted that the User Education Programme concentrates on training aimed at eliminating the top five errors, but it is submitted that improvements aimed at eliminating the propensity to err in general should also be implemented if the Agency is really to address the mistakes plaguing its adjudication processes. As has been argued was the case in the context of the Agency’s case-investigation work the transition from the old scheme to the new scheme rules has proved problematic.. Efforts to improve the quality of the adjudication process have been hampered by the change from one system to the next and by the fact that the two quite different systems run in parallel and must be administered as such within the organisation.. These effects have been felt not only in the UK CSA but in its Northern Ireland counterpart. In the Annual Report on Decision Making in the Northern Ireland Child Support Agency (2003-2004)[23] the Independent Standards Committee reported that whereas under the old scheme around 1 in 4 decisions contained an error, under the new scheme almost half of adjudications contained a flaw, although curiously financial accuracy is reported to be 92 per cent in both cases. This suggests that most errors are either procedural in nature or to be found in the inaccurate/incomple te recording of decisions and this is very much a management issue. Ultimately, it is argued that it is the senior management team of the CSA that should be held responsible for the general tendency of the Agency to err in its adjudication role.. It is the function of the leadership of the Agency to set in place the appropriate systems and cultures necessary to ensure accuracy. After thirteen years of operation one would, it is submitted, properly expect that teething troubles in the adjudication process should have been long-since identified and rectified, but that does not appear to have been the case. Indeed the management malaise at the CSA, while perhaps most obvious in the context of poor adjudication standards, translates into below-par performance in other fields of activity beyond the largely internal scope of the adjudication process, with even greater force due to the determination of non-resident parents to hamper the administration that lax management has left pregnable.. Chapter 3: Enforcement Enforcement is the third of the CSA’s three main functions in the field of child support.. Yet again however, it is submitted that the Agency has been found lacking and criticism of its efforts in this arena has been both extensive and far-reaching. The CSA has consistently exhibited a disturbing failure properly to enforce maintenance payments. In an enforcement monitoring exercise supervised by the Child Support Agency Standards Committee in 2003 it was discovered that only 10 per cent of enforcement cases were dealt with in a correct manner. This, it is argued is a simply disgraceful state of affairs. Moreover, the National Audit Office has qualified the CSA’s Client Fund accounts in every single year since the Agency’s inception and this is an indefensible situation that would have led to collapse and investigation if it had occurred in the private sector in the context of any normal commercial undertaking.[24] Part of the blame can be laid on the behaviour o f obstructive non-resident parents but the lions share of the responsibility for this appalling record of failure must lie with the management and administration system dedicated to enforcement that those reluctant payers seem to find so easy to exploit. In principle, where a non-resident parent fails to pay regular maintenance, the Agency’s policies dictate that so-called â€Å"front-line staff† should endeavour to negotiate an arrears agreement. If such an agreement cannot be reached on a voluntary basis, and the non-resident parent is in employment, a debt manager may be called upon to impose a Deduction from Earnings Order on his or her salary. If this action proves ineffective the case will be referred to an Enforcement Team which will consider legal proceedings (this decision and the form of such proceedings is at the discretion of the Enforcement Team). The Child Support Agency Standards Committee have found numerous errors occurring at this important stage..[25] Among the errors the most commonly occurring include a failure to use the full range of powers available to the Agency to obtain information to allow the conversion of a case from an interim maintenance assessment to a full maintenance assessment.. In this regard it should be noted that section 14A of the Child Support Act permits criminal proceedings to be brought against those failing to provide information or who offer false information. It is argued that cultural factors within the management of the organisation deter resort to criminal action in some cases and that this tendency coupled with the fragile administrative superstructure is deleterious both to t he CSA’s performance and its reputation. Another frequently noted error is the incorrect application of Liability Orders, which are necessary to obtain legal recognition that a debt is owed as a precursor to further enforcement proceedings against the non-resident parent. In many other cases no action is taken after the issuing of a letter warning of enforcement action to an unresponsive non-resident parent.. There is strong anecdotal evidence and a commonly held public perception that the Agency takes a very tough and rigorous line on non-resident parent’s willing to cooperate and make payments, but a far less assiduous approach to uncooperative and evasive parents. It is submitted that there is a widely held belief that the CSA pursues this line with a view to the preservation of its own resources and the improvement of its own performance figures and the Agency is routinely criticised for disregarding the interests of children and single parents as a consequence. Indeed, the CSA has been roundly criticised by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for this engrained pattern of behaviour.[26] However, that is not to say that the Agency has not made progress in some fields of enforcement activity. Prompted by recommendations made by the Standards Committee the CSA has sharpened its policies to some extent. For example the  £250 de minimis[27] debt threshold for enforcement action (imposed presumably for administrative and cost efficiency) has been abolished and new fines have been introduced along with the option to seek the withdrawal of driving licences from non-payers. That said, by 2005 the Agency had only used its power to withdraw driving licences 11 times in the five years since the introduction of the penalty[28], and given that over that period well in excess of 250,000 non-resident parents had become habitual non-payers, this must be viewed as a lamentable if not disgraceful record. Unfortunately the developing picture became even gloomier despite the increase in resources made available to the Agency’s enforcement teams. Billions of pounds have now been written off by the Agency as â€Å"uncollectable†. It is submitted that the Agency’s political overseers must take some of the blame alongside the senior management of the organisation. Under Tony Blair’s Labour administration the amount of the uncollected child maintenance had tripled from  £1.1bn in 1997 to  £3.3 billion by 2005. It is clear that the Agency puts insufficient emphasis on compliance and that, for some inexplicable reason it resorts to middle-order procedures to compel regular payments in far fewer instances than should be the case. The parent with care is typically forced to make numerous complaints before any enforcement action is taken by the CSA and even then there is no guarantee that effective measures are put in place. For example, it has been asserted that only around 19 per cent of long-term defaulting cases are subject to a Deduction of Earnings Order.[29] It has also been noted that the sheer amount of complex regulation confuses both parents with care and non-resident parents, and that the latter group has become skilled in the art of exploiting the convoluted appeal system so as to either evade payment or delay it for as long as possible.[30] This commentator is spoilt for choice in the selection of statistics for mention in this paper on the CSA’s enforcement performance but perhaps the most damning fact of all is that the Agency Enforcement unit retrievedjust  £8 million in 2005 but cost £12 million to operate.[31] That really speaks for itself. Again it is pertinent to restate the fact that non-resident parents have exacerbated difficulties over enforcement by their obstructive and often duplicitous behaviour, but this does not justify the results obtained by the Agency. If the CSA was using the full range of its powers to their full effect and achieving poor results, this commentator would indeed dwell more on the behaviour of parents and the agenda of the Government which awards and delimits the powers. However, it is manifestly clear that the Agency does not use its powers effectively something best evidenced by the stated statistic on the incredibly low use of the driving licence withdrawal option. Such a threat is obviously a potent weapon in the arsenal of the CSA, and while it may not always be appropriate, perhaps because the non-resident parent relies on his or her licence in order to generate an income, this commentator simply refuses to accept that it has only proved ap

Fiber Optics Essay -- Fiber Optics Technology Electronics Essays

Fiber Optics What are Fiber Optics? Fiber optics are thin transparent fibers of glass or plastic enclosed by a material of a lower index of refraction and that transmit light throughout their length by internal reflections. Real fiber optic cables are made out of very pure glass, glass so pure that if it were miles thick, light would still be able to pass through. The fiber optic strand, although thin in diameter, is stretched to miles in length. Therefore only the purest of glass would be efficient and useful for sending light signals. The glass of these fiber optic cables is drawn into a very thin strand (as thin as human hair), then it is coated in two layers of plastic. By coating the glass in plastic (this is called the cladding), a "mirror" is created around the glass. This creates a total internal reflection. In other words, when light is passed through the cable, the light will reflect off the interior surface of the cable, and continue to bounce off the reflective surface until it reaches the opening at the ot her end. Light travels through the fiber optic cable and bounces off at shallow angles, and stays completely within the glass fiber. How Fiber Optic Communications Work Fiber optics, in the world of technology, is used to carry voice, data, and video inside these strands of glass. Optical fiber for telecommunications consists of three components: core, cladding and coating. The core is the central region of an optical fiber through which light is transmitted. The core and cladding are manufactured together as a single piece of glass and cannot be separated from one another. The third section is the outer protective coating. This coating is typically an ultraviolet (UV) light-cured acrylic applied during t... ...mitless. Fiber optic technology has opened the door to many more communication opportunities for the world today. It provides higher fidelity long distance telephone conversations, as well as secure communication systems. Today, more than 90% of the United States long-distance traffic is already carried over optical fiber; more than 15 million miles have been installed, virtually all of it using the original design. The concept of fiber optics is simple, yet it provides so many potentialities in the world of technology. Presently the world relies on fiber optical technology for its data and communications systems. The consumer can converse on the telephone and hear voices with clarity, as well as send and receive information on the Internet with ease. However, there still lay a sea of possibilities in this area of technology that has not yet been discovered.

A Call to Arms †Style and Tone Essay

â€Å"After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain† (332). This last line of the novel gives an understanding of Ernest Hemingway’s style and tone. The overall tone of the book is much different than that of The Sun Also Rises. The characters in the book are propelled by outside forces, in this case WWI, where the characters in The Sun Also Rises seemed to have no direction. Frederick’s actions are determined by his position until he deserts the army. Floating down the river with barely a hold on a piece of wood his life, he abandons everything except Catherine and lets the river take him to a new life that becomes increasing difficult to understand. Nevertheless, Hemingway’s style and tone make A Farewell to Arms one of the great American novels. Critics usually describe Hemingway’s style as simple, spare, and journalistic. These are all good words they all apply. Perhaps because of his training as a newspaperman, Hemingway is a master of the declarative, subject-verb-object sentence. See more:  Masters of Satire: John Dryden and Jonathan Swift Essay His writing has been likened to a boxer’s punches-combinations of lefts and rights coming at us without pause. As illustrated on page 145 â€Å"She went down the hall. The porter carried the sack. He knew what was in it,† one can see that Hemingway’s style is to-the-point and easy to understand. The simplicity and the sensory richness flow directly from Hemingway’s and his characters’ beliefs. The punchy, vivid language has the immediacy of a news bulletin: these are facts, Hemingway is telling us, and they can’t be ignored. And just as Frederic Henry comes to distrust abstractions like â€Å"patriotism,† so does Hemingway distrust them. Instead he seeks the concrete and the tangible. A simple â€Å"good† becomes higher praise than another writer’s string of decorative adjectives. Hemingway’s style changes, too, when it reflects his characters’ changing states of mind. Writing from Frederic Henry’s point of view, he sometimes uses a modified stream-of-consciousness technique, a method for spilling out on paper the inner thoughts of a character. Usually Henry’s thoughts are choppy, staccato, but when he becomes drunk the language does too, as in the passage on page 13, â€Å"I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafes and nights when the room whirled and you needed to look at the wall to make it stop, nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that that was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking and not knowing who it was with you, and the world all unreal in the dark and so exciting that you must resume again  unknowing and not caring in the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring. â€Å" The rhythm, the repetition, have us reeling with Henry. In general, Hemingway’s writing is descriptive yet effective in leaving much to the readers interpretation and allowing a different image to form in each readers mind. The simple sentences and incomplete descriptions frees your imagination and inspires each person to develop their own bitter love story.

The eNotes Blog A Decade of eNotes Happy Birthday toUs!

A Decade of Happy Birthday toUs! As they say: time flies when youre having fun.  This December marks the tenth year that has been helping students and teachers,  and we can hardly believe  it. It seems like just yesterday we were all asking Jeeves lifes great questions  (and definitely NOT  on our flip phones). Were cracking opening the   photo album to take a peek back through a decade of education and site transformation. 2005 With a love of learning and literature, our co-founders Alex and Brad officially launched in 2005.  We were both fans of Shakespeare, who is difficult to understand for studentswe felt we could help students by putting the text of his plays alongside commentary from an expert, says Brad. So, to better help students, the  first iteration was a complete  site  that helpfully  aggregated content from a wide variety of sources and bringing it to the World Wide Web  for the first time ever.   2010 For several years succeeded in making professional, academic study materials more easily accessible to the general publicwhich to this day is still our driving force. To expound upon that idea, and create a more interactive environment, launched a QA community where knowledge-seekers could easily connect with educators to learn in a more helpful,  one-on-one capacity. 2015 Tens of millions of students and teachers later, we are still driven by passion for education, and a penchant for classic literature. Today, is an even more bustling and thriving community of like-minded learners. As a fully digital company, weve been through several website designs, trends, and ideas. Our suite of tools is now complete with more than 30,000 literature study guides, 300,000 homework questions, 10,000 teacher documents, and qualitative essay review. Were excited for what the next decade brings us. Maybe will meet you  on your Apple watches, your Google glasses, or some type of (hopefully benevolent) in-home robot helper. Whatever the future may bring, were excited to continue the journey of learning and knowledge with you.

Using Maps with American Literature as Informational Texts

Using Maps with American Literature as Informational Texts Teachers of American literature in middle or high school classrooms have the opportunity to select from a little over  400 years of writing by American authors. Because each author offers a different perspective on the American experience, teachers may also choose to provide the geographic context that influenced each of the authors taught in a curriculum. In American literature, geography is often central to an authors narrative.   Representing the geography of where an author was born, raised, educated, or wrote can be done on a map, and the creation of such a map involves the discipline of cartography. Cartography or Map Making The International Cartographic Association (ICA)  defines cartography: Cartography is the discipline dealing with the conception, production, dissemination and study of maps. Cartography is also about representation – the map. This means that cartography is the whole process of mapping. The  structural models  of cartography  can be used to  describe the process of mapping for an  academic discipline. Supporting the use of maps in the study of literature to better understand how geography has informed or influenced an author is made in an  argument made by  Sà ©bastien Caquard and William Cartwright in their 2014  article  Narrative Cartography: From Mapping Stories to the Narrative of Maps and Mapping  Ã‚  published in  The Cartographic Journal. The article explains how  the potential of maps to both decipher and tell stories is virtually unlimited. Teachers may use maps that help students better comprehend how the geography of America may influence authors and their literature. Their description of narrative cartography is an aim,  to shed light on some of the facets of the rich and complex relationships between maps and narratives. Influence of Geography on American Authors Studying the  geography that influenced the authors of American literature can mean using some of the lenses of social sciences such as  economics,  political science,  human  geography,  demography,   psychology  or  sociology. Teachers may spend time in class and provide the cultural geography background of the authors who penned the most traditional selections of literature in high school  such as Nathanial Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men.   In each of  these selections, as in most American literature,  the  context of an authors  community,  culture, and relationships is  tied to specific time and location. For example, the geography of colonial settlements is seen in the  first pieces of American literature, beginning with a  1608 memoir by Captain John Smith, English explorer and  leader of Jamestown (Virginia). The explorers accounts are combined in a piece  titled  Ã‚  A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as Hath Happened in Virginia.   In this recounting, consider by many to be wildly exaggerated, Smith describes  the story of  Pocahontas saving his life from the hand of Powhatan.   More recently, the 2016 winner of the Pulitzer Prize  Ã‚  for fiction  was written by  Viet Thanh Nguyen  who  was born in Vietnam and raised in America. His story  The Sympathizer  is described as, A layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a man of two minds- and two countries, Vietnam and the United States. In this award-winning narrative, the contrast of these two cultural geographies is central to the story. The American Writers Museum: Digital Literary Maps There are a number of different digital  map resources available to teachers with Internet access  to use in providing students background information. Should teachers want to give  students an opportunity to research American authors, a good starting place might be the American Writers Museum,  A National Museum Celebrating American Writers. The museum already has a digital presence, with their physical offices scheduled to open in Chicago in 2017. The mission of the  American Writers Museum is to engage the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture, and our daily lives. One featured page on the museums  website is a Literary America  map  that features  American writers from all over the country.  Visitors can  click on a states icon to see what literary landmarks are located there   such as author homes and museums, book festivals, literary archives,  or even an authors final resting places.   This Literary America  map will help students meet several of the goals of the new American Writers Museum which are to: Educate the public about American writers – past and present;Engage visitors to the Museum in exploring the many exciting worlds created by the spoken and written word;Enrich and deepen appreciation for good writing in all its forms;Inspire visitors  to discover, or rediscover, a love of reading and writing. Teachers should know that the digital Literary America map on the museums website is interactive, and there are links to multiple other websites. For example, by clicking on New York State icon, students could choose to be connected to an obituary on the New York Public Librarys website for  J.D. Salinger,  author of Catcher in the Rye. Another click on the New York State icon could  take students to  a news story about the 343 boxes  containing the  personal papers and documents of the poet  Maya Angelou  that were acquired  by the  Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. This acquisition was featured in an article in the NY Times, Schomburg Center in Harlem Acquires Maya Angelou Archive  and there are links to many of these documents. There are links on the Pennsylvania state icon to museums dedicated to authors born in the state. For example, students can choose between Edgar Allan Poe National Historical SitePearl S. Buck HouseZane Grey Museum Similarly, a click on the Texas state icon offers students an opportunity to digitally visit three museums dedicated to the American short story author, William S. Porter, who wrote under the pen name O.Henry: O. Henry HouseO. Henry MuseumWilliam Sidney Porter, O. Henry Museum The State of  California offers multiple sites for students to explore on American authors who had a presence in the state: Eugene O’Neill National Historic SiteJack London State Historic ParkJohn Muir National Historic SiteNational Steinbeck CenterRobinson Jeffers Tor House FoundationThe Beat MuseumWill Rogers Ranch Additional Literary Author Map Collections 1. At the Clark Library (University of Michigan Library) there are a number of literary maps  for students to view.  One such  literary map was drawn by  Charles Hook Heffelfinger (1956).  This map lists the last names of many American writers along with their principal works within the state in which the book takes place. The description of the map states: As with many literary maps, while many of the works included may have been commercial successes at the time of the map’s publication in 1956, not all of them are still acclaimed today. Some classics are included, however, such as  Gone With the Wind  by Margaret Mitchell and  The Last of the Mohicans  by James Fenimore Cooper. These maps can be shared as a projection in class, or students can follow the link themselves. 2. The Library of Congress  offers an online collection  of maps titled, Language of the Land: Journeys Into Literary America. According to the website:   The inspiration for this exhibition was the Library of Congresss collection of literary mapsmaps that acknowledge the contributions of authors to a specific state or region as well as those that depict the geographical locations in works of fiction or fantasy.   This exhibition includes the  1949  Booklovers Map  published by R.R. Bowker of New York which  features important points of interest across America’s historical, cultural, and literary landscape at the time. There are many different maps in this online  collection, and the promotional description for the exhibition reads: From Robert Frosts New England farms to John Steinbecks California valleys to Eudora Weltys Mississippi Delta, American authors have shaped our view of Americas regional landscapes in all their astonishing variety. They have created unforgettable characters, inseparably identified with the territory they inhabit. Author Maps AreInformational Texts Maps can be used as informational texts in the English Language Arts classroom as part of the key shifts educators can use in order to  integrate the Common Core State Standards.  These key shifts of the  Common Core  state that: Students must be immersed in information about the world around them if they are to develop the strong general knowledge and vocabulary they need to become successful readers and be prepared for college, career, and life. Informational texts play an important part in building students’ content knowledge. English teachers can use  maps as informational texts to build student background knowledge and improve comprehension. The use of maps as informational texts  could be covered under the following standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.7  Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using different mediums (e.g., print or digital text, video, multimedia) to present a particular topic or idea. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.7  Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a persons life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7  Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem. Conclusion Letting students explore American authors in their geographic and historic context through cartography, or mapmaking, can help their comprehension of American literature. The visual representation of the geography that contributed to a work of literature is best represented by a map. The use of maps   in the English classroom  can also help students develop an appreciation of Americas literary geography while increasing their familiarity with the  visual language of maps for other content areas.

The Dialectic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Dialectic - Essay Example He used crude ways and strategies to get back to the perpetrators of the inhuman acts. This makes the novel to be a captivating tale of bloodlines that exist between evil and ideological good. V is a freedom fighter. He is the only person who dares take the government on, and to point out that they are wrong. He blows up some structures to make a statement against the dictatorship. He executes some guilty people who were being protected from punishment In this novel, the character V specifically condemns the local people more than the government as the cause of the dominant oppression and mistreatment that is ongoing. He blames the people for not reacting to the various exploitation, oppression or fraud they experience in the country. He classifies this issue as a responsibility displacement. He says, â€Å"You gave them the power to make your decisions for you† (Moore 117). This means that people have the power to make their own decisions but they have bowed to the oppressors and given them the authority and responsibility to decide on their behalf. He strived to change this mind set by insisting that people do as they please. He incited individuals to become solely responsible for their lives’ experiences. In the novel, V discourages the local people from shrinking or becoming complacent and letting other people decide their lives for them. He insisted that all people have equal chances and right so no one should b ully the others and make decisions for them. He believed that the citizens themselves were responsible for the shambles that existed in the country. He suggested that people’s submissiveness to the oppressors was what allowed the oppression evil to prevail in the country. He changed people’s perception and motivated them to take action since inaction only brought discrimination and exploitation to them. What the character V does is necessary even though it appears to be very evil.

Globalization and the Capitalist State Redundant Essay

Globalization and the Capitalist State Redundant - Essay Example In view of the Marxist globalization has been seen as an expansion or development of capitalism in the world. Like other traditional works that were seen to fit in a loose framework of anti-globalization, Marxism may not be described as a single movement nor can it be described as following a unitary intellectual practice from a theoretical perspective. In this case we should understand that Marxism as whole has been engaging with contemporary phenomena in a way that the manner and the mindsets that it has been postulating in the past has been evidence in class, political economy, labor, capitalism and in many other socialism concepts and revolution described as the central axis of globalization. (Ollman 1998, p.87) Â  With the end of communism in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, and the consequent embrace of the capitalism like in the Peoples Republic of China has been expressed as the end of the Marxism’s period. Regardless of the fact that the world has embraced the capitalist economies, Marxism still present a poignant and painful way of accounting for globalization. This has been witnessed in what is happening in the aftermath of the wave that took the world from the 1990s. Marxism has been expressed in many areas like the free-markets, oppressed and exploited labor, modernization, and many other reforms that have been carried out in the political, social and economic systems of the world. Â  Globalization has been described as the increased interaction of the world or the opening up the world. In the last few decades, there has been increased movement of people and goods. There has been the emergence of the new market. Therefore globalization has been a tendency to create a unipolar world though it has been expressed mostly in economic terms.