The Right to Bear Arms in the US Constitution

Cochlear implants essays

Cochlear implants essays A cochlear implant is an electronic device that restores hearing for people anywhere from hard of hearing to the profoundly deaf. The cochlear implant is surgically implanted under the skin behind the ear. The surgeon puts the electrode array inside the inner ear and than inside the cochlea. The implant works by a device outside the ear, which rests on the skin behind the ear. It is held upright by a magnet and is also connected by a lead to a sound professor. What happens when you get a cochlear implant? First, you are given an injection to make you fall asleep. Once youre asleep the hair behind your ear is shaved off. Then you have the operation tat usually lasts from 2-4 hours. The doctor cuts behind your ear and puts the implant into the bone right there. Next he places an electrical array the curls inside your cochlea. When you wake up you are sent home for a few days to rest. After you are all rested you go to an audiologist to get the sound professor programmed. The sound professor is a main part is allowing you to hear when you have a cochlear implant and when its not in, you wont hear anything. Once the sound professor is programmed you with be able to hear. The cochlear implant uses a much different method to enable a person to hear opposed to a normal hearing ear. The cochlear implant has five parts; a microphone, sound processor, head piece, implant and hearing nerve. The microphones function is to capture sound from the outside environment. A sound processor than selects and arranges all the sounds captured from the microphone. The headpiece sends the signal through the skin and to the implant to pick up. Than the implant picks up the sound and sends it through the lead and to the electrode array. Finally, the sound is picked up by the hearing nerve and the message is sent to the brain. When a person with normal hearing hears the sound travels along the ear then bounc ...

The Effect of Motivators on the Performance of Real Estate Agents Essay

The Effect of Motivators on the Performance of Real Estate Agents - Essay Example Given the above stated observations, one may surmise that real estate agencies in France have attractive profit-making potentials, insofar as they operate in a market which attracts both domestic and international buyers and investors. While that may be the case, the fact remains that the potential of any real estate agency can only be realised through the efforts of its sales force and its agents. As Davis (2002) explains, the performance of individual real estate agencies is inextricably dependant upon the characteristics, activities and qualities of its sales force with it, therefore, being incumbent upon real estate agency managers to deploy such motivation techniques and strategies as would incite performance (Davis, 2002). As may be deduced from the above, the dissertation proposes to undertake an analysis of the French real estate market and the performance of a select number of real estate agencies therein, with specific focus on the extent to which the deployment of motivation techniques may positively impact agency performance. The importance f the study derives from the fact that it will examine the efficacy of implementing motivation theory as a means of inciting higher sales figures and improving the performance of sales teams. ... Furthermore, while the study shall specifically focus on the mentioned in relation to the French real estate market, the theoretical models that shall be discussed and the recommendation that will be proposed, are applicable to the international real estate market and to those business firms whose performance is inextricably linked to the activities of its sales force. In other words, even though the study is of immediate importance to the French real estate agencies, its value extends beyond that to embrace real estate agency performance per se, irrespective of geographic location, and sales-based organisations and firms. Literature Review Numerous management researchers and scholars have emphasised the importance of motivation strategies as a tool for the maximisation of employee output and productivity (Igalens and Roussel, 1999; .Reinharth and Wahba, 1975; Kim, 1984). Few, if any, have disputed the fact that management's adoption of employee-targeted motivation strategies, especially as pertains to sales personnel, improves both individual employee output and overall firm performance but scholars, have, nevertheless, debated the most effective motivation strategies (Kallenberg, 2000; Wallace, 1995). Silvester et al. (2003) maintain that empirical evidence suggests that the adoption of any of the existent motivation theories and the integration of their incentive guidelines into an organisation's management paradigm positively contributes to organisational performance and maximises employee output. To fortify their argument, the researchers undertake a comparative study of the effect of the implementation of an array of motivation strategies and theories on employee output and performance, maintaining that the study

A Missin Sttement nd Strtegies f NEXT Plc Essay

A Missin Sttement nd Strtegies f NEXT Plc - Essay Example ClÐ ¾thes retÐ °ilers fÐ °ll intÐ ¾ twÐ ¾ brÐ ¾Ã °d cÐ °tegÐ ¾ries: firstly, thÐ ¾se selling Ð ¾wn-brÐ °nd clÐ ¾thing Ð °nd, secÐ ¾ndly, thÐ ¾se selling third-pÐ °rty weÐ °r. MÐ °jÐ ¾r retÐ °ilers such Ð °s MÐ °rks & Spencer Ð °nd the Ð rcÐ °diÐ ° GrÐ ¾up Ð °re gÐ ¾Ã ¾d exÐ °mples Ð ¾f the first grÐ ¾up, Ð °s Ð °re chÐ °in Ð ¾perÐ °tiÐ ¾ns such Ð °s NEXT Ð °nd GÐ °p. The secÐ ¾nd grÐ ¾up includes the mÐ °jÐ ¾r depÐ °rtment stÐ ¾res Ð °nd the mÐ °jÐ ¾rity Ð ¾f independent retÐ °ilers in the UK. ClÐ ¾thing retÐ °iling is Ð ° highly diverse industry. The retÐ °il sectÐ ¾r rÐ °nges frÐ ¾m lÐ ¾w-cÐ ¾st Ð °nd discÐ ¾unts retÐ °ilers thrÐ ¾ugh tÐ ¾ independents, spÐ ¾rtsweÐ °r, fÐ ¾rmÐ °l weÐ °r Ð °nd highly exclusive designer bÐ ¾utiques. HÐ ¾wever, Ð °s in mÐ ¾st cÐ ¾nsumer gÐ ¾Ã ¾ds mÐ °rkets, it is Ð °t the middle level where the mÐ °jÐ ¾r plÐ °yers Ð °re tÐ ¾ be fÐ ¾und Ð °nd mÐ ¾ney cÐ °n be e Ð °rned. The pÐ ¾liticÐ °l envirÐ ¾nment Ð ¾f the NEXT plc is quite gÐ ¾Ã ¾d Ð °s the stÐ °ble Ð °nd reliÐ °ble nÐ ¾twithstÐ °nding thÐ °t BritÐ °in fÐ °iled tÐ ¾ reÐ °ch the Ð °greement with sÐ ¾me EU pÐ ¾licies frÐ ¾m time tÐ ¾ time. Ð t the present nÐ ¾ EU directives Ð °re knÐ ¾wn which will hÐ °ve Ð ° direct effect Ð ¾n the UK clÐ ¾thing retÐ °il industry in the neÐ °r future. Due tÐ ¾ the EU membership Ð ° trend cÐ °n be seen tÐ ¾wÐ °rds stricter envirÐ ¾nmentÐ °l prÐ ¾tectiÐ ¾n legislÐ °tiÐ ¾n. This mÐ °y hÐ °ve Ð ° direct Ð ¾r indirect effect Ð ¾n NEXT Ð ¾r his suppliers. LÐ ¾Ã ¾king Ð °t the ecÐ ¾nÐ ¾mic envirÐ ¾nment, it is sÐ ¾mewhÐ °t tricky since Ð ¾n the Ð ¾ne hÐ °nd there is the strÐ ¾ng sterling cÐ ¾mpÐ °red tÐ ¾ the EurÐ ¾. EurÐ ¾lÐ °nd encÐ ¾urÐ °ges impÐ ¾rts Ð °nd endeÐ °vÐ ¾urs tÐ ¾ hÐ ¾ld dÐ ¾mestic prices Ð °t Ð °n Ð °ttrÐ °ctive level. But Ð ¾n the Ð ¾ther hÐ °nd it is difficu lt fÐ ¾r the UK tÐ ¾ be cÐ ¾mpetitive Ð ¾utside its bÐ ¾undÐ °ries becÐ °use Ð ¾f the high pÐ ¾und sterling exchÐ °nge rÐ °te Ð °gÐ °inst the EurÐ ¾.

International Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 5

International Marketing - Essay Example I propose that the company starts operations in Dubai and later set footprints in other cities like Abu Dhabi and finally cover the other Emirates that make up UAE. My long term goal is for the company to have a strong brand presence in the Middle East and ultimately become the market leader in this potentially rewarding market. My main reason for choosing Dubai as the international market of choice is because of its strategic location in the Middle East, physical environment, income levels, population and industry conditions. According to Gilligan and Hird (1996), a strong economy is essential for the success of a company in the international market. A keen look at Dubai reveals that the city is one of the richest and it is also emerging as one of the most glamorous. Income levels are quite high and this is backed by a strong economy with plenty of oil and gas reserves. The tourism industry in Dubai is also blossoming and the real estate market is emerging as among the best in the world. The influx of foreign professionals mostly from the western countries has made the Dubai market suitable for investment. High income levels in particular present a very good opportunity for the company to increase its sales. Disposable income is quite high and taking into consideration that bottled water is a luxury, then this presents a market opportunity not to be missed. Availability of manpower is another factor that influenced my decision. Professionals around the world have made Dubai their home because of the quality of life it offers. The company will therefore have a wide pool of professional to choose from. Walsh (1993) points out that availability of qualified and affordable labour is a key ingredient for the success of a company on the international scene. The cost of labour is considerably low because of the large number of migrants who go to Dubai in search of jobs. This means that Highland Spring ltd will have access to not only qualified labour but also at an

Intersections Of Gender Maps For Lost Lovers English Literature Essay

Intersections Of Gender Maps For Lost Lovers English Literature Essay This article proposes a reading of Nadeem Aslams Maps for Lost Lovers as a novel of multiple critiques on the situation of Muslim immigrants in Great Britain. Using the solution of the case of the eponymous lost lovers as the starting point for the narration the novel relates how the Pakistani immigrant community deals with the loss of the couple and the challenges the honour killing poses to their religious beliefs. In the narration the two main characters, Kaukab and Shamas, represent two conflicting perspectives on life in the diasporic community and the coping with the tragedy. By focusing on the setting and the created atmosphere in the novel and connecting it to the intersections of gender and religious identities this article aims to point out the ways in which Aslams novel gives the reader insights into the Pakistani immigrant community of the novel and how it, by subversively reconfiguring the patriarchal society, exerts manifold criticism on the Muslim immigrant community a s much as on the failing multicultural British society. Das Ziel dieses Artikel ist es, verschiedene Interpretationsansà ¤tze des Romans Maps for Lost Lovers vorzustellen, die auf der Kritik an der Situation muslimischer Einwanderer in Großbritannien basieren, die Nadeem Aslam eindrucksvoll in seine Erzà ¤hlung einfliessen là ¤sst. Der Roman, der die Auflà ¶sung des Ehrenmordes an den namensgebenden à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Lost Lovers zum Ausgangspunkt der Erzà ¤hlung wà ¤hlt, erlaubt durch seine Erzà ¤hlstrategien durchaus unterschiedliche Lesarten. Durch die Fokussierung der Erzà ¤hlung auf hauptsà ¤chlich zwei Protagonisten, Kaukab und Shamas, die grundverschiedene Einstellungen zu dem Leben in der diasporischen Gemeinschaft widerspiegeln und ihre persà ¶nlichen Ansichten wiedergeben, erlaubt Aslam dem Leser die Ereignisse in der patriarchalen Gemeinschaft durch ihre Perspektiven wahrzunehmen und zu interpretieren. Die dabei aufeinanderprallenden Wertesysteme geben Einblicke in die verschiedenen teils radikalen Positionen innerha lb der Gemeinschaft, die letztendlich zu der am Anfang stehenden Katastrophe fà ¼hren. Durch eine verbindende Analyse des Handlungsorts und der vorherrschende Atmosphà ¤re des Romans mit der Intersektion von Geschlechts- und Glaubensidentità ¤ten zeigt dieser Artikel die vielfà ¤ltigen Mà ¶glichkeiten zur Interpretation und vollzieht die verschiedenen Kritiken die der Roman an der die Integration verweigernden pakistanischen Gemeinschaft und der versagenden multikulturellen britischen Gesellschaft à ¼bt. Introduction In conjunction with almost daily news-coverage on terrorist attacks by fundamental Islamist groups in the Middle East a growing suspicion against Muslim communities in Europe can be noticed. In the wake of 9/11 and 7/7 the strong foundations of European multiculturalism seem to have been unsettled. Even in Great Britain, which has a long history of immigration from the South Asian subcontinent, racism against Muslim communities is worsening, as has recently been found in the report by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance on the United Kingdom.  [1]  Stereotypes and prejudices against so-called parallel societies, as some closed immigrant communities have come to be designated, are repeatedly underscored, for example by public discussions about the right of Muslim women to wear the traditional burka or a veil.  [2]  In such a precarious socio-historical context a novel like Nadeem Aslams Maps for Lost Lovers  [3]  seems to be adding fuel to the fire. Maps for Lost Lovers, Aslams second novel and winner of the Pakistan Academy of Letters Patras Bokhari award of the Government of Pakistan, centres on a South Asian immigrant community in an unnamed British town. The narration sets in after the disappearance of the lovers Chanda and Jugnu and the ensuing arrest of Chandas brothers for the alleged murder of the couple. In the year that follows the honour killings of the lovers, who lived in sin according to Islamic law because Chandas husband could not persuaded to divorce her even though he had left her years ago, Maps for Lost Lovers dramatises how the Pakistani inhabitants of the tightly-knit community try to cope with the anguish the disappearance of the lovers and the uncertainty concerning their fate brings over them. Wavering between the unlikely hope that the couple just fled the community to enjoy a peaceful life and the almost certain knowledge of their deaths although their bodies were not found, the characters of the novel also have to deal with the challenges to their religious beliefs posed by the murders and the question how to abide to Islamic laws in exile. Although the narration portrays some of the worst aspects of life in Pakistani communities honour killings, religious obscurantism, gender inequities to name only a few it is however also a book of great humanity and compassion  [4]  . These few aspects of the Pakistani community depicted in Maps for Lost Lovers, which Kamila Shamsie pointed out in an interview with the author, will be the starting point of the following analysis. This paper sets out to examine the immigrant community, which is based on the obedience of the Islamic law, and illustrate how an atmosphere of claustrophobia is narratively created in the patriarchal society. In a second step I will point out intersections of gender and religious identity and gender inequities that are reinforced by the Islamic belief of the communities. Further, I will try to show how the characters, on the one hand, fall victim to the gender roles their belief assigns them, but, on the other hand, also use and subvert these roles to shape the community in traditional and religious ways that reinforces the patriarchal structures of the community and promotes religious obscurantism. By focussing on the atmosphere of the patriarchal society as well as the gender roles presented in the novel I aim to show the diverse levels of criticism Aslam offers for interpretation in Maps for Lost Lovers. It is my main argument that the novel offers at least three ways for reading: first, it can be read as backing up suspicious looks at Muslims in British streets and confirm the stereotypes presented by the media. Second, it can be read as inherent criticism of colonisation in that certain structures of the British Empire are being invoked, reproduced and proven to be leading to catastrophe. And last, the novel can be read as a criticism on immigrant communities in Britain and their desperate wish to avoid integration. An interweaving of these possible readings of the novel will show the potential of the novel to help fix the foundations of European multicultural societies. Dasht-e-Tanhaii, or The Desert of Loneliness The eponymous lost lovers of the novels title are Chanda and Jugnu, who disappear before the narration sets in and whose fate remains unsolved for most part of the story. In the absence of the couple the rest of the community and their reactions function as a foil for the lovers decision to forsake the laws of Islam in order to be together and their readiness to bear the consequences of their choice. In the wake of their disappearance the rest of the community is torn between mourning the loss of members of their community and a sense of righteousness that the lovers have been punished for their indecent behaviour. Especially Jugnus older brother Shamas and his wife Kaukab, who live next door to the house of Sin (MLL 59), move into the centre of the omniscient narrators attention. Through a varying focalization on the two main characters, Shamas and Kaukab, and a further complementation through isolated points of view of other, minor characters such as Shamas and Kaukabs children and Suraya, the woman Shamas has an affair with, a multifaceted narration of the year following the arrest of Chandas brothers for murdering the lovers is presented. The created open perspective structure of the novel, the various individual perspectives within the text and their relation to each other, gives insights into the norms and value systems of the characters and the perspective of the omniscient narrator and thus allows inspection into the workings of the represented society.  [5]   The unspecified English town in which the drama around the lost lover unfolds is renamed Dasht-e-Tanhaii by the diasporic South Asian community. The inhabitants of the town have come to England from all over the South Asian subcontinent, representing the manifold nationalities that had come under the rule of the British Empire. Translating as The Wilderness of Solitude or The Desert of Loneliness (cf. MLL 29), Dasht-e-Tanhaii is a telling-name for the neighbourhood. Although the characters share a similar cultural background and the experience of exile, their religious differences and the fear to have to interact with white people paralyses them. Representatively for the community Kaukab relates that she had made friends with some women in the area but she barely know what lay beyond the neighbourhood and didnt know how to deal with strangers: full of apprehension concerning the white race and uncomfortable with people of another Subcontinental religion or grouping. (MLL 32) The inability to interact with people of a different skin colour or different religious beliefs renders it impossible for the people of Dasht-e-Tanhaii not to be lonely. The neighbourhood is further described as very quite, as it hoards its secrets, unwilling to let on the pain in its breast. Shame, guilt, honour and fear are like padlocks hanging from mouths. No one makes a sound in case it draws attention. No one speaks. No one breathes. (MLL 45) The claustrophobic atmosphere created in the novel forces the characters to spend their lives in solitude, always afraid their neighbours might learn about their secrets. Another interesting aspect of the setting of the novel that further contributes to the claustrophobic atmosphere is the concealment of the name and location of the English town in contrast to the renaming through the immigrants. The appropriation of the metropolitan neighbourhood through the diasporic South Asian community and a setting of strict limits to isolate it from the rest of the town  [6]  , reverses the imperialist colonization of the immigrants home countries. The renaming of streets and landmarks within the neighbourhood further supports this argument and highlights the reverse appropriation of social space. As in Lahore, a road in this town is named after Goethe. There is a Park Street here as in Calcutta, a Malabar Hill as in Bombay, and a Naag Tolla Hill as in Dhaka. Because it was difficult to pronounce the English names, the men who arrived in this town in the 1950s had re-christened everything they saw before them. They had come from across the Subcontinent, lived together ten to a room, and the name that one of them happened to give to a street or landmark was taken up by the others, regardless of where they themselves were from. But over the decades, as more and more people came, the various nationalities of the Subcontinent have changed the names according to the specific country they themselves are from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan. Only one name has been accepted by every group, remaining unchanged. Its the name of the town itself. Dasht-e-Tanhaii. (MLL 29) As Cordula Lemke has pointed out, the process of the multiple renamings according to the various cultural backgrounds of the immigrants transforms the neighbourhood into an enormous palimpsest  [7]  . Taking up the street names the British introduced in their colonies on the Asian subcontinent, naming a road after a German writer, and transplanting them to the immigrant community in Britain can be read as a strategy of decolonization. With the originally British structure of the neighbourhood is left scarcely discernable underneath the different names, this process accentuates the transitional status of all cultures  [8]  . Analysing the map  [9]  and cartographic discourse as a demonstration of the empowering strategies of colonialist rhetoric  [10]  , Huggan argues for the palimpsest to illustrate the deficiencies of the colonialist strategies: The contradictory coherence implied by the maps systematic inscription on a supposedly uninscribed earth reveals it, moreover, as a palimpsest covering over alternative spatial configurations which, once brought to light, indicate both the plurality of possible perspectives on, and the inadequacy of any single model of, the world.  [11]   However, the process of renaming the streets in this novel also significantly resembles the developments of the different countries of the subcontinent under the British rule leading up to the partition of India in 1947. From a peaceful living together the situation of the immigrants changes to a silent coexistence without much interaction just like on the subcontinent itself where the former Indian nation splits up into India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. And exactly as on the subcontinent it is the religious beliefs that now segregate the people where they, before the partition, had belonged together.  [12]  Therefore, in occupying parts of the British town and renaming its streets the neighbourhood, on the one hand, subversively replicates the colonial situation on the subcontinent. On the other hand, however, it also relives the traumatic experience of a society being divided along religious lines.  [13]  In the doubling of post-colonial criticism the narrative in tensity of Aslams writing becomes clear and challenges the reader for an interpretation. The possible interpretations that are invited by the renaming of the British streets, namely the subversive criticism on the Empire and the imitation of the colonial situation to stabilize and promote the rigid religious division of the community, can both be argued for. What the interpretations share, however, are the sense of loss and an essential sadness, which Edward Said ascribes the exile.  [14]   At bottom, exile is a jealous state. With very little to possess, you hold on to what you have with aggressive defensiveness. What you achieve in exile is precisely what you have no wish to share, and it is in the drawing of lines around you and your compatriots that the least attractive aspects of being an exile emerge: an exaggerated sense of group solidarity as well as a passionate hostility towards outsiders, even those who may in fact be in the same predicament as you.  [15]   In this piece, written for Harpers Magazine twenty years prior to the novel, Said describes exactly the situation of the characters in Maps for Lost Lovers. In the blind defensiveness of their traditions and beliefs, the immigrants of Dasht-e-Tanhaii are passionate in their racism against the white inhabitants of the town and condemn their exile in Great Britain for all the evil that has happened to them. Kaukab knows her dissatisfaction with England is a slight to Allah because He is the creator and ruler of the entire earth as the stone carving on Islamabad airport reminds and reassures the heartbroken people who are having to leave Pakistan but she cannot contain her homesickness and constantly asks for courage to face this lonely ordeal that He has chosen for her in His wisdom. (MLL 31) The loss of their home country and the realisation that they will never go back to Pakistan fills the women with a feeling of unbearable loss. Whereas they manage to bring back the colours of their parental homes and rename the streets so that they do not sound so unfamiliar, there are too many things in exile, which they cannot replace. The constant feeling of loss, which makes the immigrants in Dasht-e-Tanhaii refrain from leaving their solitude, is the ubiquitous atmosphere of the narration and as such is already introduced in the opening of the novel by Shamas. Among the innumerable other losses, to come to England was to lose a season, because, in the part of Pakistan that he is from, there are five seasons in a year, not four, the schoolchildren learning their names and sequence through classroom chants: Mausam-e-Sarma, Bahar, Mausam-e-Garma, Barsat, Khizan. Winter, Spring, Summer, Monsoon, Autumn. (MLL 5) The loss of the season, of a structuring part of a year, a part that marks the passing of time, and is as irretrievable as the lost lovers, reflects the stasis of the society of Dasht-e-Tanhaii. In missing a part that marks the passing of time, change and development have become impossible for the inhabitants of the community. In the knowledge of missing a season, the structure of the novel, which is divided into four parts, each named after one of the four seasons in England, seems like a constant remainder that Maps for Lost Lovers is all about encompassing loss. Correspondingly, Said points out: a life of exile moves according to a different calendar, and is less seasonal and settled than life at home.  [16]   The thus created atmosphere is a fertile soil for the kind of religious fundamentalism some of the characters, especially Kaukab, the sister-in-law of the murdered Jugnu, prefer to integration. The immense fact of isolation and displacement, which produces the kind of narcissistic masochism that resists all efforts at amelioration, acculturation, and community  [17]  , which Kaukab claims for herself, leads to what Vijay Mishra has termed the diasporic imaginary  [18]  . Mishra theorizes that, in order to preserve the loss of the diasporic experience communities construct racist fictions of purity as a kind of joy and pleasure around which anti-miscegenation narratives of homelands are constructed against the reality of the homelands themselves.  [19]  The unknown British town is constantly contrasted with Pakistan and depicted as foreign territory, in which the laws of Islam have become the sole source of orientation for most of the inhabitants. Kaukab, as the rest of th e community, therefore exalts the Pakistan of her memory to an idealised nation in which Islam still figures prominently in everyday life. If her children were still living at home, or if Shamas was back from work, Kaukab would have asked the matchmaker to lower her voice to a whisper, not whishing her children to hear anything bad about Pakistan or the Pakistanis, not wishing to provide Shamas with the opportunity to make a disrespectful comment about Islam, or hint through his expression that he harboured contrary views on Allahs inherent greatness; but she is alone in the house, so she lets the woman talk. (MLL 42) This diasporic imaginary, the glorification of Pakistan, serves the immigrants as a role model for their society. As Islam prescribes they recreate the patriarchal social structures in which the women wait at home for their husbands to return and are afraid to be seen talking to men on the street, daughters are being arranged to marry their cousins in Pakistan, lovers of different religions forbidden to marry (cf. MLL 9), husbands agreeing to medical procedures on their wives for fear of immigration authorities (cf. MLL 14) and fathers renouncing their daughters for living in sin after three failed marriages to Pakistani men (cf. MLL 176). In this strict Islamic law-abiding community the gender roles of the characters seem to be as traditional as the rest of the customs the immigrants live by. However, in the following section I will argue that in the patriarchal society with the claustrophobic sentiment it is not only the male characters that drive on the strict Islamic code of beha viour but even more so the women who obstruct any kind of integration. Intersections of Gender and Religion in Maps for Lost Lovers Analysing gender identities in a novel such as Maps for Lost Lovers is, as the previous discussion of the atmosphere of the novel has shown, closely interlinked with religious identities within the community. With the discussion of gender roles and gender identities in relation to power structures has been an established field of research for literary scholars, a terminological distinction between different religious identities within Islam appears to be helpful for the further analysis.  [20]  Therefore I want to draw attention to the difference of the terms Muslim and Islamist, as spelled out by Miriam Cooke  [21]  . Cooke points out that the two terms, which might inadvertently be confused, hint at a significant distinction. To be Muslim, according to Cooke, is an ascribed identity: Those to whom a Muslim identity is ascribed participate in a Muslim culture and community without necessarily accepting all of its norms and values.  [22]  While Muslims can be secular and only occasionally observe some of the rituals, Islamists achieve their sometimes militant identity by devoting their lives to the establishment of an Islamic state.  [23]  This opposition, which arguably attracts criticism of essentialism, in this analysis, however, will serve the purpose of breaking up common stereotypes concerning the intersection of gender and religious identities. It is the aim of the following analysis to show that the intersections of gender identities and religious identities, which would be expected in patriarchal societies as the one depicted in Maps for Lost Lovers to draw the picture of male Islamists and female Muslims, are being subverted to point out the dangers of religious fundamentalism and how it c an lead to religious obscurantism. The arising question of religion and feminism has posed itself as difficult field for research, especially for postcolonial feminists. Ania Loomba has pointed out two significant developments in this field: Many postcolonial regimes have been outrightly repressive of womens rights, using religion as the basis on which to enforce their subordination.  [24]  Especially in Islamic countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran or Afghanistan national identity is based on the Islamicisation of civil society, an alliance between fundamentalism and the State, which entails severe curtailment of freedom for women.  [25]  However, she also sees a development that tries to harness womens political activity and even militancy to right-wing movements and especially to religious fundamentalism. In various parts of the world, women have been active campaigners for the Hindu, Islamic or Christian right-wing movements.  [26]  These two opposing developments, however contradictory they seem, deal with stereotypical assumptions as the figure of the immigrant woman victim  [27]  , as for example jurist Leti Volpp has analysed and debunked. Kaukab and Shamas as well as Suraya, the characters the narrator focalizes upon for the most part of the novel, through their personal perspective give a very interesting insight into their conceptions of the intersections between gender and religious identity.  [28]  They represent different positions on the spectrum between secular Muslims and Islamists and interestingly provide a one sided picture of the gender distribution amongst these religious identities. Shamas, who opens the narration, was brought up as a Muslim yet considers himself a non-believer (MLL 20) and instead of drawing on religion for moral and ethical support as the rest of the community, he turns to communism (cf. MLL 324).  [29]  His secularism makes him a mediator between the different religious groups of Dasht-e-Tanhaii. He uses his outsiders position to move about freely between the mosque and the Hindu temple of the community. Further, his general openness and willingness to interact with people of different religious and cultural backgrounds, which again renders him an outsider to the community, makes him become the only connection to the British society: The director of the Community Relations Council, Shamas is the person the neighbourhood turns to when unable to negotiate the white world on its own, visiting his office in the town centre or bringing the problem to his front door that opens directly into the blue-walled kitchen with the yellow chairs. (MLL 15) This position, as mediator between the immigrant community and the British society, on the one hand makes him a person of respect in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, his secularism arises suspicion, even in his own wife who disapproves of his criticism of Islam and even blames her father for choosing an unbelieving husband who is not even a proper Muslim in her eyes (cf. MLL 34). His worldliness and openness further, in the eyes of his wife, make him a bad father to their three children: Oh your father will be angry, oh your father will be upset: Mah-Jabin had grown up hearing these sentences, Kaukab trying to obtain legitimacy for her own decisions by invoking his name. She wanted him to be angry, she needed him to be angry. She had cast him in the role of the head of the household and he had to act accordingly  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚ . (MLL 111) Even though Kaukab, in accordance with her own upbringing, expects Shamas to fulfil his role as head of the family his performance does not seem satisfactory to Kaukab, as Mah-Jabins remembrance shows. Shamas thus disappoints the expectations on his character as believing Muslim and head of the family. When Suraya, Shamas secret love affair, comes back to England from Pakistan, where her husband had divorced her in a drunken stupor, her sole aim is to find a man who will marry her for a short period of time and then divorce her again so that she can return to Pakistan to her first husband to remarry him (cf. MLL 149). As the Islamic law states that she has to be married to another man before her first husband can take her back, she is desperate to quickly find somebody before her first husband changes his mind and does not want her back. When Suraya meets Shamas he is immediately drawn to her. Finding her scarf on his way back home from the town centre, where he regularly picks up the newspaper, his paper falls into the river he walks along while bending down to pick up the scarf. Hes suddenly lighter, his muscles relieved, the fingers holding nothing but that scarf which has butterfly blue lozenges along its crenulated edges. (MLL 135) Suraya takes advantage of the physicalness of this first encounter, in which Shamas seems to shift off a burden, maybe the burden Kaukab has put on him with her expectations, and starts an affair with him. While Shamas actually enjoys the tenderness of their encounters, Suraya just wants to trick him into marrying her and is not reluctant to lie about being pregnant. She thus exploits her femininity and her religious beliefs to get Shamas to commit adultery and thus fulfils her own personal needs not caring about the consequences of her actions or Shamas feelings (cf. MLL 254). Suraya just legitimises the affair with the Islamic law and her wish to remarry her first husband. In contrast to the secular Shamas and the moderate Muslim Suraya, Kaukab is a strict Islamist, justifying all her actions and her behaviour with her belief in Islam. With her religious bigotry she puts off her three children who, in the course of the narration visit the house only once. In the course of that visit her estranged children get into a heated discussion with Kaukab about the status of women in Pakistan and in which she has to defend herself against reproaches of her family (cf. MLL 323 ff.). Her misconducts, as for example poisoning her youngest son with bromide because a Muslim cleric told to do so (MLL 303 f.), or marrying her only daughter to a violent man in Pakistan and not seeing where she could have done wrong (cf. MLL 326), which stem from her religious obscurantism come to a climax when Shamas is being attacked by a group of Islamists who Kaukab had once secretly charged with finding her sons. In her blind belief in Islam she finally blames Shamas for her childre ns hatred (MLL 328) and tries to take her own life. Even when it comes to her own physical health she does not deviate from her faith:  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚  Kaukab has reached that age where her womb is slipping out of her vagina and must be either surgically removed or stitched back to the inner lining of her body  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚ .  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚  Her womb the first dress of her daughter, the first address of her sons is a constant source of pain these days and she comes down the stairs carefully. She tells herself that she must bear up patiently, that a person is like a tealeaf: drop it into boiling water if you want to see its true colour. She reads verses from the Koran when the pain looks as though it is about to increase. (MLL 260) In contrast to the imagination of the woman usually cast as mothers or wives  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚  called upon to literally and figuratively reproduce the nation  

freeaw Not Ready for Freedom in Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay

Not Ready for Freedom in The Awakening  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the main character, Edna Pontellier makes a very long, painful journey into her inner self. At the end of this journey she discovers that she is not strong enough to adopt a life in which a woman is her own woman and lives for herself. This forces her to choose the only other option available to her. I think the propriety with which Edna struggles (and most often gives in to) as she begins to discover who she is and what she wants creates a thick, almost suffocating atmosphere of tension. So much so that I was relieved that she decided to take her own life, as it had evolved into a torturous existence. I thought it unfair that Edna was portrayed as a somewhat neglectful mother. It was clear that she adored her children, albeit a fondness that was in â€Å"...an uneven, impulsive way.† (p. 59) It is important to focus on the time this story was written---the choices available to women in 1899 (the year The Awakening was printed) were extremely limited, and Edna Pontellier, all things considered, actually made a good life for herself, on the surface by making a marriage with Leonce. The material trappings in life that Leonce provided were comfortable, extravagant, actually, and the luxurious life of servants (quadroons), and more than one home appeared to be a life of perfection. Buried within the text are a multitude of â€Å"hints,† â€Å"suggestions,† and in some cases blatant statements concerning the state of mind of Edna Pontellier. The reader is introduced to the possibility that Edna may have a healthy curiosity of the â€Å"absence of prudery† due to her fascination with the lives of Creole women. These women of French descent have far les... ...se population. Edna Pontellier was a lady of ladies, yet she had a will stronger than any iron-clad vessel that plowed the Mississippi River. Her â€Å"awakening† was at once liberating and devastating. Her anger (throwing the vase and her wedding band) was a manifestation of her confusion and inability to comprehend the society that insisted she receive guests on Tuesday (her husband Leonce was appalled that she left one day and did her own thing), be a wife and mother first, and love only one man. Although her demise was indeed tragic, the point is that Edna was not entirely ready to absolutely adopt the Creole way of life---the life in which a woman is her own woman and lives for herself, stands up to the world and insists on having life on her terms. In the end, Edna could not reconcile herself to a life that stepped outside the boundaries of propriety.   

Jazz Music between World Wars Essay

The jazz craze in music during the 1920s reflected a general spirit of the times for many commentators like Seldes that this decade became known as the Jazz Age. Following World War I, jazz music certainly captured the popular imagination. The rapid popularity of jazz music led to its equally rapid spread among musicians. No other style up to this time in American popular music so quickly came to dominate popular performance. The American vernacular, which had already made significant inroads into the commercial popular music market, had captured popular tastes at an unprecedented level, seemingly sweeping aside the old â€Å"standards. † And just as ragtime and syncopated dance music became part of earlier commercial popular music, the dominance of jazz in the 1920s also represented a major triumph of the black vernacular in American popular music. The jazz craze began through the influence of non-professional musicians. While still marginal to most legitimate venues, non-professional musicians performing the jazz vernacular were attracting audiences to clubs, theaters, restaurants, and were popular in the speakeasies of the 1920s. They also had opportunities for their music to reach a broader audience in a booming record market following World War I. Professional musicians, however, quickly adopted jazz music in their orchestras and smaller bands. They co-opted the jazz fever while simultaneously distancing themselves from non-professionals. (Charters, 39-43) By occupying the most lucrative jobs in theaters, dance halls, hotels, and other venues, professional musicians positioned themselves as the premier interpreters of this new vernacular idiom in commercial popular music. The common defense of jazz as good music during the Jazz Age embraced the professional musicians and professional composers who performed and created jazz music, not the non-professional musicians who first introduced it. In adopting jazz idioms, professional musicians were simply continuing the process of cultivating the American vernacular. Black professional musicians were already adopting black vernacular idioms in their music making in earlier syncopated society orchestras and simply adopted jazz idioms as well as the name in their â€Å"jazz† orchestras. (Bushell, 72-75) White professional musicians had performed rags as part of their repertoire in the past, but with the jazz craze, many were quick to adopt syncopated dance and jazz practices in some form as the defining style of their profession. White professional musicians also quickly followed black professional musicians in transforming their bands into jazz orchestras, and just as quickly claimed to be the modern proponents of this new American popular music. Black and white professional jazz orchestras in the 1920s established the basic instrumentation, arrangement, and techniques of the big band dance orchestras that dominated American popular music until the 1950s. In the 1920s, an emerging new ideal of good music involved a balancing of the previous cultivated practices and cultivated music of professional musicians with popular vernacular idioms. The proper balance, however, was hotly debated. Professional musicians would constantly distance themselves from the pure vernacular of non-professional musicians. In defending their balance of the cultivated and the vernacular in popular performance, popular tastes, however, were demanding jazz music and a professional musician would be remiss to ignore his patrons in the popular music market as much as stodgy critics and some professional musicians would rail against the pernicious influence of jazz. Professional musicians in mediating the popular music market had to continue to navigate the moral, aesthetic, class, and racial construction of good music in America. While popular tastes in musical entertainment promoted the black vernacular in commercial popular music, the plight of the African American community in the United States continued to be dire. Some leaders in the black community had hoped that African Americans’ participation during World War I in both the military and in industry, and the Great Migration out of the Jim Crow South, would change their fortunes as segregated and oppressed second class citizens. The post-war years, however, dashed most hopes of any immediate positive change. (DeVeaux, 6-29) Race relations went in the opposite direction. Race riots sprung up across the nation while lynching continued to be a regular occurrence. Efforts continued to secure the legal segregation of black communities, and the labor movement continued to exclude blacks. The Ku Klux Klan reached its peak membership and popularity during the 1920s. The segregation and denigration of the black community was also reflected in the social organization of American music. (Hansen, 493-97) Besides the segregation of audiences and most venues, black professional musicians also remained outside the artistic community of white professional musicians in terms of unions, band organizations, and this community’s vision of a professional class of artist in America. The balance of the cultivated and the vernacular among professional musicians also continued to run against elitist conceptions of popular music and popular musicians as less legitimate than the music, musicians, and composers of the European cultivated tradition of classical and opera music. Black professional musicians also continued to strive to break through the barriers erected against them in the world of European cultivated music. This continuing tension in the implied lower status of professional musicians who performed American popular music erupted during the Jazz Age into an open rebellion against the European cultivated tradition. Professional musicians in jazz orchestras attempted to counter the singular role claimed by the European cultivated tradition. These musicians asserted that jazz was a true American or African American school of fine art music in contrast to cultivated European music – a populist appeal for high art legitimacy. This high art turn in American popular music, however, ultimately failed when the depression wreaked havoc on the popular music market. With the introduction of a new popular music market of live performances, records, broadcasts, and films, the quest for legitimacy among professional popular musicians would have to take another route. It was a period where professional popular musicians in adopting the jazz vernacular went against the reigning cultural hierarchy in America. (Peretti, 234-40) The period following World War I was a crucial turning point in American popular music. The American vernacular in general was storming the ramparts of the old edifice of good music as Tin Pan Alley song and dance dominated popular performance. Both professional and nonprofessional musicians also were benefiting from more affluent times and the growing importance of entertainment in the lives of most urban Americans. To the chagrin of elite and moral defenders of nineteenth century cultural idealism, most urban Americans were readily joining a Cultural Revolution in commercial popular entertainment. And at the center of this revolution was the national craze for jazz music and jazz dance. The jazz craze made syncopated rhythms and other black vernacular idioms central elements of American popular music making. While many small jazz bands performed a black vernacular style of music from the Delta Region of New Orleans, jazz music in the 1920s encompassed not only this style but syncopated dance music, blues music, piano rags, and virtually any tune jazzed up by musicians. The jazz craze in essence was the craze for the black vernacular among popular audiences and the performance of this vernacular in some form by popular musicians and popular singers both professional and non-professional. The extent to which musicians and singers actually adopted the black vernacular rather than a superficial imitation – critique later jazz critics would make of certain sweet jazz during the 1920s – is less important than the fact that jazz entered the consciousness of the nation and musicians as the reigning popular music. The word Jazz seems to have found a permanent place in the vocabulary of popular music. It was used originally as an adjective describing a band that in playing for dancing were so infected with their own rhythm that they themselves executed as much, if not more, contortions than the dancers. The popularity of the raggy music has created a demand for music with exaggerated syncopation, an attempt as it were to produce the wonderful broken rhythms of the primitive African jungle orchestra. The jazz craze also coincided with the growth of black entertainment. During the 1920s, black entertainment districts like the South Side in Chicago and Harlem in New York City witnessed a major boom. Besides entertaining the large black populations of The Great Migration, black musicians and singers were entertaining white audiences who went uptown for their entertainment. The boom in the 1920s in black entertainment, as Kenny (1993, 89-92) and Shaw (1987, 122-30) show, was driven by the demand for the black vernacular. In musical theater, musical revues, vaudeville, dance, and speakeasies, the black vernacular and black artists were in demand. This demand was met not only in black entertainment districts, but also outside these districts as black artists performed for white audiences in musical revues, dance halls, and clubs in white entertainment districts. The popularity of the black vernacular also increased when record producers discovered a race market in black music. Most members of the New England School of cultivated music like Mason, and other defenders of the old ideal of good music, were stridently against the influence of jazz in both popular music and classical music. Repeating the moral, aesthetic, class, and racial epithets used to condemn the popularization of vernacular jazz, the guardians of the old ideal ridiculed any idea of jazz meriting the status of high art or even having an influence on serious music composition and performance. As David Stanley Smith, Professor of Music at Yale University, argued in The Musician of August 1926, jazz music’s â€Å"monotonous rhythm, as unvaried as the chug-chug of a steam engine, enslaves its practitioners within a formula, and induces in composer, performer, and listener a stupor of mind and emotion. † On the other hand, many of those individuals who embraced â€Å"modernism† in cultivated music were sympathetic to jazz music. These modernists emphasized jazz as the legitimate expression of the times and a nation. (Stewart, 102-109) The debate within the cultivated tradition between old idealists and modernists on the influence of jazz revolved mainly around the influence of popular jazz on serious music composition and performance. That the question would be posed in such a manner spoke to how, by the 1920s, the European cultivated tradition had organizationally and ideologically broken from the world of commercial popular music. Crossover between popular music and cultivated music occurred during the 1920s, but organizational and ideological barriers left little chance that jazz musicians would transform the cultivated tradition. The very formation of a separate world of cultivated music in the United States was predicated on its distinction from commercial popular music, popular musicians, and popular tastes – a distinction further exacerbated by jazz music being an expression of the black vernacular. The influence of jazz within the cultivated tradition, however, was debated during the 1920s as professional musicians laid claim to a truly American art form and modernists promoted the incorporation of jazz in serious music composition and performance. (Badger, 48-67) Traditionalists, of course, had reason to be optimistic as the economic depression following the 1929 stock market crash wreaked havoc on the commercial market of popular jazz music. Defenders of the European cultivated tradition also had reason to celebrate as the confident proclamations of professional musicians on jazz as America’s first authentic art receded to the background as these musicians adjusted to changed economic circumstances and a new popular music market. Professional musicians’ struggle for legitimacy during the Jazz Age, however, laid the ideological and musical foundation upon which the next generation of professional musicians would construct a modern jazz paradigm. In their quest for legitimacy as professional artists, they were the first popular artists to attempt to transform the moral, aesthetic, class, and racial constructions of the old ideal of good music in America. While their efforts contained their own complicity in manners of distinction, the contradictions of an elite populism embedded in a racist culture, they did struggle to create an alternative understanding of art and society in America. As the self-appointed mediators of the American vernacular, professional musicians and composers ardently worked to construct an alternative form of good music to that of the European cultivated music tradition – a music reflecting in some fashion the world of popular audiences and popular tastes. ( DeVeaux, 525-40) In this process of syncretism, the reinvention and reinterpretation of musical idioms and practices, these artists created the American big band dance orchestra and the Tin Pan Alley song that dominated American popular music until the middle of the twentieth century. While jazz did not become a universally recognized American high art form during the Jazz Age, professional musicians and composers transformed it into legitimate popular art music, although at the expense of those non-professional vernacular musicians who did not assimilate into their profession. The need for professional musicians to legitimate popular dance orchestras disappeared after the 1920s, and the old ideal of good music no longer occupied this professional class of musician. (Gioia, 213-20) The emergence of an alternative ideal of good music among professional musicians signaled a final separation between popular music making and the cultivated tradition in American music. This break was both ideological and practical; a reflection of both a new professional ethos among professional musicians and the culmination of the division in the social organization of American music between the world of popular music and the world of European cultivated music. (Lopes, 25-36) The previous crisscrossing professionally between the cultivated tradition and popular music making was no longer part of this profession. The future big band leaders and musicians of the Swing Era began their professional careers not in symphonies, but in the small jazz ensembles and jazz orchestras of the Jazz Age. The fate of jazz was seemed threatened by the power over popular music of a new mass media industry of broadcasts, recordings, and film. Just when the fortunes of jazz seemed dead and buried, however, the swing craze reignited popular interest in the cultivated jazz vernacular. (Hennessey, 156-60) The promotion of sweet music and the subsequent swing craze, however, set in motion a new distinction within the profession of musician. No longer than singularly obsessed with the world of European cultivated music, professional musicians who assimilated the black jazz vernacular now viewed sweet music as their more direct nemesis. The race and class boundaries articulated in the old ideal of good music were now articulated more directly for professional musicians in the distinction between the popular music cultures of sweet and swing.

Domains of Knowledge about Human Nature by Larsen and Buss

Domains of Knowledge about Human Nature by Larsen and Buss The book Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge about Human Nature by Larsen and Buss covers wide range of research topics on personality psychology.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Domains of Knowledge about Human Nature by Larsen and Buss specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this case, the authors have largely focused on research studies done by other scholars that cover numerous domains which shape personality in human beings. This paper will narrow down on the cognitive domain that is also referred to as experimental domain. It is worth noting that the researchers came up with a personality theory in order to understand how cognitive performance of Individuals influences their personalities. In addition, researchers in the book conducted a survey to examine how people with different cognitive abilities differ in their personalities. As a result, the researchers found out that different individuals have dissi milar level of cognitive performance (Larsen and Buss 34). Consequently, this influences their altitude and level of motivation, a factor that is likely to influence their personalities either positively or negatively. Needless to say, research on personality domain revealed that the experiences which an individual goes through in life also influence personality. In addition to this, the study revealed that aspects such as gender, emotion and evolution affect personality. Needless to say, emotion as well as physical and mental health have also been proved to cause personality variation among individuals.Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Having a close look at the analysis in the book, it is evident that the research study derived its conclusions from traditional spheres through questionnaires (Larsen and Buss 317). Despite the outcomes of the research, it is imperative to no te that there were a few limitations. As a matter of fact, there is lack of appropriate benchmarks to measure cognitive abilities among individuals since different environmental conditions expose individuals to dissimilar experiences. Moreover, some individuals who could have been perceived to have poor cognitive ability were misquoted due to lack of motivation in their environment. In this case, cognitive performance was not the best benchmark to determine personality of an individual. Moreover, another potential limitation of the study is the fact that researchers also derived their conclusions by reviewing previous researches which could obviously be biased (Larsen and Buss 412). However, the study on personality domain is essential to students who pursue personality psychology. This is due to the fact that they get exposed to the numerous aspects that influence personality development. Moreover, they also get to understand how other domains such as culture, intra-physic, biologi cal and dispositional factors influence personality (Larsen and Buss 12). Needless to say, it is definite that learners will benefit from this book and especially be informed on how to apply numerous personality theories. Additionally, there are certain concepts that are related to personality theories in the book which can be useful to learners pursuing psychological courses.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Domains of Knowledge about Human Nature by Larsen and Buss specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Therefore, it is reasonably beyond doubt that students can derive adequate knowledge from the book to construct a solid foundation on their scientific quest to understand human nature. On applying the numerous theories in the study, the researcher study conducted on personality at an individual or group level is influenced by diverse factors within the environment (Larsen and Buss 103). Basically, the research findings re vealed that some of the major landmarks that influence personality include culture and biological dispositions. The research also demonstrated that human personality is a product of both nature and nurture (Larsen and Buss 280). Therefore, one can argue that personal attributes such as behavior, values and attitude are also influenced by experiences that an individual goes through right from childhood to adulthood. Larsen, Randy and Buss, Davis. Personality Psychology: Domains of  Knowledge about Human Nature. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.

20 Topics on African American Literature for Literary Analysis

20 Topics on African American Literature for Literary Analysis If you are tasked with conducting a literary analysis on African American literature, you may need a topic to help you get things started. This type of writing is the one which may require you to focus on a single piece of literature or a single African American author. In any case, you can turn your gaze a few of the topics below to help guide you in selecting yours: Contemporary Themes and Issues in Literature Written by an Author of Your Choosing The Effectiveness of a Biography in Retelling the Major Lifetime Events for a Person of Your Choosing How Stories by an African American Author of Your Choosing Analyze Aspects of Society How History is Taught in Literature Written by an African American Author of Your Choosing The Links between Themes of an Autobiography and the Literature Written by an African American Author of Your Choosing The Way an African American Author of Your Choosing Uses Sequence to Communicate Emotions How an Author of Your Choosing Uses Locations and Sensory Details in Their Work The Impact of Gestures and Movements in Portraying a Scene The Use of Interior Monologues by an African American Author of Your Choosing to Depict Feelings Changing Pace to Accommodate Changes in Mood/Time by an Author of Your Choosing Atmospheric and Descriptive Details to Convey Scenes by an African American Author of Your Choosing How an African American Author of Your Choosing Uses Shifting Perspectives to Portray Historical Events How an Author of Your Choosing Uses Descriptions of Appearance to Convey Social Inequalities The Impact of Responsive Writing in Literature by an Author of Your Choosing How Student Comprehensive Results from an African American Author Success in Conveying a Point How Works by African American Authors Relate to One Another in Different Periods How Contemporary Society Influences African American Writers in Specific Genres The Influence of Archetypal Models in Writings by an Author of Your Choosing Political versus Religious Influences of Historical Periods Which Shaped Plots Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech and Ethos Sample Literary Analysis: Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech and Ethos Achebe’s Language and the Destiny of Man, as well as Tony Morrison’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech both appeal to emotions and reason. Achebe’s piece appeals more strongly to reason, and every so often to emotion, while Morrison’s appeals primarily to emotion with a bit of reason interlaced. In Language and the Destiny of Man, the author speaks about the relationship that goes between language and society. He explores how human society would not exist were it not for speech. Achebe speaks of the fact that humans overlook how precious language is, and what a gift it is. It is argued that people forget it because language is something learned now from birth, so that it becomes something very natural with age and development. People do not question the origins of languages or how things might have been prior to language, something which is not intrinsic to humans. Achebe claims that violence would escalate severely were it not for language. This level of violence would be so severe that it would lead to human extinction. The author provided the example of two cavemen, one who walks into a cave at night seeking shelter, only to find that another caveman already dwells inside the cave. Because they are unable to communicate, the first man throws a rock at the head of the second to inform him of his presence. But this incident is one which would provoke a violent retaliation, and then a retaliation for that, something which would inevitably result in a great deal of violence. This is an example of pathos, an emotional appeal to the halting of violence, the identification of language as a mean of combatting it at least in some situations. It is quite successful in gaining the attention of the audience and causing people to reflect upon the aforementioned origin of language that to date had gone overlooked by many. Verbal communication still plays a role in disagreements and it lacks the power to abolish all violence, and today, it can be used for something far beyond its intent, something malicious and abusive. This is another successful argument, one that draws attention to how leaders, individuals, and groups can abuse others through language, and that each person must take it upon themselves to be cognizant of this potential and to work toward using words for good. The author stresses the importance of language and the ability to communicate with one another. Historically, a speaker has been able to use language to effectively communicate with others and to gain respect from fellow humans. This holds true even today. People who are able to effectively communicate with their audience, and to persuade their audience, can become leaders. The ability to communicate effectively and exploit all that language has to offer is what draws respect from others and what provides the opportunity for increased success in life. The speech presented by Tony Morrison as she accepted her Nobel Prize was one full of repetition, alliteration, juxtaposition, and idioms intended to appeal to the emotions of the audience. The emphasis was that words can serve as weapons used by the strong against weak but that if they are treated with respect, this will not be commonplace. Morrison conveyed how important it was for society to be considerate and respectful of language. She initially used ethos by differentiating herself as the speaker, not the character, in an attempt to establish her credibility, while simultaneously choosing language that was appropriate for her audience in a successful manner. In her speech she used the first person singular in phrases such as â€Å"the version I know† by which she separates herself as one single storyteller among many, creating distance between herself and the nature of her story.   She incorporates second person when she says â€Å"I don’t know†¦ it is in your hands†¦ it is your responsibility†. The use of â€Å"you† here refers directly to both Morrison’s critics and the younger people contained within her story. As she continues with her discourse, the term â€Å"you† is also applied to the world as a whole, wherein all of the people in the world are held responsible for language and keeping it alive.   She also incorporates third person in phrases such as â€Å"the blind woman† or â€Å"the old woman†, meaning to separate herself from the characters in her tale and solidify the role she plays as the storyteller. â€Å"They† is used once, as a slip into idioma tic speech, wherein she refers to younger people from the city who disapprove of Morrison and are â€Å"showing her up for the fraud they believe she is†. This part of the speech reveals a bit of hostility and takes on an accusatory tone, while still maintaining pathos and ethos. Overall she molds rhetorical devices and utilizes point of view to inspire a love of language. While the rhetorical devices used were persuasive, it was the collective use of rhetorical devices and presentation that Tony Morrison displayed which appealed to emotions or reason on a more profound manner. References: Gery, John, and Aldon Lynn Nielsen. Black Chant: Languages Of African-American Postmodernism. American Literature  70.4 (1998): 915. Web. Gilyard, Keith, and Anissa Janine Wardi.  African American Literature. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004. Print. Povey, John F. African Literature And American Universities.  African Studies Bulletin  9.2 (1966): 13. Web. Scruggs, Charles, and Madelyn Jablon. Black Metafiction: Self-Consciousness In African American Literature.  American Literature  70.1 (1998): 201. Web. Selisker, Scott. What Was African American Literature?.  African American Review  44.4 (2011): 717-719. Web. Smith, Valerie, Lea Baechler, and A. Walton Litz.  African American Writers. New York: C. Scribners Sons, 1991. Print. Warren, Kenneth W.  What Was African American Literature?. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2011. Print.

Review of The Ryan Boot Company Financical Statement Essay

Review of The Ryan Boot Company Financical Statement - Essay Example This ratio is to be analyzed in comparison with the profit margin. Since Ryan is putting more assets for generating lesser profit margin this ratio is very less as compared to that of the industry. Ryan would be able to increase the profit margin by lowering the total assets or increasing the profit margin. This area needs immediate attention. It is observed that this ratio is slightly higher than that of the industry. When the ROE is higher and ROA is lower, it implies that the company is trading mainly on debt funds. This implies that the debt ratio for the company is high. This is observed from the balance sheet of the company. It is seen from the balance sheet that while the long term debt of the company stands at 2,500,000 the current liabilities are 2,750,000. Although there is no harm in carrying larger current liabilities since they are non-interest bearing, it is important that the company maintains proper short term liquidity position to meet these liabilities as and when they become due. On one side although this is an advantageous position for the company from another angle this points towards a weakness for the company. This ratio is lower than that of the industry and shows a weakness for the company. This implies that either the company is too liberal in its credit policies to augment its credit sales or the company is following inefficient collection policies. If Ryan is in the habit of offering higher credit periods to its customers the company has to have a close look into the products as to the necessity for offering such higher credit terms. On the other hand if the collection policies of the company are inefficient and weak they need to be tightened so that this ratio improves. Otherwise the company will incur losses on account of more bad debts. This ratio is found to be lower than that of the industry and therefore represents a weakness for the company. It is for the company to reduce its total assets base

Assignment #2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

#2 - Assignment Example Price adjustments- this is the lowering of the prices with the hopes to generate more sales by increasing the number of units purchased. This is one of the most used methods by businesses to enter new markets. Product improvements- this occurs when a business decides to add quality to its products as a way of attracting more customers. Thus, price improvements are better suited for creating new interests in stagnating products and to offer extra benefits when one uses the product. Creation of more distribution channels- in this method, a business enters a market through increasing its methods of making products reach the consumers and making the products more readily available in the market. For instance, a business that operates through retails may open wholesale centers for distribution of more products. It helps in determining the market penetration goal. As such, the business subtracts the effects of the limiting factors from market potential, and it enables the business to estimate its measurable goals. Makes it possible for the business to define its market. By making adjustments in the market potential and the share figures, business can define its markets in terms of industry, product, and geography or customer type. A business can identify and quantify the limiting factors. Such factors include competition, government regulation, and limited resources. Therefore, by adjusting the market potential and the share figures, the business will be in a better position to realize these factors, and quantify them. The ranking method- this is the process of comparing one’s job with others to determine whether it is higher, lower or in the same rank. This method is based on the overall judgment of the required skills, responsibility and also working conditions of the job. The prime benefit of this technique is that it is simple and is