Dickens's Treatment of Education and Social Mobility in Great Essay

Dickens's Treatment of Education and Social Mobility in Great Expectations - Essay Example These circumstances call for a story far less comfortable about the separation of good and evil, the imputable and the innocent,........" (Reed, 1995) In Great Expectations, Dickens gives us the story of Pip and the story of Pip's growing into a man is a portrayal of his expectations and aspirations: "Now, I return to this young fellow. And the communication I have got to make is, that he has great expectations". It is also a realistic chronicle of Pip's enormous guilt both deserved and undeserved, his insecure posture as a gentleman, his moderate success at being a gentleman in the worldly sense and his finally ending up as a gentleman of intrinsic value. For it is in the definition of a "gentleman" that the central dichotomy of the novel lies, and being a gentleman is directly related with social mobility and education, not only in the personal story of Pip himself, but in the stories of the gallery of characters that surround him from his childhood to maturity. And the concept of becoming a gentleman is constantly and inextricably related to educational improvement. Not born to gentility like any other gentleman, Pip must strive to acquire all the ways of a gentleman, and for him the only option to do this lies in being better educated and improving his reading and writing: "writing some passages from a book, to improve myself in two ways at once by a sort of stratagem." Education for Pip is therefore vital, and has become the measure of his worth as Harold Bloom has pointed out: "For Pip, writing and reading will become the beginning of his accomplishments. They are the vehicles of his anticipated upward social mobility, and the expectation not only of greater wealth but of moral superiority as well. He recapitulates the historical experience by which oral culture is devalued and writing replaces spoken communication as the transcendent value of western culture. The subsequent plot reveals how Dickens is making an accounting of the costs and benefits of modernization: writing, the production of language, and the manipulation of words and capital have become the new measure of human worth". (Bloom, 2000) 1.3 Dickens as a social climber and Pip's aspirations As in David Copperfield which had definite autobiographical overtones, Dickens uses the first-person narrative style in Great Expectations as well, and if we look back on Dickens' youth, it is not hard to find similarities between his life and Pip's, and the ways in which the fictional Pip dealt with his issues the way his creator did in real life. In The Life of Charles Dickens, and Favorite Stories, Everett H. Rupert relates the dismal beginnings of Dickens' own education: "Such formal schooling as he got during his early childhood was little better than no schooling at all. His tired, over-worked mother taught him his letters, and later the rudiments of English and a little Latin". This can be very easily related to Pip's earliest encounters with education: "Much of my unassisted self, and more by the help of Biddy than of Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramblebush; getting considerably worried and scratched by every letter. After that I fell among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every evening to do something new to disguise themselves and baffle recognition. But at

Mass media Essay Example for Free

Mass media Essay From my point of view, I agree that the mass media, including TV, radio and newspaper have a great influence in shaping people ideas . Nowdays mass media is a form of progress of information and communication technology. Through the mass media that the more developed allows information spread easily in the community. Information in any form can be disseminated quickly and easily so that it affects the viewpoints, lifestyles, and culture of a nation. The rapid flow of information causes us not to be able to filter the messages. As a result subconsciously it little by little have been affecting pattern of behavior and culture in society. Long-standing culture and become a benchmark in society behave are now almost gone and escapes the attention of the community. As a result, the longer the social changes in the community began to surface a raised. The influence of the mass media on contemporary theory of the influence of media on society has been fostering the rapid reforms in society. The influence of the media with regard to other aspects such as the nature of the communicators, the content, information from the media itself, as well as the response from the community. Rapid development of information and communication technologies such as mass media, led to rapid changes everywhere. The Mass Media have gradually brought the community into a new cultural patterns and begin to determine the mindset and culture of community behavior. The Media tells people how decent standards of living for a human, thus indirectly causing the Community judge whether their neighborhoods have been worth or whether he has met the standard and this heavily influenced picture of what is seen, heard and read from the media. Message or information conveyed by the media could be a support community for the better, making the public feel happy to be themselves, feel quite deflating or otherwise trust him or feeling low than others. Existence of other behaviour pattern changes of lifestyle. Usually someone will imitate everything related to his idols are good in terms of dress, look, or how to speak her piece that reflects themselves his idols. The above are likely to be more influential on a generation. A socio-psychological, information flows that continue to hit our lives will give rise to various influences on the development of the soul, especially for children and teens. Their behavior patterns, little by little is affected by what they receive may be deviated from the stage of development of the soul as well as the norms in force. The positive effects of mass media on society is the society would gain something more news worthy. For example, news bombing of WTC and the war in Iraq, despite being in a different country but with proper information and information through the mass media. This will cause people to be more sensitive to the issues at. In addition, through the use of internet and telephone bimbit allow community out of its cocoon. For the conclusion, am agree that the mass media, including TV, radio and newspaper have a great influence in shaping people ideas.

Grahams Law :: physics chemistry graham grahams law

In chemistry and in physics, the movement of particles becomes very important. One way in which particles move is through effusion. The formula for the rate of effusion of gas molecules was developed by a chemist by the name of Thomas Graham in the 19th century. December 21, 1805ï ¿ ½September 16, 1869. Thomas Graham was born in December of 1805 in Glasgow, Scotland. His father was a workman who desired that his son enter the Church of Scotland. However, Graham became a student at the University of Glasgow in 1819, where he became interested in the field of chemistry. He left the university in 1826 and went off to be a professor of chemistry at several universities, two of which were the Royal College of Science and Technology and the University of London. In 1841, he founded the Chemical Society of London, of which he was the first president. His study in the field of colloids (a type of homogenous mixture) led to the discovery of dialysis and his earning of the name ï ¿ ½the father of colloid chemistry.ï ¿ ½ Another of Grahamï ¿ ½s accomplishments was in his study of diffusion and effusion of gases. His formula for the effusion of gases even carries his name; it is called Grahamï ¿ ½s Law. Grahamï ¿ ½s Law ï ¿ ½Physics. The flow of a gas through a small orifice at such a density that the mean distance between the molecules is large compared with the diameter of the orificeï ¿ ½ (ï ¿ ½effusionï ¿ ½). In other words, effusion is the flow of individual gas molecules through a hole that is smaller than the mean free path, which is ï ¿ ½the average distance [a] particle travels between collisions with other particlesï ¿ ½ (ï ¿ ½Mean free pathï ¿ ½). This means that in effusing through the hole the gas molecules do not collide with one another. efï ¿ ½fuï ¿ ½sion ï ¿ ½noun One of the postulates of the Kinetic Molecular Theory states that average kinetic energy of gas particles depends solely on the temperature of the gas. Since this is the case, the kinetic energy of two gas molecules, hydrogen and oxygen for example, may be written as the following. When simplified the equation becomes this. Rearranging yields this equation. And taking the square root of both sides gives us the following. This formula is a simplified version of Grahamï ¿ ½s Law which states ï ¿ ½that the rate of effusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of the mass of its particlesï ¿ ½ (ï ¿ ½Grahamï ¿ ½s Lawï ¿ ½).

History of Hospitality Essay

Hospitality is the extension of home like services to persons other than of one’s household or immediate relative. Hospitality involves treating strangers and guests to warm welcome into strangers’ homes. Hospitality brings people who rarely know each other together. Hospitality is traced back to as early as human existence is known. The most intelligent of human evolution, the homo sapient was identified as indicating hospitality traits. The seventeenth century in the British culture had evidence of hospitality traits, (O’Connor, 2005). The face of hospitality though has changed over the centuries to what it is today. The emphasis of persons being hospitable towards fellow people has been relaxed and only a few institutions are left to practice it. Hospitality today is not much to be practiced by everyone but by a few who are deemed to naturally possess this quality as a gift. For there to be an in depth understanding of what is entailed in hospitality, a review of the ancient definition’s and motive of hospitality is necessary. This will help us determine whether the principles on which hospitality was founded have changed over time. Among the Greeks, hospitality was viewed as a sacred activity to honor their gods and thus the whole society was obliged to be hospitable (O’Gorman, 2005). Failure to extend hospitable attitudes towards guests or strangers invited the wrath of the supernatural. Greek and Roman Societies Hospitality was thought of as transferable from generation to generation. The virtue was not only a personal choice but was also applied in public affairs. Different types of guests were received at treated variously according to their status, (O’Gorman, 2005). Traders were received differently from cultural visitors. Hospitality was exercised even at national level where state or city guests were received with honour and dignity. Commercial hospitality was rare in the early Greek civilization. In the Roman culture, hospitality was expected to be an exercise of all pennons and it was more pronounced in the Greek society. Public hospitality was exercised by Rome and other countries. Hospitality is traceable even in religious writings like the Bible. Some fundamental principles are evident from the studies of early hospitality. Underlying Principles Hospitality was viewed as necessary for human existence. Because no person was immune to requiring hospitality services at some time, there was an obligation for all to be hospitable. Hospitality established and maintained relationships which cultivated togetherness. Hospitality was further viewed as an honorable tradition deserving passing from one generation to another. Being hospitable was to be practiced all through irrespective of changes in the world. Hospitality by then was stratified in that particular groups of person were accorded different treatment according to their social standing. The extent of the different groups of guests required that laws be established to govern this. This indicates that hospitality was highly valued in these early societies. There was an unwritten law that hospitality, once extended to a person, one had to respond by extending it to others. This ensured its continuity. In the ancient set up also, hospitality was used to gain honour for persons exercising it. The more a person is involved with receiving guests and strangers into their households, the more respected they became in the society. Emphasis was laid on domestic hospitality in which guests were welcomed in households. Hospitality Today The face of hospitality has evidently changed today. The society lays little emphasis in reception of visitors or strangers at large. Domestic hospitality today is a rare phenomenon. Today’s society treats strangers with suspicion and it therefore becomes harder for people to extend hospitality. With the growing security concerns, strangers are more likely to be shunned in the suspicion that they have malicious intentions. This is more so for the developed countries where homes are fenced to lock out intruders and sensors installed to man the compound. Commercialization The society today has commercialized hospitality services to the extent that it has lost its meaning. Hospitality is exercised only when the host stands to gain financially from the guest. The building of luxurious hotels across the world emphasizes this. Rarely would a sizeable town lack accommodation facilities for guests or people in transit. Without any gain from hosting these people, such hospitality centers would be inexistent. The commercialization of hospitality has further sidelined those needing the services from receiving them. Before a guest is booked into these hotels it has to be ascertained that they are able to pay accommodation fees. Guests are also required to produce many documents to identify themselves and at times, they are required to state their motives. Some guests are turned away if the hosts doubt them. The personalized sympathetic contact between a host and guest has been lost long the way (Dittmer, 1997). Suspicion Today also extension of kindness is raise suspicion. When persons become so hospitable even in the commercial facilities, the guest realizes that their hosts must be after favours. There are standard ways of showing hospitality in the commercial facilities and all workers and obliged to follow them. But when they do more than is required, guests become wary. This is in contrast with the traditional view where acts of hospitality were interpreted as well intended. Public Hospitality Public hospitality as exercised in the past was to build relationships between cities or states. The representatives of states were sent to foreign nations to foster better relations. Such persons were supposed to be received well in alien land. Failure to receive them with dignity and respect was regarded as abuse to their native lands. Today this principle is largely applied. Countries send their representatives to foreign lands to build friendships and also negotiate deals. These representatives are received in well built guest houses set apart for this very purpose. Reception of these people with great dignity is interpreted as friendliness towards countries (Hobbs, 2001). In businesses, there are established hospitality dockets which accord certain levels of treatment to their guests. A cup of tea is offered and some companies offer more. This is an extension of the past trends of building relationships thorough hospitality. A deviation from past hospitality trends lies in today’s detachment of the virtue with religion. In the past, hospitality was largely viewed as a religious obligation. With the developments in the science world, religious issues have progressively lost much meaning to some people. This removes personal obligation on individuals to be hospitable. It shows the extent to which modern society has abandoned collective responsibility to care for strangers leaving it in the hands of the commercial institutions (Hobbs, 2001). Hospitality is a virtue that every reason should exercise. The emphasis should not be resented to commercial facilities along but just as it was the practice traditionally, it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure guests and strangers are comfortable. The society today should redefine hospitality to what it used to be. Bibliography Dittmer, P. (1997) Early Development of the Hospitality Industry. Dimensions of the Hospitality Industry, New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. , pp. 33-77. O’Gorman, K (2005) Modern Hospitality: Lessons from the Past. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 12 (2), pp. 141-151. Hobbs, T (2001) Hospitality in the First Testament and the ‘Teleological Fallacy’’. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 26, (1), pp. 3-30. O’Connor, D (2005) Towards a new interpretation of hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 17, (3), pp. 267-271.

The Story of Macbeth

In the story of Macbeth, there is a lot of ups and downs that go along. How everyone takes the events that are going on will determine who are the strong ones and who are the weak ones. At one point all of the characters will have a flaw which will cause them to act a certain way. Many events that go on shocked, excited, and worried most. Every action will lead to a deeper event. Although everyone seems to have their head together at the beginning, there is alot of flaws that these characters are not showing right away. Most of these characters will leave and reader at a sharp turning point. These situations that the characters are always falling into are because of the characters poor decisions that leave the character where he/she cannot change or controls certains situations. Macbeth's mind set and actions will show how he really feels about certain situations and help a reader understand why Macbeth's actions are the way they are. Not just Macbeth's actions, its Lady Macbeth's actions too. No one knows which way to turn to when events start to drop out of nowhere. In the story of Macbeth, you can see that the troubled main character, Macbeth is in situations that you can see his flaws clearly, making this story a tragedy. To start off in at 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth, the setting is in Scotland. Lady Macbeth comes across the three witches, the Weird Sisters, she had made the witches mad so the witches knew to go after her husband. So that is exactly what they did. The witches said they will meet Macbeth â€Å"when the battle's los and won† and when â€Å"fair is foul and foul is fair†. The witches will tell the characters one thing and will think in their head another meaning to what they just said, so the characters will be confused and do or say the wrong things that will cause a huge situations that can be a life of death situation. For example, when the witches told Macbeth that he will be king, also when they told him a human cannot harm him till the trees move. Another thing that the witches did was curse Lady macbeth when she would not give the witches some of her crackers.

Diversity in the Workplace Essays

Diversity in the Workplace Essays Diversity in the Workplace Essay Diversity in the Workplace Essay Age, physical and mental ability; chapter thirteen and fourteen Union Institute University 1 . What possible effects could a large proportion of people aged 45 to 64 and a smaller proportion of people under 45 in the current workforce have on organizations ability to attract and retain a competent and motivated workforce? How might discrimination against younger and older workers combined affect employers, given the shifting age distribution? In the corporate world, some managers and supervisors do not want to hire older workers and others do not want to hire younger errors, complex, expensive, dysfunctional recruitment and selection could result. The shortage of younger workers and the aging of the population make employment fairness toward both groups of workers critical to employers ability to attract and retain an adequate supply of workers in the future. Moreover, the importance of fairness to young workers, their future careers, and future influence on diversity issues should provide organizations with sufficient motivation to treat younger workers fairly, even in the absence of legislation requiring it. However, this coordination is likely to affect the employer since the worlds population is aging, and older people are working longer than ever before. Because these older workers often have more corporate memory and experience than others, organizations that fail to recognize the value in providing opportunities for older workers will be disadvantaged. In addition, there are fewer younger workers entering the workforce than in the past, and younger workers are more diverse in race and ethnicity than ever before (Bell, 2012, pig 401). 2. In addition to the suggestions provided in this heaper, what other things might organizations do to counter employees age-based stereotypes. These existing stereotypes and misconception both older and younger workers has lead to discrimination and unfair treatment at work and can reduce organizational function. In order to avoid this organization should identify the potential problems within the organization. This will enable you to know what you want in terms of the human resources and go for it. The organization should offer trainings to enable the employees to get awareness on discriminatory practices. In hose, training the employees should be given the open forum to participate actively. They should also be given the responsibility to speak up when they encounter any form of discrimination practices and harassment. When it comes to promotion, the employer should do it in terms of a reward to a performance tenure, whereby they are rewarded in form of promotions because of their value to the organization but not age. However, the importance of fairness to young workers, their future careers, and future influence on diversity issues should provide organizations with sufficient titivation to treat younger workers fairly, even in the absence of legislation requiring it. With or without widespread federal protections against discrimination, young workers should be assured of fair organizational treatment, freedom from harassment and discrimination, and recourse if it does occur ( Bell, 2012, pig 429). 3. How might the lack of broad federal legislation prohibiting age discrimination against younger workers contribute to their experiences of discrimination and harassment at work? The federal laws are designed to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, both younger and older age discrimination. Young people have a right to be treated fairly and have the same opportunities as everyone else. Many employers without any laid legal channels to protect this vulnerable group, take advantage of this since there will be no any lawsuits against them. There are cases of indirect discrimination occurs when a requirement, condition, or practice used for all parties negatively affects people of a particular age or age group. For example, it is unlawful to require strength and agility tests that disadvantage older applicants or employees when the levels of strength or agility are not prerequisites to successful Job performance. Bell, 2012, pig 429). Most employers preferred to work with older people aged 45 to 64 this is because young population will is always considered unsuitable to occupy the executive position within the corporate industry. Since the executive positions are left for the old aged generation because of their competency in handling the corporate affairs. They are considered to have corporate memory and experience than others therefore competent for the Jobs. Most employers take advantage to the age range of 14 to 17, who are always vulnerable to sexual harassment than the older workers. They take advantage of their lack of proper professional conduct to assault them. 4. Many Midriffs programming chief at the Weather Channel reportedly stood by a diversity poster as he made disparaging age- and gender-related comments about the appearance of women anchors. What signal does this send about the genuineness of the Weather Channels commitment to diversity? The weather Channel is not committed to diversity this because they treat the female workers with a lot of prejudice and discrimination at work. The negative statement of appearance of female anchors shows they perceive the women workers with contempt. They are only attracted to the attractiveness of these women rather than their Journalistic education, skills, and experience. They choose people with certain looks to read the news and believe attractiveness is based on age. This is the main reason for the preferences of hiring younger and male workers. This has severely disadvantage older women, many of whom may desire. (Flint, 2005). Chapter 14 Questions 1 . What are reasonable accommodations? How does a company determine what is reasonable and what is not? Reasonable accommodation is when a change can be implemented to enable a qualified person with a disability to perform essential Job unctions without unduly burdening the employer. A company is capable of determining what is reasonable or not reasonable when the process of providing an accommodation require significant difficulty or expense relative to the employers size, financial resources, and/or the nature and structure of the organization, then the employer would face undue hardship and would not have to provide the accommodation. (Bell, 2012, pig 438). A reasonable accommodation is reasonable when it results in benefits to other employees and the organization in many ways. Accommodation that is economical to the organization. Therefore, the managers can enable people with disabilities to work without thought or fanfare. For instance allowing an employee who is a student to tailor his or her work schedule around classes is a reasonable accommodation. They can also allow the employees to take time off to study for exams and make up the time on weekends or after the school, term is an accommodation. These employees would then come back to bring new skills to the organization. 2. What similarities exist between perceptions about the competence and performance of workers with disabilities and older workers? The errors with disabilities and aging population are perceived as unproductive in the labor markets. The employers always perceived disability as am obstacle to development in an organization since it impedes performance. They always take a prospective employee with a disability as unable to perform adequately because of the disability. Another similarity is that aging and disability are both acquired. Because some disabilities are acquired, some employers and employees discriminate and fail to accommodate them as before. An aging population, a greater propensity to acquire a disability with age, and working longer make the employment experiences of people with disabilities an increasingly important issue for organizations. (Bell, 2012, pig 432). 3. Accommodation for Ms. Barrios for inability to respond rapidly to an emergency evacuation is very simple, the management needs to move her office to a room closer to the emergency exit or incase of a storey building some meters away from the elevator. They should also improve on their emergency alarming system promptly any emergency cases. The benefit of this is that the organization will be able to respond promptly to emergency cases hence safeguarding the lives of its employees in any case of emergency. The case was not resolved before Ms. Barrios termination since the DuPont has a long history of hiring people with disabilities. Another reason is that DuPont has also conducted surveys to assess their performance, attendance, and safety records. In Equal to the Task II, DuPont reported that workers with disabilities had above-average or average ratings of performance, attendance, and safety in 90%, 86%, or 97% of cases, respectively (Bell, 2012, pig 449). . How can recommendations for employment equity for people with disabilities be helpful in ensuring equity for other non-dominant group members? Once overall training has been conducted, organizations should ensure all human resources functions are free of barriers. The first requirement is a valid, written Job description prior to advertising and interviewing for p osition, which makes clear what the essential and marginal functions are. Such a Job description can help decision makers avoid discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities or the non- dominant group members (Vance, 1976 pig 445). The organization should also use Job description and structured interviews when selecting applicants who are capable of successful Job performance, with or without seasonable accommodations. This means even the non-dominant group shall be considered on equal grounds. They should also be given equal and same opportunities for training and development as those without disabilities. Finally, Managers and coworkers with hiring responsibility should be trained about stereotypes and misconceptions of people with disabilities. The fact should be made clear that the performance and rates of absence from work of those with disabilities are comparable and sometimes better than those of people without disabilities are (Bell, 2012, pig 456). Execute Action Chapter 14 Conduct library or Internet research on the positive effects of work on peoples health and well-being. Discuss the applicability of employment to the health and well being of people with disabilities. According to the research people in work tend to enjoy a happier and healthier life than those who are out of work. Quite a number of people with physical disability like frequent muscle and Joint pain who have been advised by their health officers and medics to return to work tend to enjoy better health since there is a reduction in the level of pain, and an adequate improvement in the function and quality of life than those who stay off work. There are people who are sick and disabled that have remained in or return to work as soon as possible because its therapeutic, working helps to promote recovery and rehabilitation, and reduces the risk of long-term incapacity. The medics have also found out that being out of work for long periods was generally bad for your health, resulting in: more consultations, a continuous use of drugs and medical consultations and at times higher hospital admission rates than for the average population. Moreover well- being on the other hand has a positive impact to the production of a given company nice it has been confirmed that theres a strong business case for having a healthy workforce. Healthy staff is more productive and thats good for the bottom line of an organization.

Free Essays on Implications Of Ict

I.C.T plays an important role in todays society, businesses rely on computers and communication networks to operate efficiantly, everyday people keep in touch with families from great distances, information has been made more accessable with the growth of the internet. The information age is here and its use is growing at an alarming rate, computers are becoming smaller, faster, and more powerful than before, machines are replacing humans in the workplace, business meetings are being held over the internet and not in person. In this paper i will discuss the social, ethical and legal implications of I.C.T. Social Implications: At Work The introduction of information technology has caused some unemployment, for example: Â · Computer-controlled warehouses need only a handful of staff to operate them. Â · Computer-controlled robots are now common on production lines, replacing human workers. Â · The old skills of workers in the printing industry are now out-of-date. Â · Some jobs have disappeared as they can now be done automatically e.g. checking football pools coupons, marking multiple choice exam papers. However, it is fair to say that the development of information technology has led to many new jobs such as computer technicians, programmers web designers and systems analysts. It is more likely to have changed someone's work rather than led to them losing their job. This probably meant that people have had to be retrained to use modern technology: Â · Secretaries now use word-processors and not typewriters. Â · Travel agents book holidays by computer, not by phone or letter. Â · Telephone banking has meant that many bank staff now work by phone in front of a computer, instead of being behind a counter. Â · De-skilling has taken place. Some jobs which needed a high level of skill in the past can now be done more easily. For example, print workers today can use DTP software to lay out... Free Essays on Implications Of Ict Free Essays on Implications Of Ict I.C.T plays an important role in todays society, businesses rely on computers and communication networks to operate efficiantly, everyday people keep in touch with families from great distances, information has been made more accessable with the growth of the internet. The information age is here and its use is growing at an alarming rate, computers are becoming smaller, faster, and more powerful than before, machines are replacing humans in the workplace, business meetings are being held over the internet and not in person. In this paper i will discuss the social, ethical and legal implications of I.C.T. Social Implications: At Work The introduction of information technology has caused some unemployment, for example: Â · Computer-controlled warehouses need only a handful of staff to operate them. Â · Computer-controlled robots are now common on production lines, replacing human workers. Â · The old skills of workers in the printing industry are now out-of-date. Â · Some jobs have disappeared as they can now be done automatically e.g. checking football pools coupons, marking multiple choice exam papers. However, it is fair to say that the development of information technology has led to many new jobs such as computer technicians, programmers web designers and systems analysts. It is more likely to have changed someone's work rather than led to them losing their job. This probably meant that people have had to be retrained to use modern technology: Â · Secretaries now use word-processors and not typewriters. Â · Travel agents book holidays by computer, not by phone or letter. Â · Telephone banking has meant that many bank staff now work by phone in front of a computer, instead of being behind a counter. Â · De-skilling has taken place. Some jobs which needed a high level of skill in the past can now be done more easily. For example, print workers today can use DTP software to lay out...

Heinrich Himmler, Nazi SS Head Oversaw the Holocaust

Heinrich Himmler, Nazi SS Head Oversaw the Holocaust Heinrich Himmler was a key figure in the Nazi party and leader of the feared SS. He was also responsible for turning the racist and anti-Semitic ideology of the Nazi movement into a shockingly efficient killing machine. Himmlers fanatical devotion to Hitler, as well as his fascination with the pseudoscience that fortified Nazi beliefs, made him one of the main architects of the Holocaust. The unlikely rise of Himmler from an unimpressive clerk-like figure running a small farm to one of the most powerful men on earth was attributed to his penchant for organization. Upon his suicide, soon after hed been captured and the Nazi regime had crumbled, the New York Times noted that Himmler had â€Å"raised wholesale slaughter to a science.† Fast Facts: Heinrich Himmler Known For: As head of the Nazi SS elite troops, he terrorized much of Europe and masterminded the HolocaustBorn: October 7, 1900 in Munich, BavariaDied: May 23, 1945 in Luneberg, Germany (committed suicide after being captured)Spouse: Margarete Concerzowo, known as MargaChildren: Gundrun Himmler, born 1929 Early Life Heinrich Himmler was born in Munich, Bavaria, on October 7, 1900. His father, Gebhard Himmler, was a schoolmaster. Early in his career, Himmler’s father had been appointed the tutor of Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, and Himmler was named in honor of the prince. Growing up in a middle-class family with an older and younger brother, Himmler developed a great sense of pride in German traditions. When his older brother joined the military in World War I, he wrote in his diary that he wished he was old enough to enlist. He did eventually join the German army and received training, but the war ended before he saw action. Following the war, Himmler studied agriculture and seemed destined to be a farmer. Like other young and angry Germans, he responded to his country’s defeat and perceived humiliation by the Allied powers by becoming interested in nationalist political movements. He officially joined the small Nazi Party in August 1923. He was involved in a minor role, manning a barricade and holding a Nazi banner in the Munich beer hall putsch that November. After the failed takeover attempt, he escaped prosecution and avoided prison, unlike Hitler and other participants. Rise to Power As the Nazi Party grew, Himmler became a key figure. In 1925, Himmler joined the SS (Schutzstaffel, the Nazi paramilitary organization), which had originally been a thuggish group of bodyguards tasked with protecting Hitler at public gatherings. As the second-in-command at the SS, Himmler dealt with fairly mundane tasks such as increasing party membership, collecting dues, and canvassing for advertisements for the party’s newspaper. In 1927 Himmler met his future wife, Margarete Concerzowo, known as Marga. They married in July 1928, and with Marga’s money they bought a small farm about ten miles outside Munich. They kept hens and grew some produce, and proceeds from the farm augmented Himmler’s salary from the Nazi Party. At some point, Hitler recognized Himmler’s fanatical loyalty and talent for organization, and in January 1929 he appointed him Reichsfuhrer SS, essentially making him the head of the organization. Himmler had a grand vision for the SS. He saw the black-uniformed troops as elite soldiers for Hitler, modern-day knights in service to the Nazi movement. As Hitler moved to seize power in Germany in the early 1930s, Himmler made plans to increase the size and power of the SS as well as its racial composition. In 1932 he issued a marriage code for the SS. Based on the concept of Blut und Boden (blood and soil in English) expounded by Nazi theorist Richard Walter Darre, the code stressed the racial purity of SS members. By Himmler’s orders, prospective members of the elite group had to prove they were of pure Nordic stock. Potential wives of SS members had to submit to physical examinations and prove they were free of Jewish or Slavic ancestry. Himmler became fixated on the idea of selective breeding. Heinrich Himmler, left, and Adolf Hitler review SS troops. Getty Images   Building the SS Himmler accelerated SS recruiting, and by 1932 the organization had grown to more than 50,000 men. Within a few years, the SS grew to more than 200,000 and became a formidable presence in German life. A major boost to Himmler’s plans came when he happened to meet a young German who had been forced out of the German navy. Reinhard Heydrich had family connections which led him to Himmler, and Himmler, believing Heydrich had intelligence experience, hired him to perform a particular mission: build a spy network within Germany. Heydrich had not actually worked in military intelligence, but he was a fast learner and before long he had an efficient network of spies and informers. An early sign of what was coming occurred in 1933 when Himmler and Heydrich opened the first concentration camp. The Dachau camp was created to hold political dissidents and it served as a warning to anyone who opposed the Nazi regime. Throughout the 1930s Himmler acquired more power. In 1934 he participated in the notorious Night of the Long Knives, the purge of the leadership of the SA, the Nazi stormtroopers, an organization which rivaled the SS. Having won the power struggle with the SA, Himmler became known as a major figure in the Nazi leadership. In 1936, the New York Times published a front-page article noting that Himmler had become the head of all â€Å"Reich Police.† By the end of the 1930s the SS had become the dominant force within the Nazi Party. And Himmler as head of not only the SS but the Gestapo, the secret police, was established as the most powerful figure in Germany after Hitler. Heinrich Himmler inspecting a camp holding Russian prisoners of war. Getty Images Directing the Holocaust Himmler’s main historical significance was for the role he played in the Holocaust, the Nazi’s systematic slaughter of millions of European Jews. From his early youth Himmler had been an ardent anti-Semite, and he eagerly used his great power to persecute the Jews in Germany. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, militarized units of the SS were part of the invasion force. Under Himmler’s direction, SS troops were tasked with removing undesirable populations, which generally meant Jews, from areas conquered by German troops. SS units called Einsatzgruppen rounded up Jews and killed them in massacres across Poland. When the German forces attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, SS units followed to conduct racial cleansing at a vast level. Himmler’s work at eliminating Jews in Europe moved quickly. By late 1941 large-scale massacres by SS troops had occurred. At the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, Heydrich laid out SS plans to come up with a Final Solution for Jews in Europe. This plan for mass murder was followed by Himmler after Heydrich was assassinated by partisans months later. Himmler directed the mass murder of millions and paid close attention to what was happening in the concentration camps. It is known that he visited the death camp at Auschwitz on two occasions. At times he issued detailed orders about how the camps should be run, even explaining in detail how much food prisoners should be given. He also authorized the gruesome medical experiments conducted by Nazi doctors who used concentration camp prisoners as subjects. As part of the Nazi campaigns in Eastern Europe, many Jews were forced to live in ghettos, where they were isolated in overcrowded and brutal conditions. Himmler took a great interest in the Warsaw Ghetto, and when the Jews rose up in a rebellion in the spring of 1943, he gave orders to conduct a brutal campaign that amounted to extermination of the residents. As World War II expanded and the Germans began to suffer defeats, Himmler made plans to create SS guerrilla units which would conduct warfare against the Allies in the event Germany was forced to surrender. In 1944 he was put in the field at one point to command troops, but as he had no real military experience, he was ineffective. Hitler called him back to Berlin to command troops positioned there. Downfall In early 1945, when it became evident that Germany would lose the war, Himmler tried to reach out to the Americans to make a peace deal. He hoped to evade prosecution as a war criminal. The American commander in Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, refused to consider Himmler’s peace offer and declared him a war criminal. Hitler was enraged by the betrayal and stripped Himmler of his power. As Germany was collapsing, Himmler sought to escape. He shaved his distinctive mustache, dressed in civilian clothes, and tried to blend in with the refugees traveling on the roads. Himmler was stopped at a checkpoint manned by British soldiers and he was able to produce fake identity papers. However, he aroused the suspicion of the British, who took him into custody and turned him over to intelligence officers. When questioned, Himmler admitted his real identity. While being searched on the night of May 23, 1945, Himmler managed to put a vial of poison in his mouth and bite down on it. He died minutes later. A dispatch by the Reuters News Service published in the New York Times on May 25, 1945 was headlined Himmler Outsmarted Himself. The story noted that Himmler, who had created a system of Germans often having to show identity papers to members of the Gestapo, would have had a set of fake identity papers created for himself. But in the chaos of the war’s end, few refugees on the roads still had their papers. Himmler’s pristine set of papers was what drew attention at the checkpoint. Had he simply claimed he was a refugee trying to walk home and had lost his papers, the British soldiers at the bridge might have waved him along. Sources: Heinrich Himmler. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 7, Gale, 2004, pp. 398-399. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Reshef, Yehudacxv, and Peter Longreich. Himmler, Heinrich °. Encyclopaedia Judaica, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 9, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, pp. 121-122. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Himmler, Heinrich. Learning About the Holocaust: A Students Guide, edited by Ronald M. Smelser, vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2001, pp. 89-91. Gale Virtual Reference Library.SS (Schutzstaffel). Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction, edited by John Merriman and Jay Winter, vol. 4, Charles Scribners Sons, 2006, pp. 2434-2438. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Essay #3 in ASA format Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

#3 in ASA format - Essay Example Though different scholars speculate a bipolar assimilation of the Latinos and the Asians either with the â€Å"white† or with the â€Å"black†, O’Brian’s indicates that the Latinos and the Asian have some inherent as well as shaped-by-circumstance perspectives -for color-blind racism- that are significantly capable of assimilating the â€Å"black† and the â€Å"white† into itself by influencing the apparently antagonistic dichotomous racism of the American society. The perspective from which the Latinos and the Asian views the color-blind racism appears to be unique in comparison to that of the â€Å"white’s† or the black’s. Indeed this uniqueness evolves from the polarity of the views that the white and the black hold for each other (Healey, 2010). The white view for the black is grossly influenced by the stereotypical ingredients that continually tend to characterize the black ethnicity within certain moulds. Therefore, Bonilla and Silva’s statistics shows that the highest percent (96%) of American white people are driven by the abstract liberalism frame of color-blind racism, while only 35% of the Latino-Asian population holds the abstract liberal view of it. The polarity of both the white’s and the black’s perspectives on color-blind racism has its root in the history of America. Josef Healey (2010) notes that â€Å"blackness† itself as an ideology was crucial to the exploitation of the labor of the African in early America, and it â€Å"provided the very source of whiteness and the heart of racism† (Healey, 2010, p. 288). This master-slave relationship greatly influences both the American’s and the Black’s view of the color-blind racism. Whereas the White American’s view is that of a repenting master, the Black people’s view is a grudging slave. This historical dichotomy of bipolar black-white racism is reflected in

Rock 'n' Roll High School Movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rock 'n' Roll High School Movie - Essay Example Therefore, since an anarchic society does have certain structure and, consequently, certain rules and norms based on the society’s ethical norms, such a society is not a chaos because any processes taking place within such a society are regulated by its internal structures. Furthermore, this social order is not a chaos because it is not disordered or disorganized. Everyone acts in correspondence with the values of the group. In the movie ‘Rock’n’Roll Hight School’ we see a group of people, the majority of the school population, with common tastes – those found of rock’n’roll. They live their lives in a pretty structured way – have their own traditions and social norms. Though this population might seem rather disorganized from the first sight, it can further be observed that one culture unites them – a subculture of rock music. The things change when a new chief administrator of school – a new principal with an iron hand – comes to rule. She tries to implement a new set of rules – skirts below knees for girls, hair above collar and ties for boys, and, of course, no rock music. The concert of the Ramones which is being attended by nearly everybody, and even a music teacher, seems for her to be a crisis. As a result the administrator, together with a small supporting group, attempts to break the old state of things burning the records of the rock band. Such radical actions can be said to be an attempt on the major population’s cultural values and, hence, their rights. Surely, an organized group of the majority shows resistance – the Ramones come to the school and the school gets taken over and, finally, burnt by the students.

Ergonomic in my workplace Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ergonomic in my workplace - Assignment Example This is because they are required to bend stretch and twist their bodies. Also, the fact that the bed ridden or injured clients are awkward people makes it hard for the nurses to safely move them from one position to another. The bending and twisting cause chronic back pains and injuries. The solution to this problem is the use of mechanical lift sheets, draw sheets and specially trained lifting teams for moving the equipment. In addition, most health care organizations have no lift policies that make clients tiresome when they bend, stretch and twist their bodies. The most common ergonomic issues revolve around interactions between the staff members, the clients and the psychiatric unit systems. The first ergonomic issue involves lifting causing back pain chronic back injury. The most immediate operations after clients are received in the psychiatric unit is the x-ray, blood tests on HIV, TB and STDs. Due to the client violent behaviours and the need to attend the clients physically, the staff find it hard to relate with this working environment (Salvendy, 2012). It is hard to get the client relaxed and ready to receive medical treatments. Sometimes the clients spit on the staff members or escalates while being injected. In order to curb this problem, the clients are fitted with masks or face shield to prevent them from spitting on the staff. In addition, the psychiatrics give medicine to the clients for them to sleep usually for 8 to 48 hours at one time. In this way, the staff can easily attend the clients, perform their tests and draw blood from their bodies. Another common ergonomic issue arises when moving the clients from the stretcher to the bed or from one bed to another. The issue has also spread in the raising of the blood drawing table position in an elevated position. Usually, the nurses are required to bend, twist or stretch because lifting injured clients

Mysticism in Hinduism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mysticism in Hinduism - Essay Example The essay "Mysticism in Hinduism" talks about the philosophy of Hinduism as an ideal model for understanding the world. The study of mysticism will bring joy to our heart and self-realization to our life. However, we should not give a definition to it and should not try to interpret it, because we will anyway fail. We receive the experience from the science, scientific discovery, history, philosophy, religion. In these experiences, we see the presence of subject and object, essence and existence, vision and sight. But the mystical experience that is the momentary unanimity overcomes all the similar discrepancies. Mystical experience is the unity with something â€Å"out of limits† that always remains inexpressible. It is a valuable experience that can’t and should be rejected. Maya is the illusiveness of existence and the Universe. While Brahman is the only reality, all the rest is the illusion. An ignorant individual can’t see the reality and perceives only the illusory world of suffering. The salvation is received through realization. Brahman is the supreme reality, the soul of the world without any form. It can’t be realized and described; it is a creation and a creator at the same time. The most important achievement for Hinduism is to realize that he is Brahman and he and the Universe is a single whole. We can argue upon the statement of Shankara â€Å"If the universe is true, let it then be perceived in the state of deep sleep also. As it is not at all perceived, it must be unreal and false, like dreams†.

Cse Study Analysis Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Cse Study Analysis Economics - Essay Example Instead the use of oil and gas has kept growing over the years. Though the oil price are now on a declining trend, but in the recent past the world was worried by the way oil prices started marching upward, touching a level of about $130. Events following the mortgage crisis have now led to a fall in oil prices, thus making the OPEC nations sit up and take note. Price of any commodity in general is determined by the law of demand and supply. As per this law, 'all other factors remaining constant, the higher the price of a product, the less number of people will demand it. Or in other words, the higher the price, the lower the quantity demanded.' But if we look at the historical perspective, it is found that oil, the source of energy has also defied this law. The demand for oil continued to increase even when the prices kept increasing. With majority of the share going in favor of Middle-East nations, the oil is not only the source of energy, but in today's global scenario, it has become an important source of political power as well. As pointed out in the case study, US is one of the largest consumer of oil from OPEC nations, therefore the recession hit economy of US has certainly led to an economic downturn all over the globe in varying degrees. But if we take a historical perspective we find that till the early 1970s, the prices of crude oil kept hovering around $15-20. But the huge strength of oil was realized by the oil producing nations in 1973, when they all decided to stop exporting oil to US and other western nations, in retaliation to the US assistance to Israel in the Yom Kippur War1. Oil prices started moving upward all around the globe as it became a much desired commodity in the consumerist society in western nations. Since then the OPEC nations have seen many ups and downs. With leadership positions in oil production, many OPEC members have seen tremendous growth and advancement during the last 2-3 decades. OPEC-SWOT analysis Strengths i. About five decade old organization: OPEC came into being in the year 1960, with Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as the founding members. The stated objectives of the intergovernmental group are to co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies amongst member countries, so that a fair and stable price can be extracted for petroleum products. Later on some more countries joined the group, thus providing the group further strength. The fact that, despite many hiccups during all these years, the group has been able to able to sustain its monopolistic standing and continues to define the oil prices, speaks volumes about its clout in world affairs. ii. Well-knit grouping: Though Ecuador and Gabon had to leave the grouping on account of some differences of opinion, but the rest of the group is still intact all through these years, despite having serious differences amongst some nations like Iran and Iraq, Kuwait and Iraq etc. The group seems to have developed good mutual understanding on protecting the economic interests of the member states. iii. Big say in deciding oil prices all over the world: OPEC certainly has a control in deciding about the oil prices and quantity to be produced in such a manner that while fulfilling the demand for fuel, the member states are also able to command a good price for the product. iv. Membership has a Premium Value attached with it: Though many countries have been

Mysticism in Hinduism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mysticism in Hinduism - Essay Example The essay "Mysticism in Hinduism" talks about the philosophy of Hinduism as an ideal model for understanding the world. The study of mysticism will bring joy to our heart and self-realization to our life. However, we should not give a definition to it and should not try to interpret it, because we will anyway fail. We receive the experience from the science, scientific discovery, history, philosophy, religion. In these experiences, we see the presence of subject and object, essence and existence, vision and sight. But the mystical experience that is the momentary unanimity overcomes all the similar discrepancies. Mystical experience is the unity with something â€Å"out of limits† that always remains inexpressible. It is a valuable experience that can’t and should be rejected. Maya is the illusiveness of existence and the Universe. While Brahman is the only reality, all the rest is the illusion. An ignorant individual can’t see the reality and perceives only the illusory world of suffering. The salvation is received through realization. Brahman is the supreme reality, the soul of the world without any form. It can’t be realized and described; it is a creation and a creator at the same time. The most important achievement for Hinduism is to realize that he is Brahman and he and the Universe is a single whole. We can argue upon the statement of Shankara â€Å"If the universe is true, let it then be perceived in the state of deep sleep also. As it is not at all perceived, it must be unreal and false, like dreams†.

ERP Implementation and Readiness Process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ERP Implementation and Readiness Process - Essay Example tegic plan that provides the context and the reasons for implementing the ERP, it proceeds to the readiness assessment, vendor selection and solution implementation; and ends with the post implementation assessment (Cornelius, 2006). From the above process identified each of those stages involves a lot of issues in order to successfully implement the ERP. The readiness assessment process is the most important stage in the entire process and will predict whether a company will successfully implement the ERP or not. The virgin Atlantic Airways is one such company that has successfully implemented the ERP using the readiness process. The company’s strategic plan advised the implementation of the plan. This is because of the complexities that involved the daily transactions of the company. This forced the management to think of something that could help them achieve their target objectives as well as fulfilling the strategic plan objectives. The company has a lot of stakeholders most of who require information in real time. This led to the introduction of the ERP program to the company in order to integrate all the information and help in quick decision making. A second company that has implemented the ERP program is Kenya Airways in Africa. There strategic plan running for ten years was behind the introduction of the ARP program. To successfully serve its customers and other stakeholders the company thought it best to implement the program by initiating the readiness process before implementing the entire program. To be pride of Africa it had to do something that was not being done by others in the continent and this led to the introduction of the ERP. The readiness process should be considered in the following seven key areas: communication, leadership, Culture, project management, technical, functional and resources and Effort (Higgins, 2006). There are various people who will be involved in the entire project and therefore they all need information on how the

How do the Writers Show a Clash of Cultures in Dead mans path and the Train from Rhodesia Essay Example for Free

How do the Writers Show a Clash of Cultures in Dead mans path and the Train from Rhodesia Essay In Dead mans path, there is a new headmaster who is educated and over ambitious and wants to turn his under-achieving school into a modern, top quality institution. He says everything shall be just modern and delightful. There is an old path that the villagers use to communicate to spirits and for babies to enter the world which the headmaster closes as it runs through his school. He is unwilling to allow the villagers to use the path and he is inconsiderate about their beliefs. This is shown when he says we cannot allow people to make a highway of our school compound. He is patronising and doesnt care about how other people feel as he says the whole purpose of our school is to eradicate such beliefs. Whereas the villagers try to compromise and they are more understanding. This is shown when the village chief says what you say may be true, but we follow the practices of our fathers. The writer shows a clash of cultures because there is a young, modern and sophisticated headmaster who disregards traditional beliefs and there are traditional villagers who rely on the path for religious customs. When a woman dies in child birth, the villagers believe the spirits are angry. This is shown when it says heavy sacrifices were prescribed to propitiate ancestors insulted by the fence. They blame the headmaster for closing the path, so they vandalise the school compound. This is shown when it says flowers were trampled to death, and one of the school buildings were pulled down. The writer also shows a clash of cultures when there is a white supervisor who comes to inspect the school. This is because he is shown to be very important and superior to the black Africans who do the work for the white people who in turn make the profits. This is shown when it says the white supervisor came to inspect the school and wrote a nasty report of the state of the premises and of the tribal-war situation developing between the school and the village. In The Train from Rhodesia, there is a train which stops briefly in a small station in the desert. There are some very poor people living near the station and they rely on the visitors from the train to buy there goods, so they can make a living. They are shown to be very poor because it says the children walk barefoot and live in mud huts. This is shown because it says the stationmasters barefoot children wandered over from the grey mud huts. They also dont seem have enough food, because their animals are skinny and bony. This is shown because it says chickens and dogs with their skins stretched like parchment over their bones. When the train comes into the station, all the villagers waste no time, to sell their goods to the tourists. This is shown because it says all up and down the length of the train in the dust the artists sprang, walking bent to exhibit the fantasy held towards the faces on the train. This shows how much the villagers depend on the train. A young lady notices a wooden lion carved with incredible detail, and looks very realistic. This is shown when it says a lion, carved out of soft dry wood with impressionistic detail. The ladys husband bargains with the old man selling the lion and buys it for much lower than he was asking for, just as the train was about to go. The young lady is unhappy with her husband for buying the lion at such a low price. This is because she says why didnt you pay for it? Why did you have to wait for him to run after the train with it and give him one-and-six? One-and-six! The writer shows a clash of cultures because the villagers are shown to be very poor and dependant on the train and also beg for money. This is shown because it says give me penny, said the ones with nothing to sell. The villagers are desperate. This is shown when the old man decides to sell his lion for one-and-six. It says questioning for the last time at the widows, here one-and-six baas! whereas the people in the train are very well off compared to the villagers and to them the cost of the villagers goods is not very much and bargain for fun, but the villagers are dependant on anything they can get. This is shown when the young man says I was arguing for fun, when the train pulled out, he came tearing afterone-and-six. The young lady realises how well off she is and feels the shame of buying the lion for one-and-six. This is shown when it says To give one-and-six for that, she sat there, sick, and the heat of shame mounted through her legs and body.

Importance of Narrative in CGI Films

Importance of Narrative in CGI Films This essay will look at the importance of narrative in two CG animated films which are Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Hironobu Sakaguchi, 2001) and The Incredibles (Brad Bird, 2004). The essay focuses specifically on the narrative and the spectacle of the films and how through the cinematic medium, they help each other to deliver a visual story across to the audience. The essay will discuss if a solid storyline is needed for a successful feature length animated film or are the animated films just a platform for spectacular imagery. This essay will discuss topics such as the different narrative theories and how the majority of contemporary films have a similar narrative structure, how films have become more sophisticated in terms of raw video footage being just one element necessary to complete a single shot in a film. It will also discuss modern film techniques and how it can help the story being told. The essay will first focus on the various theories of narrative and a brief history of the spectacle of cinema before moving on to the analysis of my chosen case studies. People have been communicating since the day they have been born. From gossiping, bed time stories to little white lies people have been subconsciously or consciously telling stories in some form of a narrative structure. By this I do not mean that all human discourse takes the form of a true story itself but the elements of the basic narrative structure such as having, a beginning, middle and an end are present. Vast majority of mainstream films have the classic three stage act structure of the 19th century stage melodrama, set-up, conflict and resolution as the basic linear structure.â€Å"†¦time is experienced as linear (past-present-future).† From starting to read this essay to the end time has passed. Narratives that have manifested itself into other forms of medium more or less have a tendency to follow this fact. Dreams, flashbacks, characters or a narrator reciting earlier events or future events which are due to happen are eccentric elements of breaking up the linear time format. Hence the arrangement of the plot being the story or as described by the Russian formalist, Viktor Shklovsky, fibula (story) and syuzhet (plot). A prominent example of this is in such films as The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995) or Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) where the plot and story are quite different, the story not being presented chronologically. Narration, the plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects. Narration is the moment by moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot. Re-arranging the plot of narratives can be a powerful technique as it can easily create suspense, curiosity, fear, satisfaction, motivation to know more of the situation. Film as a narrative medium, more or less does have closure of story or events, as in the end order is established, stability has been restored. In other words restoring the balance, a theory concluded by Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian structuralist. Todorov reported that the majority of narratives have the same structure, i.e: in a linear storyline, initially all the forces are in balance (equilibrium) and by some event or another the forces are disturbed and majority of the storyline involving around further complications of the initial situation at hand and eventually the balance being restored in the end, even though this balance is not the same as it was at the start of the narrative. When speaking of events happening or that have already happened to disturb the equilibrium, I am referring to character driven and event driven plots or moments. Major film blockbusters tend to follow this pattern with a high tendency of closure with the notion of appealing to the mass audience. This concept of commercial aesthetics may or may not be frowned upon by directors, producers or the script writers but I can comfortably agree with the fact that major film studios highly consider what will or wont appeal to the audience, how much funding they are willing to provide, generating revenues, running time, sequels and prequels and this greatly effects the quality of the storytelling and spectacle of the films, thus the director’s or producer’s true vision of the film not being fulfilled. There are many theorists in different fields of study who have studied to devise logical ways of thinking about narratives. The main theorists I have looked at are Carl G. Jung, a Swiss physiatrist who studied Archetypes and their influences in western storytelling, Claude Là ©vi-Strauss, a French anthropologist studied that narratives were made up of binary oppositions and that key terms in narratives had differences. Joseph Campbell, an American professor studied mythology and religion. His works have been published in a book, ‘Hero With A Thousand Faces.’ He described the term monomyth, an idea which he outlined some archetypal patterns that he realised. He focuses on the role of the hero and the various events that the hero can go through. Gustav Freytag, a German critic suggested a method for representing and analysing plots through a simple diagram of a triangle. The triangle highlighted the setup, conflict and resolution of conventional narrative structures. Starting from the left side (setup), going up the triangle would suggest the apex of the crisis (conflict) and falling back down to the end of the story or the equilibrium being restored (resolution). Meanwhile going across the bottom of the triangle would be the time passing by in relation to the events in the story. This triangle is an adaptation of Aristotle’s work on narrative structures. Aristotle’s work has been collected together into a book called The Poetics which is a series of lectures and workings, which essentially sums up that â€Å"there are causes and effects that occur over time.† Tzvetan Todorov and Viktor Shklovsky I have mentioned before as theorists in narrative and finally Vladimir Propp. They all came to the conclusion of their own theories of narrative however, it will be most useful to concentrate on two particular theorists whose works compliments each others quite well. †¦all conventional films are characterized by the same narrative structure by the work of Tzvetan Todorov and Vladimir Propp. The majority of mainstream films have a similar narrative structure and the works of Todorov and Propp are evidently clear within these narratives. Vladimir Propp, a Russian critic and folklorist analysed many folk tales to see if they shared any common attributes and structures. He concluded that there are eight main characters such as ‘the dispatcher’ or ‘the donor’ and that there are 31 narrative functions such as ‘villain is punished’ or ‘the hero is pursued.’ His analysis also mentioned that not all these are evident in all narratives. Todorov and Propps theories have been influential in modern narratives and work fluently with my chosen case studies and I will apply their theories in more detail later. One last person worth mentioning is Christopher Booker, an English journalist who published the book, ‘The Seven Basic Plots.’ This book outlines that all narratives fall into one of the seven various forms of storytelling. These plots are overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy and rebirth. These plots all had alternative darker versions, except for tragedy which already is the dark version. Furthermore two new plots were added outside this list, rebellion against the one and mystery. Both my case studies fall under the plot, overcoming the monster which I will briefly look at later when analysing my case studies. â€Å"The pleasure of looking – scopophilia has been central to cinema since the beginning† Film is a visual storytelling medium. More people are keen on using their eyes to visualise the story as the audience willingly lose suspension of disbelief, sitting in a film theatre staring at a flat wall for two hours as the story unfolds before their eyes. Before I discuss some of the contemporary film techniques of storytelling I will briefly focus on the ‘cinema of attractions’ an expression used to describe the early cinema by film historian Tom Gunning. As technology began to evolve over the 20th century, the moving image was born. People were overwhelmed by this form of medium and what technology could do thereafter. It was all about the ‘wow’ factor, the look of the film. Since most films during this time were unedited sequences of footage, the narrative was not an important issue. Film makers were more fascinated with the possibilities of this particular medium and capturing the ‘real’ and what they could do with it. There were people like the Lumiere Brothers (Auguste Marie (1862-1954) and Louis Jean (1864-1948)) who successfully captured the ‘real-life’ imitation of film. One famous example is the short film called LArrivà ©e dun train en gare de la Ciotat (1895). When this film was shown people were so shocked and in fear that the train was going to run them down they fled the theatre. This was a turning point in film history as the Lumiere Brothers inspired so many other film makers. One particular other magician turned film maker was Georges Melies (1861-1938). He was another French film pioneer who made over a thousand films, the most memorable ones being Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). His views on film making was not to mimic ‘real-life’ but to explore other possibilities, using the camera to subvert what the camera sees into abstractness or creating illusions. He discovered the dissolve effect by chance when his equipment jammed. He explored the ‘magical’ possibilities of the camera and other techniques such as split screen techniques and stop motion photography. He was a pioneer in cinematic special effects and also a film maker who inspired the likes of Jan Svankmajer, Terry Gilliam, etc. Films made during this period were only a couple of minutes long and over the years up until the present films have got longer, in the nineties being an hour and a half but now the average running time is at least two hours, which I definitely support the idea of, since we at least as the audience will be getting our moneys worth. This is not to say that quantity is more essential than quality but I would like to argue the fact that film producers and directors are adding extra running time to enhance the narrative, by adding sub plots or developing characters to improve the story or explain situations or events clearly and not to extend the running time so the spectacle can be the main attraction, even though Hollywood has a tendency to refer to its films as motion pictures rather than film. This can be a signal that Hollywood is faithful to the spectacle of the moving image. A new cinema of attractions has risen, particularly within action genres, where plot and story are of less importance than the spectacle. This can be true since the action genre relies on the spectacle to deliver the film. The action genre is an area where the narrative is simply a platform for spectacle where the audience can sit back, relax and enjoy the film visually, instead of participating in the story and working out clues and problem solving the story. It is more or less the dominant element, meaning in days to come we will remember the ‘spectacle’ but might fail to remember what actually happened. Furthermore I think films in theory have to have at least a sequence where the narrative is disrupted and spectacle takes over, such as a car chase or a well choreographed fight scene. In theory the ‘cinema of attractions’ still exist to this day with the huge cinema screens with surround sounds and films still offering the spectacle as the attraction. In Russia during the Soviet Union (1920’s) spectacle was still the attraction but besides that, editing of films was also used to draw the audiences attention. Editing created powerful effects on the spectators. One particular example I would like to mention is the famous Odessa steps sequence from Sergei Eisenstein’s, Battleship Potemkin (USSR, 1925). This well known sequence is where the army restores order among the sailors and civilians of Odessa. He used a ‘montage’ type of editing to create a pulsating attraction after attraction to intensify the feeling and effect. The point I am trying to make here is that spectacle can be a potent technique in storytelling without the strong element of narrative. Editing has evolved over the years and has become an art form in itself. It can be used to clarify events, establish a location and to build up tension and emotions. Editing itself is a unique process of shots being composed together to maximise the dramatic effect of the story. It combines the mise en scene of the shot along with all the rest to make sense of the film. It is how information can be held back to the director’s content, what to reveal and what not to the audience. Filmmakers are editing in specific ways or cutting more shots out of the final film recently since the audience’s sophistication grows. This can also be referred to as restricted and unrestricted narrative. Restricted narrative is when we have limited information as to what is going on, we only know what the characters know, being it false information or not. We are told information from a first person perspective, as if we are in the films ourselves within that space. Unrestricted narrative is where we are told everything, we know things that the protagonists don’t as in a third person perspective. Editing shots in a way that one shot transitions into another giving the sense of a smooth, flowing edit is called continuity editing. This is a technique where a seamless edit takes place, this can be helpful as it can interpolate the audience into the physical space where the action is taking place. But some narratives shots require the edits to be visible to achieve a particular effect such as the Odessa steps sequence as mentioned before. In continuity editing there is rule known as the 180degrees rule. This rule takes place seamlessly also within the film. When two characters are talking, the action is shot on one specific side of the characters, being the one side or the other and the camera being placed anywhere on that side. This is just to clarify which direction the characters are facing and to establish the space in which they are in. This rule can be used for close-ups for intimate conversations and happenings or far out as we look on as spectators. Another important aspect of storytelling is mise en scene. This is a term given to describe everything involved within that particular shot. It is everything that makes up the frame, i.e: actors, dialogue, the music, diegetic material, cinematography, cg elements or as Richard Maltby describes, â€Å" arrangement of screen space as a meaningful organisation of elements† Lev Manovich a professor in visual arts, wrote an article among many, but one that I found particularly interesting was on Digital Cinema and he quotes, â€Å"Cinema is the art of the index; it is an attempt to make art out of a footprint.† He states the fact that contemporary cinema has become a platform where film-makers can edit and simulate real world actions through different forms and techniques such as CGI. Cinema has evolved from movies being mostly live footage to contemporary digital cinema where the live footage in film has become little or used as a basis for experimentation, 3d manipulation, etc. The fact that he used the expression ‘an attempt to make art out of a footprint’ in reference to raw video is an indication as how it is used as a ground element for the CG to build upon and to manipulate it until all the elements are finalised to complete the shot. How did cinema arrive at using animation in its projects? I am going to try to explain this as short and briefly as possible. Cinema was born when the moving image was created, a sequence of images, footage or hand drawn, which theoretically is animation, since a series of images give the illusion of movement, hence animation. Film makers took this new format and made films in the tendency of the ‘Lumiere style’ or the ‘Melies style’ as mentioned before, adding animation as a supplement. As technology developed, the future made digital cinema possible incorporating animation and special effects as the main essence of films while live recording was used as the basis or even reference, â€Å"hence, the production becomes just the 1st stage of post-production.† Manual construction and animation of images gave birth to cinema and slipped into the marginsonly to re-appear as the foundation of digital cinema. The history of the moving image thus makes a full circle. Born from animation, cinema pushed animation to its boundary, only to become one particular case of animation in the end. These contemporary film techniques and processes which I have just discussed are clearly evident in the two films of my choice. The first film I want to examine is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. The film is the first photorealistic computer generated film ever to be made as all the cast are life like computer generated characters. The film is set in the future and it focuses on Dr. Aki Ross and her finding of the eighth spirit, in doing so will erase the alien phantom spirits from earth who have more or less taken over the world and left a barren like wasteland. The film follows a linear narrative structure and even though the film shares the same title as the computer games it bears no reference or relation to any of the stories in the computer games. Todorov suggests that conventional narratives are structured in five stages and this film’s narrative structure seamlessly integrates within those five stages. The first stage is clearly the equilibrium, however the film starts off with an already unbalanced state, which is the world has been laid waste to an alien race. The second and third stages, is the equilibrium being disturbed by some event and the recognition of this disturbance, which also has already happened before the story has begun, in being that the aliens have crashed on planet earth, and the human population reacting to this by evacuating to gigantic like plane hangers cities around the world which are protected by some sort of special field against the threat. The majority of the film is in reference to stage four which is trying to repair the unbalance, meaning Dr. Aki Ross with the help of a special task force unit trying to find the remaining spirits. The story finishes off in the fifth and final stage where the balance is restored in the end and the alien race eradicated from earth. Final fantasy also bears a resemblance to Christopher Bookers work and his theories of the seven plots, specifically ‘overcoming the monster’. The phantoms are the great and mysterious evil which the world has fallen to. The source of threat is the phantoms. The hero is Dr Aki Ross who is armed with the seven spirits and with the help of the scientist Dr Sid, they set out to travel to the source of the evil and with some amount of struggling, finding the last spirit and finally by discovering the eighth spirit the monstrous entity is destroyed. The threat has been lifted and the world has been saved with the loss of her companions. Looking at the film, the sense of photorealistic spectacle can help intensify and value the story better particularly the scenes of the phantoms. To clarify this notion in the scene where Dr Aki Ross is having her dreams of the phantoms charging towards her, I would find it quite difficult and would feel emotionless if the CGI was ‘unrealistic’ to say the least, you wouldn’t feel threatened because they didn’t look real or menacing enough. As a serious science fiction film the visual look can help communicate the narrative across at some points in the story by making the scenes more authentic and grittier. To be honest that is the only positive aspect I can mention about the look of the film. But on the other hand a point worth mentioning is the fact that the digital actors were quite emotionless. This lead to the notion that they were artificial. In traditional animation, the facial features and body movements are extremely vivid. The motions are slightly exaggerated to give the illusion of life and personality so the movement can blend from one frame to another and that is why films that are made by pixar are so rich in character because their animators have strong backgrounds in traditional animation. Nonetheless Final Fantasy strived for life like replicas of real human people. The films photorealistic look with the serious live action feel can also be considered as its weakness. While they did look amazingly real their emotions and actions were lifeless which lead to the fact that they were artificial characters. The characters had no chemistry with each other on screen, an example is the love/romantic scene with Dr Aki Ross and Captain Gray Edwards, I did not feel like they genuinely liked each other, it was not shown successfully with their reactions or on their faces. This brings me to my next point. My initial reaction to the life like characters was mostly surprised and mesmerised. But striving for the human believability of the characters solely on the look was not enough. Maybe if the characters were created for a still image in a magazine for example it would have been suffice. But for a motion picture, the digital characters felt strange and eerie. This might be down to the fact that, the photorealism in an animated feature film was a first but I would like to believe it was down to a theory hypothesised by a Japanese roboticist, by the name of Dr. Masahiro Mori. His theory was that the more human like a robot becomes or looks like, people are fascinated by it, but when the robot borderlines human likeness the natural response by people is negative. People focus on that negativity. The human like robot is considered odd and bizarre and leads to the feeling of strangeness within the viewer. This theory was named ‘The Uncanny Valley.â₠¬â„¢ Imagine a perfectly human-looking face that suddenly grimaces or smiles in a non-human way†¦ Its profoundly disturbing when something blurs the line between human and non-human. I myself, think the story was not strong enough for the film, it does not hold up to the magnificent CGI. I personally thought it failed to articulate the plot well. It is why I think the film was a let down. Some questions were left unanswered. Why were the alien phantoms a threat to the human race? Why were the alien phantoms fighting each other on their home planet in Dr Aki Ross’s dreams? Why did their home planet explode? Some of these questions, answered would have given us as the audience a better understanding of the plot. The narrative was simply a platform for spectacular imagery. When I watched the film for the first time I suspended disbelief on the visual realism, I was attracted to how believable the characters and environments were. I was conscious to the excellent CGI being shown the whole time. In the future looking back at this film, people will remember this film and automatically think of how brilliantly photorealistic the animation was, how life like the characters were and how new and ever evolving technology made this possible. My next case study is another feature length animation made by the incredibly talented people at pixar studios. Pixar have been making animated feature length films and short films for over 10 years now and each one has been more successful than the previous one. The Incredibles is a computer generated film that is not photo realistic. It does have that classic pixar look, heavily stylized with human attributes. It is arguably, one of my favourite animated films mainly because it is not just the typical comedy from pixar. It does have its comedic moments but what sets this apart from any other animated film especially from the studio of pixar is that it is darker and has some form of violence. It feels like a live action film. It has moved away from the cute, lovely characters from previous pixar films. I liked this notion because it mainly appeals to a much wider audience. The narrative structure does follow Todorov’s linear theory of equilibrium but I would like to apply Propp’s theory of character types with Gustav Freytag’s Triangle. The story film begins with an equilibrium, superheroes exist, living amongst normal people saving the world and keeping peace and order in society. Problems begin to evolve as the main ‘Hero’ Mr Incredible is being sued for injuring the same civilian he just saved moments before. One thing leads to another and all superheroes have been forced to live normal lives under a superhero witness protection program. Thus the balances have been disturbed and according to Freytag’s Triangle the density of the problems are growing as time goes on and as the story makes its way up the triangle. The hero by temptation has been called into action by the ‘villain’ into using his powers. The hero without knowing what he is doing has willingly helped the villain in his master plans and when Mr Incredible realises what he has done he is inevitably captured. His family are now on their way to release him. This is the peak of the crisis or triangle as all the problems are laid bare and the tension has built up, we know what Syndromes (villain) intensions are. The climax or the solving of the problems are to follow next as we climb down the triangle, as the family of superheroes solve the problems one by one. The family now together try to find a way to stop Syndromes plans and save the world, restoring the balance in the end and the story coming to an appropriate closure of the current events. I say appropriate closure because the films ending is more or less an open possibility for a sequel or maybe more. I loved the narrative as it has a bond’esque feel about it, saving the world from a mad man. I was easily and simply able to establish who the heroes and villains were and the fact that the story had a suitable closure as all the loose ends of the story were tied up. Examining the narrative overall I can safely say that the relatively straightforward narrative fits Freytag’s triangle perfectly in view of the fact that all the problems that grew were resolved in the end. I would like to mention the beginning of the film was a parody to the 1950/1960’s U.S superhero comics and films. The likeness is significant in the terms that the film begins in the past and works its way to the present day and when the superhero’s lived alongside average citizens and the fact that the look of the film mimicked the same style of news reporting when the superheroes over the world were being sued. In addition the stylised characters with the large upper torso, broad shoulders, square jaw and smaller than average legs evidently represented by Mr Incredible were mimics of the 1950/1960’s U.S superheroes. This parody worked well as it gave the film authenticity and it felt that time had moved on within the film to the present day. Even though the characters were not photorealistic, the animation sold the concept that they were real. The exaggerated motions like I mentioned before convinced me that these artificial characters had feelings and they genuinely exist. This was quite an achievement for pixar, as cg characters before The Incredibles, whether in television adverts, cartoons or short animated films have not been quite rigid but lacked that sense of energy and dynamic in them. This can raise the question, is animation only successful with non-human or non-realistic characters? This question in itself is worth another essay, to be studied accurately, but in short I would like to think not, since there have been films that have major success such as The Incredibles clearly, Toy Story 12 also made by people at pixar studios, Shrek 12 by Dreamworks Animations and feature length films which include ‘CG doubles’ of their live counterparts. Again the theory of ‘The Uncanny Valley’ comes into play as successful films of non-realistic characters maybe down to the fact that people find it strange when CG characters end up looking ‘too real’ on screen. The appearance of the film was simplistic, almost approaching a ‘minimalist’ look and stylised but not over done as to steal the limelight of the narrative. The narrative is the dominant element within this film as I believe that the spectacle supported but did not dominate the narrative. On watching this film I was drawn into the story, what was going to happen next, it was engaging and I wanted to know more. I felt that an actual story was told to me, that I was watching the events unfold from a third person view within the film, that I was successfully entertained. On first time round watching the film I was not thinking how that was made. The film will be remembered for its entertaining, excellent storytelling factor, a film the whole family can watch. All feature animated films that have been produced by the pixar studios have had massive success. I think of pixar as any other major film studio emphasising on telling an entertaining narrative but telling it through a specific medium of film. Films such as the Toy Story series, Finding Nemo, Shrek series, Ice Age series and Madagascar all have had major success due to the strong narrative element running through the film. All films are non photo-realistic as the spectacle supports and is just the platform for story. It is kind of ironic that a photorealistic character felt unconvincing in Final Fantasy but felt realistic in The Incredibles even though the creators of Final Fantasy were aiming for realism. It proves my point of the fact that intending to achieve realism will only go so far without the narrative, vigour or the personality behind it. Narrative is compulsory in giving spectacle depth and more over ‘life’ so it will become believable and to work and blend as one as a feature length animated film. So is story and plot less significant in feature length animation then spectacle? I think not. I strongly disagree with the fact that spectacle is more vital than narrative primarily because of the apparent reason that the whole idea of feature films is to tell a story. The public go to cinemas to be entertained for two hours. They set out to be enthralled by a story, that is what a ‘film’ is, a narrative in by which the spectacle helps to communicate the information across. As CG effects get more complicated the audiences want more than spectacle, they yearn to be motivated by other means rather than to watch a sequence of frames. To lose the sense of reality and be mesmerised into a fictional world of wonderful computer generated characters and environments. I believe that full feature animation is just another medium of spectacle that stories can be told through, that narrative is essential for a successful CGI animation, as only recently due to new software and powerful hardware more and more CGI feature films are being made and it is technically quite a new process as filming the real has been done for a while. There is of course the excuse of the cinema to show off how the latest technology can create spectacular imagery and special effects, and show off new film and CG techniques. I also agree that spectacle can sometimes enhance the narrative being told, by exotic scenery and sets that would be impossible to manually build on location, or unrealistic physical attributes such as walking on water or punching holes in walls. The visual storytelling medium has changed, evolved for better or worse due to commercial

Roman Life :: essays research papers

-BREATH- Since a Roman’s life is very busy and complicated, I picked a couple sub topics for my report. I picked daily meal routines like breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the Forum, Roman school, the public baths, and houses. -BREATH- Most sources say Romans ate three meals a day. The first two would be very small. -BREATH- The very poor people would be glad to even enjoy one meal a day. -BREATH- Breakfast, called ienaculum, would consisit of bread dipped in watered down wine. Sometimes a little honey would be used or dates and olives. -BREATH- Lunch, called prandium, if eaten at all, would be made up of fruits, bread, cheese, or leftovers from the previous night. -BREATH- Dinner, called cena, was the main meal of the day, served in the late afternoon. For the lower class, cena consisted of vegetables and olive oil. For the high class, it would be a seven-course meal. The typical dinner had three courses. -BREATH- The 1st course, called gustus, was appetizers. Mulsum (MULSUM!!!), wine mixed with honey, would be served along with salad, eggs, shellfish, mushrooms, etc. -BREATH- The 2nd course, the meat course, or called lena, would provide pork, poultry, fish, animals hunted, or exotic birds served with veggies. -BREATH- The final course, called the secundae mensae or second table was given its name because at dinner parties, the entire table was removed after the first 2 courses, and a new one was put in its place for desert. This course had fruits, honey cakes, nuts, and wine. -LONG BREATH- For my next sub topic is the Forum. The Forum was the main marketplace and the buisness center, where the ancient Romans went to do their banking, trading, clothes shopping, and marketing. -BREATH- It was also a place for public speaking. The ancient Romans were great speakers and loved to talk. They thought the job of an orator was not to argue, but to argue persuasively. People browsing the Forum would stop and listen, then go back and shop, and maybe leave a sacrifice at a temple or two. -BREATH- The Forum was also used for religous ceremonies and festivals. It was a very busy place! -LONG BREATH- My third topic is Roman school. In school, the goal of education in ancient Rome was to be an effective speaker. The school day began before sunrise, as did all work in Rome. Kids brought candles to use until daybreak. There was a rest for lunch and the afternoon siesta, and then back to school until late afternoon.