Famous People - 1427 Words

Rosa Parks is widely known as the African-American woman who refused to get off her seat on a bus. She did not want to forfeit her seat in order for a white individual to replace her. She was arrested and taken into custody against her will, just because she felt the need to stay on the seat she felt she rightfully deserved. On December 1st, 1955, according to history, Rosa Parks was tired and exhausted from a long day of work. In fact, under different circumstances, she would have probably given up her seat willingly to a child or elderly person. But at this point in history, Parks was tired of the treatment she and other African-Americans received everyday of their lives. This included racism, segregation, prejudice and the Jim Crow laws†¦show more content†¦It has prevented other up-and-coming computer software entrepreneurs to rethink their approaches. Because of his ambitiousness, Gates has been able to keep his hold on the computer software industry by not letting othe r companies grab hold of what he worked so long and hard to create and establish. Gates changed the world positively and negatively. On the positive aspect, he has helped regular, working-class people use a basic computer. Even if you are not in a working environment, you can still manage to use the computer with general knowledge of the Microsoft programs. Negatively, he has contributed to the laziness of people. Now, with a click of a button, you can access everything from Microsoft Word to Microsoft Internet Explorer without having to leave the comfort of your own home or office. Actual books and journals have taken a back seat to the convenience of double clicking. Regardless of the influence Gates has had positively and negatively, one cannot ignore the fact that he has changed our world. Through his company, he has managed to revitalize people and their view of computers. Without Gates, the world would be extremely different because I would not be writing this paper right now. We live in such a fast-paced world that we are always looking to minimize our efforts and time management skills. Gates has single-handedly created a second world in the eyes of many people; he has affectedShow MoreRelatedAre Famous People Treated Unfairly by the Media? Should They Be Given More Privacy, or Is the Price of Their Fame an Invasion Into Their Private Lives?810 Words   |  4 PagesAre famous people treated unfairly by the media? Should they be given more privacy, or is the price of their fame an invasion into their private lives? Many girls want to be as beautiful as Paris Hilton and many boys want to be as popular as David Beckham. Who doesn’t want to be a celebrity? 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Sociology - Class - 1826 Words

Major Essay Critically evaluate both Karl Marx’s and Max Weber’s theories of social class. How do these theories contribute, if at all, to an understanding of the class structure of Australian society? It is important for us to understand how our society became what it is today, thus understanding how we interact with each other and what affect an individual’s social class status has on their life chances, employment, social interaction and other key factors that will affect their life. There are currently a great number of theories that are available to explain social class and aspects relating to the interaction of these classes. There are two main theories that most of the others have been built on, these two theories come from†¦show more content†¦Thus the inherent structure, which capitalism has created within the society, would ultimately result in it being overthrown by the ‘working class’. He predicts, that when this occurs, there will be a change to a communist social structure where the means of production are no longer owned by a small percentage of the population, but the collective of the society owns it. Although in the past the only time that capitalist societies have broken down, was when the society was about to enter capitalism. It has not occurred regularly in a mature capitalist society as the structures of capitalism are working effectively to prevent this from occurring[6]. Weber defines the different classes though their economical relationships but unlike Marx, Weber believed that there are more then two important classes that need to be taken into account to understand the workings of society, some of these classes are broken down to other strata, which still have an important effect on social interaction. 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Spirit Bound Chapter Sixteen Free Essays

I DIDN’T HAVE A PRECISE count of how many Strigoi were with Dimitri’s group. So much of what I’d seen through Lissa had been blurred with confusion and terror. The guardians, knowing we were expected, had simply had to make a best guess about how many to send. We will write a custom essay sample on Spirit Bound Chapter Sixteen or any similar topic only for you Order Now Hans had hoped overwhelming force would make up for us losing the element of surprise. He’d dispatched as many guardians as he could reasonably clear from the Court. Admittedly, the Court was protected by wards, but it still couldn’t be left entirely undefended. Having the new grads there had helped. Most of them had been left behind, allowing the seasoned guardians to go on our hunting party. That left us with forty or so. It was as unusual as large groups of Strigoi banding together. Guardians were usually sent out in pairs, maybe groups of three at most, with Moroi families. This large of a force had the potential to bring about a battle rivaling that of the Academy attack. Knowing that sneaking through the dark wouldn’t work, Hans stopped our convoy a little ways from the warehouse the Strigoi were holed up at. The building was situated on a service road cutting off from the highway. It was an industrial area, hardly a deserted path in the woods, but all the businesses and factories were shut down this late at night. I stepped out of the SUV, letting the warm evening wrap around me. It was humid, and the moisture in the air felt especially oppressive when I was already smothered with fear. Standing beside the road, I felt no nausea. Dimitri hadn’t posted Strigoi this far, which meant our arrival was still–kind of–a surprise. Hans walked over to me, and I gave him the best estimate I could on the situation, based on my limited information. â€Å"But you can find Vasilisa?† he asked. I nodded. â€Å"As soon as I’m in the building, the bond will lead me straight to her.† He turned, staring off into the night as cars sped by on the nearby highway. â€Å"If they’re already waiting outside, they’ll smell and hear us long before we see them.† Passing headlights briefly illuminated his face, which was lined in thought. â€Å"You said there are three layers of Strigoi?† â€Å"As far as I could tell. There are some on Lissa and Christian, then some outside.† I paused, trying to think what Dimitri would do in this situation. Surely I knew him well enough, even as a Strigoi, to calculate his strategy. â€Å"Then another layer inside the building–before you get to the storage room.† I didn’t know this for certain, but I didn’t tell Hans. The assumption was made on my own instincts, drawn from what I would do and what I thought Dimitri would do. I figured it would be best if Hans planned for three waves of Strigoi. And that’s exactly what he did. â€Å"Then we go in with three groups. You’ll lead the group going in for the extraction. Another team will accompany yours and eventually split off. They’ll fight whoever’s right inside, letting your group head for the captives.† It sounded so†¦ militaristic. Extraction. Captives. And me†¦ a team leader. It made sense with the bond, but always in the past, they’d simply used my knowledge and left me on the sidelines. Welcome to being a guardian, Rose. At school, we’d conducted all sorts of exercises, running as many different Strigoi scenarios as our instructors could dream up. Yet, as I stared up at the warehouse, all of those drills seemed like playacting, a game that could in no way measure up to what I was about to face. For half a second, the responsibility of it all seemed daunting, but I quickly shoved aside such concerns. This was what I had been trained to do, what I had been born to do. My own fears didn’t matter. They come first. Time to prove it. â€Å"What are we going to do since we can’t sneak up on them?† I asked. Hans had a point about the Strigoi detecting us in advance. An almost mischievous smile flickered on his face, and he explained his plan to the group while also dividing us into our teams. His approach tactic was bold and reckless. My kind of plan. And like that, we were off. An outsider analyzing us might have said we were on a suicide mission. Maybe we were. It honestly didn’t matter. The guardians wouldn’t abandon the last Dragomir. And I wouldn’t have abandoned Lissa even if there were a million Dragomirs. So, with sneaking having been ruled out, Hans opted for a full-on attack. Our group loaded back into the eight SUVs and tore off down the street at illegal speeds. We took up the entire width of the road, gambling on no oncoming traffic. Two SUVs led the charge side by side, then two rows of three. We shot to the end of the road, came to a halt with screeching tires at the front of the warehouse, and spilled out of our cars. If slow stealth wasn’t an option, we’d gain surprise by going fast and furious. Some of the Strigoi were indeed surprised. Clearly, they’d seen our approach, but it had happened so fast that they’d had only a little time to react. Of course, when you were as fast and deadly as Strigoi, a little time was all you needed. A group of them surged at us, and Hans’s â€Å"outside team† charged back, those guardians putting themselves between my group and the other going inside. The Moroi fire users had been assigned to the outside group, for fear of setting the building on fire if they went inside. My team moved around the battle, inevitably running into a few Strigoi who hadn’t fallen to the first team’s distraction. With well-practiced determination, I ignored the nausea sweeping through me from being this close to Strigoi. Hans had strictly ordered me not to stop unless any Strigoi were directly in my path, and he and another guardian were beside me to cover any threats that might come at me. He wanted nothing to delay me from leading them to Lissa and Christian. We fought our way into the warehouse, entering a dingy hall blocked by Strigoi. I’d been right in my guess that Dimitri would have layers of security. A bottleneck formed in the small space, and for a few moments things were chaotic. Lissa was so close. It was like she was calling to me, and I burned with impatience as I waited for the hall to clear. My team was in the back, letting the other group do the fighting. I saw Strigoi and guardians alike fall and tried not to let it distract me. Fight now, grieve later. Lissa and Christian. I had to focus on them. â€Å"There,† said Hans, tugging my arm. A gap had formed ahead of us. There were still plenty of Strigoi, but they were distracted enough that my companions and I slipped through. We took off down the hall, which opened into a large empty space that made up the warehouse’s heart. A few pieces of trash and debris were all that was left of the goods once stored here. Doors led off of the room, but now I didn’t need the bond to tell me where Lissa was. Three Strigoi stood guard outside a doorway. So. Four layers of security. Dimitri had one-upped me. It didn’t matter. My group had ten people. The Strigoi snarled, bracing in anticipation as we charged them. Through an unspoken signal, half of my group engaged them. The rest of us busted down the door. Despite my intense focus on reaching Lissa and Christian, one tiny thought had always been dancing in the back of my brain. Dimitri. I hadn’t seen Dimitri in any of the Strigoi we’d encountered. With my full attention on our attackers, I hadn’t slipped into Lissa’s head to verify the situation, but I felt totally confident that he was still inside the room. He would have stayed with her, knowing I would come. He would be waiting to face me. One of them dies tonight. Lissa or Dimitri. Having reached our goal, I no longer needed extra protection. Hans pulled out his stake on the first Strigoi he encountered, pushing past me and jumping into the fray. The rest of my group did likewise. We poured into the room, and if I thought there’d been chaos earlier, it was nothing compared to what we faced. All of us–guardians and Strigoi–just barely fit inside the room, which meant we were fighting in very, very close quarters. A female Strigoi–the one Dimitri had slapped earlier–came at me. I fought on autopilot, barely aware of my stake piercing her heart. In this room, full of shouting and death and colliding, there were only three people in the world that mattered to me now: Lissa, Christian, and Dimitri. I’d found him at last. Dimitri was with my two friends against the far wall. No one was fighting him. He stood with arms crossed, a king surveying his kingdom as his soldiers battled the enemy. His eyes fell on me, his expression amused and expectant. This was where it would end. We both knew it. I shoved my way through the crowd, dodging Strigoi. My colleagues pushed into the fray beside me, dispatching whom-ever stood in my way. I left them to their fight, moving toward my objective. All of this, everything happening, had led to this moment: the final showdown between Dimitri and me. â€Å"You’re beautiful in battle,† said Dimitri. His cold voice carried to me clearly, even above the roar of combat. â€Å"Like an avenging angel come to deliver the justice of heaven.† â€Å"Funny,† I said, shifting my hold on the stake. â€Å"That is kind of why I’m here.† â€Å"Angels fall, Rose.† I’d almost reached him. Through the bond, I felt a brief surge of pain from Lissa. A burning. No one was harming her yet, but when I saw her arms move out of the corner of my eye, I realized what had happened. Christian had done what she’d asked: He’d burned her ropes. I saw her move to untie him in return, and then my attention shifted back to Dimitri. If Lissa and Christian were free, then so much the better. It would make their escape easier, once we cleared out the Strigoi. If we cleared out the Strigoi. â€Å"You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to get me here,† I told Dimitri. â€Å"A lot of people are going to die–yours and mine.† He shrugged, unconcerned. I was almost there. In front of me, a guardian battled a bald Strigoi. That lack of hair was not attractive with his chalk white skin. I moved around them. â€Å"It doesn’t matter,† said Dimitri. He tensed as I approached. â€Å"None of them matter. If they die, then they obviously aren’t worthy.† â€Å"Prey and predator,† I murmured, recalling what he’d said to me while holding me prisoner. I’d reached him. No one stood between us now. This was different from our past fights, where we’d had lots of room to size each other up and plan our attacks. We were still crammed into the room, and in keeping our distance from the others, we’d closed the gap between us. That was a disadvantage for me. Strigoi outmatched guardians physically; extra room helped us compensate with more maneuverability. I didn’t need to maneuver quite yet, though. Dimitri was trying to wait me out, wanting me to make the first move. He kept a good position, though, one that blocked me from getting a clear shot on his heart. I could do some damage if I cut him elsewhere with the stake, but he would likely get a hit in on me that would be packed with power in this proximity. So I tried to wait him out as well. â€Å"All this death is because of you, you know,† he said. â€Å"If you’d let me awaken you†¦ let us be together†¦ well, none of this would have happened. We’d still be in Russia, in each other’s arms, and all of your friends here would be safe. None of them would have died. It’s your fault.† â€Å"And what about the people I’d have to kill in Russia?† I demanded. He’d shifted his weight a little. Was that an opening? â€Å"They wouldn’t be safe if I–â€Å" A crashing sound off to my left startled me. Christian, now freed, had just slammed his chair into a Strigoi engaged with a guardian. The Strigoi shrugged Christian off like a fly. Christian flew backward, slamming into a wall and landing on the floor with a slightly stunned look. In spite of myself, I spared him a glance and saw Lissa running to his side. And so help me, she had a stake in her hand. How she’d managed that, I had no idea. Maybe she’d picked it up from a fallen guardian. Maybe none of the Strigoi had thought to search her when she came in. After all, why on earth would a Moroi be carrying a stake? â€Å"Stop it! Stay out of the way!† I yelled at them, turning back to Dimitri. Letting those two distract me had cost me. Realizing Dimitri was about to attack, I managed to dodge without even seeing what he was doing. It turned out he’d been reaching for my neck, and my imprecise evasion had spared me the full damage. Still, his hand caught me on the shoulder, knocking me back almost as far as Christian had gone. Unlike my friend, though, I had years of training that had taught me to recover from something like that. I’d honed a lot of balance and recovery skills. I staggered only a little, then quickly regained my footing. I could only pray Christian and Lissa would listen to me and not do anything stupid. My attention had to stay on Dimitri, or I’d get myself killed. And if I died, Lissa and Christian died for sure. My impression while fighting our way inside had been that the guardians outnumbered the Strigoi, though that meant little sometimes. Still, I had to hope my colleagues would finish our foes off, leaving me to do what I had to do. Dimitri laughed at my dodge. â€Å"I’d be impressed if that wasn’t something a ten-year-old could do. Now your friends†¦ well, they’re also fighting at a ten-year-old level. And for Moroi? That’s actually pretty good.† â€Å"Yeah, well, we’ll see what your assessment is when I kill you,† I told him. I made a small feint to test how much he was paying attention. He sidestepped with hardly any notice at all, as graceful as a dancer. â€Å"You can’t, Rose. Haven’t you figured that out by now? Haven’t you seen it? You can’t defeat me. You can’t kill me. Even if you could, you can’t bring yourself to do it. You’ll hesitate. Again.† No, I wouldn’t. That’s what he didn’t realize. He’d made a mistake bringing Lissa here. She increased the stakes–no pun intended–on everything. She was here. She was real. Her life was on the line, and for that†¦ for that, I wouldn’t hesitate. Dimitri must have grown tired of waiting for me. He leapt out, hand again going for my neck. And again I evaded, letting my shoulder take the brunt of the hit. This time he held on to my shoulder. He jerked me toward him, triumph flaring in those red eyes. In the sort of space we were in, this was probably all he needed to kill me. He had what he wanted. Apparently, though, he wasn’t the only one who wanted me. Another Strigoi, maybe thinking he’d help Dimitri, pushed toward us and reached for me. Dimitri bared his fangs, giving the other Strigoi a look of pure hatred and fury. â€Å"Mine!† Dimitri hissed, hitting the other Strigoi in a way that he had clearly not expected. And that was my opening. Dimitri’s brief distraction had caused him to loosen his grip on me. That same close proximity which made him so lethal to me now made me just as dangerous. I was by his chest, by his heart, and I had my stake in hand. I’ll never be able to say for sure just how long the next series of events took. In some ways, it felt like only one heartbeat passed. At the same moment, it was as though we were frozen in time. Like the entire world had stopped. My stake was moving toward him, and as Dimitri’s eyes fell on me once more, I think he finally believed I would kill him. I was not hesitating. This was happening. My stake was there– And then it wasn’t. Something hit me hard on my right side, pushing me away from Dimitri and ruining my shot. I stumbled, barely avoiding hitting anyone. While I always tried to be vigilant regarding all things around me in a fight, I’d let my guard down in that direction. The Strigoi and guardians were on my left. The wall–and Lissa and Christian–were on my right. And it was Lissa and Christian who had shoved me out of the way. I think Dimitri was as astonished as I was. He was also equally astonished when Lissa came toward him with that stake in her hand. And like lightning through the bond, I read what she had very, very carefully kept from me the last day: She had managed to charm the stake with spirit. It was the reason she’d been so keyed up during her last stake-practice session with Grant and Serena. Knowing she had the tool she needed had fueled her desire to use it. Her hiding all of that information from me was a feat on par with charming the stake. Not that it mattered right now. Charmed stake or no, she couldn’t get near Dimitri. He knew it too, and his surprise immediately changed to delighted amusement–almost indulgent, like the way one watches a child do something adorable. Lissa’s attack was awkward. She wasn’t fast enough. She wasn’t strong enough. â€Å"No!† I screamed, leaping toward them, though pretty certain I wasn’t going to be fast enough either. Suddenly, a blazing wall of heat and flame appeared before me, and I barely had the presence of mind to back up. That fire had shot up from the floor, forming a ring around Dimitri that kept me from him. It was disorienting, but only for a moment. I knew Christian’s handiwork. â€Å"Stop it!† I didn’t know what to do, if I should attack Christian or leap into the fire. â€Å"You’ll burn us all alive!† The fire was fairly controlled–Christian had that much skill–but in a room this size, even a controlled fire was deadly. Even the other Strigoi backed away. The flames were closing in on Dimitri, growing tighter and tighter. I heard him scream, could see the look of agony, even through the fire. It began to consume his coat, and smoke poured out from the blaze. Some instinct told me I needed to stop this†¦ and yet, what did it matter? I’d come to kill him. Did it matter if someone else did it for me? And that’s when I noticed Lissa was still on the offensive. Dimitri was distracted, screaming as the flames wrapped around him. I was screaming too†¦ for him, for her†¦ it’s hard to say. Lissa’s arm shot through the flames, and again, pain surged through the bond–pain that dwarfed the earlier singe from Christian burning her ropes. Yet she kept going, ignoring the fiery agony. Her alignment was right. She had the stake aimed at the heart. The stake went in, piercing him. Well, kind of. Just like when she’d practiced with the pillow, she didn’t quite have the strength to get the stake where it needed to go. I felt her steel herself, felt her summon up every ounce of strength she had. Throwing her full weight into it, she shoved again, using both hands. The stake went in further. Still not enough. This delay would have cost her her life in a normal situation. This was not a normal situation. Dimitri had no means to block her, not with the fire slowly eating him. He did manage a small struggle that loosened the stake, undoing what little progress she’d made. Grimacing, she tried again, pushing the stake back to its former position. Still, it wasn’t enough. I came to my senses then, knowing I needed to stop this. Lissa was going to burn herself up if she kept trying to stake him. She lacked the skill. Either I needed to stake him or we just needed to let the fire finish him off. I moved forward. Lissa caught sight of me in her periphery and sent out a blast of compulsion at me. No! Let me do this! The command hit me hard, an invisible wall that made me come to a halt. I stood there dazed, both from the compulsion itself and the realization that she’d used it on me. It only took a moment for me to shake it off. She was too distracted to put her full power into the order, and I was pretty compulsion-resistant anyway. Yet, that slight delay had stopped me from reaching her. Lissa seized her last chance, knowing she’d get no other. One more time, fighting through the fire’s searing pain, she threw everything she had into shoving the stake all the way into Dimitri’s heart. Her strike was still awkward, still requiring a little more wiggling and pushing than the clean hit a trained guardian would make. Clumsy or not, the stake finally made it. It pierced his heart. And as it did, I felt magic flood our bond, the familiar magic I’d felt so many times when she performed a healing. Except†¦ this was a hundred times more powerful than anything I’d ever felt before. It froze me up as neatly as her compulsion had. I felt as though all of my nerves were exploding, like I’d just been struck by lightning. White light suddenly burst out around her, a light that dwarfed the fire’s brightness. It was like someone had dropped the sun into the middle of that room. I cried out, my hand rising instinctively to shield my eyes as I stepped backward. From the sounds in the room, everyone else was having a similar reaction. For a moment, it was as if there was no bond anymore. I felt nothing from Lissa–no pain, no magic. The bond was as colorless and empty as the white light filling the room. The power she’d used had over-flooded and overwhelmed our bond, numbing it. Then the light simply disappeared. No fade-out. Just†¦ gone in an eye blink. Like a switch had been flipped. There was silence in the room, save for a few murmurings of discomfort and confusion. That light must have been toxic to sensitive Strigoi eyes. It was hard enough for me. Starbursts danced in my sight. I couldn’t focus on anything as the afterimage of that brilliance burned across my vision. At last–with a little squinting–I could vaguely see again. The fire was gone, though black smudges on the wall and ceiling marked its presence, as did some lingering smoke. By my estimation, there should have been a lot more damage. I could spare no time for that miracle, though, because there was another one taking place in front of me. Not just a miracle. A fairy tale. Lissa and Dimitri were both on the floor. Their clothes were burned and singed. Angry red and pink patches marked her beautiful skin from where the fire had hit hardest. Her hands and wrists were particularly bad. I could see spots of blood where the flames had actually burned some of her skin away. Third-degree burns, if I was recalling my physiology classes correctly. Yet she seemed to feel no pain, nor did the burns affect her hands’ movement. She was stroking Dimitri’s hair. While she sat in some semblance of an upright position, he was in an ungainly sprawl. His head rested in her lap, and she was running her fingers through his hair in a gentle, repetitive motion–like one does to comfort a child or even an animal. Her face, even marred with the fire’s terrible damage, was radiant and filled with compassion. Dimitri had called me an avenging angel, but she was an angel of mercy as she gazed down at him and crooned soothing, nonsense words. With the state of his clothes and what I’d seen in the fire, I’d expected him to be burned to a crisp–some sort of blackened, skeletal nightmare. Yet when he shifted his head, giving me my first full view of his face, I saw that he was completely unharmed. No burns marked his skin–skin that was as warm and tanned as it had been the first day I’d met him. I caught only a glimpse of his eyes before he buried his face against Lissa’s knee. I saw endless depths of brown, the depths I’d fallen into so many times. No red rings. Dimitri†¦ was not a Strigoi. And he was weeping. How to cite Spirit Bound Chapter Sixteen, Essay examples

Concepts of Divorce Essay Example For Students

Concepts of Divorce Essay Is marriage no more than the result of voluntary agreements between two private individuals? Is the lack of detail concerning marriage arrangements causing all the divorce debates? Does divorce cause problems or solve them? Why is marriage such a religious experience and divorce such a legal experience?Why do marriages take place under the eyes of God while divorces take place under the eyes of the law?I believe that it was because of my parents’ divorce that I have chosen to tackle such a controversial topic. In many ways, I am in search of my own opinion. My parents divorced through the no-fault system. My dad decided it was time to move on to another life I guess. The no-fault divorce is a form of divorce granted without blame being sought or established. Sometimes, I try to think of how my life would have turned out if they were still together. I wonder if life would be any better. However, there are other days when I thank God for putting me through such troubling times; without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. What troubles me with marriage/divorce issues is that one is dealt with while the other lies on the floor. Today, we discuss marriage, and we discuss divorce, but never both at the same time. Should we push premarital counseling, or should we make divorce harder? Why must we discuss one or the other and not both? There are so many questions concerning marriage and divorce, and that is why I’m writing to you. I hope to answer some questions you may have. Though you may not form an opinion about no-fault divorce, you should finish this article with a little satisfaction, knowing that you’ve seen both sides of the issue. There are many people who have spoken out about no-fault divorce and family relationships, but I will focus on two. In â€Å"The Divorce Debate,† Maggie Gallagher, a scholar at the Institute for American Values, tries to answer the question: â€Å"What, if anything, can we do about the fact that at least half of our marriages fail?† In another article, â€Å"The Making of a Divorce Culture,† Barbara Dafoe Whitehead discusses the idea that, â€Å"Divorce has become an American way of life only as a result of recent and revolutionary change.†I was very turned-off by Gallagher’s article. First, it starts off with what the author thinks should be a shared assumption; the assumption stated that divorce is harmful for children. Not everyone believes that. She goes on by asking, â€Å"What†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦can we do?† Gallagher continues with her article by putting down other states because of their divorce stipulations. She says that they are not worki ng. Yes, she did back that statement up with information from Judith Wallerstein’s book, Second Chance, and statistics from the Journal of Marriage and Family, but they were buried between the many instances in which she shared the views of her opposition. The way she recognized the reasoning behind the â€Å"speedy spouse disposal† or â€Å"delayed backlash† was a nice touch. Unfortunately, Gallagher was so involved with trying to show the other side of things, she forgot to give the reasoning behind her own ideas. Through the entire article, she used negative words or phrases to express her feelings on divorce; they include: harmful, delayed backlash, speedy spouse removal, eliminating, marital wrongdoing, dissolve a marriage, bitter conflict, unhappy marriages, bleak times, punishments, messy and irrelevant, and torment. However, she never once suggested a solution for the problem of divorce. How can one argue with the ideas of others, if that person has no argument of their own?After reading the article, I was pretty confident that the author had not personally been through a divorce of her own. This alone, caused me to question her. I felt that a more personal article involving some of her own experiences would have been more convincing. I realized that she was writing with a logical approach, but I believe an emotional one would have been better. Divorce is a topic that touches every person in so many different ways. If the article would have reached to the heart, it would have been more persuasive. Though I am unhappy with the way the topic was approached, I am sure that the essay was not quickly written. Their was a lot of research involved in this article. Gallagher explained how different states came up with different solutions for divorce. She discussed the no-fault divorce and the waiting period before a divorce. Her statistic was a great bonus. Photosynthesis EssayWe have to decide what is more important to our society. Research shows that divorced women suffer a drop in income ranging on average from 30 percent to 70 percent. More than half of all female-headed households with children live in poverty, compared with only 10 percent of all other families with children. Medical experts say that men who divorce are to experience greater health problems and higher rates of suicide than married men. Are these things devastating to our society, or do we need to look at the other side of things? Without no-fault divorce, many people may become trapped in abusive relationships. There may be an increase in desertion. One spouse may be lead to use bribes or threats to win the consent of the other to end marriage, thus creating the return of blackmail under the old fault-based system. (Tyson 1-3)Maybe the topic isn’t the narrow one we perceive it to be. Maybe the topic evolves more around family itself. Midge Decter does an excellent job of discussing family in her article, â€Å"The Madness of the American Family.† She explains how a family compares with a rock, and not the Garden of Eden. A rock, can be far from a comfortable place to be. â€Å"But,† she says, â€Å"living on a rock keeps you out of the swamps†¦..The most dangerous of these swamps is a place of limitless and willfully defined individual freedom. The land of limitless freedom, as so many among us are now beginning to discover, turns out to be nothing other than the deep muck and mire of Self.† She continues, â€Å"The only escape from the swamp of Self is the instinctual and lifelong engagement in the fate of others.† Decter discusses how being in a family may not make you happy, but it makes you human. She goes on:â€Å"Together, marriage and parenthood are the rock on which human existence stands†¦.and No matter how ardently a young man and woman believe they wish to spend their lives with one another, and no matter how enthusiastically they greet the knowledge that they are to have a baby, they do not undertake either of these things in full knowledge of the commitment they are undertaking†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦they do not know that they are embarked upon a long, long, and sometimes arduous and even unpleasant journey.† (Decter 1-19)Marriage, family, and divorce, are three controversial topics that each person must deal with in their lifetime. The great thing about them is that we are each allowed to have our own opinions about them. Maybe you haven’t picked sides, and maybe you haven’t heard enough to make a stand, but hopefully this article has got you thinking. I myself have not yet chosen a position on the topic. No-fault divorce has such a complicated base. Each marital problem causes rise to newfound solutions concerning divorce. Every person comes up with their own opinions. Each state has its laws, its bills, and its proposals to solve the problems con cerning marriage and divorce. The nation finds such problems floating above its head, waiting for someone, or something, to take hold and decrease its power to control the people within it.Nevertheless, Dector reminds us not to get frustrated about such topics when she says, â€Å"All this should be a very simple matter; God knows, it’s been going on long enough. So why have we fallen into such a state of confusion?†

Literary Terms Modern Essay free essay sample

The aim of this glossary is not to set in concrete words that are constantly changing and evolving, but rather to help students develop the critical tools and vocabulary with which to understand and talk about poetry. Since poets themselves often disagree about the meaning and importance of terms such as free verse, rhythm, lyric, structure, and the prose poem, and since control of literary discourse is part of each new generation’s struggle for poetic ascendancy, it seems only reasonable and appropriate for the student to view all efforts to define critical terminology in a historical perspective and with a healthy degree of scepticism. This mini-glossary reflects the continuing debate between traditional metrics and free verse, and between differing conceptions of the poet’s craft and role in society. A fuller and more lively debate may often be found in the notes on the poets and in the poetics section. We will write a custom essay sample on Literary Terms Modern Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In a number of instances, I have been less concerned to offer hard-andfast definitions than to alert readers to the controversy that surrounds certain critical terms. The following list is by no means complete, but is intended to aid and provoke, to stimulate discussion and debate and send the curious reader on to more comprehensive sources. I have made use of and recommend highly A Glossary of Literary Terms (1957), by M. H. Abrams; the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (1974), edited by Alex Preminger, Frank, J. Warnke, and O. B. Hardison, Jr; and The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices (1989), by William Packard. G. G. ccent The emphasis, or stress, placed on a syllable, reflecting pitch, duration, and the pressures of grammar and syntax. While all syllables are accented or stressed in speech and in poetry, we tend to describe the less dominant as unstressed or unaccented syllables. In metrical verse, accented and unaccented (stressed and unstressed) syllables are easily identified. Robert Burns’s famous line â€Å"My love is like a red, red rose† might be described as an iambic tetrameter line, with four feet each consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. However, it can be argued that such a reading trivializes and effectively undercuts the emotional power of the poetic utterance, and that the sense of the line dictates a slightly different reading, which locates three strong stresses or accents in the second half of the line: â€Å"My love is like a red, red rose†. See also FEET and METER. 2 20 -Century Poetry Poetics th alexandrine A twelve-syllable line, usually consisting of six iambic feet. alliteration A common poetic device that involves the repetition of the same sound or sounds in words or lines in close proximity. Alliteration was most pronounced in Anglo-Saxon poems such as â€Å"The Wanderer† and â€Å"The Seafarer†, which Earle Birney imitates in his satire of Toronto, â€Å"Anglo-Saxon Street†: Dawndrizzle ended dampness steams from Blotching brick and blank plasterwaste Faded house patterns hoary and finicky unfold stuttering stick like a phonograph While such intense piling up of consonants was once a common mnemonic device (an aid to memory), changing literary fashions have, to a large extent, rendered such self-conscious exhibitions too blunt and obvious for the contemporary ear, except when used for comic purposes. Exceptions include rap poetry and spoken word, both of which make extensive use of alliteration and rhyme. Nevertheless, the repetition, or rhyming, of vowels, consonants, and consonant clusters (nt, th, st, etcetera) remains a still a central component in constructing the soundscape of the poem, just as the repetition and variation of image and idea enrich the intellectual and sensory fabric. The most talented practitioners will be listening backwards and forwards as they compose, picking up and repeating both images and sounds that give the poem a rich and interlocking texture. See ASSONANCE, CONSONANCE, RHYME, and PROSODY. allusion Personal, topical, historical, or literary references are common in poetry, though, to be successful, they require an audience with shared experience and values. Biblical or classical allusions, for example, or Canadian political allusions, might be totally unrecognizable to an Asian Muslim reader. Although readers soon tire of verbal exhibitionism, they still expect a degree of allusion to challenge them and to stimulate curiosity. Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s â€Å"Junkman’s Obgligato† assumes the reader’s familiarity with both T. S. Eliot’s â€Å"Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock† and W. B. Yeats’s â€Å"Lake Isle of Innisfree† for a full appreciation of the ironic counterpointing of down-and-out urban images and those of an idealized pastoral landscape. At the same time, the poem also overflows with topical and literary allusions from the junkyard of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American culture. ambiguity Words and the texts they inhabit are susceptible of a variety of interpetations. While a word may denote one thing, usage and context often bring various connotations to bear on the meaning, or meanings, of that word in the poem. As the American poet Randall Jarrell explains in his essay â€Å"The Obscurity of the Poet† (in Poetry and the Age, 1953), what we speak of as literature ranges from Dante’s Divine Comedy, with its seven levels of meaning, to Reader’s Digest, which, Glossary of Poetic Terms 3 like pulp fiction and greeting-card verse, barely manages half a level of meaning. Sophisticated readers not only enjoy, but also demand a certain level of ambiguity, or mystery, in poems. They find such ambiguity in Shakespeare, who loved puns, double-entendre, and various kinds of wordplay; they find it also in such early Moderns as T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and Wallace Stevens, who were influenced by seventeenth-century Metaphysical poets and French Symbolist poets, for both of whom the poem retains something of the quality of a riddle. As a result of declining audiences, a general trend towards a democratization of the arts, and the pressure of new kinds of psychological and political content, the pendulum of taste since mid-century swung towards less ambiguity. While puns and worldplay still add to our sense of the fecundity and depth of poetic expression, contemporary poets admit that a rose may, at times, be intended only as a rose; and they tend to avoid the use of obscure and esoteric references. See Robert Graves’ Poetic Unreason (1925) and William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930). anapest A metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one: / ? ? ? /. See METRE. anaphora The rhetorical device of using the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines to obtain the effect of incantation. See Ginsberg’s â€Å"Howl† and Cohen’s â€Å"You Have the Lovers† and â€Å"style†. apostrophe A literary device of â€Å"turning away†, usually to address a famous person or idea. In the classical Greek plays of Aeschylus and Euripides, the chorus would march across the stage in one direction chanting various stanzas, or strophes, and then reverse their motion in an anti-strophe, or verbal about-face. In twentiethcentury poetry, the apostrophe is just as likely to be used ironically, or for romantic or satirical purposes. rchetype When you sense that a literary character, situation, or idea has significance far beyond its specific, or particular, occasion in the poem, you are probably in the presence of an archetype. In an essay called â€Å"Blake’s Treatment of the Archetype† (English Institute Essays, 1950), Northrop Frye says: â€Å"By archetype I mean an element in a work of literature, whether a character, an image, a nar rative formula, or an idea, which can be assimilated into a larger unifying pattern. † Psychologist C. G. Jung, in an essay called â€Å"The Problem of Types in Poetry† (1923), gives another dimension to the matter: â€Å"The primordial image or archetype is a figure, whether it be a daemon, man, or process, that repeats itself in the course of history wherever creative fantasy is freely manifested. Essentially, therefore, it is a mythological figure. If we subject these images to a closer examination, we discover them to be the formulated resultants of countless typical experiences of our ancestors. They are, as it were, the psychic residue of numberless experiences of the same type. 4 20 -Century Poetry Poetics th Sibling rivalry, the betrayed or rejected lover, the innocent abroad, the rebel, the fool, the seasonal cycles of rebirth, fertility, and death, the enchanter or enchantress—all are common characters or situations in literature that can deepen our appreciation of a work of art. However, the search for universal symbols can be reductive in the reading of a poem ; so, too, can excessive efforts to make a work symbolic or archetypal reduce a poem into a sociology text or an essay on psychology. ssonance Also called vocalic rhyme, assonance is the repetition or recurrence of vowel sounds within a line (or lines), a stanza, or the overall poem. Listen to the long vowels conjure expiration and death in Wilfred Owen’s â€Å"Greater Love†: â€Å"As theirs whom none now hear, / Now earth has stopped their piteous mouths that coughed. † Assonance is most obvious among words beginning with an open, or initial, vowel (open / eyes / eat / autumn), but equally powerful as an internal rhyming device (tears / mean, thine / divine). allad A popular short narrative folk song, usually transmitted orally, and making use of various forms of shorthand, including truncated action, psychological and historical sketchiness, and a chorus or refrain for heightened impact and easy memorizing. A direct link can be drawn between such early folk so ngs as â€Å"Barbara Ellen† and â€Å"The Skye Boat Song†, country western music, and such contemporary ballads such as â€Å"Frankie and Johnny†, Leonard Cohen’s â€Å"Suzanne†, and Stan Rogers’ â€Å"The Lockkeeper†. lank verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter verse has been a staple since it was introduced by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, around 1540 in his translations of Virgil’s Aeneid. Shakepeare and Christopher Marlowe both used blank verse in their plays; in poetry, Milton used it for Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Wordsworth for The Prelude, and T. S. Eliot for The Waste Land. Eliot claimed in Poetry in the Eighteenth Century (1930) that the decasyllabic (or ten-syllable) line was â€Å"intractably poetic† yet had many of the capacities of prose. As such, blank verse could be said to be a precursor of the prose poem, which seems more aligned with ordinary speech and the counting of syllables than with poetic meter. broken rhyme The dividing of a word between two lines to fulfill the requirements of rhyme: Madame had learned to waltz before the charge of falsehood had been laid . . . cadence When poet John Ciardi describes the poem as â€Å"a countermotion across a silence†, he comes close to defining cadence, which refers to the pattern of melody established from line to line that creates in the reader a sense of time slowed down Glossary of Poetic Terms 5 and palpable. While cadence originally referred to regular traditional poetic measures, in which syllables and feet could be counted and identified, the term has come to be used more in relation to irregular patterning, where stress and accent are much looser and determined primarily by phrasing and syntax. Cadence is what Ezra Pound was referring to when he spoke of composing with the musical phrase instead of the metronome. Also worth reading is Dennis Lee’s essay â€Å"Cadence, Country, Silence†, in which he employs the term broadly and with greater cultural import. See also MEASURE, MUSIC, RHYTHM, and SONG. caesura This term is used to refer to any substantial break or pause within the line, though it is most often found in lines of five or more feet. The caesura was a regular feature in Anglo-Saxon poetry, dividing the two alliterating units within the line, bluntly drawn in Earle Birney’s â€Å"Anglo-Saxon Street† or more subtly in Wilfred Owen’s â€Å"Arms and the Boy†: Let the boy try along this bayonet blade How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; Blue with all malice, like a madman’s flash; And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. anto While in the twentieth century the term is often used to mean, simply, a song or a ballad, the canto was originally a subdivision of epic or narrative, which provided both a simpler organizing principle for the creator of the long poem and a muchneeded respite for the singer during delivery. Ezra Pound draws on both meanings of the word when he calls his great epic-length series of meditations The Cantos. conceit When a METAPHOR or other FIGURE OF SPEECH is extended over many lines, it is called a conceit. oncreteness Concrete nouns referring to objects, such as lip, flint, hubcap, gunbarrel, wheel, smoke, sugar, and fingernail, seem capable of making their appeal through the senses. So, too, verbs, such as run, scream, chop, and lick. Concrete words activate the imagination and anchor poetry in the world of particulars. A gifted poet such as Samuel Johnson can use abstract words in such as way as to make them feel concrete, as in the line â€Å"stern famine guards the solitary coast†, where the abstract idea is given the quality of ternness, the action of guarding, and a spatial location. e. e. cummings concretized abstractions in much the same way: â€Å"love is more thicker than forget, / more thinner than recall / more seldom than a wave is wet / more frequent than to fail†. concrete poetry This name was first applied in the twentieth century to works that exploit the visual and auditory limits of poetry, ranging from contemporary â€Å"visual puns† back to a seventeenth-century â€Å"shape-poem† whose typography was de- 6 20 -Century Poetry Poetics th ployed to create the image of an altar. Since so much of the power of poetry is derived from sound—from rhythmical patterns, the residue of recurring vowels and consonants—it’s hardly surprising to find poets who break words into component syllables and letters, downplaying the intellectual dimension of poetry and emphasizing, instead, the psychic energy to be found in the acoustic dimension of language. See the notes on, and poems and poetics by, bpNichol, as well as An Anthology of Concrete Poetry (1967), edited by Emmett Williams, ed. consonance Consonance is the repetition of consonants in words or syllables with differing vowels: winter / water / went / waiter. See, for example, Wilfred Owen’s â€Å"Strange Meeting†, which proceeds with a series of consonantal half rhymes: escaped / scooped, groined / groaned, moan / mourn. content The substance or subject matter of a poem, as opposed to its style or manner, is what we usually refer to when we speak of content. But content cannot, properly, be discussed apart from form. A poet may begin to write a poem, broadly speaking, about war, love, or beach-combing; however, as soon as his or her thought begins to take shape as poetic language, as form, it is so transformed by the process that it bears little or no relation to the original impulse. Ideas or anecdotes that find their way into a poem are not the poem’s content, though they are certainly germaine to its overall impact. In fact, everything in the poem contributes to what we might call its content. Poets have reacted strongly to attempts to oversimplify their work or reduce it to a generalization or two. Archibald MacLeish argued that â€Å"A poem should not mean, but be. † Most poets believe that the poem is its own meaning. Robert Creeley insisted that content and form are indivisible, and rejected â€Å"any descriptive act . . . which leaves the attention outside the poem†. It’s probably most useful to stop asking what a poem means and begin to consider, as John Ciardi suggests in his book title, How Does A Poem Mean? If you begin to examine the formal and technical elements in a poem, the ways in which certain effects are achieved, you are more likely to arrive at a point of understanding and appreciation of the poem far beyond any simple statement about its content. See also DICTION, FORM, PROSODY. couplet The couplet—two lines of verse, usually rhymed—is one of the most common and useful verse forms in English and Chinese poetry. The couplet’s brevity encourages a pithy, epigrammatic quality; its two-line split provides a fulcrum which lends itself to argumentative summary and generalization, as in Alexander Pope’s â€Å"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; / The proper study of mankind is man†. Closed couplets such as Pope’s or Dryden’s, which use mostly iambic pentameter lines and complete their thought with the final end-rhyme, are also called heroic couplets, a form that dominated the eighteenth-century English neoclassical period. Glossary of Poetic Terms 7 The couplet has many uses, as a concentrating unit within the poem or as a separate stanza form. Shakespeare used the couplet to conclude his sonnets forcefully. See also GHAZAL. dactyl A metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables: / ? ? ? /. See FOOT and METER. diction Word choice. The French poet Verlaine felt the need to remind us that poems are made of words, not ideas. This is useful to think about, since poems are often spoken and written of as if they were chunks of autobiography, representations of nature, or little treatises on how to conduct, or not to conduct, our lives. Words are magical. When nature, experience, or ideas—any of which may give rise to a poem—pass through the rucible of language, they are transformed, as surely as white light is split into a spectrum of colour when it passes through a prism. Words, similarly, slow and alter those non-linguistic elements that endeavour to use or pass through them; that’s one reason poems, stories, and other verbal texts give us the impression of time slowe d down, of felt time. Words and the ideas they carry fly rather quickly through the brain, but when you speak or hear them you become aware of being immersed in another element, like a diver suddenly encountering water. These considerations are central to postmodern poetics, which seeks to remind us that the poem is not a mirror of nature or a window through which we see the natural world, or so-called reality, but rather a verbal reality in its own right. When the word, or language in general, is foregrounded, poetry ceases to be simply a vehicle for conveying pictures of, and passing on information about, quotidian reality; it aspires, instead, to the condition of other arts such as music and painting, where representation and referentiality are not the only, or even the primary, concern. In a sense, words are the poet’s paint, his or her primary medium. Coleridge once spoke of poetry as â€Å"the best words in the best order†. He was using the word best in the sense of most appropriate in a specific context, not with the idea that certain kinds of words are forbidden or inherently better or worse than others, though the choice would have its own moral significance. Words are dirty with meaning and can never be washed clean; we use them for ordinary discourse, to sell lawnmowers, to deliver sermons, and to make political speeches. As Joseph Conrad once wrote, using the Archimedean metaphor: Give me the right word or phrase and I will move the world. M. H. Abrams reminds us that diction can be described as â€Å"abstract or concrete, Latinate or Anglo-Saxon, colloquial or formal, technical or common, literal or figurative†, to which we might add archaic, plain, elevated. See CONCRETENESS and WORD, and also Owen Barfield’s Poetic Diction (1952) and Winnifred Nowottny’s The Language Poets Use (1962). 8 20 -Century Poetry Poetics th idactic While classical and neo-classical poetics argue that poetry should both teach and delight, in didactic poems the teaching function tends to override the imaginative. Such works, often dismissed as propaganda, recall Yeats’s distinction, that his argument with the world produced only rhetoric, whereas his argument with himself resulted in poetry. And yet all great works are overtly or covertly didactic, whether they teach us indirectly and subliminal ly through the senses (by way of imagery and patterns of sound) or by arguing transparently. And, of course, all art, while it may not be a blatant call to arms, is an effort to persuade us to view the world differently. dimetre A line of verse consisting of two feet. dissonance An effect of harshness or discordance in a poem, often achieved by combining rhythmical irregularity and a jarring concentration of consonants. distich A COUPLET. dramatic monologue Unlike the soliloquy, in which a character on stage reveals his or her inner thoughts by â€Å"thinking aloud†, the dramatic monologue assumes and addresses an audience of one or more people. In the process of addresing this audience, the speaker of the dramatic monologue manages to confess, or simply reveal, a character flaw, a dread deed, or an impending crisis. Robert Browning pioneered the form in poems such as â€Å"My Last Duchess†, â€Å"Andrea del Sarto†, and â€Å"Fra Lippo Lippi†, but it has been used by Tennyson in â€Å"Ulysses†, by Eliot in â€Å"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock†, and by many contemporary writers. duration The length of acoustic or phonetic phenomena such as syllables. According to linguists, the sounds we produce when we speak have pitch, loudness, quality, and duration. Aside from grammatical and syntactical considerations, the pacing in, or the speed at which we read, a poem is largely determined by the length of time it takes to enunciate syllables, lines, and stanzas. Short vowels speed up the poem; long vowels slow it down. See also MEASURE, MUSIC, PROSODY, RHYTHM, and SONG. elegy Originally a specifically metered Greek or Roman form, the elegy has come to refer generally to a sustained meditation on mutability or a formal lament on the death of a specific person. The conventional pastoral elegy included a rural setting, with shepherds and flowers (all nature mourning), an invocation to the muse, a procession, and a final consolation. Classics such as Milton’s â€Å"Lycidas†, Thomas Gray’s â€Å"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard†, and Shelley’s â€Å"Adonais† are clearly the chief source and influence on such contemporary elegies as W. H. Auden’s â€Å"In Memory of W. B. Yeats†, Michael Ondaatje’s â€Å"Letters Other Worlds†, Seamus Heaney’s â€Å"Requiem for the Croppies†, and so many of the poems of Adrienne Rich, Denise Levertov, Lorna Crozier and Michael Longley. In fact, one Glossary of Poetic Terms 9 might safely say that the elegiac tone is dominant in English poetry from Beowulf to the present. enjambment A means of escaping the limitations and rigidity of the end-stopped line or closed couplet, enjambment occurs when a sentence or thought carries over from one line to the next. The enjambed line, with its greater freedom and flexibility, has served to focus a great deal of attention on the position of line-breaks in twentiethcentury poetry. See LINE-BREAKS and also Al Purdy’s poem â€Å"The Cariboo Horses†. pic While the epic, or heroic, poem such as Homer’s Iliad and Odsyssey or the AngloSaxon classic Beowulf—each with its elevated style, tribal or national struggles, invocations to the muse, occasional use of the supernatural, and cast of important, or exalted, figures—belongs to an earlier age, it has not lost its appeal to poets of later ages. From Dante’s Divine Comedy, Spenser’s F? r ie Queene, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Dryden’s and Pope’s mock epic satires to such contemporary long poems as Pound’s The Cantos, W. C. Williams’s Paterson, Atwood’s The Journals of Susanna Moodie, and Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, the long, or extended, poem has provided an alternative to the limited scope, self-directedness and, perhaps, too intense heat of the lyric. See LONG POEM and NARRATIVE. epigram A short, witty poem or statement, seldom more than four lines long, whose form dates back to Roman epigrammatist Martial. Alexander Pope’s poems are full of condensed witticisms that might be displayed as separate epigrams: â€Å"To err is human; to forgive, divine†. ye-rhyme An eye-rhyme features words or syllables that look alike but are pronounced differently: come / home; give / contrive. feminine ending While it may no longer be politically correct, this term is still used in criticism to refer to a line that ends with one or more unstressed syllables. Far from suggesting weakness or passivity, feminine endings are more flexible and colloquial, and their in formality and irregularity have been especially useful in dramatic blank verse. feminine rhyme A two-syllable (or disyllabic) rhyme, usually a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: witness / fitness. igurative language When language is heightened so that it moves beyond ordinary, or literal, usage, it is said to be figurative. These figures, figures of speech, or tropes (â€Å"turns†), as they are sometimes called, include simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, paradox, and pun. An extended figure of speech is called a CONCEIT. 10 20 -Century Poetry Poetics th figure A group of words that evoke the senses by transcending ordinary usage. Consider, for example, Gloucester’s comment in Richard III: â€Å"Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by the sun of York†. oot In A Poet’s Dictionary: Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices (1989), William Packard provides an interesting account of the origin of the metrical foot: When the Greeks described poetry as â€Å"numbers†, they were alluding to certain conspicuous elements of verse that could be counted off: â€Å"feet† were strong dance steps that could be measured out in separate beats of a choral ode or strophe or refrain. These â€Å"feet† could then be scanned for repeating pattern s of syllable quantities, either long or short, within strophes and antistrophes of a chorus. Greek metrics, then, did not derive from accent or stress but rather from the elongation required in the pronunciation of certain vowels and syllable lengths. Instead of the quantitative designation of long and short syllables, we now use the terms stressed and unstressed, or accented and unaccented to describe the components of the poetic foot, which is essentially a group of two or more syllables that form a metrical unit in a line of verse. The most common feet are the iambic (/ ? ? /), an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable (delight); the trochaic (/ ? /), a stressed followed by an unstressed syllable (action); the anapestic (/ ? ? ? /), two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one (interrupt); the dactylic (/ ? ? ? /), a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones (comforting); and the spondaic (/ ? ? /), two stressed syllables (handbook). Other feet include the pyrrhic (/ ? ? /), one or more unstressed syllables; the amphibrachic (/ ? ? ? /), one unstressed, one stressed, one unstressed; the bacchic (/ ? ? ? /), one unstressed followed by two stressed; and the chorimabic (/ ? ? ? /), a stressed, two unstressed, and a stressed. See METER. form Form in poetry is no less intriguing and no less difficult to define and describe than form in the other arts. We can easily identify obvious elements of form, such as rhyme schemes, metrical patterns, stanza-lengths, and traditional modes like the sonnet and sestina; but the intricacies of language, timing, syntax, counterpoint, verbal play—those elements that contribute to the formal beauty and power of a poem—require some training and considerable attention. However, in an essay called â€Å"Admiration of Form: Reflections on Poetry and the Novel† (Brick / 34), poet and critic C. K. Williams offers some useful thoughts, reminding us that, among other things, form and content are inextricably allied: The important thing about form, though, is its artificiality. In English poetry, the historically dominant iambic foot is closely related to the actual movement of the voice in our language between stressed and unstressed syllables, but the regularity of the iambic line, and the five beats of the pentameter, for instance, are purely conventional. In irregular, or â€Å"free†, verse, where the Glossary of Poetic Terms 11 cadences are not regular, and not counted, it is what Galway Kinnell has called the â€Å"rhythmic surge†, which defies and controls the movement of language across its grid of artifice; the line in free verse becomes a much more defining factor of formal organization than in more arithmetical versetraditions. The crucial thing about form is that its necessities, though they are conventions, precede in importance the expressive or analytical demands of the work. Although a poem may to a greater or less degree seem to be driven by its content, in fact all the decisions a poet makes about a work finally have to be made in reference to the conventions which have been accepted as defining the formal nature of that work. If a ompelling experience is conveyed in a verse drama, if an interesting philosophical speculation occurs in a lyric poem, if a poem involves itself in an intricate and apparently entirely engrossing narrative adventure, these are secondary, although simultaneous with, the formal commitments of the work, and they must be embodied within the terms of those commitments, although in the end these almost playful divisions of an experienitial continuum, whether in the structures of a musical mode, or the pulse and surge of a poetic line, will mysteriously serve to intensify the emo tion and the meaning which the work evokes. I should mention, perhaps, that the dour and puritanical and ferociously self-serving â€Å"new formalism† has nothing to do with the notion of form I am elaborating here: the new formalism is rather a kind of conceptual primitivism which seems to gather most of its propulsive force from a distorted and jealous vision of the literary marketplace; it calls for a return to the good old safe and easily accounted-for systems of verse, with counted meters, rhyme, and so forth. All despite the generation over the last few centuries, from Smart to Blake through Whitman and countless others, of an enormous amount of significant poetry in non-traditional forms; and despite the fact that many verse-systems in the world require neither rhyme nor strictly counted meter, and despite the practice of many modern poets, who have been quite content to use whatever verse-form fitted the poem they were composing. One would not want to sacrifice either Rilke’s â€Å"Duino Elegies† or Lowell’s â€Å"Life Studies†, just to mention two poets who worked in both systems. In his essay â€Å"Rebellion and Art† (in The Rebel, 1956), Albert Camus argues that â€Å"A work in which the content overflows the form, or in which form drowns the content, only bespeaks an unconvinced and unconvincing unity. . . . Great style is invisible stylization, or rather stylization incarnate. † See PROSODY, STRUCTURE, and STYLE, and also Denise Levertovâ⠂¬â„¢s â€Å"Notes on Organic Form† in the Poetics section. free verse Poetry written with a persistently irregular meter (which is not to say without rhythm) and often in irregular line-lengths. The King James translations of 12 20 -Century Poetry Poetics th the Psalms and Song of Songs are often held up as models of how dynamic nonmetrical poetry can be. Ezra Pound advised composing with the rhythms of the speaking-voice sounding in your ear, rather than the regular beat of the metronome; Robert Frost insisted that writing free verse was like playing tennis without a net; and T. S. Eliot claimed that no verse is free for the poet who wants to do a good job. All three were concerned to emphasize that, whether regular or irregular, the music of poetry bears close scrutiny, for it accounts for much of our pleasure as readers and, far from being incidental or decorative, is fundamental to our total experience of the poem. See LINES-BREAKS, METER, MUSIC, RHYTHM, PROSODY, and SONG. ghazal A Middle Eastern lyric, most commonly associated with the fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz. The ghazal consists of five to twelve closed couplets, often using the same rhyme. These seemingly disconnected couplets about love and wine are held together not by a narrative or rhetorical thread, but by a heightened tone or emotional intensity. Not surprisingly, the apparently random or non-rational structuring of the ghazal has proven attractive to twentieth-century poets as diverse as as John Thompson (Stilt Jack), Phyllis Webb (Water Light), and Adrienne Rich. hexameter A line of verse consisting of six feet. hyperbole A figure of speech that involves extremes of exaggeration: big as a house, dumb as a doornail. ambic pentameter A line consisting of five iambic feet. Iambic pentameter is considered the poetic rhythm most basic to English speech. See FOOT and METER. image Ezra Pound described the image as â€Å"that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time†. Other poets have spoken of images as concentrations of linguistic energy directed at the senses. The image is a controversial term, which has often been used to m ean, simply, a verbal picture; however, the poetic image may also conjure things, events, and people in our minds by appealing to senses other than sight. Images are so central to language that, in the line a brown cow leapt over the fence, which constitutes a composite image, we also find four discrete images: a cow, a fence, the act of leaping, and brownness. Imagery, along with prosody, is one of the two central ingredients of poetry; and its evocative power cannot be divorced from the texture of sounds through which it is delivered. Specific images seem more likely to stimulate the senses than images that are generic (tree, animal, machine). The difference between a line such as â€Å"I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as a tree† and the following—â€Å"Don’t hang your bones from the branch / of that gnarled oak, exuding elegies. / The chihuahua’s waiting in the Daimler†Ã¢â‚¬â€has as much to do with diction and specificity of image as with the difference between metrical and non-metrical verse. Glossary of Poetic Terms 13 Imagism A poetic movement in England and the US between 1909 and 1917, which reacted against the discursiveness, sentimentality, and philosophizing of late nineteenth-century poetry by trying to focus on the single image.

The Pay Gap between Genders

The Pay Gap between Genders Free Online Research Papers The Pay Gap between Genders Back in 1960s, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, making it illegal to pay men and women employees in the same establishment different wages for substantially equal work. Even though federal laws protect women against discrimination, a pay gap persists. Women earn less than men in general. According to a study, â€Å"women employed full-time earn only 76.6 cents on average for each dollar earned by males by 2003† (Hughes 264). Masculine â€Å"ideal worker† norm lives in most of the high-reward occupations such as engineering and medicines. In contrast, female employees usually take the subordinate roles in the workforce, and these positions usually provide lower salaries. This inequality has been socially constructed, and it is caused by many forces including occupational segregation, â€Å"glass ceiling† and family responsibility. Men and women tend to work in different occupations and wages differ substantially according to the gender composition of the occupation. In order to write this paper, I did a little research at salary.com. The average yearly salary of an engineer in California is about $70,000 comparing to the average salary of a registered nurse is only about $55,000. I also find out that a firefighter earns far more than a high school teacher; a corporate lawyer earns more than a family lawyer. When I mention the terms â€Å"engineers†, â€Å"firefighters†, and â€Å"corporate lawyers†, people will automatically have a male figure in their mind to match up these occupations. This phenomenon is caused by one form of stereotype called occupational segregation in the labor market. In other words, occupational segregation is the concentration of a similar group of people (males, females, whites, blacks, etc) in a particular job. For the same reason, when I mention â€Å"nursesâ⠂¬ , â€Å"school teachers†, and â€Å"family lawyers†, people naturally imagine a female face to match up these occupations since these positions are usually dominated by women. From these finding, I conclude that male dominated occupations usually provide higher pay than female occupied positions. Despite the different distribution of male and female workers in the labor market, a few women change their fates by challenging some careers traditionally dominated by male. They obtain success through market experiences and educations. Nevertheless, there is always a â€Å"glass ceiling† which means a set of invisible barriers that prevent women from further advancing. For example, my aunt’s friend, Nancy, entered a company as an accountant right after she graduated from business school in the University of Los Angeles. Five years later, her working experiences only allowed her to climb up a little higher in the managerial hierarchy with only 15 percent wage rise. It is true that there are many jobs that classified as executive, administrative, and managerial were held by women, but only a very few of these women were at the very top. Their advancement was limited by a set of invisible wall. The absence of women in the top management level is a result of gender discri mination. Even though they had the qualified education level and experience, sadly, they are not able to break through the â€Å"glass ceiling† to reach the uppermost level in institutional hierarchy. Some people argue that women work fewer hours than men because they need more time to take care of their families, especially if the family consists of more than one child. Women who have at least a child are less likely to have a full-time career than those who are childless. This is what happens to my mother. My mother told me that she never worked in a full-time job after she gave born my brother and me. When my brother and I were still infants, she even quitted her job to be full-time taking care of both of us. Many working mothers choose to be part-time workers in order to balance their family responsibilities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 29.7 percent of custodial mothers were part-time workers in 2001. With nearly one-third of the mothers bringing in less income, this will explain more about the pay gap between male and female workers. In addition, working mothers are no longer free to take on time-consuming tasks or are less motivated because of their family responsib ilities. Nevertheless, the high-pay positions usually concentrate on the top of management such as board executive in a corporation, and the tasks are always considered time-consuming. Therefore, married women or working mothers are usually excluded from those high-paying jobs. In conclusion, the trend of pay gap between male and female is the result of many forces. Primarily, the occupations that are dominated by male have higher pay than those occupied by female. Secondly, the invisible â€Å"glass ceiling† has become a hand string to women’s success in the top and has kept them away from promotions. Thirdly, the family responsibilities carried by women are much heavier than those carried by men, which have affected women’s status of their work. As a woman myself, I feel this pay gap is a form of gender discrimination and it needs to be changed immediately. We want more women to participate in male-dominated occupations. In order to do so, we need to have more female students to major in areas such as engineering, architecture, and management. We can break through the â€Å"glass ceiling† by the means of educations and practices. I think employers will see our motivations and strengths through hardworking. Moreover, as many goo d quality daycare centers emerge, working mothers can take a break from babysitting so that they can have more time and focus to develop a full time career. To narrow down the pay gap between man and women is going to be time-consuming and challenging since this gap has been socially constructed for hundreds of years; yet, women are commendable to be the victors in this long run. Research Papers on The Pay Gap between GendersResearch Process Part OneInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married Males19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesHip-Hop is ArtTrailblazing by Eric AndersonComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThe Fifth HorsemanStandardized Testing

Psychological and cultural insights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Psychological and cultural insights - Essay Example The binary nature of the ethnic perception has created two distinct cultural segments â€Å"the east and the west†. The segments are not only geographically separated by political borders but are also diversified in terms of psychographic nature of the residing people ((Luo, 2008). On a geographical perspective, the western countries include the nations like the UK, USA, France, Germany, etc and on contrary the eastern countries encompasses Mainland China, India, UAE, Thailand, etc. Although the geographic distinction is quite apparent, however, that is not the only rationale for diversity of perception. According to The Hofstede Centre (2015), the cultural practices vary largely across national borders. The people bear different psychological profile and engage in different social practices, which is a clear reflection of psychographic diversity.Eng and Bogaert, (2010) mentioned that the psychographic profile of an individual largely influences his perception of a particular stimulus. To put it simply, two individuals belonging from different cultural background is most likely to react differently to a same stimulus. This theory stands corrected in the Watson and Wright’s (2000) study of ethnocentric consumer behaviour. A consumer’s perception of a particular brand is largely influenced by his ethnicity. His country of origin and his cultural background plays a major role in deciding the perceived value of a brand. This is mostly because of the fact that an individual designs his perception based on his surroundings.

Research Diary 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Research Diary 5 - Essay Example I therefore, think that by correctly addressing the letter and using language that is non-offending and is able to send the desired message are important principles of writing business letters. Using rhetoric approach in business writing has emerged as critical issue because it exploits the tenets of human psychology to ensure that the basic purpose of writing business letter is accomplished with high success. Rhetoric enables individuals to use persuasive language that adds to the effectiveness of written discourse. According to Aristotle, the three appeals of rhetoric are ethos, pathos and logos (2011). Ethos conveys writer’s credibility, pathos appeals emotionally and logos use rationalization to emphasize their points. The three paradigms of writing are therefore vital ingredients that significantly lend credibility to the writer and the written discourse. Consequently, business writing exploits rhetoric principles to communicate effectively one’s intended message to persuade the reader and exhort desired response. These are essential benefits of rhetoric approach in business writing. The various methods of persuasion become highly crucial imperatives as they tend to provide information and send appeal in manner that clearly rationalizes the issues so that reader is convinced. If the business letter lacks conviction and strong logical explanations, the reader is not able to understand the points raised and fails to respond appropriately or as desired. Thus, the very purpose of writing business letter fails and writer is not able to achieve his/her goal. As such, effective business writing becomes important for communicating the desired message in manner that requires least effort in understanding the core issue by the reader/ audience. The success of project completion relies heavily on effective teamwork and strong communication channels within team members.

Masculinity and Violence in Fight Club and Drowning Tucson Essay

Masculinity and Violence in Fight Club and Drowning Tucson - Essay Example However, when â€Å"a generation of men† is raised by women, there is no â€Å"male example† (Palahniuk 50) to follow and males only have that urge for liberalization and the need to ascertain their masculinity. One can see that the Tyler in Fight Club is the real macho man who tries to struggle away from the feminized Narrator, or, in other words, Tyler is the real male self of the Narrator. In fact, what Palahniuk points out and what the reader feels is that real masculinity involves surplus aggressiveness and sexual and emotional desires. In the real society, most males are forced to employ surplus repression to look civilized. Thus, there are institutions of male bonding which offer them a way to unleash this hidden aggression in the safest possible way. They engage in fist fight in such institutions and enjoy a sense of power. In the novel, the Narrator is a person who has lost his sense of manhood. He does not have a name, lives alone, and is unable to make health y relations with others. This extreme pain and alienation makes the real man in him struggle away and become Tyler who wants to become the leader of the â€Å"space monkeys† (Palahniuk 132).... The more comfortable the Narrator becomes with Marla, the more detached he gets with the destructive plans made by Tyler. Finally, by the time he admits he likes her, the Narrator is in total contradiction with Tyler, and eliminates him (Palahniuk 15). However, the men who are still isolated continue demanding the return of the anarchic Tyler. At least the Narrator realizes Marla is not the reason behind anarchy. Thus, one can see that there are various factors Palahniuk tries to point out as the reasons behind violence. The first one is the lack of role models of maleness for the new generation which is often brought up in a feminized society. The feminist era took away everything that is good as the virtues of femaleness and men of the post-feminist period were left with nothing more than mere ambiguity regarding masculinity and parenting (Palahniuk 141). The second important factor is the ‘homophobia’ developed by men in a patriarchal society. It is admitted facts tha t many hate crimes occur as a result of doubts over sexual orientation. In Fight Club, the Narrator gives Angel Face a severe beating to see that his beauty is reduced because the Narrator hates the favoritism Tayler shows towards him. (Palahniuk 96) Evidently, males have their own ways of measuring masculinity. To illustrate, in Fight Club, it is seen that the ability to conquer a woman is an important aspect of deciding ones maleness. As a result, there is a kind of rift between males that arises out of this competition to win women, and in the novel, there is a great degree of tension between Tayler and the Narrator in this regard. (Palahniuk 113) Thus, it becomes evident that men’s lives are structured around aggressiveness and power relations. The highly phallic notion of masculinity

The Great Gatsby Analysis

The Great Gatsby Analysis As a profound commentary on the American dream and a reflection of the period in which it was written, F. Scott Fitzgeralds American classic, The Great Gatsby, remains an enduring work in the American literature canon. Though the novel is relatively simple in terms of plot, the symbolism and intricacies related to that plot provide meaning and context to the reader (Gross and Gross 5). Articulating these intricacies and the basic mechanisms of the plot, however, are holistically tied to the point of view from which the story is told. The entire story is told through the eyes of the 29 year old Nick Carraway. As a result, the reader is left to determine if Nicks account is romanticized or if it is told with the necessary realism to be considered unbiased and therefore taken at face value. The process of this meaning making requires an analysis of Carraway and the way in which his point of view is expressed throughout the story. The nature of the narrative, however, provides other clue s useful to making such decisions. In this capacity, Carraway also sometimes switches to the third person, which allows for other perspectives to be considered by other characters interacting throughout the novel. Based on Carraways perception alone, Gatsby is presented as a mysterious and tragically romantic figure. This point of view is passed on to the reader; however, the addition of the third person elements also allow for commentary by other characters. This balancing process used by the author, demonstrates Gatsby for what he truly was, a complicated, tragic, romantic figure that was consumed with becoming what he thought constituted success in his respective era. Also having flaws and questionable morality, the point of view literary mechanism employed by Fitzgerald is more of a commentary on the American dream than a value judgement on Gatsby alone. Nick Carraway: A Character Analysis To understand the point of view expressed in the novel, it is first necessary to understan d who Nick Carraway is as the narrator. Carraway is man who is newly relocated to West Egg, which is a fictional place based on Fitzgeralds home of Great Neck, New York (Columbia 230). West Egg is a home to the newly rich and it is geographically located on the North Shore of Long Island (230). Bordering the Long Island Sound and close enough to New York City to be an escape for the rich, the culture of the area is affluent and a microcosm of values associated with socialites. Carraway, however, is enterprising and not yet rich himself. Having a degree from Yale and experience serving in the American military during the Great War, Carraway has the balance of a worldly person and the pedigree of an Ivy League university. Based on this two factors, Carraway is presented as a balanced character whose point of view should be taken seriously. His relocation to West Egg was connected to a desire to learn the bond business in New York City. As Daisy Buchanans cousin (Gatsbys love interest) and a neighbor of Gatsby, he naturally became part of the society movement present in the area at that time. The primary function of Carraway in Fitzgeralds tale is to translate the mysterious mans [Gatsbys] dramatic gestures into a revelation of their hidden significance (Bloom 178). Whether or not this occurs is a matter of reader perception. According to Bloom, Nick is essentially private; personality appears in public performance.[Gatsby and Nicks] individuals essential qualities remain forever hidden (178). Bloom continues, Fitzgerald makes it clear that to know another person in any substantial way lies somewhere between a leap of imaginative faith and the sheerly impossible (178). It is in the this tradition where the mystery in the Gatsby character proliferates. Though some is known about Carraways past, his character is rather benign and only seen through social interactions and his perspective on Gatsby. This leaves much to the imagination of the reader and is part of the meaning making process in Fitzgeralds point of view mechanism. Nick Carraway: Viewing Gatsby From a Romantic Perspective Gatsby can be viewed by the reader and is viewed by varying characters throughout the story as a lot of things. He could be considered a driven man, a tragic figure, an amoral character, a grossly misunderstood man or any combination thereof. As romantic figure, however, Gatsby is nearly entirely the creation of Carraways point of view (Bloom 178). Early in the novel, Carraway described the movements of the title character, Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens (Fitzgerald 20). Based on this description and word choices alone, the point of view expressed by Carraway is clearly one of admiration and infatuation. Nick, through his point of view, serves as a translator of the dreams and social ambitions of the people who surround him (Giltrow and Stouck 476). As a result, designating Carraway as having a romantic view toward Gatsby is a reflection of all of the characters that live in West Egg. These characters looked at their lives, their ambitions, their potential and the material nature of their entire social microcosm romantically. It is easily reflected in the narrative that the characters overestimated the importance of themselves, their actions and their entire existence. In comparison to world events like World War I, the social ambitions of these residents seem benign; yet, these people are consumed by their designations of success. This is designated by Barrett as The unreality of reality for these people (150). In this capacity, for Carraway to be the translator of the mood and ambitions of those around him, he had to see Gatsby through the eyes of a romantic. Gatsby, in this capacity, was the extreme example of what this social world could spawn. Point of View: Third Person and Character Dialogue The way in which Fitzgerald employs point of view affords the supplemental insights of those characters sur rounding Gatsby and the third person sequences that are strewn sporadically and calculated throughout the novel. In party conversation that occurred between a female party goer, Jordan and Lucille, the following was said of Gatsby, Theres something funny about a fellow thatll do a thing like thatHe doesnt want any trouble with anybody (Fitzgerald 43). This quote is in reference to an event where Gatsby replaced the dress of girl who torn her dress at one of his parties. This act is not being heralded as a grandiose gesture by Gatsby; instead, it is being looked upon with scrutiny. This point of view reveals that Gatsby had ulterior motives for many of his actions. Gatsby was less concerned about the girls dress in this situation and more about his reputation in the social scene in which he was trying to assimilate. Assimilation into this social scene meant acceptance and the potential for winning Daisys affection. Gatsby was not born into money, as a result, he had to find ways to e arn a reputation and to earn the amount of capital that was necessary to live in the type of luxury that was common on the North Shore of Long Island at this time. His reputation was built around maneuvers like the one described by the aforementioned example and the parties that he had. In terms of the parties, they were just a built in mechanism of the desired social circle. Carraway explained, I believe on the first night I went to Gatsbys house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited they went there (41). Building his wealth provided another designation about Gatsbys by any means necessary approach to social mobility. Gatsby was and had earned his money in the trade of illegal alcohol at the time. Set during the era of prohibition, Gatsby was able to fund his aspirations through criminal means. This would ultimately lead to his undoing as once this was common knowledge it would forever tarnish his reputation. For Daisy, despite feelings she may have had for him, she could only be with Gatsby if he were of the right social standing and reputation, his criminal enterprise reintroduced a reputation wedge forever that was temporally lifted when he returned to her life as a man with means. Despite the mystery and the scrutiny other characters placed on Gatsbys behavior, he was earning a positive reputation before his enterprise was ultimately discovered toward the end of the novel. Henry Gatz explained to Carraway about Gatsby, He knew he had a big future in front of him. And ever since he made a success he was very generous to me (Fitzgerald 172). While these point of views present conflicting imagery of Gatsby, they present a unified critique of the American Dream, as it is this mechanism that ultimately drove Gatsby to pursue the life that would ultimately lead to his undoing at the end of the novel. Point of View and the American Dream Gatsby ending up shot in his swimming pool at the conclusion of the novel firmly classifies the novel as a tragedy. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes his own obituary of the American dream through the eyes and voice of Nick Carraway (Barrett 150). This makes the meaning of the entire novel one that is equivalent to an Anti-fairy tale 150). The pursuit of the empty American Dream is sandwiched between the conditions of the Great War and the Great Depression (Canterbery 297). The social Darwinistic nature of the life that Gatsby wanted to live ended up costing him his life (297). Through the sum of the point of view, the reader is left at the conclusion of the novel with a firm sense that it had all been for nothing. The victory, even if it had been achieved by Gatsby, would have been empty and somewhat convoluted. Had Gatsby achieved the matrimony of Daisy it would have been as much a product of him being a man of reputation and society as much as it would have been out of genuine love for the character. Love and social standing were one in the same in this dream and this sets a critique by the author of entire process. According to Layng, By novels end, Gatsby is the ghost-literally dead, his past with Daisy lost and Nick emerges as the apostle protagonist (93). As an apostle type figure, it is Carraway who is left to warn the people reading the tale about the negative potential of the American dream. The novel is very much American and many of the dynamics and intricacies of the novel are connected with these subtleties that are often lost on foreign readers (Dyson 45). Though steeped in tragedy, there is hope that can be connected with the point of view. Carraway has the potential to either leave the scene or to stay in the scene himself but serve as a warning to others venturing down the same path. Gatsbys death, therefore, has the potential to not have been in vain. According to Hawkes, For many years hope has been a word that has been lost, forgotten, and banished to the margins of romantic longing and wi shful thinking (20). In reality, the point of view used by the author expresses the unfinished American Epic (20). Using the words of Fitzgerald, Hawkes explained, But thats not matter-to-morrow we will run faster, stretch our arms fartherAnd one fine morning- are once again being heard (20). Though Gatsby and the romance associated with his dream may be problematic, that does not mean that are more responsible and less empty dream is not possible. Point of view in The Great Gatsby demonstrates a flawed dream that can be used to contrast a positive one that is only limited by the readers imagination. Point of View Conclusion The link between The Great Gatsby and the American dream is one that will be present for generations to come in any discussion of the American literary tradition. Fitzgeralds perspective on a flawed and empty American dream is articulated primarily through the point of view expressed by protagonists, Nick Carraway. Carraway, though romantically linked to the ent ire social scene of his era, is a reliable narrator that weaves his commentary in with third person dialogue that provides a very round multifaceted perspective of Jay Gatsby. Carraway is not wrong to romanticize Gatsby; however, alone this would not be enough to understand the full scope of the character. Gatsby was driven and he was willing to step outside of traditionally held values of the time when it suited his needs. Making a value judgement on Gatsby, on the other hand, requires making a judgement on the entire concept of the American dream during this particular time period. Fitzgerald skillfully establishes complexity of the entire pursuit of wealth and reputation through compelling point of view narrative.