Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Paper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 9

Paper 2 - Essay Example passing the message and expressing emotion. He easily moves his tongue and lips to change sounds as he speaks and hence his voice articulation is good. He does not change his tone all through the video. His inflection is fairly even since they is little change in voice pitch. The quality of his voice is clear, and it matches the message being passed across. He accentuates stress on syllables in some words he utters. The pace of her words is smooth, and one can clearly hear all that she says. This video has at least three speakers, but the main speaker is Hope Solo. The tone of her voice changes depending on the kind of questions she is responding to. Her tone is both subjective and emotional at some point and at other times her tone becomes serious. She is very subjective when talking about the future of her career. Her voice becomes emotional when she talks about the harm that has taken place in her career. She uses long and short sentences to reveal her emotions at different points. The pace of her voice varies depending on her emotion. When speaking about positive issues she speaks fast but the paces slows down when she talks about the negative things. The volume of her voice also differs depending on the question she is responding to. At the beginning of the interview, the volume of her voice is high indicating confidence but she lowers it when the questions asked affect her emotions. Intonation of her voice is rises and falls depending what she is stressing on. Her voice articulation is perfect since she does not have any pronunciation problems. Her voice quality is clear, and she communicates with the reporter smoothly. The pitch of the voice in this video is moderately high since the speaker is confident about what he is talking about. His tone is bold and very convincing. He changes his pace depending on the stress that he wants to put. The pace of his voice reduces when he speaks about critical matters of entrepreneurship. A slowed pace

Monday, October 28, 2019

Genetically modified organism Essay Example for Free

Genetically modified organism Essay Genetically engineered food is an epidemic all around the world. There are factors that make these types of foods undesirable for many reasons. Public opinions on how genetically engineered foods will effect the consumer market and farmers cannot afford the new seeds that are genetically altered. There are many cons of genetically engineered food that have long term and short term risks. Some risks have been found by scientists while other risks are still unknown and will remain so unless a researcher tests for them. These foods have become very common in America as well as other countries. Almost every grocery store in the United States carries a wide array of food that has been genetically modified. Most of the genetically engineered foods in markets are not labeled to tell consumers they were altered in any way. Environmental risks are also a concern for genetically engineered food. Different animals, including farm animals or insects can be harmed from genetically engineered food. Genetically engineered food has negative effects on the human population. Genetically engineered food was first introduced into society in the early 1990’s. Many people today do not know what kind of extensive research and development goes into making these types of foods. Sharon Palmer, a reporter, writes that genetic engineering is either â€Å"Doomsday tech† or â€Å"biotechnology for the future† (Palmer 1). The process of altering an organism completely changes the original organism and transforms it into something new. This new way of altering an organism’s genetic makeup bypasses common breeding methods used by scientists (Genetically Modified Foods 1). The process of creating genetically altered food usually involves â€Å"identifying the genes governing a desirable characteristic in one organism, and inserting them into another in the expectation that the trait will be transferred† (Genetically Modified Foods 1). Sometimes the process of creating these organisms does not work so scientists have to do the process over again until they get a transformed organism. In 1973 scientists were able to achieve using another organism as a vector which essentially was the beginning of the development of genetically engineered foods. Although genetically engineered foods were not fully introduced until the early 1990s, they were in the process of becoming what society knows today. Newer techniques have been introduced that make it easier for gene insertion. This new method is the use of DNA bullets where â€Å"microscopic metal beads can be coated with DNA fragments, and then â€Å"fired† from a miniature gun into the host cell, where DNA may integrate into the genome† (Genetically Modified Foods 1). A few of the genetically engineered foods are soybeans, corn, canola, cotton, squash and papaya (Palmer 1). There are many other foods that people see on the shelves in grocery stores that may be genetically altered but these are some main ones. Statistics show that â€Å"an estimated 70 to 75 percent of all processed foods in U. S.grocery stores probably contain ingredients from GE plants† (Palmer 6). Many foods have been genetically altered to make them â€Å"better† or resistant to herbicides. Despite the fact that scientists consider these foods to be revolutionary there are hidden consequences to the development of such organisms. The public opinion on genetically engineered food is that it is not a good improvement. Many citizens believe that the introduction of altered foods is going to have negative side effects on everything. People feel that genetically engineered foods should not be put on the market until they have had adequate testing (Current Issues 3). Many of the alterations done to food have not had extensive research conducted to find harmful effects that they might have on humans and animals. Any research that had been done usually had negative effects but scientists found a way to â€Å"throw out† the research so that it would not go against genetically engineered food. Andrew Simms states that the â€Å"evidence of harm is not evidence of the absence of harm† (Simms 1). In Simm’s article he describes how consumers do not need genetically modified food. Scientists brought genetically engineered foods into the market and advertised them as a way to help the world. Different techniques can be used to approach the issue of world hunger. Introducing these foods to third world countries can only harm them not help them. There is a high cost of development for making genetically engineered foods. Also there is a monopoly involved with these foods. There are only a few corporations in the United States that are developing genetically altered seeds. This in turn drives up the price of the seed making it more expensive and poor farmers cannot afford to buy them (Current Issues 3). Farmers have lost billions of dollars because foreign buyers do not want to buy genetically engineered foods (Kupfer 1). Many states have passed legislation against having genetically modified foods. States do not think that genetically engineered foods can help anything except make things worse (Kupfer 2). Foods are altered to have different traits that would normally take a few generations to make but with genetically engineering their DNA scientists are able to do a lot more. Scientist use genetic engineering to make crops or animals drought tolerant and be able to tolerate pests. Consumers do not want crops that are mutations. They want natural crops and animals. Other public opinions on worldwide hunger are that GM crops will not change it. â€Å"People go hungry because they’re either poor, powerless, both, or have no land to grow food on† (Simms 2). Public opinion on genetically engineered food is that they do not want it. Many factors have led people to choose not to accept genetically engineered foods into their lives. Genetically engineered food effects everything in a negative way. There are cons to the development and introduction of genetically engineered foods into civilization. There are many risks involved with these types of foods that are unknown to the public. Scientists try to cover up the experiments they had on genetically altered foods because they had negative outcomes. In one study scientists fed corn to rats and then checked the rats’ livers and kidneys, particularly males, and the study revealed adverse effects. In another study conducted on GM foods many of the mice that ate the food developed health problems or even died during the experiment (Current Issues 4). The introduction of genetically engineered foods has been linked to the rising levels of food allergies in the United States. Genetically modified foods can effect organic foods if they are processed in the same place. Allergic reactions are greater since genetically engineered foods have been introduced (Smith 1). There are many environmental concerns as well. Although long term impact is unknown many researchers can conclude some of the negative side effects. A few difficulties have already developed. Plants can cross-pollinate with other plants around them which may seem like a great thing but it is not. Some plants are engineered to be pest resistant which seems good but in all actuality those plants can cross-pollinate with the weeds around them which in turn makes the weeds stronger and become more resistant to herbicides. The cross-pollination of plants creates a problem for farmers who then have to spend additional money to buy more herbicide to kill new weeds (Current Issues 3). Another common modification is adding a gene called Bacillus thuringiensis which is a bacterium that helps that plant develop poison that kills pests such as bollworms and stem borers. This seemed like a good modification by scientists but in fact the plant emits these toxins into the environment and it is deadly to all insects, not just the pests. Reports have been shown that these toxins from the crops also killed a large amount of butterflies (Current Issues 1). U. S. Government does not require reviews on genetically engineered foods. Genetically altered foods are not FDA regulated either. Foods are being modified without having adequate testing and then put on grocery shelves. People are eating food that they do not know whether or not it is safe. There are many other potential concerns with genetic engineering like an organisms genetic makeup, anti-nutrients, viral DNA, antibiotic resistant genes, absorbing genes, and allergic responses. Many genetically altered foods have been used as feed for animals as well. These animals have shown effects on body growth, changes in blood, kidney, pancreas, liver, erosion and necrosis of the gastrointestinal tract, and alterations in reproduction, development and mortality (Palmer 6). There are many unknown risks of genetically engineered foods. Unknown long term health risks have not been identified and cannot be identified until researchers conduct more research. Genetically modified foods are not something people should rely on in the future as their base food. There are risks today and also many other unknown risks. Genetically engineered food is a hazard to the human population. This creation was introduced to try and stop world hunger, make food cheaper to buy and many other reasons. These issues have not changed because of the introduction of genetically engineered food. The effects these types of foods have on humans and even animals can be harmful. Research shows that there are long term risks involved with genetically engineered foods. Potential cancers, diseases, environmental changes, and possibly a rising cost in food are all negative factors of genetically engineered food. Genetically engineered foods should be eliminated from people and animal’s diets. Works Cited â€Å"Genetically Modified Food. † Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. â€Å"Genetically Modified Foods. † The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon, 2010. Credo Reference. Web. 05 November 2011. Kupfer, David. Genetically Modified Food Damages Trade with Other Nations. Genetically Modified Food. Diane Andrews Henningfeld, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2009. David Kupfer, The Genetic Resistance: Mendocino Is the First GMO-free County in the Nation, and I am Sure It Will Not Be the Last, Earth Island Journal, vol. 19, summer 2004, pp. 42-44. Copyright  © 2004 Earth Island Institute. Reproduced by permission. Palmer, Sharon, and Chris McCullum-Gomez. â€Å"Genetically Engineered Foods Update.. (Cover Story). † Environmental Nutrition 33. 7 (2010): I-6. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. Simms, Andrew. Genetically Modified Food Will Not Ease World Hunger. Social Justice. David Haugen, Susan Musser, and Vickey Kalambakal, Eds. Opposing Viewpoints ® Series. Greenhaven Press, 2010 Andrew Simms, World Hunger Needs a Simple Solution Rather Than Hi-Tech GM Food, Guardian, (UK), August 4, 2003. Copyright  © 2003 Guardian Newspapers Limited. Reproduced by permission of the author Smith, Jeffrey M. Genetically Modified Foods May Cause Allergic Responses. Food Safety. Judeen Bartos, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2011. Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetically Engineered Foods May Cause Rising Food Allergies, Institute for Responsible Technology, May 2007. Copyright  © 2007 by Virago. Reproduced by permission by Time Warner Books UK.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Developmental Physical Education Essay -- Child Development

When we think of developmental education, we think about the young children of our world today. They develop into individuals, men and women, which our world relies on to continue to teach their children about the important things in life. Physical Education is one of them and we have failed to realize the impact it’s having on our world today. Developing the child at the preschool level will enforce them to want to be engaged in physical activity. This is what we need to continue to do to be able for us, as a whole population, move into a more positive direction towards being physically active. Developmental Education is physical education that emphasizes the acquisition of movement skills and increased physical competence based on the unique developmental level of the individual. Within the skills, there are three domains that are required; psychomotor, cognitive and affective domains. Psychomotor is defined as the â€Å"domain [that] includes content knowledge and the development of intellectual skills† as we grow (SERC). This is also defined, in simpler words, as the association of movement and motor skills. As for cognitive, this means that we using the brain to gain knowledge about the rules of a given game, how to improve coordination and enforce how keeping an active lifestyle for the rest our lives is important. As we develop, the importance of this one domain is critical. Keeping a healthy lifestyle can improve self-esteem, keep from being a part of the obesity statistics and can keep off deadly diseases. Lastly, there is the affective domain and this means that this area includes the attitudes and values that are associated with physical activity. In developmental education, there are different levels that a teacher ca... ...y needs to improve as well. Parents and guardians are the foundation in a child’s life and if there is a sedentary lifestyle involved, the kids will act just like their parents. We need to encourage them, while they’re still developing, to be active. In physical education, active students and happy kids are what we like to see come out of our future generation to teach to others in their later years. . Science Education Resource Center (SERC). "Domains of Learning." SERC of Carleton College. N.p., 28 Mar. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2012. . 2. Kalakain, Leonard H., and Carl B. Eichstaedt. Developmental/Adapted Physical Education. Minneapolis: Burgess, 1982. Print. 3. Pica, Rae. Physical Education for Young Children: Movement ABCs for the Little Ones. N.p.: Human Kinetics, 2008. Print.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

DNA sequencing Essay

1 How can scientists identify specific bacteria when they are amplifying and studying the same region of DNA in each species? Specialist or doctors compare the nucleotides of the DNA sequences to specific bacteria. 2 Why is PCR used in the process of DNA sequencing? Used to make small segments of DNA. To analyze DNA more DNA is required to attain proper results. 3 How can the DNA sequencing technique shown in the virtual lab be used to identify other classes of pathogens, such as viruses? The same process can be performed by entering parts of the sequences into the database. 4 Explain how sequence data and information about patient symptoms led you to diagnose Sue’s illness. My partner and I looked up different diseases that could be causing Sue’s symptoms until we came across 3 strong matches. Then the disease database testing identified which disease it was. 5 How can DNA sequencing be used to identify genetic risk for certain diseases and disorders? DNA sequencing can be used in family history to find mutations that can cause health problems in the future, how medical history affected the person or diseases that complicated the body. 33. The possible people who could have gotten meningitis from Sue are Jill, Marco, Sue’s friend that she visited at the other University who may have passed along, Maria and Maggie. 34. To proceed with the procedure sue will need to go to the hospital to get treated right away and take antibiotics to cure her disease but antibiotics doesn’t always work with some peoples immune systems. Sue and anyone else she contacted with or know with meningitis symptoms should go to the hospital right away or they can be dead in 24hrs or so. Symptoms of  meningitis: fever, vomiting, headache and feeling unwell. Red ticks show symptoms more specific to meningitis and septicemia and less common in milder illnesses. Limb pain, pale skin, and cold hands and feet often appear earlier than the rash, neck stiffness, dislike of bright lights and confusion.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Benefits and Drawbacks of Rta Essay

Under the current legal system of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), there are two categories of rules on the RTAs in the area of trade in goods: the first is based on the Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which generally applies to all RTAs; the second is based on the so-called Enabling Clause, which in exceptional circumstances, provide special and differential treatment (SDT) for RTAs among developing countries. 3.4.1. Advantages of Regional Initiatives Regional initiatives have a number of advantages which explain why so many countries are members of such agreements: †¢Region Specific Issues Firstly, a regional agreement can help in dealing with region-specific issues, such as border controls, transit, migration, or movement of labour. Countries recognize that other more opaque barriers than tariffs can hinder trade. These include border controls, phytosanitary restrictions, weak transport systems, and regulatory differences. RTAs therefore increasingly cover some of these issues, which are more suitably addressed at the regional level. Some RTAs have also included dispute resolution mechanisms, which, in the implementation phase of the arrangement, have proven to be extremely useful. †¢Reinforcement Of Internal Regulatory Or Structural Reforms Secondly, RTAs can reinforce internal regulatory or structural reforms. This can be done through external treaty obligations and visible political commitments. Often, small countries participating in a RTA have just made, or are trying to push ahead, major reforms. †¢Liberalization Of Services Turning to large industrial countries, trade in goods as such no longer appears to be the dominant factor for participating in RTAs. A growing number of RTAs includes provisions on liberalizing services (including financial), investment, protecting intellectual property rights, labour and environmental standards, and dispute resolution. Industrial countries are keen to include such issues to counter what they regard as unfair competition due to, for example, piracy or poor labour standards. They also desire to open up markets for their services sectors, where they have a comparative advantage. †¢Political Objectives Leaving aside economic goals for a moment, for some countries, political objectives are another important reason to enter into a RTA. Countries that may have far-reaching integration as a goal typically start out with trade agreements as a first step toward a deepening of political relationship. For e.g. initial agreements can cover trade and investment, then member countries later form an economic and monetary union, and then enhance the process towards a fully-fledged political union with a common constitution. Similarly, forging bilateral and regional trade ties is often linked to geopolitical and security considerations. Trade policy is a key instrument of foreign policy to secure regional stability by promoting the development of participating countries. In addition, political cooperation can reduce the potential for military conflicts among member nations. †¢Defensive Motive A last reason to enter into regional agreements may be defensive. As more and more countries enter into regional agreements, the cost of non participation rises. While some countries may prefer the multilateral route, they may also feel that not entering into regional agreements can lead to a competitive disadvantage relative to countries that have entered into RTAs. †¢Greater Consensus The benefits of trying to eliminate trade barriers in smaller groups of countries is facilitated through RTAs i.e. it can be easier to gain consensus among the relatively few members of a regional agreement as opposed to among all the member countries in the WTO. While RTAs are signed for a variety of reasons, the impact on trade, growth, and employment seems crucial in determining the extent to which broader objectives are achieved. It is difficult to identify arrangements that have advanced wider political objectives, without having first achieved progress in enhancing trade, and having this seen reflected in higher rates of sustainable growth and employment creation. Thus, it appears that the willingness to accept trade liberalization and the accompanying economic adjustments is a first step that may be indicative of progress than can be made in other areas. †¢Economies of scale Economies of scale are one of the most important aspects of regional integration in regards to development. In economic theory, economy of scale gains can be achieved when cost of producing one unit declines as the number of units increases. Economies of scale gains can be realized in regional integration agreements between developing nations because of the size of their combined markets and lower capital costs. Before regional integration, both country A and B will produce a certain good. Because of economies of scale, the country with the cheapest production costs will be able to provide the good for the entire region at a lower cost and to the benefit of entire region. †¢Trade Creation Trade creation is another aspect of regional integration that can also be achieved through RTAs. A RTA effectively expands the market in which a producer can sell a good by making goods both available and at a cheaper price to new markets. Under a RTA, countries will turn to partner nations for cheaper products. Thus, production can shift to nations with the greatest comparative advantage, resulting in greater exports and imports within the region under the agreement along with greater efficiency in the allocation of resources. †¢Bargaining Power Increased bargaining power is another major reason for developing nations to pursue RTAs. Economies within developing nations are in almost all cases small in comparison to developed nations, and are often in danger of being left out of global economy as a result of size. Under RTA, a group of nations can in effect gain greater visibility and influence within the international community. Increased bargaining power within the International community can have effects on a number of different aspects; cooperating members are able to share in the high fixed of negotiation. This power of integration has been seen in various RTAs, including CARICOM’s success in international policymaking, and perhaps even more clearly with ‘Group 20’ in the Doha round of WTO trade talks. As confirmed by several conversations with experts in the international community, increased bargaining power is a political goal sought after RTAs. †¢Market Attractiveness Increased market attractiveness has played a major role in the RTAs especially in the case of Africa. Similar to the goal of increased bargaining power, RTAs provide increased market attractiveness for FDI and trade relations with the developed world because of the clarity of rules and the stability than an RTA brings to a region. As a region becomes unified under standard trade measures and investment law, it is easier for outside nations to invest in and do business with the developing nations under RTA. This in turn can bring increased financial and capital flows, infrastructure, and ultimately wealth to the region. Increased FDI after formation of the RTAs has been researched extensively by organizations such as World Bank, and various situations point to the effectiveness of regional integration as a positive for FDI. The investment situation within European community and the NAFTA all showed significantly increases in FDI after negotiations were concluded. Another aspect of increased market attractiveness is the idea of conflict resolution within developing nations. Under some RTAs, conflict resolution boards have been put into place that have increased the legality of agreements and increased attractiveness for foreign investors and export purchasers. One of the boards includes the peer review system used by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) that has been viewed favourably by various developed nations and groups including the US and EU. †¢Cooperation in public goods This also assists national economies in their development. By cooperating on infrastructure projects the whole region can benefit and money can be saved through economies of scale gains in regards to investment in public goods. This cooperation can also be beneficial for environmental reasons. Railroads, public utilities projects, and power plant initiatives (with the case of SADC power pooling project) are only a few examples of how regional integration can increase efficiently and save money for member nations. 3.5Drawbacks of RTAs Disadvantages Of Regional Initiatives While there are many obvious benefits for countries to join in RTA, as evidence by their popularity, there are some negative aspects associated with the RTAs. It is important to know these drawbacks in order to make RTA work as well as to formulate policy as regards to new RTAs. †¢Trade Diversion As mentioned above, Trade Creation is one of the benefits of RTA, but trade creation however is not the entire picture. A negative aspect, called trade diversion can occur when the partners divert away products that may be more cheaply produced in favour of products from the RTA partner, even if these products are produced at a higher cost, thus resulting in inefficiency. In the case of trade diversion, regional suppliers have an advantage as a result of preferential treatment rather than an actual comparative advantage. The latter stems from sales won at the expense of third country suppliers, which become less competitive purely because they face a tariff barrier that does not apply to suppliers within the new free trade area. Such increased trade actually reduces the economy’s overall efficiency. It results in lowered welfare for the importing nation as tariff revenues are lost and not replaced by gains from trade when trade creation cannot outweigh trade diversion. †¢Delocalisation Of Labour Market Another negative consequence of RTA is that it leads to shift in employment. Since the formation of trading blocs significantly reduces or eliminates barriers to trade, the producer of a particular good or service will more often be decided by relative productivity. With trade agreements, labour market is dislocated, i.e., there are some jobs that are loss while others are gained. An example will be the loss of between 32000 and 100000 of manufacturing jobs as a direct result of the NAFTA between Canada, Mexico and United States. But evidence also suggests that between 90,000 and 160,000 jobs tied to exports to Mexico were also created by NAFTA. Dislocation allows a nation to upgrade their economy toward higher-wage-paying industries. †¢Increase In The Complexity Of International Trading System FTAs also increase the complexity of the international trading system and can raise transaction costs for business. For example, complicated rules of origin are required to prevent third countries product entering via the other party. With different rules negotiated under different agreements, enforcement of these rules and compliance with them by business can be a complicated task. Businesses have to take into account the different dispute settlement mechanisms as well as different standards regimes and other harmonization arrangements. †¢Unequal Bargaining Power In a RTA between a developed country and a developing country or countries, the latter are usually in a weaker bargaining position due to the lack of capacity of their economies, their weaker political situation and their weaker negotiating resources. The result of such unequal bargaining power can be that significant trade restrictions by large countries remain in place instead of being eliminated under circumstances of more equal negotiating power. †¢Distortion In Production Additionally RTAs may negatively impact on global trade because regional preferences and rules of origin distort production by making location of production or source of raw materials the driving incentive. †¢Prevents Complete Liberalisation In Multilateral Arena RTA may also prevent complete liberalization in multilateral arena. Countries that benefit from regional trade agreements may be reluctant to expose themselves to the risks of opening their markets on a multilateral level, if they expect relatively insignificant returns. †¢Loss Of Technology And R&D Transfer One of the negative consequences of RTA is the loss of technology and R&D transfers from developed countries. Technology and ‘Know How’ transfers from developed countries are viewed as the major benefits from RTAs. Unfortunately, as intra-regional trade begins to dominate a trading bloc, these technology and R&D transfers can be lost. †¢Loss Of National Sovereignty Successive levels of integration require that nations surrender more of their national sovereignty. For this reason, the higher levels of integration are more difficult to achieve. †¢While there are many obvious benefits for countries to join in RTA, as evidence by their popularity, there are some negative aspects associated with the RTAs. It is important to know these drawbacks in order to make RTA work as well as to formulate policy as regards to new RTAs. These include amongst others trade diversion, loss of national sovereignty and unequal bargaining power.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Tyler

Tyler True American Tragedy I chose Death of a Salesman because of its break from the mainstream. In a day where we see movie after movie of cliches and happy endings, I thought it would be nice to read something that parts ways with the "love conquers all,"‚  "good guys win"‚  ideals of present day cinema. Death of a Salesman challenges the American dream. Before the Depression, an optimistic America offered the alluring promise of success and riches. Willie suffers from his disenchantment with the American dream, for it fails him and his son. In some ways, Willy and seem trapped in a transitional period of American history. Willy, now sixty-three, carried out a large part of his career during the Depression and World War II. The promise of success that entranced him in the optimistic 1920's was broken by the harsh economic realities of the 1930's. The unprecedented prosperity of the 1950's remained far in the future.My American DreamWilly Loman represents a unique, yet hone st American figure: the traveling salesman. Every week, he takes a journey to stake his bid for success. It would be difficult to miss the survival of the American frontier mentality in the figure of the traveling salesman. The rush for gold and land in the nineteenth-century American West heavily influenced the idea of the American dream. It is no coincidence that in the 1950's, the decade most preoccupied with the mythical American dream, America experienced an unprecedented love affair with Westerns.Willy and Biff try to build their version of the American dream with their families. In high school, Biff was the all-American boy as the captain of the football team. True to the myth of the all-American boy, girls and admiring friends surrounded him. Willy and Linda's lives are full of monthly payments on possessions...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Overview of Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain

Overview of Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain In an essay not published until several years after his death, humorist Mark Twain examines the effects of social pressures on our thoughts and beliefs. Corn-Pone Opinions is presented as an argument, says Davidson College English professor Ann M. Fox, not a sermon. Rhetorical questions, elevated language, and short clipped declarations . . . are part of this strategy. (The Mark Twain Encyclopedia, 1993) Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain Fifty years ago, when I was a boy of fifteen and helping to inhabit a Missourian village on the banks of the Mississippi, I had a friend whose society was very dear to me because I was forbidden by my mother to partake of it. He was a gay and impudent and satirical and delightful young black mana slavewho daily preached sermons from the top of his masters woodpile, with me for sole audience. He imitated the pulpit style of the several clergymen of the village and did it well, and with fine passion and energy. To me, he was a wonder. I believed he was the greatest orator in the United States and would some day be heard from. But it did not happen; in the distribution of rewards, he was overlooked. It is the way, in this world. He interrupted his preaching, now and then, to saw a stick of wood; but the sawing was a pretensehe did it with his mouth; exactly imitating the sound the bucksaw makes in shrieking its way through the wood. But it served its purpose; it kept his master from coming out to see how the work was getting along. I listened to the sermons from the open window of a lumber room at the back of the house. One of his texts was this: You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en Ill tell you what his pinions is. I can never forget it. It was deeply impressed upon me. By my mother. Not upon my memory, but elsewhere. She had slipped in upon me while I was absorbed and not watching. The black philosophers idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter. If he would prosper, he must train with the majority; in matters of large moment, like politics and religion, he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors or suffer damage in his social standing and in his business prosperities. He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinionsat least on the surface. He must get his opinions from other people; he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views. I think Jerry was right, in the main, but I think he did not go far enough. It was his idea that a man conforms to the majority view of his locality by calculation and intention.This happens, but I think it is not the rule.It was his idea that there is such a thing as a first-hand opinion; an original opinion; an opinion which is coldly reasoned out in a mans head, by a searching analysis of the facts involved, with the heart unconsulted, and the jury room closed against outside influences. It may be that such an opinion has been born somewhere, at some time or other, but I suppose it got away before they could catch it and stuff it and put it in the museum. I am persuaded that a coldly-thought-out and independent verdict upon a fashion in clothes, or manners, or literature, or politics, or religion, or any other matter that is projected into the field of our notice and interest, is a most rare thingif it has indeed ever existed. A new thing in costume appearsthe flaring hoopskirt, for exampleand the passers-by are shocked, and the irreverent laugh. Six months later everybody is reconciled; the fashion has established itself; it is admired, now, and no one laughs. Public opinion resented it before, public opinion accepts it now and is happy in it. Why? Was the resentment reasoned out? Was the acceptance reasoned out? No. The instinct that moves to conformity did the work. It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many can successfully resist. What is its seat? The inborn requirement of self-approval. We all have to bow to that; there are no exceptions. Even the woman who refuses from first to last to wear the hoopskirt comes under that law and is its slave; she could not wear the skirt and have her own approval; and that she must have, she cannot help herself. But as a rule, our self-approval has its source in but one place and not elsewherethe approval of other people. A person of vast consequence s can introduce any kind of novelty in dress and the general world will presently adopt itmoved to do it, in the first place, by the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority, and in the second place by the human instinct to train with the multitude and have its approval. An empress introduced the hoopskirt, and we know the result. A nobody introduced the bloomer, and we know the result. If Eve should come again, in her ripe renown, and reintroduce her quaint styleswell, we know what would happen. And we should be cruelly embarrassed, along at first. The hoopskirt runs its course and disappears. Nobody reasons about it. One woman abandons the fashion; her neighbor notices this and follows her lead; this influences the next woman; and so on and so on, and presently the skirt has vanished out of the world, no one knows how nor why, nor cares, for that matter. It will come again, by and by and in due course will go again. Twenty-five years ago, in England, six or eight wine glasses stood grouped by each persons plate at a dinner party, and they were used, not left idle and empty; today there are but three or four in the group, and the average guest sparingly uses about two of them. We have not adopted this new fashion yet, but we shall do it presently. We shall not think it out; we shall merely conform, and let it go at that. We get our notions and habits and opinions from outside influences; we do not have to study them out. Our table manners, and company manners, and street manners change from time to time, but the changes are not reasoned out; we merely notice and conform. We are creatures of outside influences; as a  rule, we do not think, we only imitate. We cannot invent standards that will stick; what we mistake for standards are only fashions, and perishable. We may continue to admire them, but we drop the use of them. We notice this in literature. Shakespeare is a standard, and fifty years ago we used to write tragedies which we couldnt tell fromfrom somebody elses; but we dont do it  any more, now. Our  prose  standard,  three quarters  of a century ago, was ornate and diffuse; some authority or other changed it in the direction of compactness and simplicity, and conformity followed, without argument. The historical novel starts up  suddenly and sweeps the land. Everybody writes one, and the nation is glad. We had historical novels before; but nobody read them, and the rest of us  conformedwithout reasoning it out. We are conforming in the other way, now, because it is another case of everybody. The outside influences are always pouring in upon us, and we are always obeying their orders and accepting their verdicts. The Smiths like the new play; the Joneses go to see it, and they copy the Smith verdict. Morals, religions, politics, get their following from surrounding influences and atmospheres, almost entirely; not from study, not from thinking. A man must and will have his own approval first of all, in each and every moment and circumstance of his lifeeven if he must repent of a self-approved act the moment after its commission, in order to get his self-approval again: but, speaking in general terms, a mans self-approval in the large concerns of life has its source in the approval of the peoples about him, and not in a searching personal examination of the matter. Mohammedans are Mohammedans because they are born and reared among that sect, not because they have thought it out and can furnish sound reasons for being Mohammedans; we know why Catholics are Catholics; why Pre sbyterians are Presbyterians; why Baptists are Baptists; why Mormons are Mormons; why thieves are thieves; why monarchists are monarchists; why Republicans are Republicans and Democrats, Democrats. We know it is a matter of association and sympathy, not reasoning and examination; that hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics, or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, corn-pone stands for self-approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is conformity. Sometimes conformity has a sordid business interestthe bread-and-butter interestbut not in most cases, I think. I think that in the majority of cases it is unconscious and not calculated; that it is born of the human beings natural yearning to stand well with his fellows and have their inspiring approval and praisea yearning which is commonly so strong and so insistent that it cannot be effectually resisted, and must have its way. A political emergency brings out the corn-pone opinion in fine force in its two chief varietiesthe pocketbook variety, which has its origin in self-interest, and the bigger variety, the sentimental varietythe one which cant bear to be outside the pale; cant bear to be in disfavor; cant endure the averted face and the cold shoulder; wants to stand well with his friends, wants to be smiled upon, wants to be welcome, wants to hear the precious words, Hes on the right track! Uttered, perhaps by an ass, but still an ass of high degree, an ass whose approval is gold and diamonds to a smaller ass, and confers glory and honor and happiness, and membership in the herd. For these  gauds, many a man will dump his lifelong principles into the street, and his conscience along with them. We have seen it happen. In some millions of instances. Men think they think upon great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side; they arrive at convictions, but they are drawn from a partial view of the matter in hand and are of no particular value. They swarm with their party, they feel with their party, they are happy in their partys approval; and where the party leads they will follow, whether for right and  honor or through blood and dirt and a mush of mutilated morals. In our late canvass half of the nation passionately believed that in silver lay salvation, the other half as passionately believed that that way lay destruction. Do you believe that a tenth part of the people, on either side, had any rational excuse for having an opinion about the matter at all? I studied that mighty question to the bottomand came out empty. Half of our people passionately believe in high tariff, the other half believe otherwise. Does this mean study and examination, or only feeling? The latter, I think. I have deeply studied that question, tooand didnt arrive. We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of  it, we  get an aggregation which we consider a Boon. Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it the Voice of God.  Praps. I suppose that in more cases than we should like to admit, we have two sets of opinions: one private, the other public; one secret and sincere, the other corn-pone, and more or less tainted. Written in 1901, Mark Twains Corn-Pone Opinions was first published in 1923 in Europe and Elsewhere, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine (Harper Brothers).

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Residency Essay Tips

Residency Essay Tips In previous pages we have discussed the importance of honesty and brevity in residency program personal statements. Now, however, I would like to take this opportunity to review the importance of specific information in a residency essay. Specifics are not only crucial to the overall tone of a good statement, but the informational value as well. Heres a good rule of thumb to use when writing your personal statement: dont beat around the bush. The directors reading your statement are interested in knowing your personals objectives and career goals in the shortest amount of time possible. Therefore get straight to the point and leave zero room for speculation. Specifics are exactly what directors want to know about potential residents. Exactly what made you want to pursue a PhD? Precisely why didnt you get better grades in school? Specifically what made you want to apply for residency at this particular institution? The more directly you can answer these and other such questions, the better your personal residency will reflect on you. Writing a residency essay requires a tremendous amount of work and patience, so be certain to give yourself plenty of time. In the meanwhile, if you would like help in writing your residency statement or if you would like to know more writing a quality residency program personal statement, please access the link provided. This link will direct you to an excellent essay writing resource where you can find help and info.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Pyramids at Giza Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Pyramids at Giza - Essay Example Many theories have been proposed to explain how the huge blocks of stone were maneuvered up the 481-foot tall pyramid. Of the many theories proposed two theories have gained prominence and these are the crane theory and the more recently proposed internal ramp theory. The crane theory as explained by Bob Brier in an article from the Archeology Magazine is based on the theory by Herodotus who had visited the pyramids around 450 B.C. He had proposed that machines like cranes were could have been used to raise the stone blocks up the pyramid. In the article Bob Brier further explained that crane-like devices called the shadouf were used to draw water from the Nile for the purpose of irrigation. These devices have been depicted in tomb paintings which further confirm that these were available to the tomb builders. Herodotus proposed that several hundreds of these cranes could have been placed at various points of the pyramid as and when it was erected to facilitate the lifting of the sto ne blocks. However, manufacturing several hundreds of cranes would have required huge quantities of wood and timber was not available in abundance in ancient Egypt. While large amounts of timber were imported during that time for building ships it would have been an expensive task if timber were to be imported for manufacturing these cranes. Another flaw identified with the theory was the lack of space to accommodate the cranes higher up in the pyramid due to the decrease in its size. Thus the crane theory did not provide any substancial evidence on how the pyramids were built. In addition to the crane theory, several ramp theories have also been proposed to explain the construction of the pyramids. Of these the more recent theory on the use of internal ramps to build the top two-thirds of the pyramid has gained wide acceptance. This theory has been presented by Jean-Pierre Houdin who carried out an extensive study of the Great pyramids over the

Friday, October 18, 2019

Analysis on the Story Two Kinds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis on the Story Two Kinds - Essay Example Her mother believed that they can start a new life in America. They went to America after her mother lost everything in China. This indicates that her mother believed that America was an escape from disillusion, frustration, misery and death. America was freedom, hope and dreams fulfilled. But this didn’t happen with Jing Mei. Her life in America was full of sadness, frustrations and tension. Two Kinds was a story that dealt mother and daughter relationship. But more than that, it shows us how our social environment affects our belief in things. The mother and daughter relationship that was presented in the story was filled with tension. The mother and the daughter were very different from each other. Not because they were really different, but because the daughter wanted to be different from her mother. We become who we are not because other people want us to be that person, but because we choose to be or not to be that person. We choose our own identity, we choose the path w e want to take in life. And this was exactly what Jing Mei did in the story. She chose the path opposite of what her mother wants her to be. At first, she was excited about being good in something. As her mother tried to find out where she’s good at, she continuously felt the pressure to be good. And, unfortunately, she also continuously felt the disappointment of her mother everytime she cannot be good in whatever her mother pushed her to do. She tried ballet. She tried being Shirley Temple. She tried being a remarkable child that her mother saw in the magazines, like that child who knew â€Å"all the capitals of all the states and even the most of the European countries† or that child who can multiply numbers in her head, or the other one who can stand on his head without using his hands. And because she failed to be those remarkable children, she became frustrated. She felt she will always be the ordinary girl that her mother does not want her to become. And so she became defiant. She became angry and she vowed to herself that her mother will not change who she is, that she won’t become someone she is not. And she stopped trying to become good at something her mother wants her to be. When her mother pushed her to learn the piano, she became defiant once more. Her defiance led to her laziness. She purposely did not try to learn the piano which led to her humiliating experience at a talent show. This strained her relationship with her mother even more. And it never changed as she grew up. She always managed to fail. And this increased the gap between her and her mother. We have always wanted to become someone. Jing Mei was not different. But because of her mother’s desire to make her as someone who she can’t be, Jing Mei resented success. This resulted to her failure everytime she attempts to become better. She believed that she is not a genius, she believed she can never be good at something. She believed she can never be t he daughter that her mother wanted her to be. To which her mother kept repeating that she didn’t want to change her, that she just wants her to become the best at something she could do. But because of the constant struggle who is in control of Jing Mei’s life, she and her mother fought endlessly. This shows that there are instances that forcing a person to do something she doesn’t really love would make her more miserable. It’s like setting her up for failure. Instead of helping her, Jing Mei’

Lab7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lab7 - Essay Example Just as original Image A, Image C looks similar to Image C1 after the logarithmic transformation. Above are images (1) original, (2) the transformed image of (1) and (3) is the reverse transformation of image (2). The original image (1) demonstrates the Fourier transmutation. The reverse image is available to reconstruct the original image which is a replica in the pixels and luminance. The reconstruction of the original image can be done through inverse Fourier transformation as depicted in image (3). The transformation of the original image (2) has high frequency in the center image hence it is viewed as a dot. (Sandra A, 2012) Image (i) is a circle image due to incoherent noise and its respective transformation image (ii). Image (i) indicates a random and even noise spread all over while image (ii) depicts a partial noise removal from the filtered image. Image (iii) is a circle with a coherent noise that is regular in the vertical direction. The image also has a sharp edge. It transformed image (iv) indicates inexistence of lines yet there appears wave-like circles around the dot to indicate existence of soft noise. The wave-like circles disappear when we move to the outside from the dot. This indicates lack on noise at the borders of the image. In comparison to the entire four images, (ii) appears sharper than (iv). Therefore, Fourier is able to separate the noise from image in a regular noise but remove just a few in a random noise. In the figures above, (1) is an ideal lowpass filter, (2) is the original circle through a filtered spectrum with incoherent noise and (3) is an inverse transformation of (2). The final image is made better than the original image through application of lowpass filter and production of low frequency through the filtered spectrum of original image. The final image shows more details and is brighter than image (1). Hence the lowpass filter is vital for noise removal from the image for

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Personal statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Personal statement - Essay Example Creativity, the feature that distinguishes a human from an animal, is the gift given to people for making their lives full of joy and excitement, that allows to not only enjoy the beautiful creations of nature, but to be creators of beauty ourselves. Creativity is what makes my life brighter through the art of painting. Surely, we cannot compare creations of nature with those of ourselves, but at least in the weak attempts for creating perfect pieces, we get closer to the divine powers of nature, the deeds of which are as great and magnificent, as it is itself. Charming and bewitching, inspiring and fascinating, painting has always been the passion of my life. From the earliest years I’ve been admiring the works of great artists, all so different, but all providing a never-ending space for imagination, and allowing us to leave the daily material world and enter the illusive world of fantasies, emotions and reflections. I haven’t stopped at just silent observing the great art works: once I took a brush myself. Being young, but enthusiastic, I used to immerse into work forgetting everything, and paying no attention to the surrounding people and events. I was in a completely different world. Stroke after stroke, line after line, the dance of color with color – the magic of creativity, the miracle of creating†¦ Having grown up I haven’t abandoned my hobby, which became a passion with time, and devoted 8 years to studying the art of drawing, since I understood that art takes not only your mind and imagination, but hours of studying, hard work and patience as well. However, I never felt sorry for the spent time – it gave me an opportunity to become more self-confident and more patient not only when painting, but in everyday life too. Besides, my passion gives me a chance to put everything that cannot be said into a picture - the deepest feelings and emotions, the secret wishes and hopes. Though it is not my

Job Saisfaction and empoyee motivation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Job Saisfaction and empoyee motivation - Essay Example I strongly believe that the culture of the organisation plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the employees are satisfied with their job. Corporate culture is the pattern of shared beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and values in an organisation which shape the way people act and interact and strongly influence the ways in which things get done (Armstrong 1994). Thus, according to information obtained from the official website of Google, it can be seen that under the leadership of Schmidt, the organisation has managed to inculcate a culture of strong innovation among its employees. At Google, the culture is that every employee has something important to say and what they say is an integral part of the success of the company (www.google.com/corporate). Accommodative culture is very effective as far as job satisfaction is concerned because it creates a sense of belongingness to the organisation among the members. Through the supporting style of leadership, the employees are motivated by various factors. They are given the opportunity to be part of the decision making process whereby a leader will mainly be concerned with maintaining effective relationships among the members of the group. Achieving the organisational task requires concerted efforts of all the members in the organisation so that the chances of having conflicts will be minimal. If they have the autonomy to contribute to the decisions that affect their daily operations, then they will be in a position to identify with the organisation since they will be part of it which is one great motivating factor. At Google Inc, it can be noted that the organisation has offices around the globe but regardless of the area, the company strives to nurture an invigorating, positive environment by hiring talented, local people who share the organisation’s commitment to creating as well as perfecting the popular search engine

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Personal statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

Personal statement - Essay Example Creativity, the feature that distinguishes a human from an animal, is the gift given to people for making their lives full of joy and excitement, that allows to not only enjoy the beautiful creations of nature, but to be creators of beauty ourselves. Creativity is what makes my life brighter through the art of painting. Surely, we cannot compare creations of nature with those of ourselves, but at least in the weak attempts for creating perfect pieces, we get closer to the divine powers of nature, the deeds of which are as great and magnificent, as it is itself. Charming and bewitching, inspiring and fascinating, painting has always been the passion of my life. From the earliest years I’ve been admiring the works of great artists, all so different, but all providing a never-ending space for imagination, and allowing us to leave the daily material world and enter the illusive world of fantasies, emotions and reflections. I haven’t stopped at just silent observing the great art works: once I took a brush myself. Being young, but enthusiastic, I used to immerse into work forgetting everything, and paying no attention to the surrounding people and events. I was in a completely different world. Stroke after stroke, line after line, the dance of color with color – the magic of creativity, the miracle of creating†¦ Having grown up I haven’t abandoned my hobby, which became a passion with time, and devoted 8 years to studying the art of drawing, since I understood that art takes not only your mind and imagination, but hours of studying, hard work and patience as well. However, I never felt sorry for the spent time – it gave me an opportunity to become more self-confident and more patient not only when painting, but in everyday life too. Besides, my passion gives me a chance to put everything that cannot be said into a picture - the deepest feelings and emotions, the secret wishes and hopes. Though it is not my

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The monetary financial system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The monetary financial system - Essay Example However, these investments have a downside risk of underperformance and lack of control etc. There are two types of collective investments: open ended investments and closed ended investments. In the open ended investments the number of shares or units is not fixed and the fund can issue unlimited amount of shares/units. However, as the name suggests, in closed ended investments the number of shares or units issued is fixed. The unit trust and investment trust are examples of collective investment institutions with certain notable differences which are explained as follows.      ‘An investment in unit trusts is a method whereby a small investor can form part of the share market without being directly involved.’ (Swart, 2007, p.153) ‘In contrast to unit trust, investment trusts are public limited companies whose business is the investment of funds in financial assets.’ (Buckle and Thompson, 1992, p.125)   Both the unit trust and the investment trusts ar e pooled investments that aim towards diversification of risk for the investor. The individual investor benefits from the knowledge and expertise of the trust managers for which the trust charges fees to its unit holders in the form of annual charges. Financial institutions and intermediaries play an important role in the management of the unit and investment trusts. ...    The unit trusts have been more popular in the past with investors preferring open ended units as opposed to closed ended in the case of investment trusts. Investment trusts are allowed to borrow for investment, however, this facility is not present with the unit trusts. Unit trust is managed by a trustee where the investment trust is a company listed on the exchange. In terms of pricing, unit trusts are always valued on their net asset value (NAV) whereas investment trust can trade both at a premium or discount to their NAV.   Thus demand and supply forces have no consequences on the unit trust but affect the prices of the investment. The unit trust issues unit which are not tradable to the third party whereas due to the listing on the stock exchange, investment trusts’ units are tradable. In terms of the fee structure, the investment trust charges as lower as compared to the unit trust.    Thus, with the above mentioned similarities and differences, it is up to the i nvestors’ analysis and nature to choose between unit trust and investment trust.    2. Firms could raise long term finance issuing shares and bonds. Evaluate the pros and cons of each? Companies need to generate funds on long term basis in order to operate in the market. The two basic options for raising equity from the market are: bonds and shares. The bond is a long term debt instrument with fixed interest payments issued by the issuer or the borrower of the funds which can be the government or any company. The bondholders are entitled to the fixed interest payments along with the return of their principle. They do not hold the right to own the company and are the first ones to be paid off at the time of bankruptcy. When the company issues shares for

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Joy Luck Club Essay Example for Free

The Joy Luck Club Essay The Joy Luck Club is a story of a monthly mah-jong gathering whose members consists of four Chinese mothers with American-born daughters. The novel is narrated by the four mothers and their daughters. At these meetings, the mothers share their concern of the growing rift between their daughters and Chinese customs. Each mother shares her story of her life in China and each daughter tells her story about her life in America. In The Joy Luck Club, the consistent conflict is formulated from the cultural and ideological clash between the mothers and daughters. Tensions arise out of the struggle to adapt to the American way of life when old customs are expected to be honored. Communications between both sides are limited, and from this, they all struggle with the expectations that they have for each other. Amy Tans novel provides the reader the perspectives from two vastly different worlds the conflicts the mothers faced and how the Chinese values conflict with American values in the lives of the daughters. In Amy Tans novel, the mother is shown struggling with adapting to the American way of life, while the daughters try and honor the old Chinese customs. The mothers constantly criticize their daughters and always expect their daughters to respect and honor their choice. The mothers relate their past to their daughter, so that they may realize the struggle they had faced. The mothers wish for the daughter to live a better life than the one she had back in China is revealed in the conversation between the Chinese woman and her swan on her journey to America in the novels first prologue. Her wish: In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husbands belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect English. And over there she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow! this shows that the mother only wishes for her daughter to have a promising and not face any hardships (The Joy Luck Club, 17). The mothers prospects for her daughter are the very reason that tension arises between the mother and daughter. The Chinese way consists of not expressing ones desires, not speaking up, and not making choices. The American way consists of exercising choices and speaking up for oneself. This Chinese custom was vigorously expressed throughout the novel as the mothers told their stories about forced marriage, war experience, the love and longing for a mother, and sacrifice. All these were causes of not speaking up for themselves and making their lives the way they wanted. Shame was also another tradition that had to be followed. Control of the children (in Chinese and Japanese families) was maintained by nurturing feelings of shame and guilt. The mothers tried to teach their daughters of these ways and the culture of the Chinese people but resulted in a different manner than expected. The daughters see their lives in a different perspective. Regardless of shame and surrounding, the daughters would openly disrespect their mother and feel justified for doing so. They try and follow the American society, while struggling to maintain their Chinese heritage, through the heavy influence of their mothers. The daughters do not realize why their mothers pressure them so much. They feel that their mothers never look up to them or respect their choices. The American daughters are alien to Chinese culture as much as they are to their mother`s uncanny, Chinese ways of thinking. Part of that society would be a Language barrier, which causes restriction of the mother understanding her daughter and vice versa. While the daughters, all born in America, entirely adapt to the customs and language of the new land, the immigrant mothers still hold onto those of China. The mothers capability of speaking English is limited to that of their daughters. The daughters assume that the mothers are not as educated as they are, for their inability to speak and express themselves in English. The Joy Luck Club mothers can feel their daughter’s impression on them when they see their daughters growing impatient every time they speak Chinese; they think their daughters perceive them as being stupid because of their incapability of speaking fluent English. The language barrier that existed between them was such that both mother and daughter imperfectly translated each other words and meanings. The mothers attempted to communicate by taking classes, hand gestures and sometimes even asking their daughter to translate on their behalf. Lena St. Clairs mother has trouble expressing herself in English. She married an English speaking man, but he expected her to learn English, while he himself put no effort in learning Chinese. In her desperate attempt, she would use hand gestures and expressed her emotions through exerting them. Most of the time the husband would not understand her and would assume what she would say but the daughter was capable of translating but could not speak the language. Because of this, Lena defines her mother as a displaced person who has difficulties expressing herself in English. In this dilemma the mothers were not capable of teaching their daughters why Chinese thinking is best. Stress and frustration would accumulate from the misunderstanding and failure of understanding one another. The mother always expected the daughter to know what she was trying to get across but the mothers could not put their thoughts into words. As a result, the daughters often felt justified in believing that their mothers had nothing worthwhile to say. When the mother talks about the American ways, the daughter is willing to listen; when the mother shows her Chinese ways, the daughter ignores her. The mother is thus unable to teach her daughter the Chinese ways of obeying parents, of listening to the mother`s mind, of hiding her thoughts, of knowing her own worth without becoming vain. On the other hand, the daughters would always feel that their mothers were trying hard to make them another version of themselves. The mothers failed to realize that the daughters did put exceptional work into trying to understand their mothers. The daughters would listen and try to emotionally attach themselves through conversations with their mothers but the mothers, took matter into their own hands and tried to show their superiority. When the story is being told from a daughter’s point of view, the mother always speaks in incorrect English. This highlights the distance between the younger and older generations, as the mothers and daughters frequently misinterpret or misunderstand each other. A prime example is when Waverly confuses Taiyuan, her mother’s birthplace, with Taiwan, which is a different place altogether. The mother loudly corrects her, causing any chance of communication between her and her daughter to halt because Waverly upset with her mothers lack of recognizing the attempt that her daughter had put in to try and relate to her. The daughters realize and acknowledge to themselves, the fact that they lack any solid communication with their mothers and realize that this is what is causing them to drift apart from their roots. They also see this as to why their mothers are always trying so hard to compromise for their daughters by talking to them in English so that they may grasp at least the basics of the Chinese customs. The mothers influence is shown as a force that drives the daughter to always live her life in the approval of her mother and state of constantly trying to please. The mother demands for her daughter to obey her, and the mothers always have a response or answer for every situation her daughter faces. The mothers in the novel, struggle to keep their daughters to rise to expectations. They always wanted their daughters to be the best and strived toward their excellence. The Chinese mothers were taught that regardless of the circumstance, the mothers’ wishes must always be fulfilled. As with Jing-Meis mother wanted her to become any form of child prodigy, like Waverly, but Jing-Mei failed to rise to her mothers expectation, even after all the dedication and tests her mother prepares for her. In the mothers’ childhood, there was no talking back to your mother, in an essences, the daughter was to soon be like her mother (a reflection of her mother). They tried to teach this to their daughter but also involving the American standards, which did not mix to well. The American way was of freedom and choice, which the mothers wanted but to accomplish that, the daughters would have to move away from the Chinese standards, since choice was not permitted. The mothers only wanted the best quality life for her daughter and for her daughter to grow in an environment of less hardship. I wanted my children to have the best combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I know these things do not mix? (The Joy Luck Club, 254). The mothers influence cast a shadow on their daughter’s life. The daughters always felt that their mother would not approve and therefore, felt they were a disappointment to their mothers. In some cases, the daughter would open ly tell her mother that the mother had wished for another daughter. In Waverlys situation, she felt her mother always put a black spot where there was once white. Her life was not according to her mothers teachings. She was divorced and had a child. She was now dating a man, not of Chinese decent. As a token of love he had given her a fur coat that she loved so dearly. Looking at the coat in the mirror, I couldnt fend off the strength of her will anymore, her ability to make me see black where there was once white, white where there was once black. The coat looked shabby, an imitation of romance. (The Joy Luck Club, 169). The daughters only wanted their mother to see what they saw and to understand that Chinese customs, superstitions and culture, was not easily accepted in America. Jing-Mei, the daughter of a deceased mother, could not please her mother when she was alive because of her reluctance in becoming someone she was not. She tried her best, when her mother arranged special tests, to see where her daughter’s strengths were and potential areas of Jing-Mei could become a prodigy in. All Jing-Mei had left to say was, that parents shouldnt criticize children. They should encourage instead. You know, people rise to other peoples expectations. And when you criticize, it just means youre expecting failure. Thats the trouble, my mother said. You never rise. Lazy to get up. Lazy to rise to expectations. (The Joy Luck Club, 31). Because the there is a distance between the mother and daughter, the daughters try to push away from their mother clutch and become their own woman. The daughters want to grab the traditional sons position, to move out of the home and into the workplace, to climb the ladder of success. The daughters, by the end of the novel come to realize that no matter how hard they try to avoid their mothers, they all contain a heavy portion of their Chinese heritage; alongside they discover that they are very much like their mothers. Amy Tans novel has a sense of truth about mother/daughter relationships, when the daughter is born of another country and the mother of another. They grieve as they discuss how their daughters are unwilling to take their Chinese heritage, have forgotten the roots of their culture and language, and have changed their family structures. However, the daughters only wish that their mothers would not suppress them and see their side of the story. In the end, the mothers could not change their values to those of America and the daughters could not change their values to those of China, and in trying to do so, they created a clash and conflict in their relationships.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Inflation And Supply Side Policies In The Uk Economics Essay

Inflation And Supply Side Policies In The Uk Economics Essay Hints: Using information from the internet and economic textbooks.explain what has been happening to the rate of inflation in your country or a region that includes your country,since 1990.You should include diagrams In our region the inflation is on its peak. the rate of commodities and goods increases day by day with high speed. If we look to the diagram changes have been done in every year. In some time in past the inflation rate fall but in the recent time thats 2009 its raised upto 73% which is quite high as compare to the previous year 2008.So this inflation can bring a lot of changes in daily human life.It can effect every field of life.By inflation facilities become reduced everyone tries to reduce his expenditure because of this he tries to spend less as he could.If he his expenses is high as copare to his outcome so he is not trying to facilitate himself.In short inflation can bring change in every term of life. Followin is a Table which shows inflation and percent change since 1990 till to 2009. Year Inflation, average consumer prices Percent Change 1991 12.628 39.52 % 1992 4.851 -61.59 % 1993 9.825 102.54 % 1994 11.272 14.73 % 1995 13.022 15.53 % 1996 10.789 -17.15 % 1997 11.803 9.40 % 1998 7.812 -33.81 % 1999 5.736 -26.57 % 2000 3.584 -37.52 % 2001 4.41 23.05 % 2002 2.504 -43.22 % 2003 3.102 23.88 % 2004 4.568 47.26 % 2005 9.276 103.06 % 2006 7.921 -14.61 % 2007 7.771 -1.89 % 2008 11.998 54.39 % 2009 20.775 73.15 % Task 2 Define Inflation Provide a clear explanation of 2 different causes of Inflation showing knowledge of Keynesian and monetarist views on inflation. Definition: The overall general upward price of goods and services in an economy is called inflation. OR The raising of price in commodities and other daily life materials is called inflation The downward price of goods and services in an economy is called deflation. OR In economics inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Causes of inflation: Higher indirect taxes imposed by the government: in our country government imposes some indirect taxes annully which ultimately become a cause for rise in the price of commodites For example a rise in the rate of excise duty on alcohol and cigarettes, an increase in fuel duties or perhaps a rise in the standard rate of Value Added Tax or an extension to the range of products to which VAT is applied. These taxes are levied on producers (suppliers) who, depending on the price elasticity of demand and supply for their products, sum up the amount in the price of commodityt. For example, if the government was to choose to levy a new tax on aviation fuel, then this would contribute to a rise in cost-push inflation. Cost-push inflation can be illustrated by an inward shift of the short run aggregate supply curve. This is shown in the diagram below. Ceteris paribus, a fall in SRAS causes a contraction of real national output together with a rise in the general level of prices Rising labour costs: increases in the wages of labour which exceed any improvement in productivity also affect the price of commodity.   This cause is important in those industries which are labour-intensive. Firms may decide not to pass these higher costs onto their customers (they may be able to achieve some cost savings in other areas of the business) but in the long run, wage inflation tends to move closely with price inflation because there are limits to the extent to which any business can absorb higher wage expenses. Monetarists Monetarists do not believe that the government should intervene by trying to manage the level of aggregate demand. They argue that this type of intervening policy will affect acquilibrium in the long run and should therefore be avoided. A key problem with discretionary demand management policies is the time lags, which monetarists believe make fiscal policy too difficult to use to manage the economy effectively. The best thing therefore, is to take a long-run view of price stability and use monetary policy to achieve this. Keynesians Keynesians traditionally see fiscal policy as the key tool of economic management. They see the role of government as maintaining the economy at full employment. The way to do this was to manage the level of aggregate demand until the economy was at or close to full employment. If the economy was growing too fast, then fiscal policy should be essentially deflationary, and vice-versa when below full employment. Monetary policy should, in their view, simply be used as a backup to fiscal policy. However, they would argue that direct interest rate changes could be used to control aggregate demand. Their main objection to monetary policy has always been that there is a weak link between the money supply and aggregate demand, and that. Task 3 What effects would a substantial increases in inflation every year have on the following: An individuals who keeps all his money in a box under his bed. Keeping all his money in box under his bed its means that if someone is money and he is not investing his money in a business or keeping the money in a bank its means that he is decreasing his money one day will come that he will spend all his money so if you have a little money you should have to start a small business then your money will not end over. Someone who is borrowing money at the current rate of inflation but who does not have to pay back for a number of years. It is a good picking point that whenever someone borrows money from someone he is not able to return the money according to the rate of inflation. He may think to return him at rate of inflation. Someone has lent money out at the current rate of inflation but will not be repaid for a number of years. If some one has lent money from someone at the time of current inflation he may need to repaid the money as compare to the rate of inflation.If he has the ability to think then he may need to return more than the original amount he lent. Task 4 Provide reason why the government may want to tackle inflation. Government is trying to control rate of inflation. Inflation can generate a lot of problems in the society. It affect daily life as well as increase in commodities prices. that reasult in the economy , politcal and social unstability It can also bring unemployment as well as poverty. Provide a remedy for each of two different types of inflation you outlined in Task 2 (b). all though the inflation cannot be completely change in deflation in the developing countries but it can be control through removeing its causes. Folwing are the causes which is responsible for inflation Cost Push Inflation Rising imported raw materials costs Rising labour costs Higher indirect taxes imposed by the government A depreciation of the exchange rate A reduction in direct or indirect taxation The rapid growth of the money supply Rising consumer confidence and an increase in the rate of growth of house prices Faster economic growth in other countries Task 5 You have to write a section in the report that includes the following. An explanation of is meant by supply side economics. Supply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce (supply) goods and services, such as adjusting income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by allowing greater flexibility by reducing regulation. Consumers will then benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices. The term supply-side economics was thought, for some time, to have been coined by journalist Jude Wineskin in 1975, but according to Robert D. Atkinsons Supply-Side Follies , the term supply side (supply-side fiscalists) was first used by Herbert Stein, a former economic adviser to President Nixon, in 1976, and only later that year was this term repeated by Jude Wanniski. It popularized the ideas of economists Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer. Today, supply-side economics is often conflated with the politically rhetorical term trickle-down economics, but as Jude Wanniski points out in his book The Way The World Works, trickle-down economics is conservative Keynesianism associated with the Republican Party. Typical policy recommendations of supply-side economics are lower marginal tax rates and less regulation. Maximum benefits from taxation policy are achieved by optimizing the marginal tax rates to spur growth, although it is a common misunderstanding that supply side economics is concerned only with taxation policy when it is about removing barriers to production more generally. Many early proponents argued that the size of the economic growth would be significant enough that the increased government revenue from a faster growing economy would be sufficient to compensate completely for the short-term costs of a tax cut, and that tax cuts could, in fact, cause overall revenue to increase Evidence of 2 countries that have supply side measures in an attempt to reduce inflation and the success or failure of those measures. What are supply-side policies? Supply-side economic policies are mainly micro-economic policies designed to improve the supply-side potential of an economy, make markets and industries operate more efficiently and thereby contribute to a faster rate of growth of real national output Most governments now accept that an improved supply-side performance is the key to achieving sustained economic growth without a rise in inflation. But supply-side reform on its own is not enough to achieve this growth. There must also be a high enough level of aggregate demand so that the productive capacity of an economy is actually brought into play. There are two broad approaches to the supply-side. Firstly policies focused on product markets where goods and services are produced and sold to consumers and secondly the labour market a factor market where labour is bought and sold. Supply Side Policies for Product Markets Product markets refer to markets in which all kinds of commodities are traded, for example the market for airline travel; for mobile phones, for new cars; for pharmaceutical products and the markets for financial services such as banking and occupational pensions. Supply-side policies in product markets are designed to increase competition and efficiency. If the productivity of an industry improves, then it will be able to produce more with a given amount of resources, shifting the LRAS curve to the right. Measures to encourage small business start-ups / entrepreneurship The small businesses of today can often become the larger businesses of tomorrow, adding to national output, employing more workers and contributing to innovative behaviour that can have positive spill-over effects in other industries. Governments of all political persuasion argue that they want to promote an entrepreneurial culture and to increase the rate of new business start-ups. Supply side policies include loan guarantees for new businesses; regional policy assistance for entrepreneurs in depressed areas of the country; advice for new firms Capital investment and innovation: Capital spending by firms adds to aggregate demand (C+I+G+(X-M)) but also has an important effect on long run aggregate supply. Supply side policies would include tax relief on research and development and reductions in the rate of corporation tax. Ireland is a good example of a country inside the EU that has benefited hugely from cutting company taxes which has led to a large rise in foreign direct investment. One of the new countries joining the EU in 2004, Estonia, has cut its corporation tax rate to zero per cent (0%) in a deliberate attempt to attract new investment and stimulate economic growth and employment. There are now big differences in corporation tax rates among the twenty five nations of the European Union. Corporate Tax Rates in the European Union in 2004 Estonia 0.0% Luxembourg 30.0% Ireland 12.5% Denmark 30.0% Lithuania 15.0% Czech Rep. 31.0% Cyprus 15.0% Portugal 33.0% Latvia 19.0% Austria 34.0% Slovakia 19.0% Belgium 34.0% Poland 19.0% Italy 34.0% Hungary 20.0% Netherlands 34.5% Slovenia 25.0% Spain 35.0% Sweden 28.0% Greece 35.0% Finland 29.0% France 35.4% UK 30.0% Germany 38.7% Innovation and Economic Growth A dynamic environment with opportunities for enterprise and innovation is vital to improving economic performance. New businesses entering the marketplace increase competitive pressures facilitating the introduction of new ideas and technologies. The Government is therefore committed to supporting enterprise and innovation throughout the economy, including in Britains most disadvantaged areas. Supply side policies for the Labour Market These policies are designed to improve the quality and quantity of the supply of labour available to the economy. They seek to make the British labour market more flexible so that it is better able to match the labour force to the demands placed upon it by employers in expanding sectors thereby reducing the risk of structural unemployment. An expansion in the UKs total labour supply increases the productive potential of an economy.   That expansion in the supply of people willing and able to work can come from several sources for example: encouraging older people to stay in the workforce; a relaxed approach to labour migration and measures to get non-working parents to actively look for work. Trade Union Reforms Many of the traditional legal protections enjoyed by the trade unions have been taken away including restrictions on their ability to take industrial action and enter into restrictive practices agreements with employers. The result has been a decrease in strike action in virtually every industry and a significant improvement in industrial relations in the UK. Showing the effects of supply-side improvements in the economy Supply-side factors often help to explain why it is that some countries grow faster than others. In a world of globalisation, it is becoming clearer that maintaining and improving competitiveness is vital in achieving success in international markets. A rising share of GDP in most countries is devoted to international trade. Markets are becoming more competitive and those countries whose supply-side lets those down can find a rising level of import penetration into their domestic markets and a weak export performance in goods and services. Supply side improvements can also be shown using a production possibility frontier Supply side policies and productivity It is important to recognise that the supply-side does not operate in isolation from changes in aggregate demand. If there is insufficient AD, it is unlikely that better supply-side performance can be achieved over a number of years. Equally, if aggregate demand grows too quickly, acceleration in wage and price inflation might require deflationary policies that ultimately harm a countrys productive potential. Evaluating the UKs supply-side performance On the right tracks There has been a remarkable structural improvement in the British economy. This began under Margaret Thatcher and has largely been maintained under Tony Blair. Deregulation, privatisation, reductions in trade union power and reform of unemployment benefits have transformed the business environment. Improvements in the Supply Side Supply-Side Weaknesses Sustained economic growth. The UK has maintained its position as the 4th largest economy in the world and has weathered the global economic downturn well There remains a large productivity between the UK and other leading economies this is now a major focus of supply side policies Task 6 Combine Task 1 to 5 into a single written report to be given to world bank economics unit which is properly structured with. Title of the page Table of contents  Ã‚ ¶ Risk of Inflation  Ã‚ ¶ Definition of Inflation  Ã‚ ¶ Government efforts to control Inflation  Ã‚ ¶ Supply side economics Main body of report In our region the inflation is on its peak. the rate of commodities and goods increases day by day with high speed. If we look to the diagram changes have been done in every year. In some time in past the inflation rate fall but in the recent time thats 2009 its raised upto 73% which is quite high as compare to the previous year 2008.So this inflation can bring a lot of changes in daily human life.It can effect every field of life.By inflation facilities become reduced everyone tries to reduce his expenditure because of this he tries to spend less as he could.If he his expenses is high as copare to his outcome so he is not trying to facilitate himself.In short inflation can bring change in every term of life. Followin is a Table which shows inflation and percent change since 1990 till to 2009 In economics inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Government is trying to control rate of inflation. Inflation can generate a lot of problems in the society. It affect daily life as well as affect commodities prices. It can also bring unemployment as well as poverty. Provide a remedy for each of two different types of inflation you outlined in Task 2 (b). When the causes of inflation remove thats the best solution to control the inflation. Flowing are the causes Cost Push Inflation Rising imported raw materials costs Rising labour costs Higher indirect taxes imposed by the government A depreciation of the exchange rate A reduction in direct or indirect taxation The rapid growth of the money supply Rising consumer confidence and an increase in the rate of growth of house prices Faster economic growth in other countries An explanation of is meant by supply side economics. Supply-side economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce (supply) goods and services, such as adjusting income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by allowing greater flexibility by reducing regulation. Consumers will then benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices. The term supply-side economics was thought, for some time, to have been coined by journalist Jude Wineskin in 1975, but according to Robert D. Atkinsons Supply-Side Follies , the term supply side (supply-side fiscalists) was first used by Herbert Stein, a former economic adviser to President Nixon, in 1976, and only later that year was this term repeated by Jude Wanniski. It popularized the ideas of economists Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer. Today, supply-side economics is often conflated with the politically rhetorical term trickle-down economics, but as Jude Wanniski points out in his book The Way The World Works, trickle-down economics is conservative Keynesianism associated with the Republican Party. Typical policy recommendations of supply-side economics are lower marginal tax rates and less regulation. Maximum benefits from taxation policy are achieved by optimizing the marginal tax rates to spur growth. Reference and bibliography (Economics Books) Micro Economics Macro Economics Manegiral economics Monetry and Finance Internet Source: Ed Crooks, Source: Government Spending Review Statement July 2002 Economics editor of the Financial Times. June 2004 Appendices

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Allie’s Basketball Dream Essay -- Literary Analysis, Barbara Barber

Allie’s Basketball Dream Just by looking at the cover of the story â€Å"Allie’s Basketball Dream† by Barbara Barber I could already tell that the story itself seems to be an ideology. The ideology is not hard to figure out; even the name of the story gives it away. Most girls dream of being a ballerina, a princess, or even a vet but with Allie’s case she wants to be professional basketball player. When I first picked up this book, the name of the book intrigued me to want to read it because I never would have guessed a girls dream would be to be a professional basketball player. As I started to read this book I noticed that the book is based on adults and children of African-American race in urban and inner-city areas. In urban and inner-city areas, playground basketball is a popular form of recreation. Many children and adults in these areas play neighborhood games in parks, alleys, driveways, backyards, and playgrounds. In the neighborhood I was brought up in, I never saw basketball played anywhere besides at school or if you had a basketball hoop in your driveway. The story starts out with Allies father giving her a gift of a basketball that she really wanted. Allies father brought her a gift and said â€Å"Because I love you (Baber 2)† and kissed Allie on her nose. This shows that Allies father is already portrayed as strong and caring which makes this book adult-centered already. When I look at the picture of Allie and her father at the beginning of the book I can see the loving relationship they have with each other (1). The colors of the background of the picture are yellow and soft which makes the picture safe. Allie and her father are in the center of the page along with the basket ball. This shows that Allie, her fat... ...he first time her father brought her to a basketball game she said "No way i'm getting rid of this ball! It's a gift from my dad. Someday I'm going to be the best basketball player ever (Barber 20)." Even though Allie doesn’t say something like "I don't want to be girly" she is still resisting the ideology that â€Å"only guys play basketball† or â€Å"girls don’t play basketball.† In this book gender role interpellation is shown. Up to now, it has been assumed that boys are more dominant and powerful then girls. For example, boys â€Å"are stronger† and can protect better then woman because they are men and they are built differently. However, females have been seen are the care takers, compassionate, and taking on the role of being feminine which means acting and doing all the things girls are supposed to do. Also, females are portrayed as being more â€Å"emotional† then males.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Playdough, Paperweight, Snowball: An Analysis of the Bell Jar Essay

â€Å"I saw the years of my life spaced along a road in the form of telephone poles, threaded together by wires. I counted one, two, three †¦ nineteen poles, and then the wires dangled into space, and try as I would, I couldn’t see a single pole beyond the nineteenth.†(Plath 123) This quote fully embodies the whole mood of the book, The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath. The main character Esther is constantly at war with herself, she can’t figure out what to work towards or where her life is going. She is unable to see past the nineteenth post in her life, it’s as if her life was never supposed to move on. This mind set pushes Esther into a deep depression and drives her to attempt suicide many times. In the novel Ester Greenwood, a young aspiring writer, battles a war within herself everyday. She starts out high on life; she was one of the winners of a writing contest so she is living in New York experiencing a very affluent lifestyle. Her life is as colorful and wonderful as brand new Play Dough. Then one day she realizes she is no longer herself, she is trapped in an image that others have molded. She stops and thinks, who am I? Where am I going? What am I doing with my life? Much like that wad of Play Dough she too wore out, she was now dull, hardened, and futureless. Though it is still called Play Dough, it no longer serves the same purpose or is anything like its old self. Simply a shell of the girl she once was she no longer has her old friends, she didn’t make it into her college honors writing class, and she cant even bring herself to write anymore. Battling a civil war daily wore Esther down farther and farther until there was nothing left of her soul. For Esther the troubling question was no longer just who am I? It was a much more serious question of why am I here? Why am I alive? She has a very hard time getting through each day, â€Å"I couldn’t see the point of getting up. I had nothing to look forward to.† (Plath 117). She doesn’t know what to do with herself, she tries to learn new things, but she can’t stay focused for more than a few mere minutes. She is convinced that she will amount to nothing, that her life is going nowhere, and she will be a paperweight for the rest of her life. She is so disgusted with who she is and her life she can no longer stand to live in her own skin, she always feels as if there is something inside her that she wants to kill. â€Å"But when it came right down to it, the skin of my wrist looked so white and defenseless that I couldn’t do it. It was as if what I wanted to kill wasn’t in that skin or the thin blue pulse that jumped under my thumb, but somewhere else, deeper, more secret, and a whole lot harder to get.† (Plath 147) She attempts many times to end her life, but she always makes it out alive and well. Nobody knows what to do with her so they try some treatments, but those don’t work so she is placed in a special facility. Stuck in this asylum she goes up and down, she gains freedom but then has a relapse and it right back to square one all over again. After many hard years of wanting to die and hating herself, she finally finds people she trusts and it starts to get better. â€Å"All the heat and fear had purged itself. I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung suspended a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air. † (Plath 215). In this quote Esther speaks about the bell jar lifting above her, throughout the entire book it was on her, suffocating her, but finally it had lifted and she could start living again. She starts over like a rolling snowball, starting small yet gaining more trust and confidence by the second; before she realizes it she is a huge snow boulder rolling gaining speed, size, and confidence. A major theme in the novel is places of entrapment. Whether it is Esther feeling trapped within her own body, or if she is trapped in a hospital she is always under something. â€Å"The more hopeless you were, the further away they hid you.† (Plath 160). At the beginning Esther is forced into going to many events at various places whether it’s a luncheon or a fashion show. From there she goes back home which ends up being almost like solitary confinement. She is bounded in a lifestyle that is very different from her own. Her mother was constantly trying to teach her shorthand, a skill which Esther has no wish to learn. Also when at home she finds herself unable to sleep. This traps her in the world of thinking, which works against her because of where her life is. This is where her depression first starts, and it takes he life on a downward spiral. After many suicidal attempts Esther is put into a psychological hospital. She moves from hospital to hospital, but for years she is always under rule of doctors in nurses. Plath used many things to convey the feeling of suffocating under pressure throughout the book. Though Plath wrote an entire book through the eyes of a depressed young woman, she still kept the book easy to read. The book flowed well from scene to scene. It kept the reader wondering if Esther was going to break out of her depression or if she was finally going to succeed and end up ending her life. She uses complex yet easy to understand wording that a wide range of readers can comprehend. â€Å"I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.'† (Plath 90). This quote not only shows how Plath created a novel easily read but it shows how there was hope; Esther did have the capacity to feel happiness, she was capable of living a happy life. The struggle through the book was if she was going to overcome her illness, or be consumed by it. Plath wrote an in depth story about a young woman suffering through depression. Though the topic was no happy in any way, Plath kept it light and hopeful. Keeping the reader always wondering if she was going to get better. Also, she it was so descriptive with her writing that the reader felt like he could relate with Esther. Overall, The Bell Jar is a very well written book that can be read easily. It leaves one with the feeling of hope, and believing any situation can heal. â€Å"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.† (Plath 243).