The Voice of Victorian “Longing like Despair” Essay -- Literary Analy

Matthew Arnold’s Poetry: The Voice of Victorian â€Å"Longing like Despair† John Stuart Mill defined the Victorian Era as â€Å"an age of transition†, where â€Å"Mankind will not be led by their old maxims, nor by their old guides.† Other contemporary minds saw in this transition the main source of profound intellectual and moral confusion, â€Å"that may validly be described as a crisis of personal identity.† (R. A. Forsyth) The poet and Victorian literary and social critic Matthew Arnold distinctly expresses his age’s deepest anxieties, rising from a world being utterly redefined by industrialisation. Much of his poetry is infused with intense personal and emotional discussions of love and loneliness, which spring the rising feeling of isolation and alienation. His writings respond to the disintegration of the traditional Christian social order and to the Victorian human condition. Arnold’s voice is one of despair, although it is also one of longing; one that seeks comfort in intimate companionship. â€Å"To Marguerit e: Continued† (1852) and â€Å"Isolation: To Marguerite† (1857) are primarily love poems where Arnold expresses his struggle with personal isolation and his hope in the potential remedying power of love. â€Å"The Buried Life† (1852) is a reflection on the Victorian human condition, notably man’s identity crisis founded on social and self-alienation. Finally, â€Å"Dover Beach†, often characterised as a historical poem, mourns the disintegration of the traditional Christian order, as the Church was a pillar of England’s society for all of modern history. Despite these distinctions, Arnold’s verse responds to the Victorian human condition, as he weaves together his despair of the present industrialised world with a longing to overcome its darkness a... ...ety. Ed. J. B. Schneewind. London, 1965, pp. 30-31. Print. "Matthew Arnold : Dover Beach." Representative Poetry Online. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . "Matthew Arnold : Isolation: To Marguerite." Representative Poetry Online. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . "Matthew Arnold: The Buried Life." Representative Poetry On-line: Version 3.0. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . "Matthew Arnold : To Marguerite: Continued." Representative Poetry On-line: Version 3.0. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

“Chicano” Mexican-American Movement Essay

Chicano – a political term made popular in the sixties with the Chicano Civil Rights Movement which followed the example of the Black Civil Rights Movement. The people of the Movement adopted the word Chicano for themselves just as the African Americans had adopted Black. The Chicano Movement fought for all people of the Southwest of Mexican descendancy. These people included those whose ancestors had been citizens in the southwest when it was Mexico before the United States occupied it in 1848. These people became citizens by default with all rights guaranteed to them under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Chicano Movement also included three waves of immigrants from Mexico: those who migrated because they were escaping the Mexican Revolution between 1900 and 1914; those who came between World War I and 1930, mainly for economic reasons; and those who came between World War II and the 1960’s. Several of those who came in the 1940’s came with organized labor programs such as the Bracero Program and decided to stay, even if undocumented. The Chicano Movement and the Treaty of Gudalupe Hidalgo – After the United States won the Mexican American War the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was executed on February 2, 1848. Under the treaty, Mexico ceded to the United States a large area including, California, Arizona, New Mexico, parts of what we know today as Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah. The annexation of Texas was also approved. All the citizens who had resided in what had been Mexico were given one year to make a choice to remain in what was now the U. S. or go to what was now Mexico. It is estimated that 75,000 Mexicans decided to stay and became citizens of the U. S. by default. The treaty provided specific guarantees for the property and political rights of the â€Å"native† population and they were given the right to retain their language, religion and culture. Almost immediately, the treaty was broken and these people were treated like foreigners in their own land. When they lost their land, they lost their economic base, thus had to turn to wage labor to survive. They were subjected to great discrimination practices, as were the three waves of immigrants who came later. By the time World War II ended Chicanos were an oppressed people; poor, uneducated, with no political clout; and menial jobs  with little hope for upward mobility. It was after the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 and after soldiers came back from World War II that the foundation for the Chicano Movement was built. The veterans and other concerned Chicanos refused to be treated like second class citizens. The groundwork was laid for the battle of equality for Chicanos. When the 1960’s came about Chicanos recognized that like the Blacks, they, too, had a cause and initially emulated the Black Civil Rights Movement. Scholars consider the year 1943 as the beginning of an new period of Mexican American history and culture. When the so-called Zoot Suit Riots occurred in the Los Angeles area it marked a stage in the cultural development of the Mexican American in which there was a consciousness of not belonging to either Mexico or the United States and an effort to assert a separate independent identity. It introduced the Pachucos, young Mexican-American young men who were not accepted in their schools, nor at home. They sought their own identity. Also after World War II Mexican American veterans who had fought and died side by side with their other American counterparts now felt they had earned their rights and were ready to participate equitably. Thus the quest for identity in modern American society was initiated and by the 1960’s a younger generation made up of the children of the veterans took up the pursuit of democracy and equity in the Civil Rights Movement and explored the question of identity in all the arts. There had been very little Chicano Literature in the past so the 60s was considered a Chicano Renaissance. Hispanic – an umbrella term that reduces groups of people into the lowest common denominator of Spanish speaking peoples. This can be people who speak Spanish or whose ancestors spoke Spanish and includes, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans and other ethnic groups. It is a most unfair label because it denies the different histories, and dilutes the importance of each different culture by lumping them all under one umbrella. The term was given by the government during the Nixon administration. Mestizo – for the scope of this class half-Spanish, half-Indian. When the  conquistadores arrived in the Americas miscegenation took place between the Spaniards and the Indigenous women, thus produced a new race, the Mestizo, a mixture of Caucasian and Indian. Much of Chicano Literature is based on Indian folklore. The Mestizo is an element in Mexican American Studies — meaning both the Indian and Spanish side of the Chicano. Therefore we will be studying literature that takes us back to ancient Mexico and Spain and brings elements of both cultures to produce Chicano literature. I am Joaquin, written by Rodolfo â€Å"Corky† Gonzales in the 1960’s elaborated a version of cultural nationalism that would typify what is called Movement Poetry. It was Mexican American history all wrapped up into one poem. It was monumental because up until then there had been very little written about the Chicano. When something was written, it was usually derogatory or stereotypical. It stands alone as an epic poem of the Chicano Movement. A new breed of writers were born because of the Chicano Movement. Their writings were related to a political and social movement. They wrote about cultural identification with the Mexican American heritage within the general framework of American society. It became the most intense expression of the creative spirit of the movement. It first saw the light in print in angry journals or newspapers such as El Grito Magazine or El Gallo Newspaper. There were many. The writing was cause writing, not just literary. It was also inspirational. The first Chicano writers of Chicano Literature in the 60’s committed their literary vices to the political economic and educational struggles. Their works were often inspirational and read at organizational meetings, boycotts and before protest marches. The first Chicano poets included: Abelardo â€Å"Lalo† Delgado; Ricardo Sanchez and Alurista (Alberto Urista). Alurista coined the term Aztlan as the Chicano homeland. It gave Chicanos a sense of place. Aztlan had been the mythical homeland of the Aztecs which was north from Mexico, probably somewhere in the southwest United States. In 1967 appeared the most influential Chicano Literary Magazine, El Gallo, initiating the publishing house El Quinto Sol (The Fifth Sun). El Quinto Sol emphasized the Chicano culture, language, themes and styles and a Mexica/Aztec identity and promoted the Spanish Language. The fifth sun referred to the Aztec belief in a period of cultural flowering that would take place some time in the future, in a fifth age that coincided with the rise of the Chicano movement. One of the first books published by Quinto Sol was an anthology in 1986, El Espejo/The Mirror, edited by Dr. Octavio Romano Paz and Herminio Rios. In 1970 El Quinto Sol instituted a national award for Chicano Literature, Premio Quinto Sol (Fifth Sun Award) which gave the winner $1000 and published their winning manuscript.

Development of the Bill of Rights

When the American colonies rebelled against Great Britain, the rebels gave their reasons in the Declaration of Independence. According to the Declaration, people have unalienable rights to liberty. â€Å"The ideology of the revolutionary generation shaped the later American Bill of Rights. This revolutionary ideology combined and wove together both the natural rights of man and the historic rights of Englishmen†. The colonists emphasized natural rights and historic liberties as a result of their view of government.Government was potentially hostile to human liberty and happiness. Power was essentially aggressive. The rebellious colonists dealt with the problem of aggressive political power by several devices: separation of powers, an independent judiciary, the right of people to have a share in their own government by representatives chosen by themselves, and an insistence on the natural and historical rights and liberties of citizens reflected in revolutionary bills of rights of the several states. These concessions to slavery produced some protests.George Mason, delegate from Virginia and a leading advocate of a federal bill of rights, complained that delegates from South Carolina and Georgia were more interested in protecting the right to import slaves than in promoting â€Å"the Liberty and Happiness of the people. † Some framers rationalized the compromise with slavery on the assumption that the institution would soon die out. In truth, however, a compromise was made in the interest of the Union. While the framers compromised with slavery, they took steps to prevent its spread to new states.Particularly after the adoption of the Bill of Rights the Constitution reflected the Jekyll-and-Hyde character of the nation. The nation sought simultaneously to protect liberty and slavery. All in all, the Bill of Rights was adopted because of the fear of abuses of power by the federal government. It simply had no application to the states. The idea that the federal Bill of Rights protects liberty of speech and press, freedom of religion, and other basic rights from violations by the states has become commonplace, even for lawyers. Indeed, many Americans probably accepted this commonplace when careful lawyers knew it was not so.From 1833 to 1868 the Supreme Court held that none of the rights in the Bill of Rights limited the states. From 1868 to 1925 it found very few of these liberties protected from state action. Those the states were free to flout (so far as federal limitations were concerned) seemed to include free speech, press, religion, the right to jury trial, freedom from self-incrimination, from infliction of cruel and unusual punishments, and more. State constitutions, with their own bills of rights, were available to protect the individual, but too often they proved to be paper barriers.Most, but not all, scholars believe that the Supreme Court was right, at least as a matter of history, up to 1868. They believe, that is , that the founding fathers did not intend for the Bill of Rights to limit the states. In contrast to the English Bill of Rights of 1689, in which the powers of Parliament are protected against the encroachments of the monarch, the American Bill of Rights was created to protect the individual against the intrusions of the legislative and executive branches of the government.As James Madison expressed it, â€Å"If we advert to the nature of Republican Government we shall find that censorial power is in the people over the Government, and not in the Government over the people. † Nowhere in the Bill of Rights is this more sharply affirmed than in the words of the First Amendment: â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. â€Å"Although nine of th e thirteen colonies had established churches, four did not (Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware). By the time the First Amendment was adopted, however, only three states had an established church -Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Of even greater significance is that no two states shared the same religious configuration with respect to its population. Not to be overlooked is that in the decade between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention, numerous states had made declarations in support of religious freedom prior to the adoption of the Bill of Rights.In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. Beginning in the 1920s, the U. S. Supreme Court began to apply the Bill of Rights to states through a process now called the incorporation of the Bill of Rights into the Fourteenth Amendment. As originally passed, the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government and not to state governments. The Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection and due process clauses clearly applied to the states. Through a series of lengthy cases, the Court engaged in a piecemeal process of interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment clauses to include the various freedoms protected in the Bill of Rights.In Near v. Minnesota (1931) the Supreme Court applied freedom of the press to the states. In this case, the city of Minneapolis tried to suppress the publication of scandalous, malicious and defamatory material in newspapers. A newspaper publishers association, fearing censorship, challenged the Minnesota law on the grounds of violation of freedom of press. The Supreme Court struck down the law by contending that it represented prior restraint of future issues. The most important freedom given to the press is freedom from prior restraint, the freedom not to be censored.The process of nationalizing the Bill of Rights through the Fourteenth Amendment continued in the area of free exercise of religion. In Hamilton v. Board of Regents (1934), the Court held that freedom of religion was protected by the First Amendment against invasion by the national government and by the states. This decision was confirmed in Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940). This case questioned the constitutionality of a Connecticut law which banned solicitation of money for religious or charitable reasons unless approved by the secretary of the public welfare council.This particular official had the authority to decide whether a fund-raising cause was truly a religious one. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the statute violated religious freedom and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. From the critical standpoint, the Bill of Rights not only constitutionally protects individual rights of citizens, such as freedom of religion, peaceable assembly, right to keep and bear arms, trial by jury, but it also secures the entire system of American democratic values and implementation of democracy in reality.For instanc e, freedom of press, declared of in the First Amendment, does not mean only that â€Å"Congress shall make no law†¦ abridging the freedom of†¦press. † Considering the fact independent media is one of the pillars of modern democracy, this constitutional guarantee aims to secure democratic principles of the country. Moreover, the freedom of press implies automatically the absence of any censorship limiting the execution of freedom of speech, which is too declared in the First Amendment and similarly is to protect democratic principles.The Bill of Rights has been created not only to protect freedoms and liberties of American citizens on individual levels, but also to secure the position of a person before the government. For example, the Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be forced in any criminal case to be a witness against oneself. At the same time, from my personal viewpoint, the fundamental importance of the Bill of Rights is its long lasting effect and its tremendous influence on American legislative and judicial system.Firstly, the Bill triggered the adoption by the Congress of several important acts protecting civil liberties like Civil Rights Act. Secondly, because the Bill is an integral and vital part of US Constitution, and thus the ultimate legal power, legislative and judicial system have been continuously improving constitutional doctrine on individual rights. For example, one can notice during 1960-70s the constitutional rights of public employees to freedom of speech and association, procedural due process, and equal protection have also been vastly expanded.Historically the Constitution has retained its flexibility because interpretations of its meaning have changed. Choosing between two or more sets of competing values, the Supreme Court has played a major role in maintaining this flexibility. A significant trend has been the extension of civil rights to the previously powerless. For instance, the involvement of the U. S. Supreme Court in civil rights for blacks is long-standing, dating back to issues from the days of slavery.In the Dred Scott case (1857), Chief Justice Taney ruled that no blacks, slave or free, were citizens, and that blacks had no citizenship rights (Hall, 38). In 1883, two decades after the Civil War and the official end of slavery, the Court ruled on five separate suits affecting the rights of blacks, and collectively called the Civil Rights Cases (1883). These cases arose in response to the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which prohibited racial discrimination in jury selection and public accommodations. In these cases, the public accommodations portions of the 1875 act were challenged.The Court recognized that the Fourteenth Amendment forbade discrimination by states but it made no mention of discriminatory acts committed by individuals. Since the Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination by individuals and private businesses, the Court ruled that the act had overstepped congre ssional authority and was therefore unconstitutional. By the end of World War II, the Supreme Court had become more supportive of civil rights for blacks. It struck down the all-white primary in Smith v.Allright (1944), arguing that the Democratic party was in essence an agent of the state and was therefore subject to the Fifteenth Amendment. During the late 1940s and the 1950s, the Court followed the trends begun earlier of moving away from the doctrine of â€Å"separate but equal† (Hall, 51). This may be seen in the cases of Sipuel v. Oklahoma (1948), Sweatt v. Painter (1950) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950). In the Sipuel case, which was similar to the Gaines case, the Court ordered Oklahoma to provide a separate but equal law school for a black woman and stressed the need for equality in facilities.In Sweatt v. Painter, the state of Texas had established a separate black law school but it was inferior to the white law school at the University of Texas in the size of its faculty and the quality of its library and student body. The court ruled that the black law school had to be improved. The Court nearly overturned the â€Å"separate but equal† doctrine in the McLaurin case in which Oklahoma had allowed a black student to attend a white graduate school but had segregated him from the rest of the students by designating separate sections of the library, cafeteria and classrooms for him.The Court struck down these segregation provisions, claiming that they interfered with the ability of the black student to exchange ideas with other students, a requisite for a good education. Although these cases fell short of invalidating the â€Å"separate but equal† principle, they made segregation at the graduate school level more difficult to implement. Perhaps the most significant civil rights cases to aid blacks in the fight for equality were the two Brown cases in the 1950s.Brown v. Board of Education I (1954) arose as the result of a suit against Topeka, Kansas where Linda Brown, a black child, was not permitted to attend a segregated white school four blocks from her home. In Brown I, under the leadership of Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Court overturned the Plessy decision of â€Å"separate but equal† in the public schools by declaring that the separate but equal doctrine made black children feel inferior. In Brown v.Board of Education II (1955), the Court ruled on how to accomplish desegregation, concluding that local school boards should establish plans for desegregation under the supervision of federal district judges and â€Å"with all deliberate speed†. Despite these court rulings, southern school boards were slow to respond and avoided court orders by closing public schools and placing white children in private schools. Consequently, desegregation was only implemented very slowly.Women are not a minority but they have historically experienced legal discrimination based on th eir gender. The Supreme Court has played an important role in the expansion of rights for women. Overall the Court has been less important in the expansion of women's rights than it has been in the extension of rights to blacks and other racial minorities. A major reason for the less important role of the Court is that women's rights have mostly been broadened through legislation. Many women's rights cases addressed by the Supreme Court have been concerned with employment.Early court decisions followed a trend of protectionism and upheld restrictions on the nature and conditions of employment for women. In Bradwell v. Illinois (1873), the Supreme Court upheld a state law preventing women from practicing law. Not until the 1970s did U. S. Supreme Court rulings begin to move away from the restrictive, protectionist trend of the past. Reed v. Reed (1971) was the first instance of the Court striking down a state law which discriminated against women. Taylor v. Louisiana (1975) overturne d the precedent set in Hoyt v. Florida. Phillips v.Martin-Marietta (1971) ruled that employers could not discriminate against mothers of preschool children, despite fears that they might often miss work to care for their children. In Stanton v. Stanton (1975) the Court struck down a Utah law which required divorced fathers to support sons until they were twenty-one under the assumption that they would need support while being educated, while daughters had to be supported only until they were eighteen under the assumption that they would get married and be supported by their husbands. Beginning in the 1920s, the U.S. Supreme Court began to apply the Bill of Rights to states through a process now called the incorporation of the Bill of Rights into the Fourteenth Amendment. As originally passed, the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government and not to state governments. The Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection and due process clauses clearly applied to the states. Throug h a series of lengthy cases, the Court engaged in a piecemeal process of interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment clauses to include the various freedoms protected in the Bill of Rights. In Near v.Minnesota (1931) the Supreme Court applied freedom of the press to the states. In this case, the city of Minneapolis tried to suppress the publication of scandalous, malicious and defamatory material in newspapers. A newspaper publishers association, fearing censorship, challenged the Minnesota law on the grounds of violation of freedom of press. The Supreme Court struck down the law by contending that it represented prior restraint of future issues. The most important freedom given to the press is freedom from prior restraint, the freedom not to be censored.In many cases the statements embedded in the Bill of Rights are impacted directly or indirectly through the process of governance in the United States. One of the most peculiar examples of this impact is adoption of the Uniting and Streng thening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, commonly known as the Patriot Act. This act significantly expands the power of the federal government to investigate, detain, and deport those people who the government suspects are linked to terrorist activity and other crimes.The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution requires the government to prove to a judicial officer that it has probable cause of a crime before it conducts an invasive search to find evidence of that crime or in exact words, this Amendment declares that â€Å"the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Before the enactment of the Patriot Act, if the primary purpose was a criminal investigation, the law enforcement officials had to first prove the higher standard of probable cause. Investigating criminal activity cannot be the primary purpose of surveillance. Now American society witnesses how one of the most fundamental statements of the Bill of Rights, particularly that one protecting individual freedoms from the state, is challenged.The change made by Section 218 of the Patriot Act authorizes unconstitutional activity by impinging on the Fourth Amendment protection that requires probable cause. Section 218 now provides law enforcement officials with a tool to avoid probable cause when conducting criminal investigation surveillance. The adoption of the Patriot Act has been triggered with the war the United States declared against terrorism. Interestingly, the same event, the war on terrorism, challenged another important element of the Bill of Rights, namely the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, which states that â€Å"no person shall †¦ be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law†¦.†Practically, th is statement aims to secure individuals from unconstitutional exercise on the behalf of the government. Importantly, this article provides Americans with the right to be tried by unprejudiced courts with application of lawful procedures and laws. However, during the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US government intentionally deterred in prisons many prisoners of war (identifying them as terrorists) without court orders, indictments and further court hearings. Here one can notice the constitutional collision, in which the rights of the US government during wartime (including deterring of individuals without due process clause) challenges the statements embedded in the Bill of Rights. Works Cited Barnett, Randy E. ed., 1989. Ninth Amendment. supra note 29, at 18 Bailyn, Bernard. 1967. Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Ely, J. 1980. Democracy and Distrust. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hall, Kermit L. 1989. The Magic Mirror. Law in American History, New York: Oxford University Press. Levine, James P. 1992. Juries and Politics, Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Madison, James. November 27, 1794. Republicanism. Speech in Congress. Annals of Congress 934. Nelson, William E. 1988. The Fourteenth Amendment: From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Schwartz, B. 1971. The Bill of Rights. A Documentary History. pp. 222-226. Wiecek, W.   1976. The Sources of Antislavery Constitutionalism in America, 1760-1848. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. P. 74

Character study of Willy Loman Essays

Character study of Willy Loman Essays Character study of Willy Loman Paper Character study of Willy Loman Paper Willy Loman is a very unique character, he is pathetic and a modern tragic hero. I think the problem comes mainly from his excessive daydreaming, and his view of the American Dream, which is to succeed in life by being attractive and well liked by society. He spent most of his life pursing a dream but failed. His determination and dedication in pursing something that failed greatly affected his family members. Through Willys actions, he affected the future of Biff and Happy by straying them in the wrong directions. Willy and Biff always fight and argue due to Biff not living up to Willys expectations and also having yet to make anything out of himself. Happy and Biff try to help Willy, but every attempt always results in an argument. He believes he is well liked and popular but in reality nobody likes him and for that he is a small man. The interactions between Willy, Linda, Biff and Happy are usually never happy or normal. They always fight and argue with each other. Biff and Willy always have conflicts about getting a life and making money. Willy complains that Biff is nobody and as a result he doesnt listen to Biffs point of view. Instead, he makes fast and irrational conclusions such as not letting Biff talk about his visit to Oliver Biff: His answer was- Dad, youre not letting me tell you what I want to tell you! Willy: You didnt see him, did you? Biff: I did see him! Willy: Whatd you insult him or something? You insulted him, didnt you? Biff: Listen, will you let me out of it, will you just let me out of it! (Page 108-109) In turn, Biff gets angry that Willy doesnt listen and never gives him a chance to say anything, and a conflict occurs. Willy doesnt even let Linda comment on anything, instead he yells at her. Linda: Oliver always though the highest of him- Willy: Will you let me talk? Biff: Dont yell are her, Pop, will ya? (Page 65) Linda was trying to support Biff about going to Oliver for a job only to show Willy that Biff is actually trying to do something with his life. I believe that in Willys mind, he thought that Biff and Happy are great kids and going to be very successful, but in reality his sons were the opposite. He would never listen because it was hard for him to see a smart person like Bernard doing better than Biff and Happy. He would only try to think differently to convince himself that his sons were the best and going to live better than Bernard. If Willy took the time to listen to his family and friends, and be open to everyones advice and opinions, he might have not committed suicide. He is a very selfish person and ignored reality. He tried to make things better than they were which the opinions he choose which led to his destruction. Willy talks to himself a lot throughout the play; he daydreams about being successful and well liked at the end by creating a false image. In reality, he is unsuccessful and nobody likes him. Linda: Why didnt anybody come? Charley: It was a very nice funeral Linda: But where are all the people he knew? Maybe they blame him (Requiem) Nobody even went to his funeral because they dont know Willy anymore despite working for the Wagner firm for 34 years. Willy is jealous of Charlies success, every week he would find himself asking Charley for money. Willy thinks he is a much better man than Charley, but in fact he is just jealous that he is living a better life than he is. Even when Charley is nice enough to lend Willy money, he still gets mad at the smallest comments that Charley makes, like offering him a job. Charley: Why dont you want to work for me? Willy: Whats the matter with you? Ive got a job. Charley: Then whatre you walkin in here every week for? Willy: Well, if you dont want me to walk in here- Charley: I am offering you a job Willy: I dont want your goddam job! Charley: When the hell are you going to grow up? (Page 96-97) Willy is a closed minded, and a self centred person, he doesnt want to accept the fact that Charlies life is much better than his. I believe that Willy makes many sacrifices; one main one would be a good future. He aimed way to high and failed miserably. Linda knew what Willys situation is and is very supportive. Willy: Youre my foundation and my support, Linda. Linda: Just try to relax, dear. You make mountains out of molehills. (Page 18) The American Dream has deceived him, now he works on commission and eventually fired by Howard, Biff is a failure in his eyes and Charley is a successful man. He failed to raise his sons accordingly and his strong beliefs were just delusions. Is Willy a small man? I truly believe that he is, his aims in life have been useless and hasnt achieved anything. He is even abandoned by his two only sons at the restaurant. Happy even told the two girls that he picked up wasnt even his father. Letta: Dont you want to tell your father- Happy: No, thats not my father. Hes just a guy. Come on, (Page 115) Biff no long respects Willy after his affair, Willy Loman finds himself less capable in every aspect, financially and mentally. He wants his sons to be successful and better of than he is, but he corrupted them. Although they will never be successful, I truly think that Willy did the best he could, although he delayed their future by giving them a false image. Willy Loman is truly a low man, he has a very low self-esteem, in my opinion his goals are great only if he becomes a reality but what he doesnt realize, is that there would be devastation if he doesnt succeed. He was the main motivator of the family being dysfunctional. Linda is angry that Happy and Biff doesnt respect Willy and shows no worries for his actions and behaviour. Biff doesnt respect Willy anymore because of the constant pressure he puts on him, and also because of an affair he has with another women. I personally dont think that Willy is a crazy and inane man, but I certainly dont think that he is normal either. Willy Loman is just a confused man that took his goals one step to far, and by the time he realized it, it was too late. He believed that life is worth nothing anymore. I believed that he tried to make his goals worth something instead of nothing by killing himself, so that the insurance money would go to his family and some how help them. Therefore Willy Loman goals and dreams ultimately led to his destruction.

Free Essays on How Napoleon Revolutionized The French Education System

The educational system of the Revolutionary period needed reform. Clergy and nobility called for improvements in the educational system to be made. When thinking of the problems of the 1789 educational system, being considered were â€Å"the duties and prerogatives of the state, the rights of parents, the potential benefits of higher education, the economic needs of the nation, the necessity for training teachers, and the suitable status of the teaching profession in a republic.† (Vignery 21) A decree was passed in 1794 that named training teachers the top educational priority. With an emphasis now being placed on schooling, curriculums were changed. The Paris Normal school plan of study included â€Å"republican morality and public and private virtues, as well as the techniques of teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, practical geometry, French history and grammar.† (Bernard 154) Public secondary schools were established for every 300,000 people. These were the ecole centrals, or central schools. The secondary school curriculum included literature, language, science, and arts. A decree had been established that: †¦the age-range of the pupils will be from eleven or twelve to seventeen or eighteen†¦every school is to have one professor of each of the following subjects: mathematics; experimental physics and chemistry; natural history; scientific methods and psychology; political economy and legislation; the philosophic history of peoples; hygiene; arts and crafts; general grammar; belles letters; ancient languages; the modern languages most appropriate to the locality of the school; painting and drawing. The teaching throughout will be in French. Every month there is to be a public lecture dealing with the latest advances in science and the useful arts. Every central school is to have attached to it a public library, a garden and a natural history collection, as well as a collection of scientific apparatus and of machines... Free Essays on How Napoleon Revolutionized The French Education System Free Essays on How Napoleon Revolutionized The French Education System The educational system of the Revolutionary period needed reform. Clergy and nobility called for improvements in the educational system to be made. When thinking of the problems of the 1789 educational system, being considered were â€Å"the duties and prerogatives of the state, the rights of parents, the potential benefits of higher education, the economic needs of the nation, the necessity for training teachers, and the suitable status of the teaching profession in a republic.† (Vignery 21) A decree was passed in 1794 that named training teachers the top educational priority. With an emphasis now being placed on schooling, curriculums were changed. The Paris Normal school plan of study included â€Å"republican morality and public and private virtues, as well as the techniques of teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, practical geometry, French history and grammar.† (Bernard 154) Public secondary schools were established for every 300,000 people. These were the ecole centrals, or central schools. The secondary school curriculum included literature, language, science, and arts. A decree had been established that: †¦the age-range of the pupils will be from eleven or twelve to seventeen or eighteen†¦every school is to have one professor of each of the following subjects: mathematics; experimental physics and chemistry; natural history; scientific methods and psychology; political economy and legislation; the philosophic history of peoples; hygiene; arts and crafts; general grammar; belles letters; ancient languages; the modern languages most appropriate to the locality of the school; painting and drawing. The teaching throughout will be in French. Every month there is to be a public lecture dealing with the latest advances in science and the useful arts. Every central school is to have attached to it a public library, a garden and a natural history collection, as well as a collection of scientific apparatus and of machines...

Japanese Greetings and Parting Phrases

Japanese Greetings and Parting Phrases Learning greetings is a great way to start communicating with people in their language. Particularly in Japanese- a culture that prizes proper social etiquette- knowing how to use greetings and parting phrases correctly will open doors for you as you study the language. The greetings and parting words below include audio files that will allow you to listen to the phrases and learn how they are pronounced. Using Ha and Wa in Hiragana Before studying Japanese greetings, its important to learn how two important words are used in hiragana. Hiragana is a part of the Japanese writing system. It is a phonetic syllabary, which is a set of written characters that represent syllables. In most cases, each character corresponds to one syllable though there are few exceptions to this rule. Hiragana is used in many cases, such as writing articles or miscellaneous words that have no kanji form or an obscure kanji form In Japanese, there is a rule for writing the hiragana for waã‚ ) and ha㠁 ¯). When wa  is used as a  particle, it is written in hiragana as ha. (A particle,  joshi,  is a word that shows the relationship of a word, phrase, or clause to the rest of the sentence.) In current Japanese dialogue, Konnichiwa or Konbanwa are fixed greetings. However, historically, they were used in sentences such as  Konnichi  wa (Today is) or Konban  wa  (Tonight is), and wa  functioned as a particle. Thats why it is still written in hiragana as ha. Common Japanese Greetings  and  Parting Phrases Listen to the audio files carefully by clicking on the links, and mimic what you hear. Repeat this a few times until you are able to pronounce the greetings and parting phrases. Good MorningOhayou㠁Šã  ¯Ã£â€šË†Ã£ â€ Ã£â‚¬â€š Good AfternoonKonnichiwa㠁“ん㠁 «Ã£  ¡Ã£  ¯Ã£â‚¬â€š Good eveningKonbanwa㠁“ん㠁 °Ã£â€šâ€œÃ£  ¯Ã£â‚¬â€š Good nightOyasuminasai㠁Šã‚„㠁™ã  ¿Ã£  ªÃ£ â€¢Ã£ â€žÃ£â‚¬â€š GoodbyeSayonara㠁•ã‚ˆã  ªÃ£â€šâ€°Ã£â‚¬â€š See you laterDewa mata㠁 §Ã£  ¯Ã£  ¾Ã£ Å¸Ã£â‚¬â€š See you tomorrow.Mata ashita㠁 ¾Ã£ Å¸Ã¦ËœÅ½Ã¦â€" ¥Ã£â‚¬â€š How are you?Genki desu kaå…Æ'æ °â€"㠁 §Ã£ â„¢Ã£ â€¹Ã£â‚¬â€š Tips on Greetings and Parting Phrases Enhance your knowledge of Japanese greetings and parting words by reviewing some basic tips about the various phrases. Ohayou Gozaimasu Good Morning:  If you are speaking to a friend or find yourself in a casual setting, you would use the word  ohayou  (㠁Šã  ¯Ã£â€šË†Ã£ â€ ) to say good morning. However, if you were on your way into the office and ran into your boss or another supervisor, you would want to use  ohayou  gozaimasu  (㠁Šã  ¯Ã£â€šË†Ã£ â€ Ã£ â€Ã£ â€"㠁„㠁 ¾Ã£ â„¢), which is a more formal greeting. Konnichiwa Good Afternoon:  Although Westerners sometimes  think the word  konnichiwa  (㠁“ん㠁 °Ã£â€šâ€œÃ£  ¯) is a general greeting to be used at any time of day, it actually means good afternoon. Today, its a colloquial greeting used by anyone, but it can be part of the more formal greeting:  Konnichi  wa  gokiken  ikaga  desu ka?  (ä »Å Ã¦â€" ¥Ã£  ¯Ã£ â€Ã¦ ©Å¸Ã¥ «Å'㠁„㠁‹ã Å'㠁 §Ã£ â„¢Ã£ â€¹?). This phrase loosely translates into English as â€Å"How are you feeling today?† Konbanwa Good Evening:  Just as you would use one phrase to greet someone during the afternoon, the Japanese language has a different word for wishing people a  good evening.  Konbanwa  (㠁“ん㠁 °Ã£â€šâ€œÃ£  ¯) is an informal word you can use to address anyone in a friendly manner, though it can also be  used as part of a larger and more formal greeting. Mastering these greetings and parting words is a great early step in learning Japanese. Knowing the correct way to greet others, and to say goodbye, in Japanese demonstrates respect and an interest in the language and culture.

Contract Law and Case Law Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Contract Law and Case Law - Coursework Example As the report declares the doctrine of consideration is considered by most people in the legal profession to be the most problematic doctrine within common law . There has been some considerable debate for a number of years as to whether this doctrine should be removed based on the confusion that is noted as often arising often result from its application, however a concrete decision is yet to be made in this respect. This paper stresses that lawyers often pose the argument that all contracts must as a matter of necessity be supported by an agreed upon consideration. In line with this argument, if an individual happens to promise anther party that he will perform a given act without there being any promise made in return, such an agreement is technically unenforceable as there will be no consideration exchanged in the contract agreement. In such a situation, the promisor is considered to be losing something without any gain while the promise on the other hand is considered to have made a gain without incurring any loss. However, if a promise happens to be made and the promise actually offers a promise in return, such an agreement is considered as having consideration and the contract that is entered into is legally enforceable. The case of Williams V. Roffey Bros & Nicholls is considered to have change the traditional rules surrounding the doctrine of consideration as had been set out in the rulin g that was made in the case of Stilk v. Myrik.