Summary and personal response Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Synopsis and individual reaction - Assignment Example She additionally utilizes the cultural status to represent the reasoning limit that remains alive between the well off and the poor in the general public. In this piece, Kim shares her youth occasions and encounters as her family is confronted with neediness. This paper will quickly investigate Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s propensities and set up significant viewpoints identifying with the piece. The principle motivation behind the writer recorded as a hard copy this piece is to clarify the difficulties she encounters in living between two unique nations. She verbalizes her passionate state to the social hardships that she needs to modify after her family moved from South Korea to Queens New York. These two nations likewise have various societies and convictions. Her companions proceed to depict her experience as being ‘fresh off the boat’ (Roen, Glau and Maid 2010). She, in any case, neglects to comprehend why the children call her F.O.B while she flew in to the United States with their family. She is combined with worry as she makes a decent attempt consolidating another lifestyle that she has no understanding or accustoms in convictions. The general type of this piece is an account paper. The entire piece represents her taking in process in changing from an affluent young lady to a poor young lady. It likewise shows the moves combined with her change to variou s ways of life as an adolescent. Kim utilizes an assortment of tones, for example, anguish, disarray, just as disappointment. The fundamental by and large tone in the piece, in any case, is disappointment. The creator is encountering mental move and changes in the cultural viewpoint due to moving into the US. The creator in actuality portrays the movement experience as ‘the incredible equalizer’. She portrays the 1.5 age issue in which she relates to because of the change emergency that she faces. Nonetheless, as time passes by, the tone changes to accomplishment. She gets settled in communicating in English as her subsequent language. She additionally discovers different Koreans like her that confronted the equivalent

Who Was Jesus Essays - Jesus And History, Christology,

Who Was Jesus? A Humanities Essay That Teaches The Study of The Bible As A Historical Document I felt an exceptionally positive impression of who Jesus was after completing the Book of Matthew. I had another picture of somebody who was a rational, caring person. I didn't discover statements of Jesus that guaranteed being better than the regular man, of whom miscreants couldn't view (a view that a great many people had of their Divine beings for quite a long time previously). Matthew 12:49-50, Jesus reports to hoards that they are his mom and siblings. In that manner, he puts himself at an equivalent level to the individuals, as opposed to professing to be a God above them. This mirrors the entirety disposition of the book. Parts 6-7 of Matthew quote Jesus as he is introducing guidelines for effective living to the hoards. To me, these sounded like clues to having a glad existence for yourself. Jesus reflects a God that doesn't anticipate that virgins or creatures should be yielded in His name; at the same time, a God that is satisfied by adherents that adoration not just God, yet each other moreover. These appear straightforward, sensible life affirming guidelines. Be that as it may, they mirrored a period in history where that sort of adoration for each other was elusive in view of the hardships caused upon the individuals. I discover some contention in Jesus' activities, be that as it may. Jesus never (supposedly) says to overlook to decrees of God in the Hebrew Scriptures; be that as it may, continually breaks the Sabbath (Matt 12:13 and others), and gives VERY wobbly and unconvincing clarifications for it. I don't know what his message was in those activities. Maybe he couldn't have cared less? When all is said in done, Matthew was a decent, engaging story to peruse, with an emotional completion, and incredible character improvement (a minimal mocking amusingness here)! I was astounded to discover a great part of the Book of Mark a rehash of what was written in Matthew, however with somewhat less detail, and a couple of stories discarded. Jesus goes a little over the edge on the illustrations! The vast majority of the illustrations should have been disclosed to his followers, and some of them I couldn't see either! Albeit numerous illustrations have a decent, moving ethics to them, I would address Jesus as to on the off chance that they were a compelling method to observer to average citizens. Indeed, even today, an excessive number of individuals read illustrations as TRUTH, as opposed to only a story. Plus, they are misjudged. Yet, I need to reveal to you that an astounding happenstance occurred to me after I wrapped up the Parable of The Pearl of Great Value. two or after three hours, I was viewing an old scene of Star Trek on TV, and 'Scotty' had really cited the equivalent, precise illustration toward the finish of the show! Amusing that the scholars of Star Trek foresee the future to even now hold a similar religion as presently, and 2000 years prior. Both Matthew and Mark expound on the piece of Pilate in His execution. I can't help thinking that Pilate was a hero, and would not generally like to have Jesus executed in light of the fact that he didn't see anything that He fouled up (when contrasted with Barabbas, the killer). (Imprint 15:1-15) As an obvious actuality, I see that Pilate attempted to give Jesus one more opportunity by requesting that the group pick to rebuff the Murderer, or Jesus. At that point, 'disavowed this torturous killing after the choice was made. For what reason is Pilate depicted as a 'Hero' in these books while we know, generally, that Pilate was NOT a companion to the Jews? In the wake of perusing these books, I get the inclination that Jesus was here to spare the Jewish individuals, not the gentiles (like the majority of the present Christians). I can't discover the spot, yet Jesus appeared hesitant to focus on a wiped out gentile, yet at long last recuperated her on account of her confidence. Indeed, he is the ruler of the Jews, that is said in numerous spots. Yet, was Jesus here to spare just Jews, or the individuals in all the world (like Rome, the Sumarites, and so forth.)? That sort of causes me to feel uncertain of why Christianity has become the essential religion of

Free Essays on Moores Ford Lynchings

The Long Route Home: On July 25, 1946, two youthful dark couples-Roger and Dorothy Malcom, George and Mae Murray Dorsey-were murdered by a lynch crowd at the Moore’s Ford Bridge over the Appalachee River associating Walton and Oconee Counties (Brooks, 1). The four casualties were tied up and shot many occasions visible to everyone by a crowd of exposed men; murder weapons included rifles, shotguns, guns, and an assault rifle. â€Å"Shooting a dark individual resembled shooting a deer,† George Dorsey’s nephew, George Washington Dorsey said (Suggs C1). It has been more than fifty years and this case is as yet unsolved by police agents. It is realized that there were atleast twelve men engaged with these killings. Remembered for the four that were known by name was Loy Harrison. Loy Harrison might not have been an undeniable suspect to the specialists, however Harrison was the sole culprit in the unsolved Moore’s Ford Lynching case. The rationale seemed, by a ll accounts, to be contempt and the wrongdoing hurt the picture of the state leaving the town in a shock because of the bad form that left the casualties in plain graves (Jordon,31). Numerous African Americans lived on ranches and tended for white landowners. Bounce Hester was a landowner, on this ranch the Moore’s Ford Lynching started. On July 14, Roger Malcom followed Dorothy Malcom to Hester’s ranch, Roger was contending with her. As indicated by the first FBI report, Hunter 2 Hester’s child, Barney, advised Malcom to leave. As he was forgetting about a battle broke among Malcom and Hester. Malcom then pulled out a blade and cut Hester in the chest. The explanation behind the contention is dubious in spite of the fact that around then Barney Hester may have been having an illicit relationship with Dorothy Malcom. One of the neighbors said that the dark network felt it had more to do with sex than all else did (Suggs,C1). After the battle broke out, Barney He ster was taken to the emergency clinic and Roger Malcom was brought to prison. On the morning before the lynchings, Harrison d... Free Essays on Moore's Ford Lynchings Free Essays on Moore's Ford Lynchings The Long Route Home: On July 25, 1946, two youthful dark couples-Roger and Dorothy Malcom, George and Mae Murray Dorsey-were murdered by a lynch horde at the Moore’s Ford Bridge over the Appalachee River interfacing Walton and Oconee Counties (Brooks, 1). The four casualties were tied up and shot multiple times without trying to hide by a horde of exposed men; murder weapons included rifles, shotguns, guns, and an automatic weapon. â€Å"Shooting a dark individual resembled shooting a deer,† George Dorsey’s nephew, George Washington Dorsey said (Suggs C1). It has been more than fifty years and this case is as yet unsolved by police examiners. It is realized that there were atleast twelve men associated with these killings. Remembered for the four that were known by name was Loy Harrison. Loy Harrison might not have been a conspicuous suspect to the agents, yet Harrison was the sole culprit in the unsolved Moore’s Ford Lynching case. The intention had all t he earmarks of being contempt and the wrongdoing hurt the picture of the state leaving the town in a shock because of the treachery that left the casualties in plain graves (Jordon,31). Numerous African Americans lived on ranches and tended for white landowners. Sway Hester was a landowner, on this ranch the Moore’s Ford Lynching started. On July 14, Roger Malcom followed Dorothy Malcom to Hester’s ranch, Roger was contending with her. As per the first FBI report, Hunter 2 Hester’s child, Barney, advised Malcom to leave. As he was forgetting about a battle broke among Malcom and Hester. Malcom then pulled out a blade and cut Hester in the chest. The explanation behind the contention is unsure despite the fact that around then Barney Hester may have been having an illicit relationship with Dorothy Malcom. One of the neighbors said that the dark network felt it had more to do with sex than all else did (Suggs,C1). After the battle broke out, Barney Hester was take n to the emergency clinic and Roger Malcom was brought to prison. On the morning before the lynchings, Harrison d...

Malnutrition and Nutrition Programs in Malaysia

Ailing health and Nutrition Programs in Malaysia Substance (Jump to) Section 1 : INTRODUCTION Section 2: BURDEN OF MALNUTRITION IN MALAYSIA Section 3: CURRENT MALNUTRITION INTERVENTION Programs-The points, technique and assessment 3.1 Breastfeeding program 3.2 Rehabilitation Program for Malnourished Children 3.3 Other Main Nutrition Intervention Programs Section 4: DISCUSSION To contrast and the created nations Part 6: CONCLUSION Part 7: REFERRENCE Part 1 : INTRODUCTION Lack of healthy sustenance in the entirety of its structures is characterized as all types of poor nourishment. It identifies with irregular characteristics in vitality, and explicit large scale and micronutrients-just as in dietary examples. Ordinarily, the accentuation has been corresponding to deficiency, yet it likewise applies to abundance admission or wrong dietary examples. It is a wide term normally utilized as option to under-sustenance yet in fact it likewise alludes over-nourishment. Kid ailing health was related with 54% of youngster demise (10.8 million kids) in creating nations in 2001, despite the fact that is it seldom the immediate reason for death. Undernutrition is the immediate consequence of lacking dietary admission, the nearness of infection, or the cooperation of these two variables. The danger of kicking the bucket from an infection as twice as high for somewhat malnourished youngsters, multiple times as high for those modestly malnourished and multiple times more noteworthy for kids delegated serious malnourished when contrasted with ordinary kids (UNICEF 1996). Fundamental reasons for lack of healthy sustenance are shifted. Diseases among kids, including helminthiasis can add to hunger, showed as paleness, hindering and additionally debilitated youth advancement. Intermittent affliction and looseness of the bowels among newborn children who are not breastfed can bring about hunger and in the long run sway their ordinary development and improvement. Tuberculosis among youngsters and grown-ups is connected to poor sustenance. Then again, dietary examples are moving from customary weight control plans to slims down in whi ch dominatingly handled nourishments are devoured. These nourishments are of constrained dietary quality, as a rule wealthy in immersed fats, sugar and salt. While the weight of undernutrition among youngsters and constant vitality insufficiency (CED) in grown-ups keep on being major wholesome worries in numerous pieces of Asia, the weight of overweight and corpulence is getting progressively far reaching in the area (Khor 2008). Overweight and stoutness are characterized as unusual and unreasonable fat aggregation that present a danger of wellbeing. They are related with non-transmittable maladies, for example, stroke, hypertension, cardiovascular infection, type 2 diabetes and certain type of malignancy. Aside from that, ongoing examination indicated that undernutrition during early life can later prompt overweight or heftiness by inciting vitality preservation system in the body that can endure into adulthood. Serious healthful hardship in fetal and early post-natal period followed by a fast make up for lost time development in youth is presently known to expand the danger of overweight and weight (Florentino 2014). WHO (2008) appraises more than 1.4 billion grown-ups, 20 and more established, were overweight which more than 200 million men and almost 300 million ladies were large. By and large, over 10% of the world’s grown-up populace was fat. The worldwide pervasiveness of overweight and weight in youngsters matured five to 19 years is 10% (Kipping et al. 2008). It was likewise revealed that overall commonness of overweight and corpulence in preschool kids expanded from 4.2% in 1990 to 6.7% in 2010 and the pervasiveness in Asia is 4.9%, with the quantity of influenced youn gsters was around 18 million and this pattern is relied upon to arrive at 9.1%, or 60 million, in 2020 (Onis et al. 2010). Section 2: BURDEN OF MALNUTRITION IN MALAYSIA From the period when quite a long while of freedom, Malaysia was an immature nation with high pace of neediness and craving. Destitution is firmly connected with restricted access to sound food and poor access to social insurance prompting issues, for example, undernutrition and other related diseases. Ongoing National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) IV has uncovered that the predominance of underweight and squandering for youngsters matured underneath 18 years is 16.1 and 17.8% separately and it was accounted for 6.1% kids were stout. Study by Poh et al. (2013) among kids a half year to 12 years indicated that the predominance of overweight (9â ·8 %) and heftiness (11â ·8 %) was higher than that of slimness (5â ·4 %) and hindering (8â ·4 %). No doubt the aftereffects of the NHMS 2011 showed a higher commonness of undernutrition than that of overnutrition, while Poh et al. (2013) detailed the inverse was valid. It might be because of various cut-off point as NHMS utilizing CDC (2000) while Poh et al. (2013) utilizing WHO development diagram or could be because of the diverse examining convention. We can presume that Malaysia despite everything shows higher commonness of undernutrition and simultaneously expanding pattern of overweight and stoutness. Creating nations incorporating Malaysia are in a condition of fast financial progress because of for the most part improving earnings, expanding industrialization, urbanization and globalization. This has offered ascend to changing way of life and diet from one with elevated level physical of movement and diets dependent on plant food, to one with more significant level of stationary way of life and diet of expanding vitality based, for example, high starch, high sugar and high in fat. The overabundance vitality from these nourishments may influence grown-up and youngsters inside the family in an unexpected way. For example, little youngsters may effortlessly go through the overabundance vitality and still be underweight while grown-ups may wind up putting on weight. These adjustments in utilization and physical action lead to rising commonness of overweight and heftiness particularly in grown-ups thus expanding in NCD. The progressions in financial advancements throughout the years in Malaysia have gotten an improvement the general healthful status of the nation. Be that as it may, pockets of lack of healthy sustenance despite everything exist, especially among the rustic zones. In this way, Malaysia presently needs to confront twofold weight of ailing health (DBM) as the new pattern develop in. Part 3: CURRENT MALNUTRITION INTERVENTION Programs-The points, system and assessment The point of sustenance program is to plan, execute and create nourishment administrations to accomplish and keep up the wholesome prosperity of the populace and advance smart dieting rehearses. The program plans to screen and assess the wholesome status of Malaysian populace and aid nourishing reconnaissance. It likewise to plan, actualize and assess the sustenance wellbeing projects, exercises and advancement. Sustenance intercessions to improve the dietary prosperity of the Malaysian populace have been actualized by the Ministry of Health as a team with different services. The projects and exercises that have been completed incorporate easing of macronutrient and micronutrient lacks, nourishment advancement and improving family unit food security. 3.1 Breastfeeding program Malaysia has delineated a couple of systems so as to battle ailing health in kids and youths. It begins from birth of the infant by elevating restrictive breastfeeding as long as a half year old enough as per National Breastfeeding Policy. The point is to guarantee the child get the advantages and supplement from bosom milk. Study shows that breastfeeding is defensive against contaminations and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and this impact is more grounded when breastfeeding is selective (Fern R. Hauck 2011). In 1993, the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia embraced the WHO/UNICEF Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). This activity plans to increment breastfeeding among all ladies in Malaysia in accordance with the WHO proposal of at any rate a half year of elite breastfeeding, to engage ladies to settle on right decisions on taking care of their children and to make helpful conditions in emergency clinic and from that point for ladies who wish to breastfeed. What's more, MOH started Baby Friendly Clinic venture in 2006 focusing on wellbeing facilities and country centers in Malaysia. It plans to urge moms to breastfeed their infants solely from birth up to the initial a half year and proceed until two years of age. Study by Tan (2011) demonstrated the commonness of select breastfeeding among moms with newborn children matured somewhere in the range of one and a half year was 43.1% (95% CI: 39.4, 46.8). Predominance of opportune commencement was 63.7% (CI: 61.4 65.9) and the proceeded with pervasiveness of breastfeeding as long as two years was 37.4% (CI: 32.9 42.2) (Fatimah Jr et al. 2010). The discoveries recommend that the projects actualized over the most recent ten years were compelling in improving the pervasiveness of ever breastfeeding, opportune commencement of breastfeeding and kept breastfeeding as long as two years 3.2 Rehabilitation Program for Malnourished Children The fundamental macronutrient insufficiency issue among Malaysian youngsters is protein and vitality unhealthiness. This is showed in offspring of being underweight for their age. Recovery Program for Malnourished Children, otherwise called â€Å"Food Basket Program† has been begun by Ministry of Health in 1989 as an exertion government to build the wellbeing and dietary status among kids under 6 years of age (Ministry of Health 2009). In these program kids that satisfied the standards will be given â€Å"food basket† to assist them with having a fair and nutritious eating regimen so they could have ideal physical and mental development. The kids were additionally given close consideration and fitting treatment on any disorder, wellbeing training and legitimate medicinal services. The models for qualification are kids matured between a half year to 6 years of age who are extreme underweight (weight-for-age not exactly - 3SD of the middle) or moderate underweight (weight-for-age between - 2SD and - 3SD) and from in-your-face poor families (family unit pay under RM430 or RM110 per capita for Peninsular Malaysia; less tha

How to Change Your Purchasing Decisions

How to Change Your Purchasing Decisions In this short video, Joshua Ryan discuss purchasing habits with Kevin Rose. We know you may not always have time to listen to an entire podcast episode, so we’re posting Quickie Episodes of the The Minimalists Podcast every day on our YouTube channel. The average Quickie is less than 20 minutes and covers only a single topic or question. Subscribe to The Minimalists via email.

Mythology In Shakespeare - Literature Essay Samples

Many of Shakespeare’s plays contain the structural and symbolic elements of mythology. The inheritance of mythological conventions, which shall be explored in this essay, create an effect that is ritualistic and leads to Nietzsche’s observation of ‘an overpowering feeling of unity which leads back to the heart of nature’. This essay is not claiming that Shakespeare applied mythic elements to his plays consciously but that Shakespeare’s plays demonstrate a strong level of acquaintance with ancient myths and folklore. This level of acquaintance is perhaps so deeply imbedded as part of the universal imagination that arguing whether or not the plays’ mythic elements were consciously applied is unnecessary. The aim here is to identify strong mythological strains in order to place Shakespeare in a wider historical and human context, and speculate as to the effects achieved by inclusion of these elements. Through a consideration of Frazer’s ca nonical anthropological text, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1890), primarily, this essay will assert that the effect of Shakespeare’s mythological aspects is one that communicates in a symbolic language that is universal. Although Michael Levenson claimed that ‘Vague terms still signify’, it is best for the purposes here to elucidate what is meant by the term ‘myth’. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘myth’ as ‘A traditional story, typically involving supernatural beings or forces, which embodies and provides an explanation, aetiology, or justification for something such as the early history of a society, a religious belief or ritual, or a natural phenomenon’. This is an apt definition for the elements in Shakespeare that can be termed ‘mythological’ as parallels can be observed between them and those that occur in societies in history and the ritualistic practices of those societies. Sir James Frazer, in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, writes that ‘even the savage cannot fail to perceive how intimately his own life is bound up with the life of nature, and how the same processes which freeze the stream and strip the earth of vegetation menace him with extinction. At a certain stage of development men seem to have imagined that the means of averting the threatened calamity were in their own hands, and that they could hasten or retard the flight of the seasons by magic art’. In The Tempest, Prospero is the archetypal sorcerer; a figure that is evocative of the shamans of ancient cultures. He talks of his ability in magic as ‘mine art’ (I. ii. 291) and controls spirits, such as Ariel, to govern natural ‘calamity’ by invoking the gods: ‘Jove’s lightning’ (I. ii. 201) and the ‘dread trident’ of ‘the most mighty Neptune’ are both summoned. In creating Prospero as a sorc erer, controlling nature, Shakespeare is alluding to the idea of the playwright as sorcerer. As well as the several instances where Propsero refers to his ‘so potent art’ (V. i. 50), there are other indications that the audience is supposed to infer a similarity between Prospero and playwright, playwright and shaman. Prospero states that the other protagonists ‘now are in my power’ (III. iii. 90) and sees this as a demonstration that his ‘high charms work’ (88). Later in the play, as if speaking the words of the playwright anticipating the fiction’s narrative arc and resolution, Prospero informs Ariel that ‘Shortly shall all my labours end’ (IV. i. 264). In drawing parallels between the sorcerer figure and the playwright, Shakespeare shows that, in the same way that the ancient priest exerted control over his environment through magic, the playwright exerts control over his audience through the magic and illusion of the stag e. The magic and illusion of the stage can be seen metaphorically, in The Tempest, through the recurring motif of sleeping and dreaming, whilst Shakespeare points to the artifice that creates the illusion of the stage through placing a play-within-a-play in works such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is significant, in The Tempest, that Ariel’s first appearance comes directly after Prospero has induced sleep in his daughter, Miranda. He tells her that ‘Thou art inclined to sleep; ‘tis a good dullness, | And give it way. I know thou canst not choose’ (I. ii. 185-6). Prospero’s power to induce sleep contains the playwright’s self-conscious aim to, in the words of Coleridge, solicit the audience it ‘yield’ itself ‘to a dream’. This is reinforced by Artaud’s assertion that the ‘audience will believe in the illusion of theatre on condition they really take it for a dream, not for a servile imitation of real ity’. Once Miranda is asleep, Prospero can call his spirit to ‘Approach’ (188), in the same way that Shakespeare can construct the siege at Harfleur, in Henry V, once the Chorus has instructed the audience to ‘work your thoughts, and therein see a siege’ (III. 25). These are self-conscious elements, like the recitation of charms, that preceed, and then induce, the dream-like state. The connection between dreams and myth is one that simultaneously shows both to evoke a symbolic language and infer a primitive past, which used ritual to celebrate the death and rebirth of a god. Northrop Frye sees a connection between the two, in his Anatomy of Criticism (1957), and talks about ‘a rhythmic movement from normal world to green world and back again [†¦] The green world has analogies, not only to the fertile world of ritual, but to the dream world that we create out of our own desires’. The idea of descending into a dream state, like one does in the theatre, or like the protagonists of The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream do, recalls the death of an ancient god because the descension into a dream is similar to the god’s descension into death. The god’s death is dreamlike due to the fact that he has the ability to rise again, or ‘Awake’ (306), to use Prospero’s instruction to Miranda. The god awakes because of a ritual controlled by a priest, who needs the god’s rebirth in order for the environment to be fertilised. Frazer recalls that ‘every year Tammuz was believed to die, passing away from the cheerful earth to the gloomy subterranean world’ (326). In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the protagonists also pass into a ‘subterranean world’. To call Shakespeare’s other-world ‘gloomy’, however, would be incorrect. Instead, Shakespeare constructs a world that is vibrant and colourful in order to make the idea of his play’s function as ritual for fertility more overt. The aim of descension in order to return revitalised is implicit in Demetrius’ comment to Helena, that he is ‘wode within this wood’ (II. i. 192). In the word ‘wood’ the idea of fertility is conjured, whilst ‘wode’ is a play on words suggesting both ‘wooed’, further suggesting the attempt to attain fertili ty, and the idea of ‘frenzy’, as the word derives from the Old English ‘wÓd’. The ‘subterranean world’ of A Midsummer Night’s Dream may not be ‘gloomy’ but there is a sense of frenzy as the protagonists attempt to fulfill their sexual desires. The idea of descension into another world as reminiscent of the rivival rituals of primitive societies is one that manifests itself not only in Shakespeare’s plays. Literature has used the convention of dreaming as a means for its protagonists to learn and change as early as the Breton Lays and romantic poetry of the Medieval era in British history. This can be seen in the dreaming that preceeds the hero’s adventure in Sir Orfeo and the change of the dreamer’s perspective in Pearl, to name just two. The link between sleep and death is also one that has been well established by Shakespeare’s time of writing; a level of knowledge about the synonymous nature of sleep with death can be inferred in The Tempest in one of Ariel’s songs. The spirit sings, ‘Full fathom five thy father lies, | Of his bones are coral made; | Those are pearls that were his eyes, | Nothing of him that doth fade | But doth suffer a sea-change | Into something rich and stran ge’ (I. ii. 397-402). Implicit in this song is the idea that death, like sleep, is not a finite point. It is a point for ‘change’. The influence of mythology on Shakespeare’s writing is apparent here not only in the philosophy that is evoked but in the application of water imagery; death is not just a change, but a ‘sea-change’. Shakespeare uses imagery of water that abounds in Frazer’s depiction of rituals celebrating Adonis and Osiris, among others, which then became common currency in the mythological stories of Christianity; the stories of water into wine and the ritual of water used in baptism are just two that show the symbol to be used to convey the idea of transmutation. The philosophy that is implicit in Ariel’s song, of one’s ‘bones’ becoming ‘coral’ and one’s ‘eyes’ becoming ‘pearls’ after death, is one that extends across historical cultures as vast as Egyptian to Roman to Oriental. The mythology of ancient Oriental cultures, in particular, would have been difficult for Shakespeare to have had access to. He would have known something of the Roman belief system from reading Plutarch’s Lives, but the philosophy of the Buddha would, most likely, have been inaccessible. Yet the Buddha’s idea of the one containing the many, and the many containing the one, is alluded to strongly in Ariel’s song. The symbolic mutability of death and sleep is further conveyed in Hamlet. Contemplating suicide, Hamlet repeats the phrase ‘To die, to sleep’ (III. i. 59) and wonders ‘what dreams may come’ ‘in that sleep of death’ (65). In focusing on two, of many possible, examples, it can be ascertained that Shakespeare’s mythology was one drawn from a universal pool, whether he knew it or not. Whilst the act of descending into a ‘subterranean world’, along with lexical and symbolic comparisons of sleep and death, aid the inferrence of a debt to the ancient mythologies of the dying god, it is in The Winter’s Tale that this idea is even more implicit. Hermione’s death and rebirth is both literal and symbolic. Literal in the sense, like in the myth of Adonis or the myth of Jesus, she really does die and she really does come to life again. Symbolic in the sense that this idea is portrayed in her body’s transmutation into a statue. This symbol recalls, and reinforces, the idea of the death of the father, in The Tempest, as a ‘sea-change’; like the ‘bones’ which have become ‘coral’, Hermione’s body has become marble. The expectation of Hermione’s revival is created in Paulina’s words: ‘I say she’s dead [†¦] If you can bring | Tincture or lustre in her lip, her eye, | H eat outwardly or breath within, I’ll serve you | As I would do the gods’ (III. ii. 203-7). In The Winter’s Tale, like in the myth of Adonis, anticipation of Hermione’s revival is inherent in her death. In Paulina’s words, Shakespeare alludes to the idea that this death and rebirth are entwined with the act of ritual and prayer; Paulina will serve the person who revives Hermione in the same way that she would serve the gods. The statue of Hermione is a means of symbolically encapsulating the idea of transformation; death and rebirth conglomerating together in one visually representative fixture. The statue is reminiscent of the effigies of gods that would be burnt or thrown out to sea as part of the fertility ritual. The idea for the effect of Shakespeare’s mythology as being one that communicates in a universal language arose from a reading of Là ©vi-Strauss’ essay, ‘The Structural Study of Myth’. In seeing the contradictory nature of mythology, and therefore suggesting its difficulty to define, Là ©vi-Strauss asked, ‘If the content of a myth is contingent, how are we going to explain the fact that myths throughout the world are so similar?’ He proceeds, in his essay, to analyze the semiotics of mythology on a linguistic level (‘sounds’ and ‘meaning’) in order to answer his own question: ‘Myth is language – to be known, myth has to be told; it is a part of human speech’. The Tempest, in demonstrating its visually and philosophically mythological elements, also shows, within its narrative, the idea that myth itself is language. The mythological elements of sleep and magic are juxtaposed with the recurring them e of language. Prospero instructs his earth spirit, Caliban, ‘Thou earth, thou: speak!’ (I. ii. 314), in a way that is reminiscent of the primitive priest invoking his environment to communicate with him. Interaction can be seen, among the protagonists who are not equipped with magic, to take place within the mythic framework. Ferdinand, in speaking with Miranda, exclaims, ‘My language? Heavens! | I am the best of them that speak this speech, | Were I but where ‘tis spoken’ (I. ii. 429-431); speech, here, is seen as a valuable tool in which to communicate with one’s environment. Removed from the environment in which his language is understood, Ferdinand is powerless. Further on in the play, once more time has been spent on the island and in Miranda’s company, Ferdinand learns to speak the language of mythology; he speaks from his ‘soul’ (III. i. 63) and implores ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’ to ‘bear w itness to this sound’ (68). In the microcosm of the island, speech is intricately bound with mythology; Sebastian observes, for example, that Antonio speaks a ‘sleepy language’ (II. i. 211). On a metatheatrical level, words are used by both playwright and sorcerer. Words are used to induce stage illusion and to construct myth. They are used to invoke spirits and gods. Caliban suggests all of this when he informs Stephano that ‘voices, | That if I then had waked after long sleep, | Will make me sleep again’ (III. ii. 138-40). Prospero, too, makes an inference between the illusion of mythology and the illusion of the stage as created by words: ‘These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits and | Are melted into air, into thin air [†¦] We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep’ (IV. i. 148-158). Freud saw dreams as arising from a need to sublimate desires. Dreams and myth coexist closely in Shakespeare’s plays and the idea of desire is added to this existence in statements such as Northrop Frye’s, in which the ‘dream world’ is created out of ‘our own desires’. Freud’s studies, particularly in The Interpretation of Dreams (1890), suggest that there are common desires in everyone and sees them manifested in dreams, mythological stories, and Shakespeare’s plays. A famous example is that of the ‘Oedipus Complex’. The complex takes its name, and what it designates, from Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex, which itself is influenced by a mythological background. Freud defines it , in ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’, as a ‘straightforward sexual object-cathexis towards his mother and an identification with his father which takes him as the model’. Freud saw this particular de sire as sublimated in dreams, mythology, and plays such as Hamlet. What mythology does, in a psychoanalytical sense, is give a language to universal desires. Lacan’s definition of a language, in ‘The Symbolic Order’ (The Function and Field of Speech and Language in Psychoanalysis), compounds the idea that mythology itself is a language: ‘What defines any element of a language as belonging to language, is that, for all the users of this language, this element is distinguished as such in the ensemble supposedly constituted of homologous elements’. The language of mythology in Shakespeare’s plays, that of dying and rebirth, speaks to the common desire of man to progress and for the seasons to continue their cycle. Jung, in the written format of his lecture ‘The Psychology of Rebirth’, confirms this: ‘The mere fact that people talk about rebirth, and that there is such a concept at all, means that a store of psychic experiences designated by that term must actually exist’. Shakespeare’s plays are at once indebted to the ritualistic practices of primitive times and at the same time use them as a means of communication. Shakespeare, like mythology, speaks in a language that is common to all of us. Bibliography: Artaud, Antonin, The Theatre and its Double, Calder (2005) Frazer, Sir James George, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Wordsworth (1993) Frye, Northrop, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays, Princeton (2000) Heller, Janet Ruth, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (1984) Jung, Carl, Four Archetypes, Routledge (2007) Rivkin, Julie, Michael Ryan, Literary Theory: An Anthology, Blackwell (1998) Shakespeare, William, The Riverside Shakespeare: Second Edition, 1997

Purly Imaginative Subject by Gary J. Kornblith - 933 Words

An essay written by Gary J. Kornblith, the main focus is on a purely imaginative subject. The use of this counterfactual approach is widely accepted as a methodology in research of causation. According to Kornblith, counterfactual exercises are necessary to â€Å"think more clearly about causation and to distinguish between essential factors and coincidental developments†(79). He uses the counterfactual method to present the idea that if Henry Clay had been elected in 1844, which he goes on to prove as plausible, we would be in a much different country. The thesis as a whole is stated as â€Å"†¦ My focus is on a different pair of wars: the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and the American Civil War of 1861-1865†¦ Rather than project a different military outcome, I posit the absence of the Mexican-American War†¦The key to peace in my counterfactual scenario is a victory by Henry Clay over James K. Polk in the very close presidential election of 1844†¦ As a result Texas would almost certainly have remained an independent republic in 1845, and the United States would not have gone to war with Mexico the following year. Based as it is on a highly plausible turn of events, this counterfactual scenario promises to advance our understanding of the causes of the Civil War†(77). He then adds the fact that there are two viewpoints that come from this counterfactual exercise; Revisionists, who believe that the Civil War could have been avoided, despite the sectional differences, and