Features of Twentieth Century Literature Essay

20th century is the age of modernism in literature. 20th century’s literature follows differently from the 19th century literature, because of importance given to presentation of human consciousness and human psychology. As result new narrative techniques like impressionism and stream of consciousness has been introduced, the purpose of whom is to highlight human perception. Impressionism has been adopted by many writers, replacing realism. 20th century is an age of emphasis on inner reality, therefore psychoanalysis and human psychology is an important part of literature. Experience is given structural support by, motifs, myths, and parallel themes. Isolation and, loss of hope in humanity are one of the salient themes of modern literature. E. M. Forster, Joseph Conrad and James Joyce are three prominent writers of the twentieth century, who applied modern techniques and themes in their novels. Human consciousness is an important aspect of 20th century novel. Human, thoughts, feelings and stimulations are much important constituent of the century s fiction. In fact â€Å"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man† is like a little world of Stephen’s mind, which is a result of an evolutionary process. Ulysses can be called the story of thought life of Stephen and Morgan within one day. Stream of consciousness is an emergent technique of 20th century novel, employed to explain human thoughts, feelings and stimulations. Stream of consciousness describes the flow of thoughts and feelings in the mind without a sequence, in other words in natural order.. Used for the first time by William James, Joyce gives new meanings to it by using in his novels, A Portrait, Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake . Joyce makes use of stream of consciousness technique In Ulysses Mr Prince dines alone in a restaurant . Joyce takes us to his mind journey; an internal monologue â€Å"here is the soup, the smoking soup. Be careful that the waiter does not splash me†¦ in’ A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man† Stephen’s flow of thoughts is revealed when he meets a man besides the bridge. : it must be eleven he thought†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. as he turned away he heard a clock somewhere near him†¦ he laughed as he heard it as it made him think of Mac Cann†. Isolation is an evident theme of 20th century literature. Stephen in† A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man †is detached from his world. Stephen is an individual who wants to break free from the barriers of nationalism, religion and society. Stephen is standing apart from his fellows and peers,†but he apart from them and in silence, remembered in what dread he stood†¦ † Experience gets a structural support in modern literature, through parallel themes and use of myths. Ulysses is written parallel to odyssey. A portrait of the artist as a young man has the myth of Daedulus employed in it. In the writing of English fiction, the narrative technique has shifted from realism to a new method of impressionism. The purpose of impressionism is to lay stress on human perception and knowledge. It began from the work of Walter Pater and Henry James to flourish in the hands of, James Joyce, among others. Impressionism is vivid in â€Å"A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man†. Joyce uses impressionism in the epiphanic moment of Stephen’s life when he comes to know that he cannot repress nature and therefore his natural inclinations†. She seemed like one whom magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird.. :† Impressionism is also employed in Joseph Conrad’s †Heart of Darkness†, which is a journey from darkness to light for Marlowe. Therefore he perceives things, learns and gets knowledge by interpreting things around him. Conrad employs impressionism for this process. .†Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with their legs drawn up†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ his brother phantom rested his forehead†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. † Imperialism and colonization is one of the modern themes in 20th century English literature. A Passage to India and, Heart of Darkness throw light on manipulation by man when he is in power. Both works utilize Britain’s Age of Empire as a backdrop for the narratives and they explore British attitudes and behavior in the foreign locales of the imperial frontier. Ivory has a strong drive for white man and he does not leave any chance to get it. The action of each work takes place against the backdrop of Empire Heart of Darkness has the morbidity and pathos of modern literature, as it shows the gruesome face of mankind. Conrad has lack of hope in the modern man. Therefore Heart of Darkness raises important questions about the development of civilization. The civilized man plays havoc with the surroundings of the jungle, unchecked by rules and regulations. The developed society thus is held questionable. The white man plays a worse role than the barbaric who according to Marlowe’s observation probably don’t even know the concept of time. Heart of darkness is also a journey of self realization, both of Marlowe and Kurtz. Marlowe has a passion for maps since childhood. Maps lead towards new ways and help in exploration. Marlowe explores human self and the rotten truths of colonization during his journey up to the river to meet Kurtz. Heart of darkness has the perspective quality of 20th century literature. Conrad places the narrator inside the action of the story in order to remain impersonal. The narrator has an individual voice he interprets the things in his own way and thus we see a perspective of an individual. Conrad does not project any ideology or theory, but just scans the grim faces of mankind. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster is a novel on colonial rule and differences between the natives and British are revealed. It is a relationship between colonized and the colonizer. It discusses the modern problem of clash between cultures . It is a discourse on the cultural differences between two nations. In A Passage to India, the story of Adela Quested false accusation against the Indian Dr. Aziz ,that he attempted to rape her on an expedition to the Marabar Caves, becomes symbolic of the distortions of understanding and interpretation that can occur between cultures, and of the injustice that inevitably occurs when one people holds power over another . The passage to India is a discourse on the in understandable existence of man. It has the questions about the man’s existence which are the feature of 20th century literature. Marabar Caves themselves are an important symbol Their freezing regularity, hard to decipher echo that follows any sound made within them, come to represent the nullity of human action, the meaninglessness of existence. As in all 20th century literature the psychological effect of the colonization is clear in a passage to India. The British people cannot come out of the psychological influence that they are a much exotic race than the Orientals, where as the natives are hostile to them. As a result it ends up that with their given psychologies the two nations cannot unite. Ms Adela quested cannot stand the reality, the real India and her illusion becomes symbolic of the psychological crisis. Ms Moore undergoes a transformation as compared to other English men.

Case in motivation and teamwork of Starbuck Essay

                 Formal teams are teams whose structures are clearly defined mainly of the basis of specialization. In these types of teams, the members are not equal and every one of them has a rank (Moorhead & Griffin, 73). For example, there are managers, supervisors and other junior employees. It is worthy noting that every member of a formal team performs their specific duties. For example, managers stay in their offices and issues directives to their juniors. On the other hand, informal teams have no structure and all team members are seen as equal regardless of their specialty. In these types of teams, any member can perform any task. Question 2               A team in Starbucks consists of three to six people and this helps the employees to know each other well. Any opinion expressed by employees is given an equal significance regardless of their position.                The top management at Starbucks work together with their juniors which makes them more familiar and closer compared to other bureaucratic companies.               The management at Starbucks treats all employees as equals and this is aimed at reducing the gap between the employees and the management.                   The top management at the company believes that employees are its main spirit. Consequently, the management adopts an interactive organizational structure that makes the employees love their jobs and perform them with passion. Question 3 a) The size of a team is an important factor because it determines how well the team members know each other. This is important because it brings about cohesion in the work place. b) The first benefit of Starbucks having small teams of staff in every branch is that the team members get to know each other better. Secondly, it improves communication within the group. Question 4                From the Starbucks case study, it is clear that there are three major issues that the company needs to address in its planning process namely listening to the opinion of its employees, equal treatment and ensuring good welfare for the employees.               Equal treatment- this is one of the major issues that the company needs to address in its planning process. Equal treatment requires all employees to be treated equally regardless of their position. According to the case study, it is clear that the management at the company treats all employees as equals and refers to them as partners. This is important because it narrows the gap between the employees and the management. Treating every employees fairly and equally in the workplace results in a friendly working environment. Consequently, if the issue of equal treatment is addressed in the planning process, it will help in creating closer working atmosphere and good management (Rynes & Rosen 64).                Listening to the employees- listening to the employees is other issue that requires to be addressed in the planning process. From the Starbucks case, it is clear that the company wants every employee to take part in developing plans and work as a team to achieve the set goals. Consequently, the company’s principles and policies are communicated to all employees, and there is no restriction in the employee’s individual opinions. By listening to the employees, makes them feel important which in turn motivates them hence increasing their productivity (Rynes & Rosen, 83). References Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. Managing organizational behavior. (10th ed.). Cengage Learning., 2012. Print Rynes, S., & Rosen, B. A field survey of factors affecting the adoption and perceived success of diversity training. Personnel Psychology, 1995. Print Source document

A Study of Trends in Indian Partition Literature Essay

The Partition of India was the geographical division of colonial India into two bordering nation states of India and Pakistan based on religious demographics.1 It was proposed as an unsavoury but necessary accompaniment to the Independence of India from the British Empire. However, it was not only a diplomatic and administrative exercise but rather had a long-lasting psychological impact on the human population of these areas. Though Bapu2 was firmly against this idea, it was reluctantly accepted by Nehru and Jinnah as the only solution to the growing communal divide between the Muslim and Hindu communities. 3 However, what the political class had never predicted was the unprecedented amount of bloodshed, violence and widespread civil unrest that followed in its wake. Even years after this event, the perpetrators and the victims are still baffled as to the cause of this â€Å"madness†4 that gripped civilized society. In the aftermath, historians pretended to ignore it terming it unfortunate but somewhat inevitable while literature tried to come to terms with its bestiality and future implications. The authorial response of the first generation was severely limited however due to a level of emotional attachment and involvement in the subject matter. They lacked perspective and varied in two ways: either they were very brief and lacked empathy or tended to be voyeuristic in nature. The official responses attempted to historicise Partition through statistics, facts and figures while literature, to the contrary attempted to give voice to subaltern perspectives personalising victim narratives. Despite such a movement, it was not until the 70’s that it was realised that hardly any attention was paid to the experiences of women during Partition. There was a deep reluctance to address the gender atrocities committed during Partition and it manifested itself through the invisibilisation of women voices. Although it had been clear from the start that the worst sufferers of Partition violence had been women5, a stoic silence upon the tragic reality had been maintained. Many of these women had led forgotten lives and their trauma suppressed in an attempt to forget the onslaught upon their bodies and minds. Therefore, renewed efforts began to document and portray the forgotten stories of such women. But it was a complex problem in many ways. Partition had had a multifaceted impact on the women of India and Pakistan that not only defined their coming lives but also impacted the future generations as psycho-somatic memories and construction of familial structures post-Partition.6 Literature took the initiative of this task: there were two major strains of women oriented Partition narratives that emerged in the period thus. One school of thought dealt with Partition as a backdrop to the â€Å"larger narrative†. In such stories, the lives of the main characters were highlighted and their lives were allegorised to represent the trauma of the nation itself. The stories of their existence were represented dually: as human beings involved in personal dramas and as social creatures part of a larger mainframe. Their places within the higher superstructure and as creatures dominated by the larger contexts were analysed by writers. A startling example of this was â€Å"The Clear Light Of Day† by Anita Desai which never referred to Partition in specific incidents but rather subtle, broken reflections into the people whose day-to-day lives were affected by the growing communal tension and changing socio-political equations. It refers to the ties of family, friendship, kinship and love that were abruptly ruptured by the literal division of the nation. There were novels such as â€Å"Ice-Candy Man† by Bapsi Sidhwa that looks at Partition from the ‘outside’. The narrator Lenny is imbued with unique qualities that were highly unconventional for the times. She was a child, hence she had a limited worldview, a Parsee, hence not religiously biased and neither a participant, physically disabled, therefore able to sympathise with the suffering of others and, a girl therefore her narration is unapologetically gender-conscious. What she learns, is all by association. The story is a sharp attack on official discourses that denied the suffering of millions of people. Lenny’s story is not only her own but a mirroring of girl-children everywhere that were faced with questions with identity, sexuality, community and nation as a whole and how they shaped individual lives. A child is brutally honest and spares nobody and nothing. She has no inbuilt prejudices so she can speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. As a result of such experimental tales, women felt ready to finally speak up. But, their attempts were met with more resistance than expected. They were themselves reluctant to speak about they went through; it was too painful but combined with societal pressures, their mouths had been almost sealed shut from fear. For daring to break this unspoken taboo, some of them faced severe consequences and were even disowned by their own families for besmirching the family name. But such actions often took a huge toll on their mental and physical health and though they had survived, they hadn’t healed. As a result of mass migration, women were abruptly uprooted from their homes to move to a strange and unfamiliar place. They had to build their lives and homes anew, sometimes with no support system. Many of these women were so bereaved at losing their home and hearth, that they could never recover from this sense of loss. Women in traditional society had since ancient days been tasked with looking after the home. Since they were not allowed to venture outside their domain7, the home had been almost personified for them. It was a living breathing space. The only place which they could rightfully stake claim to and which was a source of comfort and solace for them. They were so tangibly attached to their land that family was synonymous with home and her identity came to be defined by her place in the home. Hence when forced to migrate, their sense of unsettlement and upheaval was immense. They could never return to their past lives and change was not so easy for these women who had never been given the opportunity to trespass their comfort zones. Some stories that movingly illustrated the dilemmas of such women are â€Å"Jadein† by Ismat Chughtai, â€Å"Sikka Badal Gaya† by Krishna Sobti Sahni and â€Å"The Thirst Of Rivers† by Joginder Paul . These women had to undergo the process of relocating their selves. Many women like Bebe from â€Å"The Thirst†¦Ã¢â‚¬  refused to leave their homes assured of its protection from evils outside. However, their families were broken up with some members choosing to stay back and some leaving for a new land. Due to differences in opinion, family members become estranged and refused to talk to each other or had problems meeting each other due to large geographical distances. Often, migrants did not have enough money to travel back and forth and permits were hard to come by. Due to mutual hostilities, communication across borders was sketchy at best. Hence, many a times, a natural void between families occurred. All the while, the matriarch of the family remained a silent witness to events. The family ties that she had spent all her life building up and nurturing were breaking up right before her eyes and she was helpless, unable to act or intervene. Who would listen to her? Partition had served to further communal tension and hardening religious identities than perhaps any event in the history of India or Pakistan. People who had lived together for several millennia with tranquillity were suddenly made conscious of their differences from each other. They who had been friends earlier were suddenly staunch enemies and women bore the brunt of these realizations. In â€Å"Peshawar Express†8, one such incident is narrated when at Wazirabad station, where Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities had celebrated Baisakhi together for ages becomes a site of base humiliation and gruesome celebration; the women of the Hindu and Sikhs communities were paraded around naked as if they were nothing but objects of gratification for the general public. These women had become mere shells, their souls long dead. In Kamleshwar’s â€Å"Kitne Pakistan†, the author ruminates upon the fruitlessness of Partition and the breaking of bonds of families, love and friendships due to its occurrence. It is the story of a Muslim girl, Bano who falls in love with a Hindu boy, Mangal but is not able to marry him because of religious dogmas. She is told that she will cause communal riots. There is a hidden implication in this viewpoint that seems to say that the cause of every mishappening must be a woman somehow. Rules for men and women in traditional dogmatic societies are different It is ironic that men are not chastised for forcibly marrying a man of the other religion but they will not allow their daughters to choose her spouse on her own and he may never belong to another religion. There is rampant hypocrisy and hollowness in societal mores regarding women. Bano is married off to Muneer who unable to provide for his family with his own hard work resorts to selling his own wife’s body to earn money. The shamefulness of this situation is beyond imagination. These are not falsifications as advocated by fundamental religious leaders but a retelling of many women’s lives. Another kind of psychological trauma that many women underwent was the loss of a child. Many women were forced to leave their children by their husband and children during flight. Children became a burden during this time. They had to be cared for especially with crucial funds required by the family going for their supplies. Also, escapees with children were more vulnerable to attacks by rioters since they not only had to look after themselves but look after their child as well. There are real life cases documented by Urvashi Bhutalia in her book, â€Å"The Other Side Of Silence† wherein women of Muslim as well as Hindu communities were forced to desert their infants that could raise an alarm in the rioters by making noise. Sikh men told tales of killing their children, asking the author, if they should be saving themselves or their daughters? Clearly, man’s inherent selfishness had come to the fore where no one mattered more than the self. Many children were abducted during the widespread chaos to be sold off as domestic help or prostituted in the streets. Women who lost their children during this time were incessantly plagued by guilt and grief. One such woman was Kulsum from â€Å"Pali†9 who lost her child and along with him, her mental balance as well. She was blanketed completely by her grief and only the return of her child restored her sanity. But meanwhile, Zenab who had taken care of her son, Dilip when she found him lost had developed a motherly bond with him and cannot bear parting with him. She knows that she has no biological claim over him but what the mind knows, the heart does not. Eventually, she has to reconcile herself with the reality of her situation. But her life will forever be shadowed by this sadness. Women who were forced by circumstances to give up their child were forever haunted by their own actions and decisions. They were always in search of redemption and peace and could not reconcile themselves to the loss of their offspring. One example of this can be seen in â€Å"The Abandoned Child†10. Infant as well as toddler girls were left by the roadside or killed by their families to avoid making them a target. The life story of one such girl is narrated in â€Å"Where Did She Belong† by Suraiya Quasim wherein the protagonist Munni is not sure of her religious or national identity. She is pushed into prostitution by her so-called ‘saviour’11 , who only wants to use her for economic gain. She is deceived by two of her customers who pretend to love her, but leave her bereft when Partition happens. Nobody asks for her or enquires as to her whereabouts. She is deceived by everyone in her life, ultimately. There were also cases of women who were injured and deceived by members of their own community. People who had been their well-wishers and whom they trusted implicitly, took advantage of their vulnerability and preyed on their bodies. Ayesha’s12 story is the ultimate tragedy of such a ‘lady’13. In guise of protecting her and reuniting Ayesha with her daughter, Nurul takes her with him to Pakistan but betrays her trust by prostituting her instead. She is cursed to a life of assault, on her body and her mind. Her saviour turns out to her destructor. She dies a life of desolation, her own brethren refusing to come to her aid and never seeing her child again. Afroz too in â€Å"I Am Game†14 falls weak due to her instincts of providing and caring for daughter. Seeing no option left for herself and her child, she agrees to prostitution. This depicts to us the sad state of affairs during Partition, when uncertainty and insecurity reigned supreme. Man, woman or children, all had to protect themselves on their own and women for the sake of their families were forced into professions of exploitation to earn their keep. Besides these atrocities, women were also subjected to particularly vulgar sexual attacks. Writers like Ashis Nandy, Veena Das, and Mushirul Hasan describe the bizarre and horrific nature of sexual violence afflicted on women. It was pornographic in its varied forms. Their bodies were mutilated, disfigured, slogans15 branded on them like they were animals, their wombs sliced open and their foetuses savagely butchered. Women were reduced to spoils of war who were never allowed to unburden themselves or be free. They were reduced to a part of the multitude, just one of many. Many victims had been traumatised to an extent that they lost themselves to insanity. They could not cope with their reality. Many underwent derealisation16 wherein after the superficial wounds had mended, they started to deny that anything had ever happened to them. It became something of a nightmare, horrific but fantastical. Literature becomes a cathartic medium for many such women, a chance to narrate their tale. Such memoirs also provided a base for Partition scholars to analyse the feminine subject in social and historical contexts of that time period. Partition has often been termed as the dark underbelly17 of Independence but what it really exposed was the base attitudes of patriarchal Indian society, be it any religion. It revealed how women were equated with the community they belonged to. Though the violence was inter-religious in nature, the modes of inflicting violence were one and the same. All ethics were forgotten in the frenzy of religious vendetta. Revenge was used as an excuse to inflict wounds. They were the contested sites between two opposing factions and were devoid of any agency. One example may be an incident in â€Å"The City Of Sorrow†18 , where a man is forced to strip his sister naked by someone of the other religion. When given a chance to retaliate, he forces his tormentor to strip his own wife naked. Hence, the revenge is complete but ironically, in both cases, the women were the innocent parties who became the medium of exacting justice. They were expected to uphold familial and communal honour and were sacrificed at the altar of â€Å"izzat†19 if they were in danger of being captured by the enemy. The concept of honour was internalised20 hence any stain on it was beyond tolerance by patriarchal society. Therefore, to insult and hurt communal sentiments, it was natural that in order to debase the enemy and shed him of his honour, women of his community were targeted systematically. There were also women who had been indoctrinated to such an extent by religious propaganda that they committed suicide, misled into thinking that they were fulfilling their duty as women. This tradition dates back to the time of ancient Rajputs whose women committed Johar21 to sustain their honour. Hence, it has been a concept propagated throughout the history of religions, Hinduism especially. Bhishma Sahni in â€Å"Tamas† and Jyotirmoyee in â€Å"The River Churning† present such incidents where women of Hindu and Sikh communities drown themselves in wells in order to â€Å"save†22 themselves. Women of the family were the most precious possessions and were to be protected at all costs. However, when they presented an obstacle in the escape of their family, they were brutally â€Å"martyred†23 without compunctions by the family itself. The men of the family did it all in order to save themselves first and to prevent dealing with the hassle of looking after these women. Such people had no conscience in them. This is demonstrated in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s novel â€Å"What The Body Remembers† where the daughter-in-law of a Sikh family, Kusum is mercilessly killed by her father-in-law and furthermore chopped into pieces to prevent her from being â€Å"contaminated†24 by Muslims. Her womb is also removed as a symbolic gesture to signify her being pure25. We can therefore read into the implied fear and repulsion of a child born of an inter-religious union. Hence, Kusum is a victim of her own family’s moral code. Such incidents are not hyperbolic in nature but rather fictionalized accounts of reality. Women who were misfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the â€Å"other†26 and raped by them could never again return to their roots. They were dirtied and treated as untouchable because they had lost their chastity to the enemy. In â€Å"The River Churning†, the protagonist, Sutara is treated as a lower caste untouchable would be27. Though never raped, even staying in a Muslim household had damned her. She had become polluted like Sita. Like Sita, she became a victim of â€Å"social morality†.28 If women had become pregnant somehow, it was even worse for them. They were miscarried forcibly and if the child was born somehow, he or she was never accepted as a part of the family. Women themselves had to come to terms with their reality. They had to learn to let go of their self-loathing which often took root in their minds. They had to live with a child who was a constant reminder of their suffering. Yet, women learned to let go and forgive but their families could not move past this situation. The woman was given the choice of either abandoning her children or her family. Therefore, she was kept trapped in overlapping identities of woman, mother and daughter. There was no time to consider the interests of the self. The children of such women were often physically, mentally and verbally abused all throughout their lives. They were the victims of religious hatred. It left deep scars on their psyche that could never be repaired. They were often castigated for having lived and their mothers looked at with contempt for not having died in order to preserve themselves. Women often started hating their own selves when faced with a constant stream of disgust and repulsion. It is said that â€Å"Rape is the only crime where the victim is held guilty† and these women were the prime examples of this adage. They were made to feel guilty, demeaned and dehumanized to such an extent that they often felt that dying would perhaps have been a better option. Women were at the highest risk of being abducted during migration across borders. These women stranded on the wrong side were forcibly converted and married off to their abductors. They were raped repeatedly or sold off as entertainment. Women were objectified as commodities and their bodies became alien to their own selves. They were not their own persons but mere belongings. Anis Kidwai in her novel, â€Å"Azaadi Ki Chaon Mein† writes starkly about these girls who were nothing but stuff to be shared among the men who were, but slaves of their lust. In his short story, Open It!, Saadat Hasan Manto further elaborates upon the savagery doled out to these women. The main protagonist, Sakina had been ravaged to such an extent that she had lost her personality and her sanity. She was alive only physically, but emotionally and mentally dead. She knew nothing but what she had been forced to go through again and again. Her senses had been so wrecked that she only expects men to want one thing from her i.e. her body. This story presents a horrifying picture to the reader who is compelled to question if Sakina will ever recover from her trauma. Other women were forcibly married off to their abductors and underwent alienation of the self. They were conflicted as to their identities. On one hand, they felt abhorrence for their abductors. On the other hand, such marriages often bore children which caused these women to war with their motherly instincts. Ultimately losing all hope of rescue or restoration, these women had resigned to their life but, again, they were expected to return at the behest of the respective governments of the two countries. Women had become mere tools of diplomatic manoeuvring between the hostile governments who were under immense political pressure to retrieve the population of women that had been left behind or abducted during Partition. One such woman’s tale is narrated in â€Å"Exile†29 where the woman narrator is forcibly married to her abductor, Gurpal, a man who regards her as nothing more than a maid that he brought to serve his mother (Badi Ma). What is even more poignant is the fact that Badi Ma, a woman herself is not able to empathise with her Bahu30 or show kindness towards her. She is merely there to serve their needs, like a tool. Ironically, Gurpal who is clearly devoted towards his mother evidently has no guilt about ill-treating a woman of another community. We can see here the oppressive influence of patriarchal society that does not allow for women to exercise an opinion of their own. The narrator has never been able to accept Gurpal as her husband. In nine years she has never able to understand why her brother, whom she dearly loves has not come to rescue her. She feels lonely and abandoned by her loved ones. She longs for her home and wants her life to end at last so she can be at peace. When the soldiers arrive to rescue her, she knows that she cannot return since she will not be accepted back as a ‘mother’. And she cannot leave her children. Hence she hides from the soldiers. Her apprehension of the other option can be justified by reading â€Å"Lajwanti†31 whose tragedy is shrouded by complete silence. She was treated abominably by her husband, Sunderlal who asserts his domination over her body and mind by beating her like an animal. She bore it all as part of her wifely duties clearly adhering to traditional norms of domesticity. But when she is abducted during Partition chaos, her husband, perhaps, feeling remorse for how he had treated her, became a campaigner for the rights of abductee women. He advocates their rehabilitation and reacceptance into society but when his wife, Lajo is restored to him, he distances himself from her and sets her on the pedestal of a goddess. She feels alienated, lonely and longs for her old life where she could at least interact with her husband. In the present, her husband wants her to forget her sufferings and not to speak of them. But can the past really be forgotten as easily as he wanted it to be? Many women who had built new lives for themselves post-Partition often came face to face with their pasts when their lost loved ones returned back to them. In this situation, what was the woman to do? Should she abandon her present life to return to her past happiness? This is obviously a problem to which there is no clear-cut solution. But it was often expected of women to move on from their pasts and not look back but even they are living, breathing human beings with feelings and emotions. These may be unwanted but cannot be so easily banished from the mind. Women end up feeling conflicted all throughout their lives. One text that accurately depicts one such situation is â€Å"A Visitor From Pakistan†32 where the protagonist Saraswati is trapped between her first husband, Baldev whom she had thought dead; and her husband at present, Sunderdas who had saved her and her parents during the riots. Her own mother chastises her for even talking to Baldev so then who will understand her predicament? She is blamed for something that she is not even responsible for. Partition left a long-lasting impact on the women who witnessed and suffered through it. They passed on the lessons they learned to their daughters hoping for a better future for them. It is an important part of women’s history and it should be analysed carefully to change the conservative thought processes of Indian society to avoid women from becoming subjects of patriarchal oppression and break the repetitive patterns of history. END NOTES : 1. India and Pakistan were divided along the Radcliffe Line with Muslim majority areas seceded to Pakistan and Hindu-Sikh majority areas to India. 2. Mahatma Gandhi was deemed the â€Å"Father Of The Nation† and hence affectionately called Bapu by the general populace. 3. J.L. Nehru and M.A. Jinnah were leaders of the Congress party and Muslim League respectively. They were not agreeable to sharing power in the united govt. of sovereign India and hence the only option was to divide the country with both parties ruling over their majority vote areas. 4. The metaphor of madness was used by many Partition writers like Saadat Hasan Manto in â€Å"Toba Tek Singh† to describe the religious hatred that changed normal people into rioters, rapists and murderers. 5. J.L. Nehru stated this in The International Women’s Conference in 1947 alluding to the extreme violence perpetrated upon women in North India. 6. Ideas postulated by Carl Jung and supported by Freudian theories. 7. Women were kept under purdah and not allowed to meet with people outside the family. Women lived in separate quarters of the house called the ‘antahpur’ which was solely in their control. 8. written by Krishan Chander 9. written by Bhishma Sahni 10. written by Gurmukh Singh Musafir 11. Ironic since Munni’s saviour is herself a victim of circumstances and Munni is just a way to earn more money. 12. â€Å"A Grave Turned Inside Out† by Ibrahim Jalees 13. Ayesha was the lady of a noble family but debased to the level of a common prostitute. Shows that societal hierarchies were suspended during Partition. 14. written by Sultan Jamil Nasim 15. The slogans Hindustan Zindabad and Pakistan Zindabad were carved onto their bodies as validating gestures of the victimiser’s own national identity. 16. Derealisation is a psychological condition where the subject deludes himself/herself into thinking that their present reality is illusory and unreal and that reality is different. 17. Independence was achieved after a long struggle, so there was jubilation among the people but at the same time, this happiness was marred by the grief of Partition and its aftermath. 18. written by Intizar Hussain 19. Izzat is one of the basic concepts of Hindu womanhood where a woman’s honour is defined by her chastity and any outrage of her modesty stains her honour as well as her family’s. The family’s honour is an extension of the woman’s honour. 20. Internalisation is the process of integration of certain values as part of the self-identification. It becomes a part of one’s self-image. 21. Johar is the ancient Rajput tradition of women jumping into huge fire-pits to save their honour from the enemy’s army if defeat seemed imminent. 22. Women jumped into wells to protect themselves from rape and mutilation. Dying chaste was preferred to living a life of humiliation. Hence, they were saved in the eyes of society. 23. Women who committed suicide were venerated because they were believed to have died for a noble cause. Hence, their deaths received social sanction and appreciation. 24. If women were raped, their bodies no longer remained solely of their religion. And, hence, inter-religious taboos were applied to such women. Hence chopping of the bodies signified that no one of the other side had had sex with her or would be able to. 25. The womb was removed to signify that it did not carry a Muslim bastard child and her ability to do so is removed from her. 26. During conflict, the opposing faction is alienated and presented as someone strange and unfamiliar to the minds of the mob. This requires dehumanization of the people from the other side so that they do not evoke emotions of sympathy. 27. The taboos associated with untouchability are not allowing them to eat and drink from the same vessels and prevent from touching them. 28. Sita was banished from Ayodhya because even though she was pure, the people of Ram’s kingdom did not believe her. Doubts were cast on her character since she had lived in Ravana’s Lanka for a long time. 29. Written by Jamila Hashmi 30. When a bahu arrives in her marital household, she is bedecked with jewels, dressed in finery and serenaded by shehnai. She is full of happiness and hope. Here, the narrator is exactly opposed to this situation and yet, ironically she has become the bahu of a family. 31. written by Rajinder Singh Bedi 32. written by Ramlal BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. â€Å"Partition In Fiction: Gendered Perspectives†, Isabella Bruschi, New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd.,2010 2. In The Heat Of Fratricide: The Literature Of India’s Partition Burning Freshly (A Review Article)†,Jason Francisco 3. â€Å"Stories About The Partition Of India†, Vol. 1.,Ed. By Alok Bhalla, Delhi,Harper Collins, 1994 4. Re-Membering Woman: Partition,Gender And Reorientations, â€Å"Narrating Partition:Texts, Interpretations And Ideas†, Sukrita Paul Kumar, Indialog Publications,2004

Comparative International Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Comparative International Marketing - Assignment Example It is a well known fact that the famous and well known brands make use of multiple brand elements. For instance, Nike makes use of the ‘swoosh’ logo, ‘Just do it’ slogan and the legendary ‘Nike’ name based upon ‘winged goddess of victory’ (Wrenn, Kotler, & Shawchuck, 2009). Therefore, in this regards, it can be stated that the most recognized global brands tend to possess the various brand elements such as name, logo, and slogan as well as brand story. The six main parameters for choosing the brand elements are that they need to be meaningful, likable, memorable, adaptable, transferable and protectable (Wrenn, Kotler, & Shawchuck, 2009). Reasons for Preferring Global Brands In particular, the brands that operate across international borders and are widely recognized all over the world are generally categorized as global brands. Researches on global brands such as Adidas, Zara, and Nokia among others have established their benefits i n comparison to other brands. It is often assumed that the global brands tend to provoke greater favorable affect. They are perceived to be of considerably superior quality and thus enjoy greater recognition as well as trust. They have also been found to be evoking luring global myths and tend to have greater advantages in comparison to the local brands. Global brands demonstrate positive impact on brand esteem. Global brands are generally preferred by the customers because of their wide accessibility. These brands are well known, standardized, more multi-ethnic, and highly authoritative and are also observed to be depicting more social responsibility in comparison to other brands (Dimofte, Johansson, & Bagozzi, 2010). Role of Global Branding To Firms One of the significant advantages to the firms from global branding has been economies of scale. The companies are likely to benefit from huge economies of scale that can be generated in all parts of the business methods. Large economi es of scale can be created with a comprehensive focus on Research & Development (R&D) efforts in a few of the international locations, the rationalization of the production methods and the standardization of the marketing program. The second most significant benefit to the firms from the global brands is the generation of the unique global image. This helps in the reduction of the costs in the communication area. The other benefit of the global brands to the firms is that there will be increase in the sales of the companies since the travelers will view their preferred brands being available at other markets as well. The trade channels are likely to accept a global brand that has been advertised in their market (Girboveanu, n.d.). It can be stated that the global brands tend to be beneficial for the firms as they are largely driven by a single focused strategy in their globalised operation. Benefits of Standardization For Certain Brands Even though there is high demand for the local products owing to the economic growth taking place as well as anti-globalization sentiments, it has been observed that the global brands and products are generally standardized. A few of the international products that have been standardized are Gillette razor blades along with other brands such as Sony and Benetton. The significant pros of

English Vowel Length Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

English Vowel Length - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that every individual has specific pronunciation peculiarities, for example, /s/ may be pronounced in a different manner. A phonologist may be interested in discussing peculiarities of different pronunciation types of /s/ in words where only one basic unit of this sound is met. Phonetician would be more interested in articulation peculiarities. Consequently, the phonological system of English consists of â€Å"number of phonemes which are used in this language and to how they are organized†. The English language has 12 pure vowel sounds which can differentiate word meanings. The following features differentiate vowels from consonants. Thus, from phonetic perspective vowels are produced via vocal configuration of the vocal tract: mouth is open and we can hear the sound created by air passing through the mouth (so-called audible friction). From a phonological perspective, vowels consist of sound system units which can take place in the m iddle of a syllable (e.g., rat, bad). A distinctive principle of vowels discussed in this paper is vowel length. Symbolically, length is symbolized by colon [:]. There are 5 relatively long and 7 relatively short vowels. It is possible to distinguish the length of vowels in accordance with the quantity and quality principles. Length variation is also presented in the following pair of sounds /ÉÅ":/ and /É™/. The former sound occurs only in stressed syllables in RP (bird, servant); the latter in unstressed ones (above, butter). This pair of sounds doesn’t produce a difference in meaning. Length of vowels can be explained not only by quantity features but also by quality (or place of articulation). There is a special name for long vowels, which is tense-lax. This group of vowels is formed by a tension of certain mouth muscles. They are: /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/, /É”/, /É‘/. In case when no tension is required, lax vowels appear:   /É ª/, /É›/, /à ¦/, /ÊŠ/, /ÊÅ'/. In order to illustrate what length of vowels actually means, it is possible to discuss tendencies on the following examples: same-Sam-psalm may be transcribed in the following way: [sem], [sà ¦m], [sÉ‘m]. In this example, it is possible to show that concepts of length and duration are different. A relative duration may be exemplified by showing length degree in the same vowel or consonant: allophone [i] in the words bee and beet has the different degree of lengths. With regard to the fact if this sound is voiced/voiceless, stopped/constituent degrees of length varies. From a phonetic perspective, degrees of length can be explained by speaker’s habits to speak slowly or quickly, emotional context of the situation of speaking and stress amount carried by syllable. Phoneticians realize difference of length degree and they depict it as follows: [bid], [bi ·d], [bi:d], or [bÉ ªid]. Still, in such a way, vowel length is depicted only approximately. If to depict the degree of length exactly, then phoneticians have to appeal to phonologists. Phonologic studies may prove many Americans, who underestimate the role of vowel length as the essential determinant factor of words distinction, that this phenomenon is very important in the scientific area. Unfortunately, very often vowel length is underestimated and is considered to have a stylistic value and not practical importance. For phonologists and phoneticians length of vowels is rather meaningful that’s why following consonants or unstressed syllables are all taken into account. For example, in a child [tÊÆ'aÉ ªld] the diphthong [aÉ ª] refers to norms of Old English [i:]; in the word children, the extra consonant [r] and the extra syllable caused the effect on a vowel to remain lax and short. Moreover, vowel length is usually defined in case an unstressed follows a stressed vowel and the latter is usually long (e.g. re-enact [ˈri: É™nà ¦kt]). On the other hand, if the unstressed vowel fol lows the stressed vowel, then it is short as a rule (e.g. react [riˈà ¦kt]).

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

Volcanoes - Essay Example Shield Volcano c. Dome Volcano d. Ash-Cinder e. Composite f. Caldera 5. Volcanoes in history and culture ii. disasters type 1 1. Impact on environment, 2. Impact economy 3. Impact people iii. disasters type 2 1. Impact on environment, 2. Impact economy 3. Impact people iv. Solutions proposed by the questions: privatization III. Volcano – Business Opportunities a. Prior eruption i. Geothermal 1. Historical use a. Refuge b. Balenology 2. Common use a. geothermal (ground-source) heat pumps (GHP b. bathing/swimming/spas c. space heating (including district heating d. aquaculture e. agriculture 3. Mechanism a. intrusion of molten rock (magma) b. high surface heat flow c. Heated groundwater 4. Environmental effects a. Emissions b. Noise c. Water use d. Land use e. Impact on natural phenomena, wildlife and vegetation ii. Tourism 1. Types of tourists a. Tours b. Students c. Adventurous 2. Visitors motivations a. Part of the tour, not a specific interests b. Sports c. Photography d. Sc ientific observation 3. The demand for volcano and geothermal tourism 4. Risk management a. Education i. Volcano in it self ii. Emergency actions b. To have qualified guides c. International safety guideline 5. Study case: Galapagos Islands, Volcanoes and wildlife a. Introduction, Location b. Geophysical aspect and history of activity c. Tourism d. Risk factors e. Risk management b. Post eruption i. lava mining 1. Study Case: Merapi Indonesia a. Stone property and use for sculpture b. Advantages ii. Agriculture: fertility of soil 1. Earth Properties 2. Economic impact 3. Study cases iii. Ashes business 1. Product tools 2. Transportation IV. Disasters type 1: tornado, hurricane, tsunami – Business Opportunities a. Domains of need and wants: i. Food ii. shelter iii. utilities iv. financing, v. work force planning vi. housing, security vii. communication and information technology viii. medical ix. transportation x. Insurance V. Disaster type 2: fire and floods – Business Opportunities a. Soil fertility b. Reconstruction VI. Discussion a. Reminding question and hypothesis. i. What are the business opportunities in a volcano ii. That I must be limited because we don’t really hear about it and it is not used much iii. The research about the subject refuted the hypothesis. b. GEOTHERMAL AND FINDINGS i. According to findings geothermal is been used but mostly in Europe and US ii. Why? iii. East African- findings-potential area to exploit iv. Problem developed and developing country and renewable energy c. GEOTOURISM AND FINDINGS i. Unexpected finding. Geotourism is quite developed. d. SOIL FERTILITY AND ASHESAND Findings i. Ashes have many consequences 1. Soil fertility, the nutriments, that is why we find lots of people surrounding volcanic areas 2. Beauty tool 3. Problems related to ashes a. Lava mining b. Explain why it doesn’t figure in the paper 4. Limited relevant work citied a. Depth of the explanation is very high/ engineering leve l b. Potential research VII. Conclusion a. Limitation of the subject b. Not new but not developed concept c. Clear business opportunities i. The impact of these opportunities. How the can influence our world and create a better place Introduction: Natural resources seem to be the epicenter of multiple problems. Different geographical locations on the globe possess different potentials in terms of natural resources. â€Å"Naturally people will tend to exploit areas where they will gain more productivity with minimum investment†

Hardware and Software Standardisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hardware and Software Standardisation - Essay Example From a recent survey done by Symantec involving 500 global companies, it was observed that nearly 50% of those companies "still struggle to manage complex infrastructure built on different hardware and software from different vendors". (Courtney) Upgrading and troubleshooting can be much easier with a standardised set of hardware. Configuring and installing patch upgrades to software also becomes simpler, easing the burden on network administrators. In a heterogeneous environment (i.e. one with many different hardware and software platforms) different expertise will be required for configuration and administration, thus increasing the complexity of administration. Cost reductions are possible due to bulk purchasing. Hardware can be purchased at discounts when buying in multiple units. Software licensing costs can be reduced by applying for volume licensing. Instead of getting per-seat licenses, companies can negotiate for flat licensing schemes which do not depend on the number of seats. (Schweitzer) End user training becomes much simpler with a standard set of software. The support staff finds it easy to troubleshoot queries from end users resulting in minimum disruption for work. Moving within divisions and branches will be without the pain of learning a new set of applications every time an employee changes location. Quick troubleshooting turnar... Installation of licensed software eliminates most problems caused by defective pirated software, lack of documentation and technical support. (Why a License Matters). These benefits indirectly increase the stability of the network. However, standardization is not without its drawbacks. Single vendor lock-in, vulnerability to buyouts of vendors and inability to support varied needs and platforms of certain staff such as designing and publishing staffs are the possible drawbacks. (Schweitzer) The last drawback of not being able to support varied requirements of end users can be reduced to a certain extent by having multiple load images. A load image (or a boot image) is a type of disk file which typically "includes the operating system, utilities and diagnostics, as well as boot and data recovery information" (Boot image). Different boot images can be bundled together with specific application requirements of different user groups. As such, maintaining multiple load images as apposed to a single image can be advantageous. (III) Licensing As noted earlier, software standardisation helps companies to manage their software licensing. The benefits are two fold; cost reductions and ease of administration and liaison. As a result, organisations can fulfill their ethical obligations by abstaining from software piracy and can also guard against severe penalties enforced by stringent piracy laws. Abiding to software piracy laws and proper licensing of all software applications helps a company to become a member of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), a professional body formed to combat software piracy. FAST is very strict about its members adhering to the code of conduct put forward by them. Members get a range of benefits including education,

National culture and management style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

National culture and management style - Essay Example It has been recognised that the managers as well as the employees in distinct cultures tend to introduce the codes of behavior as well as norms related to their own cultures in their workplace. The organisational processes as well as the managerial practices tend to be shaped with the assistance of these norms as cultural values. It is because of these reasons the organisation tends to implement numerous management practices. The national cultural values are discovered quickly, held quite deeply and can be altered slowly over the period of generation (ITAP International, 2012). Cultural participation is quite higher among certain groups of United Kingdom. The rate of participation tends to be quite higher among those in the upper socio economic groups along with the least deprived areas of England. The structure of involvement with the culture as well as sports alters widely in terms of region, there are few regional trends. It has been noted that in the North East of the UK there has been rise in the amount of people visiting museums, archives, galleries and heritage sites. However, the ratio of people visiting libraries remained steady. The phenomenon took place alongside an extensive fall in library visits in most of the other regions (National Statistics, 2011). It was since January to December 2010, nearly 34.8 per cent of the adults had involved themselves in culture digitally which had risen from 2008/2009. By the term ‘digital participation’ it can be comprehended as visiting a museum or gallery, theatre or concert, library or records w ebsites of offices for any purpose except buying tickets (National Statistics, 2011). Furthermore, it was observed that from January to December 2010, 72.4 percent of those who were between 16 to 24 years old had been observed to perform active sports, and this statistics had fallen from 2005/2006 (National Statist

Edit and adjust accordingly Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Edit and adjust accordingly - Essay Example Agency source of power has to do with the power to make decisions on the use of the agency’s human and material resources. This includes the restructuring of the organization, changing staff schedules, unbundling of production process or entering into strategic partnership for the purpose of improving quality of goods and services and/or empowering clients. Closely related to agency source of power is legitimate power. This is the power one has by virtue of his position in an organization. Having legitimate powers means having authority or control over the behaviours and performances of others. The president of a company has legitimate power over all other employees of the company. He can give every other person orders and expect him/her to obey. Expert power is the power that even individuals at the lower levels of the organizational structure can acquire and accumulate. The possession of superior knowledge, ideas, skill, experience and abilities, and how these are used can earn one reputation and power. An employee with expert power is a master in his professional niche and he can use the power s/he accumulates to sway others into taken decisions that affect the overall functioning of the organization. Until my employment, the company I am working with was into hotel business. It nearly crumbled due to superior competition. The business was sustained with returns from the president’s plantation. The ‘management’ of the hotel was then lead by a president and had two-level organizational structure. No line managers. No board meetings. It was small. Every employee reported to the president. Two of the four senior employees were sons of the president. They were presidents-in-the-waiting. The business was on the verge of been mismanaged as family business if not for the president’s foresightedness. He knew his children were incapable of managing the inherited business. The hotel needed

How are the principles that underlie the process of motivational Essay

How are the principles that underlie the process of motivational interviewing relate to social change and community development - Essay Example ient that the interviewer is attentive, empathetic and genuinely desires to be a facilitator of attitudinal and behavioural change to improve the socio-psychological adjustment of the client and improve their general lifestyle. Hence, the interviewer becomes, essentially, a positive change agent for the client (Miller, Yahne and Tonigan 2003). Individuals, within a social context, that have maladaptive or unhealthy behaviours detract from the development of a cohesive and well-functioning community. This is why enacting long-term behaviour change and improving socio-psychological adjustment is so critical, as deviant behaviours, anti-social attitude, or other negative behaviours can pose risk or danger to a broader community population. In an idealistic society, the goal is to ensure that all society members within a community have an attitude that promotes teamwork, alliance and partnership, though this is not a tangible reality in many societies throughout the world. This essay explores the processes of motivational interviewing and its potential benefits or contributions to achieving social change and developing positive communities with an emphasis on how MI is properly facilitated to achieve these desirable and encouraging advantages. The main premise of MI is to maintain a non-adversarial attitude with the client, be completely without confrontational stance and illustrate complete non-judgmental behaviours (Miller and Rollnick 2002). The premise of MI is to break-down the barriers which are driving client uncertainty and ambivalence that allow for continuation of unhealthy or maladapted behaviours. In motivational interviewing, the mentor serves as a resource for assisting the client in resolving the factors that drive ambivalence without being directly persuasive. The interviewer serves only as a director that facilitates discussion about what is revealed within the client’s inner world and provides therapeutic discourse to nurture the client’s

Arthur Miller Essay Example for Free

Arthur Miller Essay In this essay I will explain how Arthur Miller creates a dramatically effective opening by writing about the initial perceptions of the Carbone family. The tone is created through the characters before the two cousins arrive and the outcome of their onset is the transformation in atmosphere of the Carbone family. I will explain the effect of the historical context, knowing that Marco and Rudolfo are illegal immigrants, and what outcome this has on the audience. The role of Alfieri is also clearly explained, how he is portrayed and how he creates a tense, anxious atmosphere with his narrative, to the audience. Additionally I will explain why the majority of citizens immigrated to America initially and how knowing that, affects the audience. Furthermore how the concluding dramatic scene affects ALL the characters, the atmosphere and the effect on the audience at the end of Act One. Immigrants left Italy, Russia and Germany in 1955 because they thought America was rich had political, economic and religious freedom and a lot of space for growth. Education was of a higher standard and there was supposed to be full employment. They also believed that America was a very wealthy country and glamorous because of the ideas and images portrayed in the Hollywood movies. The reality of this was somewhat different. There was a lot of exploitation and conflict, the accommodation was over-crowded, people were intolerant, and there was mass unemployment and poverty. Knowing what peoples perception were, created suspense and tension, as the audience insight is of the cousins being sent back or getting found out, explained by the quote from Eddie: if everyone just keeps his mouth shut nothin can happen. This also creates dramatic suspense as the audience does not yet know how Eddie will react and whether he will turn Rudolfo and Marco in to the Authorities. Also there is tension as to whether Rudolfo is using Catherine to obtain American passport and American citizenship, if he marries you, he has got a right to an American citizen. Arthur Miller creates a dramatically effective beginning in Act1 of A View from the Bridge by firstly introducing an introductory speech by Alfieri. We know that Alfieri is the Narrator as he is the first to speak and introduce the main character. He links the scenes in the play and he prepares the audience for what is going to happen. An example of this is where he suggests in the quote, and watch it run its bloody course that a dreadful tragedy is clearly going to occur further on in the play. This tells the audience that blood may be shed or its something so terrible its unbearable. The audience know the main character is Eddie Carbone and he has something to do with an incident that will soon occur, this ones name was Eddie Carbone. Alfieri creates suspense and tension through this. We know the key theme in this play is justice referred in Alifieris first speech, justice is very important here which suggests a crime will be committed, creating a dramatic effective making you wan t to continue on with the play. The perceptions that we obtain from the Carbone family are that Beatrice is quite nervous about the cousins coming to stay, no, im just nervous thats all but happy, Catherine: laughing. We observed that Eddie is very protective especially over Catherine, responsible, Katie, I promised your mother on her deathbed. I am responsible or you, and caring, listen you been givin me the willies the way you walk down the street, I mean it! but obstinate and controlling, what job? Shes going to finish school. This indicates that Eddie is a good father figure for Catherine. They seem like a very warm-hearted, affectionate and hospitable, go baby, and set the table. We know Catherine is the best student out of her class mates, best in her class, which shows she is a very talented and educated young women. a very talented and educated person the best in her class. When the two cousins who are illegal immigrants, Marco and Rudulfo arrive, there is a transformation in atmosphere. The relationship between Catherine and Eddie also begins to change because Eddie is jealous of Rudolfos and Catherines relationship, Embarrassed now, angered. There is also a problem with Eddie and Beatrices marriage, when am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie? Eddie tries to avoid a discussion about this while on the other hand Beatrice wants to discuss the situation. This suggests a breakdown of communication. The family also seem to show more strain and anxiety, if everybody keeps his mouth shut, nothin can happen, said by Eddie. When Rudolfo and Catherine announce that they are now an item, Eddies protectiveness over her kicks in. He has now gone further than protective. He is now controlling and manipulative, I just dont want her hangin around., his patience warring. Rudolfo is seen as a lady figure. He sings, hes blond and self-centred, and then I want to go back to Italy when I am rich, and I will buy a motorcycle. While on the other hand Marco is the opposite hes darker and more reserved, Marco comes with a certain formal stiffness. He is also more responsible, my wife, I want to send it right away, maybe twenty dollars. Eddie is the only person to have a problem with Rudolfo. Mike and Louis tell Eddie that Rudolfo has a good sense of humour, which Eddie could perceive in one of several ways. This could make Eddie feel unfavourable as they see Rudolfo in a positive way on the other hand it could confirm Eddies view that hes right and that Rudolfo is insensible and defiantly not mature. This could also confirm eddies view that Rudolfo is a figure to laugh at Mike: Louis and he explode in laughter, you take one look at him everybodys happy Eddie: troubled. Also there are a lot more problems in Eddies and Beatrices relationship; it is rapidly deteriorating now after their row. Beatrice is now feeling furious and frightened Beatrice: suddenly with open fright and fury this shows conflict and a tense atmosphere. The final dramatic scene starts with tension, when Eddie and Rudolfo are arguing or disagreeing through conversation, Eddie: resenting his instruction, for Christ sakes. Eddie is being rude and insulting towards Marco, they count the kids and theres a couple extra than when they left? suggesting that Marcos wife may be committing adultery. The atmosphere becomes extremely tense, now Eddie is frustrated and unsettled with Rudolfo Eddie: (rises, paces up and down). Eddie tries to perceive the others by caring for Rudolfo, the more you run around like that the more chance youre takin', by doing this he can guide Catherine into breaking up with him. We know Eddies is alone on his argument, (holding back a voice full of anger) we know he is doing this through his actions, this builds tension, is he going to explode? Whats going to happen next? We know he feels this way because the rest of his family are on Catherine and Rudolfos side which could make Eddie very frustrated as he cant get his views across. By this he could also be very angry, tense and stressed. Eddie starts to be very intimidating towards Rudolfo, feeling Eddies eyes on his back which shows he is jealous and angry as if hes sending a personal warning to Rudolfo. Beatrice tries to distract Eddie be nice to go all over in one of those fishin boats which would help ease the tension. We know at this point that Eddie despises Rudolfo and starts to act in an immature and childish way he could make dresses he is ridiculing Rudolfo. Eddie invites Marco to a boxing match, you ever seen a fight, did you? he is know trying to act tough and to show that hes strong and masculine, like hes better or more of a manly figure. He also shows this through his actions as if hes getting ready to fight, rubbing his fists into his palms this shows he is very tense at this point and very unhappy or maybe he has a plan, still being nice and generous on the outside. The atmosphere seems to ease down a little at this point and becomes more relaxed and laid-back, (Rudolfo laughs) but the author is demonstrating an example of dramatic irony as this is false. As we know this is fake so dramatic irony is being used. Not forgetting the audience knows more about what is happening and has a more truthful perception of the characters than they do themselves. This makes the audience very suspicious and concerned as if something is about to happen, this causes tension and suspense for the audience, that a manly event of some sort is stirring. Eddie tries to teach Rudolfo how to fight, is it a trap? He boosts Rudolfos confidence by handing him compliments, hes terrific then Eddie hits him, watch out, here I come this is portrayed like a threat or a warning as if to say, stay away from Catherine. Marco, getting his revenge in some way challenges Eddie, Can you lift this chair?. But as Eddie soon realises its more than that. Eddie was only ale to lift it 1inch above the ground whereas Marco raised the chair over his head. This was to let Eddie know that he is stronger than him and that he understands what he is up to, protecting his brother and giving him a warning. He laughs this off, appear like a glare of warning into a smile of triumph which shows the others he is not threatening him but Eddie obviously knows what he meant. The atmosphere is now tense and formal.  Therefore Arthur Miller creates a dramatically effective beginning through out the play. He creates tone; suspense, tense atmosphere and historical context which make the audiences want to continue to watch the play and keep them guessing the whole way through.

Explore the dramatic Essay Example for Free

Explore the dramatic Essay Lady Capulet, mother of the young Juliet, was only about 13 when she married the older Lord Capulet. And now that Juliet has reached the age of teens where girls are meant to be ready for marriage and childbirth, she is being pushed to look for a husband, and that is arranged to be Paris. Although Juliet does not exactly despise or even dislike Paris, she does not feel comfortable marrying or attempting to get to know someone who has been forced upon her without consent from her. Although Lady and Lord Capulet might have the title of a married couple they are not close at all. Behind his back Lady Capulet makes remarks and jokes that demise Lord Capulet such as when Lord Capulet calls for a sword to fight, she laughs and says that he should instead be calling for a crutch as he is too old to fight. A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword? But on the other hand, when Lord Capulet is violently screaming at Juliet for disobeying him and refusing to marry Paris and then threatens to throw her out of the house, Juliet looks to her mother for support but alls eh says is that she should listen to her father. And even when she asks for the nurses help she says that she better do what Lord Capulet says as she does not want to lose her job by going against what Lord Capulet, her employer and man of the house she works in. So although they might not agree with anything the man in charge says, they (the nurse and Lady Capulet) wouldnt dare go against him. As a mother, Lady Capulet is not very close to Juliet at all. When she wants to get the point across that she should be prepared to marry and that she should try and get to know Paris as he is the one she should marry, she brings the nurse in to try and help her connect with Juliet and get to her as the nurse is the one who really brought up Juliet from a young age. But rather than stick up for Juliet in her case that she does not want to marry yet, nurse agrees with Lady Capulet and she even makes an old fashioned joke that embarrasses Juliet and which Lady Capulet seems to dislike and disagree with but in reality it is what Lady Capulet is trying to say. Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age , wilt thou not, Jule? This joke is portraying that in those days women were not meant in society for much more than pleasuring the men and having babies. It is an honour that I dream not of. Here Juliet is summing up how she really feels about the option of marrying Paris. Although she is being polite to her mother by saying it would be an honour but she also makes it clear that it is not an honour that she doesnt want to have. Then Lady Capulet starts to explain how many girls the same age or even younger than Juliet become wives and even mothers and she too was Juliets mother around the same age. This might seem to Lady Capulet that she is convincing Juliet that marrying is a good thing and she can do it at that young age but she could easily be making Juliet second guess the chance of getting married because she can most likely see what Lady and Lord Capulets relationship is like and that they are very detached from each other and are not very close as a married couple. Today the idea of getting married at an age of 13 or 14 sounds absurd and it is even illegal under todays laws. But back in the Juliets time it was common and accepted that men would usually marry women much younger than them, sometimes even half their age. Women did not have many rights such as voting, they rarely went to school and any money they inherited or managed to earn if the were lucky enough to have a job would go straight to their husband or the closest man to them such as their father or brother. This was not only accepted by the men but by everyone. Women just accepted that their sole purpose was really to make babies, look after them and as sex toys. But in todays society it is very different as women are allowed to make any choices they want, they have the same rights as men and they are allowed to choose themselves when they want to get married or have a child as long they agree with their partner. Juliets fathers thoughts also changed over time as at first he says to Paris that although he can give him Juliets hand in marriage, he must also woo her and get her to love him. As soon as their marriage is put in jeopardy when one of Paris kinsmen is killed, Lord Capulet is desperate to have the wedding and not have Paris shy away from Juliet so he instantly says to Paris that he can marry Juliet straight away and he comments on how they should marry three days time, as two would be too short notice. But fettle your fine joints gainst Thursday next, to go with Paris to St. Peters church. This also shows that Lord Capulet is not in complete control of everything and when the marriage of Juliet and Paris is put into danger, Lord Capulet desperately fights to save the marriage to rushing it to three days time. When Romeo and Juliet first meet at Capulets party they instantly fall in love and they have a fatal first kiss which sends them into the turmoils of love. Afterwards, when they both find out who the other is, they realize that they are meant to be on opposite sides of a bitter family feud. Tis but thy name that is my enemy; thou art thyself, though not a Matague. Before their kiss, which Romeo is much more eager to have, Romeo and Juliet exchange words which are in the form of a sonnet, the only one in the whole story. This sole use of a sonnet accentuates the feelings in their words and importance of the scene. Romeo starts by talking about how he needs to soften Juliet with a kiss but Juliet holds back and says how in praying pilgrims pray and kiss by holding their hands against someone elses. Romeo comments on how hat they do with their hands, they should do with their lips. O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do. As Juliet tempts and holds Romeo back, the text is written in the form of a sonnet as Shakespeare tries to emphasize the deep feelings being exchanged between Romeo and Juliet. The sonnet uses rhyming to add a feeling of a poem to the text. The use of this single sonnet in the whole story also singles it out for the reader to know that it is very important and highlights a key point in the relationship of Romeo and Juliet as it is the first time they met each other. Which mannerly devotion shows in this And palm to palm is holy palmers kiss. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. As shown in these alternate rhyming sentences, the text shows both Juliets teasing and Romeos eagerness. It is also rhythmic and adds flow to the conversation between the two star crossed lovers. The balcony scene is where Romeo and Juliet first express their true and deep feelings for each other. The balcony that at firsts separates Romeo and Juliet from touching each other acts as a symbol of the barriers of their familys history against each other. The balcony scene is an intense and decisive scene in the story as it is the point from where Romeo and Juliet cannot turn away from each other. It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon. When he talks of the east he is talking about how the sun (Juliet) rises and that she is the one which lights up his heart. Moon is often coincided with virginity and she, the sun, must kill the moon, or her virginity, and he is the one to help her do so. I am too bold, tis not to me she speaks: two of the fairest stars in all the heaven This could come as a certain amount of surprise to a reader as it shows how Romeo does not have incredible amounts of confidence about getting to Juliets heart. But then he also talks how she is a star and that she is something out of this world and when she rests her chin in her hand he wishes that his hand was hers just so that she could get the opportunity to touch her face. See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek! As Juliet calls for Romeo she offers to give up her family name without hesitation and that her family name does not mean anything because she is in love. And Ill no longer be a Capulet thou art thyself, though not a Montague whats in a name? With loves light wings did I oerperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out. Here Romeo is talking about the wall of Juliets house which he has to climb to get to her is like the family difference which separates Romeo and Juliet from being happy together. But Romeo explains that like the high boundaries of the wall, the family feud they are tied up in is no match for the love Romeo has and he will not be stopped from loving her. Juliet is much more cautious and nervous about Romeo being caught and facing the punishment if he does. If they do see thee, they will murder thee. Romeo, as shown before is much more eager to be one with Juliet while Juliet is constantly slightly holding back. While Romeo is willing to swear on anything for his love for Juliet, Juliet says they are better off if they do not swear on anything at all as it is too sudden. And when Juliet insists that she has to leave Romeo asks why she has to leave him so unsatisfied. O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? But then Juliet proposes that if Romeo wants to prove his profound love for her he should set up their marriage as soon as possible. If that thy bent of love be honourable, thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow. She also seems very reluctant to let him leave as she is forced to go back inside as she has been called for. Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow. Here, as like earlier in the balcony scene, the words of Juliet rhyme for more affect as it is a very heart felt sentence. Rhyming also shows up in the next two lines when Romeo is talking, so Shakespeare must have felt that this was an important or true moment of love between Romeo and Juliet as there was earlier in the balcony scene. The balcony scene is most likely the scene with the greatest amount of feelings being expressed which are revealed through language and forms of writing. Shakespeare does a very good job of making priorities stand out by making the language the text is written in different from text he usually writes. The sonnet is a fantastic way to capture the attention of a reader and create an atmosphere really felt between the two star crossed lovers. In the two films, the original version and the modern version, the balcony scene is portrayed in different ways but they also have many similarities. In both films, Romeo and Juliet or on opposite sides of a bitter family feud and have to endure the fighting between the two families. The modern film, as expected, is very modernised. Rather than use swords for fighting, the two families have weapons such as guns and small hand knives.

Issues of the Increased Elderly Population

Issues of the Increased Elderly Population The â€Å"Greying of America†, refers to the endurance in our seniors which is tugging on all the resources in our society. People are living longer healthier lives. This is a good thing and a bad thing. Are we ready to meet these demands on our society in the long term? Some believe this will be a financial burden on Medicare, long-term care, public pensions and financial programs.The aging population has multiple facets; including the financial, physical, emotional, and psychologicalneeds represented in society. There is increased question if our Social Security and Medicare System will hold out to care for this generation.How will supply and demand be met when there are fewer in the work force? How will the money in Social Security System last, when less is being put in? â€Å"A large population of the United States is old and non-working. Almost 24 percent of the population in US is over 50 years old.† http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/features/issue/aging.asp Officials refer to this changing time in our history as the â€Å"Greying of America†. For a long time over population was stated in our country and others, like China. One child in China and in the United States two children were plenty, now, it seems the baby boomer generation will be the largest demographic, the older generation. Some of the baby boomers have already reached this time in their lives. Baby Boomers were born in the years 1946 to 1964. If you do the math those born in 1946 are now 67, which is retirement age or it was. Retirement age used to be 65, but as the demands on our economy, so the retirement age is pushed back. Some say 72 is the new retirement age.â€Å"Statistics project that by 2030, Americans 65 and older will actually outnumber their younger counterparts. With the aging of the baby boomer generation and the lengthening of life spans, both the number and proportion of older people are rapidly increasing. Many of the health related problems that contributed to decreased life span have been combated†. http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/features/issue/aging. Another question is housing, some live in their homes, assisted living, nursing homes or independent living, but will there be enough structure in place to meet these growing needs? There are also the needs of the families, caring for their elderly parents, while raising their children, and working. An article written by Joan Mooney, â€Å"Housing America’s Graying Population, she states: Eighty to 90 percent of Americans want to â€Å"age in place,† either in their current home or in their neighborhood. But most homes and communities are not set up to house the elderly. And also in an interview with Henry Cisneros, former Hud Secretary, he stated, â€Å"The solution will lie not just in individual homes, but also in the surrounding communities. The number-one fear of people as they age is isolation,† said Cisneros. â€Å"They need to be able to get to the doctor, stores, parks, and other public amenities† (Mooney). http://urbanland.uli.org/infrastructure-transit/housing-america-s-graying-population/ Another area of concern, are the growing needs for professional social workers for this demographic in our society. Will there be enough workers for all the needs characterized by this growing segment? Social workers serve as advocates for the older people and their families, providing necessary connections for the services needed. As these demographics change and grow there is a growing requirement for social workers to provide for the necessities of these individuals and their families. There are also questions about how this generation will be taken care of since the largest part of the population will be older, and less will be in the market place. Social workers are essential to this growing segment in our population. The professional, skilled social worker, who is equipped in problem solving, can lend peace, security and hope to the individual. They are knowledgeable about how human behavior, social, financial, and cultural issues, and how they relate and affect daily lives. So, as there are economic factors that lead to nervousness about the future of our economic growth. There are also valid arguments for supply and demand. Yes there are possibly less workers in the work force, though people are working longer. There are new or growing markets for healthcare, housing, social work intervention and pharmaceuticals, among other things that will drive the economy. There is definitely going to be cause for growth in the Gerontology field. Currently this is not an area, where social workers tend to stay due to financial restrictions, among other things. In a testimony given by: Worker needed to avoid a dangerous outcome, for the coming era. She also advocates education and marketing to avert the common ideas that are related to working with older generation. That it is depressing working with the sick and the dying. A perception also exists that there are few personal, professional, and societal rewards for working with older people. Social Workers need to take an aggressive approach to change the opinions that older individuals lack value, these needs to change in the hearts of Americans and in the hearts of the people reaching this age. It is also concluded, NASW agrees that the existing health care workforce will be inadequate to meet the needs of older Americans. They believe the Federal Government should be involved and encouraged towards loan forgiveness, stipends for students and faculty, and financial support for field placements in geriatrics to be able to attract and retain social workers and other health care professionals in the field of geriatrics.† The reason I include large portions of this article is I believe that will support and show this so-called Greying America does not have to be a problem. It can be solved through its own counterparts. We the nation and the other surrounding developed nations can use their own resources with the help of professionals. With encouragement, marketing, education and direction people can live functional lives even in old age. As the baby boomer generation is different in a variety of ways, this can add enthusiasm to the discussion because, this generation does not want to stop and sit in a rocking chair. Yes, as boomers age, they will put increasing burdens on the health care and financial system. There is proof that there is a shortage in practitioners in the area dealing with aged population. And there is proof that medical advances have taken place due to this encroaching segment in the population. The fact that the older generation is trying to stay younger through exercise and prevention and taking care of themselves is causing innovation in the medical industry. It has been said that many core nations are working toward and getting honestly prepared for the rise in the elder population. There is always the concern for the impoverished segment, like elderly, single women, and some minorities that are on the fringes. But that is where the social worker can be a benefit, searching for crucial answers and direction, and educating society to the benefits age can provide, so the stereotypes can change and empower the elderly, especially in their own attitudes. The cultural views on aging have changed also. Before this age, before the industrial revolution, our elders were given great respect. The family included the elders, grandparents in the home. They helped raise the grandchildren and provided wisdom in the home. But cultural views have changed and the older population doesn’t seem as necessary or crucial to the family and the world. The stereotype of the older population depicts them as old and feeble, they are a drag on society, in their usefulness and value. In many cultures the elders were revered and needed now they are replaced by youthfulness and vigor. They are shuffled off to nursing homes instead of being an integral part of the home. There is great concern over finances, will our economy survive when varying resources are changing. Coming from the perspective of belonging to the ‘baby boomer generation and reading various articles, this generation was a change from previous generations. There was an increase in money to be spent and less saved. There became more emphasis on pleasure and leisure. After the depression, the financial world allowed for more to be had, with a blink of an eye. You did not have to save, before buying as our parents did. So, is this generation ready to quit the market place? Many are working longer due to the need to save and get out of debt. This can be a good thing as working enriches lives, keeps the brain sharp and hopefully the body more nimble. So this is cause and effect, our society is living longer, less population, so we now have to control the somewhat adverse effects of an older population? Or is it an adversity? Are older people nonproductive residues in our environment? Maybe because I am a part of that generation, I believe they have contributions, yet to give. Mother Theresa was older when she passed from this world. Should she have been pushed into a corner to die? I do not believe so. She was a great asset to the community in our world. My mother, until recently resided in our home for years. Now she is in Oregon with the rest of my family, but she is valued and loved. I do not think people intend to relegate the elderly to the corner, but pressures in the home, finances and social perspective seem to guide us there. The Social Work profession wants to work to change these notions and show people their worth, through, information, education, counselling, community assistance and many other problem solving community and government actions. What can be done to change the present outcome? We need to let people continue to contribute in their own way, so they can feel their worth. Yes, generally they cannot move as fast, even think or talk as fast as you or I. But they can show and teach us, if we are willing to learn and listen. We have learned by studying History that we can change things and have a better outcome for the future if we do not repeat mistakes. I believe when families co-existed, the family unit had a greater strength and fortitude to weather storms. Culturally, the breakdown of the family unit exists, but the foundations can still be built through relationships and assistance to the needy. Through reaching out in the community, and again this can be directed with social assistance. S ocial workers in this environment are trying to instill life in the elder patient and the family giving them direction, and assistance through the transition, of being the giver to the receiver as an older person is. But we can still allow them to give through their lives, if we are willing to receive. Working in the public, networking, people are not satisfied to stop at a certain age, but press on to learn new things. There are many people re-inventing themselves at different walks in their lives, to allow for change, challenge and growth as individuals, who will benefit society. This benefit can come in the form of financial advantage and socially for our society as a whole to counter affect the challenges of a so-called decaying society. With encouragement, marketing, education and direction people can live functional lives even in old age. Sources Gibelman, M. (1995). What Social Workers Do (4th ed.). Washington, DC. NASW Press. Dunkle, R.E., Norgard, T. (1995). Aging Overview. In R.L. Edwards (Ed.-in-Chief), Encyclopedia of Social Work (19th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 142-153). Washington, D.C.: NASW Press. Zuniga, M.E. (1995). Aging: Social Work Practice. In R.L. Edwards (Ed.-in-Chief), Encyclopedia of Social Work (19th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 173-183). Washington, D.C.: NASW Press.

The Age of Reason Essay -- history

The Age of Reason The Age of Reason was a period in time that took place from the Peace of Utrecht (1713), to the French Revolution of 1789. It was a period when reason basically replaced religion as the guiding principle in art, thought, and the governance of men. Unquestioned acceptance of the old order of society and the old ways of statecraft yielded to a new spirit of critical inquiry which demanded some rational justification for the existing social system. People thought that the general application of reason would free Europe from the artificialities, restrictions, injustices, and superstitions which that was inherited from the Dark Ages. Reason would create a society of law and order. The traditions, customs, and autonomous rights of the nobility and the church were essentially alien to the spirit of rationalism and operated to block the establishment of centralized, well ordered states. In central and eastern Europe and many minor states of the continent, the main contenders against the powers of the nobility and the clergy were the dynastic sovereigns. Competition between the great states was ruthless and the monarchy which failed to overhaul its internal administration, faced dismemberment. Seeking to focus on their own authority, the crowned heads struggled with the separatism of provinces, which their royal houses had inherited through medieval and 17th century wars and marriages. They tried to introduce uniformity in law and administration th...

The Hike Up Poly Mountain :: Descriptive Essay About A Place

The Hike Up Poly Mountain Our journey begins on a foggy and cool Monday morning in late September. The group of freshman English students wait eagerly at the gate to Poly Canyon anticipating the adventures to come. Once Professor has taken roll and explained what is in store for the impending hike, we start walking up a rocky path. Immediately I feel like I am in nature. I am reminded of all the camping and hiking trips I went on as a child and I feel at peace. But something in the sky keeps bothering me, the fog. I was expecting to be able to stand on top of Poly Mountain and see the entire city of San Luis Obispo. I brought my camera along hoping to take beautiful pictures of the city and send them home to my family. But the thick fog above my head reminds me that this probably will not happen. I try to take the ominous fog off my mind and continue examining the land. We walk past the dry creek bed of Brizzolara Creek and it becomes obvious we have not had a significant amount of rainfall in months. A fellow hiker points out several deer on the canyon side, the first sign of wildlife. I can hear birds chirping in the distance but cannot see any because of the dense fog. I am hit on the nose with a drop of dew falling from a Coast Live Oak and another drop falling from a Eucalyptus tree. The air is still and the sun remains hidden behind the fog. We walk farther into the canyon and come across several manmade structures. A small footbridge over a gentle stream and a rock arch inviting hikers into the hills are reminders of what man can do to enhance nature’s beauty. The path gets steeper and narrower and as we climb higher, the fog gets thicker. I am still hoping the fog will fade away enough so that I can experience the beautiful views I was expecting. Our hike up Poly Mountain becomes much more strenuous and we stop every few minutes to catch our breath. We are no longer hidden underneath The Hike Up Poly Mountain :: Descriptive Essay About A Place The Hike Up Poly Mountain Our journey begins on a foggy and cool Monday morning in late September. The group of freshman English students wait eagerly at the gate to Poly Canyon anticipating the adventures to come. Once Professor has taken roll and explained what is in store for the impending hike, we start walking up a rocky path. Immediately I feel like I am in nature. I am reminded of all the camping and hiking trips I went on as a child and I feel at peace. But something in the sky keeps bothering me, the fog. I was expecting to be able to stand on top of Poly Mountain and see the entire city of San Luis Obispo. I brought my camera along hoping to take beautiful pictures of the city and send them home to my family. But the thick fog above my head reminds me that this probably will not happen. I try to take the ominous fog off my mind and continue examining the land. We walk past the dry creek bed of Brizzolara Creek and it becomes obvious we have not had a significant amount of rainfall in months. A fellow hiker points out several deer on the canyon side, the first sign of wildlife. I can hear birds chirping in the distance but cannot see any because of the dense fog. I am hit on the nose with a drop of dew falling from a Coast Live Oak and another drop falling from a Eucalyptus tree. The air is still and the sun remains hidden behind the fog. We walk farther into the canyon and come across several manmade structures. A small footbridge over a gentle stream and a rock arch inviting hikers into the hills are reminders of what man can do to enhance nature’s beauty. The path gets steeper and narrower and as we climb higher, the fog gets thicker. I am still hoping the fog will fade away enough so that I can experience the beautiful views I was expecting. Our hike up Poly Mountain becomes much more strenuous and we stop every few minutes to catch our breath. We are no longer hidden underneath