Kei Urano Essays - Anthropology, Humanities, Culture, Ethnography

Kei Urano 9/16/99 Critical Essay #1 During the first four weeks of our class, we have been reading and discussing numerous essays on the study of culture. Each theorist we have read has questions and problems about the study of culture. They have suggested us solutions to the problems as well. I have decided to closely analyze the essays from Richard Johnson, James Clifford, and Clifford Geertz. In his essay, What is Cultural Studies Anyway? Richard Johnson goes into detail describing critique. Critique involves stealing away the more useful elements and rejecting the rest.(pg. 575). By comparison, Johnson defines cultural studies as a process of finding useful knowledge about different analysis of culture. Johnson explains how anglicizing of old Marxism is a good example of critique in cultural studies. By explaining how old Marxism has a significant role in forming cultural studies, Johnson implies how history of economics has a major role in forming culture. Johnson believes that there are three main premises where old Marxism has influenced cultural study. The first is that social relations influence culture. I agree with Johnson. Different class, sex, race, and age create different relationships. The second premise is that each individual and social group has different limits of power defining different needs. For example, homeless people have different needs than the r ich. This is an example of money being defined as power. The third premise is that culture is influenced by social struggles and differences. I don't know any culture where every individual is truly equal. There is always a struggle for power. Critique in cultural studies raises several questions for Johnson. If we have progressed by critique, are there not dangers that codifications will involve systematic closure? If the momentum is to strive for really useful knowledge, will academic codification help this? Is not the priority to become more 'popular' rather than more academic? ...In any case, students, now have lectures, courses and examinations in the study of culture. In these circumstances, how can they occupy a critical tradition critically?(pg. 577). These questions have been puzzling me as well. I don't see how cultural studies can be more 'popular' rather than more academic. 'Popular' means majority. Johnson questions the reason for classes cultural studies. Does this mean that we need to study individually? If so, how could it become more 'popular'? I believe that Johnson's questions makes the readers go in circles. Another thing that puzzles me is that Johnson believes that old Marxism has a significant role in cultural studies. Marxism explains how the working group will overthrow the class system and establish a Communist society. Yet, Johnson believes that the three premises discussed earlier influence culture. Is he saying that he is against cultural studies? If this is so, I don't see why he is a cultural theorist. James Clifford wrote On Collecting Art and Culture. Clifford starts by explaining about universality and non-universality of collecting. Some sort of 'gathering' around the self and the group - the assemblage of a material 'world,' the marking-off of a subjective domain that is now 'other' - is probably universal. (no pg.#). This explains how human nature embodies hierarchies of value. But the notion that this gathering involves the accumulation of possessions, the idea that identity is a kind of wealth...is surely not universal. (no pg.3). This non-universal way of collecting has been around in the Western culture for a long time. Clifford then goes on to explain the different concepts of collecting and fetishizing. Clifford describes fetishism as a collection kept more in secrecy. It is hard to say if a fetish has more value than a collection. I believe that fetish has a much more personal value than a regular collection. A regular collection is put out into display because the obj ect has value to others as well. A fetish is valuable to the individual. The difference between collecting and fetishizing brings out the question of how different objects are distinguished. Clifford distinguishes objects in the diagram call the semiotic square. Clifford explains how the value of an object proceeds from bottom to top and left to right. I have several problems with Clifford's diagram. First, with this diagram, Clifford has limited culture with just art. By reading different

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern essays

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern essays In the Ardens performance of Tom Stoppards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the production is able to surprise the audience with a brilliant display of theatricality. Tom Stoppard has even said he enjoys the theater because it incorporates many different characteristics, which help to create surprise and suspense, so that no one play, even if performed by the same cast, will ever be the same (Farnsworth). On Friday, October 31, 2003, with surprise actions and unexpected props, the Arden Theater put on a dazzling presentation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The director uses inconceivable tricks to keep the audience on their feet. The actors commit to the role as only professionals can and add their own spice to zest up each individual role. The stage itself is made to deceive the spectators by creating false appearances on the set. With all these aspects working together, Stoppard is correct to say that theater utilizes theatricality which, in turn, creates dram a and suspense for the viewers. The actors have a huge burden on their shoulders at the beginning of the play: to try to keep the audience interested and never make the show predictable. In the Ardens performance of this play, the actors do more than just keep the spectators interested; they keep everyone on the edge of their seats and their jaws dropped after every scene. They are able to do this with theatrical devices such as blocking, body/facial expressions, and the tone in their voices. The best character by far was Rosencrantz, who was played by Ian Peakes. A simple twitch of his brow, and the audience would laugh. Like an unknown Jim Carrey, he could have the whole room focused on him, even if he was not the character speaking. He was very well complimented by costar Scott Greer, who took on the role of Guildenstern. The two worked hand in hand, as if they knew what the other was thinking. Their use of blocking would g...

The Reactions of Hoover and Roosevelt to the Great Depression Assignment

The Reactions of Hoover and Roosevelt to the Great Depression - Assignment Example The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930) however has been seen by historians and economists today though as something that actually made the problems associated with the Great Depression worse, not better. Those economists that believe that the economy can only benefit from lowering prices point to tariffs as a way of increasing prices rather than dropping them. Roosevelt, on the other hand, campaigned on a balanced budget and a promise not to intervene with the economy. However, once he was elected he went ahead and expanded some of Hoover’s programs and created some of his own. The minimum wage act and the Davis-Beacon Act (1931) meant a reduction is price flexibility which slowed the economy even further. The New Deal which was a program implemented under Roosevelt’s reign was actually two different deals. The first one which ran from 1933 – 1935 was aimed at inputting money at the top of the economy so that the people at the bottom benefitted from the trickle-down effect. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933) for example paid farmers to reduce their production. No one was actually able to explain why that would help children in the poverty end of the scale who were going without food or the countless numbers of tenants and sharecroppers who were evicted and left without a job but it did make the larger (wealthier) farmers happy. As far as helping alleviate the impact of the Depression however, it was a non-starter – consumer demand fell because of course there were fewer people with money to spend. The National Industry Recovery Act (1933) was instrumental in setting up a centralized planning scheme that would encourage businesses to set prices that would drive weaker and smaller businesses out of the marketplace completely. Again this might have benefitted larger businesses but the smaller ones were still forced to close and unemployment figures still continued to rise, meaning there was less money being spent in the economy.  

Romanesque, Regency, Revival, Early Christian, Baroque, Rococo, Essay - 1

Romanesque, Regency, Revival, Early Christian, Baroque, Rococo, 18thCentury Neoclassicism - Essay Example As with all forms of art and architecture, a desire to see and elaborate upon previous artistic expressions oftentimes encourages architects to engage in movements of revivalism. Within Western civilization, revivalism has been noted within almost each and every single architectural movement in recorded history. For instance, there has been revivalism of postclassical architecture, medieval architecture, Baroque architecture, and a litany of many other more modern forms of architecture. Due to the broad range of revival architecture that exists, this particular analysis will focus specifically on Renaissance revival; sometimes referred to as â€Å"neo-Renaissance†. This developed in and around the 19th century. However, the movement itself is somewhat hard to explain and/or understand due to fact that it oftentimes confuse Renaissance architecture with prior to how he and architecture. Although it many cases these two are one in the same, the fact of the matter is that a blend ing of true Renaissance architecture with prior exhibitions of time and architecture was evidenced throughout the period time. Similarly, with respect to the current exhibition of the neo-Renaissance revival, this author definitively points to the faà §ade of Vladimir. Early Christian architecture is something that is somewhat unique as compared to the other forms of architecture that have been discussed thus far. This is not due to the fact that early Christian architecture exhibits new more interesting interpretations of arts were architecture.

Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumers Dissertation

Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumers - Dissertation Example The advent of globalization and liberalization in the world markets has brought increased competition at the local level as well. Now, there are products and services that are available anywhere in the world and the customers are given a wide array of choice to choose from. There are a variety of products, substitutes, prices and overall value packages that are now made available to the customer due to the rapid development of information and communication technologies as well as logistics management. The changes in the technological and the global business environment have brought additional pressures on the organization to remain viable and competitive in the market. Organizations now have to invest in new product development strategies, look out for ways of reducing costs and expanding distribution channels and reaching out to the largest number of customers using their limited budgets. Consumer awareness, consumer acceptance and retention and consumer feedback have become an impo rtant guiding factor for the organizations to develop products and markets (Perrault et al, 2000). Researchers have increasingly found that the customers are greatly influenced by the fact that they can easily attain more information about the product or service, that they are able to recall the product or the brand and that their friends or family are already using the product. This means that the more the brand awareness, the greater the chance that the products will be bought by the customers and also recommended to others by them.

Critical Regionalism Was First Introduced Cultural Studies Essay

Critical Regionalism Was First Introduced Cultural Studies Essay The idea of critical regionalism has been heard in architecture society. Vitruvius discussed regional variations in architecture in his ten books, and the Romantics propounded picturesque regionalism during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, regionalism seems to against the theory of modernism and postmodernism, both of which were thought to have failed to address the human condition in their extreme stances towards historicism. Thus from the question, how to become modern and to return to sources? by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre hypothesize critical regionalism as the solution. The term was originally introduced by Tzonis and Lefaivre in their article The Grid and the Pathway, where critical regionalism was presented as the third and latest type of regionalism in Greece, succeeding the English picturesque of nationalist regionalism and the Neoclassical historicist regionalism. Here, modern architecture is thought to be remote and massive, destroying the hu manistic character in architectural term which would be stated by a new form of regionalism. Frampton follows the lead of Tzonis and Lefaivre in exploring the theory critical regionalism. In the article Towards a Critical Regionalism, Frampton defines critical regionalism as an architecture of resistance, seeking to mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular place, Thus aiming to reflect and serve the limited constituencies in which it was grounded. It is a resistance in the sense that it is a reaction against universal standards, culture homogenization and placeless modernism, but at the same time critical in its outlook; self-evaluating such that is is confrontational with not only the world but also to itself. According to Tzonis and Lefaivre, this self-reflective function is executed through the method of defamiliarization, in contrast to the romantic regionalism of familiarization, which employed nostalgic picturesque elements from a foregone era. This process entails selecting regional elements and incorporating them in a way that may appear distant, as if it were the sense of place in a strange sense of displacement, seeking to disrupt the sentimental link between the building and the place, and thus in this sense a reaction agaist the romantic sentimentality of pictureresque follies. Postmodernism, as its name suggests, aspired to succeed modernism whose ideals and norms were seen as responsible for the numerous failures that characterized most reconstruction and urban renewal projects realized since World War II. Having pledged to bring architecture out of a state of stagnation and disrepute due to reductive, technocratic and bureaucratic dogmas of modernism as well as its indifference, if not hostility towards history and culture, postmodernism buildings, apart from their superficial features, were qualitatively not much different from their predecessors. With few exceptions, museum buildings, such as the National Gallery in London and pricate houses in the United states, such as those by Robert Stern, the re-introduction of historical knowledge and cultural issues to design was merely skin-deep. Regionalism was not the term the architects themselves were reffering to. It was a conceptual device that we chose to use as a tool of analysis. The concept of regionalism here indicated an approach to design giving priority to the identity of the particular rather than universal dogmas. The awareness of a regional architecture as an idiom having a distinct identity and being associated with an identifiable group, and having this association used for further manipulating the groups identity. Goes as far back as ancient Greece. It was the Greeks that in the context of the politics of control and competition between their polis and their colonies used architectural elements to represent the identity of a group occupying a piece of land, or the virtual presence of a group among other groups in a Pan-Hellenic institution such as Delphi or Olympia. Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, were not abstract decorative terms. They originated in the concrete historical context of fission and fusion of regions and identities and their use was frequently loaded with complex political meanings, carving supra-regional identities and relations. The Roman architect and author, Vitruvius, who extensively discussed the Doric or Ionic temples without referring to the term Classical, does refer by name regional architecture, pointing to the difference in building around the world which he explains through climatic conditions and draws a parallel to the variations in the physique of people and concludes that the arrangement of buildings should be guided by locality and climate. In the very end, however, he did not imply regional pluralism and respect for difference. The new global order consists of an effective interconnection of the whole planet by means of a reticular network of communication and exchange. It threatens individual variety and difference throught universalization of practices, but also accentuates the worst of a world of differences. It polarizes further a hierarchical dependance of regional differences rather than encouraging the diversity necessary for creativity. Enhancing a world to come about within which preserving, exploring and mining regional differences brings about a world more genuinely global. The picture of critical regionalism that emerges from these contributions is in great contrast to the simplistic ideas that the local is good by definition, that sustaining community and nature means both blind conservation and resistance to change and that understanding the context is a simple process that requires no special effort or analysis. The traditions are always contested, transformed, resisted and invented. One of the most significant aspects of the quality ofn the built environment whish has been systematically ignored and violated by superficial thinking, biased judgement and seductive illusions is the skin of buildings. The impact of bad choices of materials on the skin of a building is not immediate. It is here that deep knowledge of the materials and the climatic attributes of a particular area is needed that cannot be substituted by reductive technical descriptions and even more by photographic media reproductions. The thoughtless transfer of glass as well as concrete to the tropical region led to indifferent if not hostile environments. American architect Ralph T.Walker, like Mumford, he was highly critical of the older. He spoke out at length, and his comments deserve to be reproduced: I have been around South America recently and I have just came back from Europe, and I find everywhere that modern architecture means a slab on pillars. It means the same thing in the United States because you pick up the architectural magazines and practically every issue has as its leading number a slab on pillars Functionalism of materials has blazed our thinking around the world because you will find that the building in Rio for the Education Ministry looks exactly like a building that was designed for a giraffe in the London Zoo, and it looks exactly like the building that has been designed for the United Nations. In other words, you have a cover of unthinking uncritical acceptance of things. He went on to argue that what was needed was humanism because it is the basis of all art and what we are trying to do first of all is to develop surroundings for people to live in, that will give them the greatest amount of the happiness and warmth of life. The first point on which Mumford broke with older forms of regionalism was in his approach to tradition. Although he ded advocate the preservation of actual historical buildings, notably those built in the vernacular brick tradition of the South, which deserves to be regarded with a far more appreciative eye than people usually apply to it, he was opposed to their imitation in new buildings. Let us be clear about this, the forms that poeple used in other civilizations or in other periods of our own countrys history were intimately part of the while structure of their life. There is no method of mechanically reproducing these forms or bringing then back to life; it is a piece of rank materialism to attempt to duplicate some earlier form, because of its delight for the eye, without realizing how empty a form is without the life that one supported it. There is no such thing as a modern colonial house any more than there is such a thing as a modern Tudor house. The philosophic problem of the general and the particular has its counterpart in architecture; and during the last century that problem has shaped itself more and more into the question of what weight should be given to the universal imprint of the machine and the local imprint of the region and the communitu Mumford in the south in architecture. MEANS every regional culture necessarily has a universal side to it. It is steadily open to influences that come from other parts of the world, and from other cultures, separated from the local region in space or time or both together. It would be usefyul if we formed the habit of never using the world regional without mentally adding to it the idea of universal remembering the constant contact and interchange between local scene and the wide world that lies beyond it. To ideas or technical methods that originate elsewhere as with a human being, every culture must both be itself and transcend itself; it must make the most of its limitations and must pass beyond them; it must be open to fresh experience and yet it must maintain its integrity. In no other art is that process ore sharply focused that in architecture. TO CONSIDER THE ENVIRONMENT MEANS TO CONSIDER HISTORYMUMFORD What we call globalization does not consist of an effective interconnection of the whole planet by means of a reticular network of communication and exhange. In reality, our global worlds structure is rather an atlas of radial nuclei and unplugged areas that keeps large zones of silence. Globalization bears a massive and infinite process of concentration from the peripheries to the centres, almost one half of the worlds population lives today in urban environments. This situation creates multiple physical and mental displacements. Globalization has marked two opposing cultural processes. Their interaction constitutes a critical point in the rearticulations of symbolic power and a paradox that signals the epoch. On the other hand, it constitutes the de post moment of expansion of industrial capitalism, which is part of the extension of Europe and its culture since the Renaissance. This expansion has been narrated as a story of the expansion of the world. The acquisition of worldwide power was seen as a globalization: the local Western became universal through the conquest of planetary power, colonialism and the construction of a totalizing rationality from that power. The idea of expansion culminated in an inverse notion, that of contraction: the world becomes smaller day by day, and even a global village. Western culture was imposed as an operating metaculture of the contemporary world. This was done with the purpose of conversion and domination, but implicity meant generalized access. If imposition seeks to convert the other, access facilitated using this metaculture for the others own, different ends, transforming the metaculture from within. Western metaculture has become a paradoxical means for the affirmation of difference, and for the rearticulating subaltern camps interest in post-colonial times. Hence globalization times are simultaneously those of the difference. This is the other contradictory process to which I referred at the beginning. The existence of an operative metaculture has allowed the globalization of difference beyond the local environments. This cultural globalization implies an interaction between the extended Western metaculture and the cultural plurality of the world. If the first maintains its hemegonic character, the others have taken advantage of its capacity for international broadcasting to supersede local frameworks. Besides, any vast expansion, such as Buddhism in Asia or the Latin language in the Roman Empire, carries a high degree of tension that opens pores and cracks. This globalization-differentation process is an intricate conflictive articulation of forces more than dual dialectics. It implies contaminations, mixtures and contradictions in many directions, although it direct current processes of culture, it cannot be taken passively, as a necessary inclination that occurs without any pressyre exerted by the subaltern sectors. Among other problems, there is the metacultural tendency to generalize practices from many diverse environments from yoga to karate in consumer-driven, culturaly aseptic method as isolated elements of a cosmopolitan mosaic. Nevertheless, some of the most successful experiences in non-occidental regions have consisted, as in the case of Japan, in managing Westernization to their benefit, empowering it from their own different background. It is in this labyrinth of displacements and ambiguities where the current cultural power lies. It becomes more evident that at this point there ir no viable return to pre-colonial traditions, because that would consist precisely of regression to the myth of an unpolluted past with a small margin of action in the contemporary world. The issue is to build the contemporary from a plurality of experiences that are able to transform the metaculture, Even when imposed by a dominant culture over a dominated one, cultural appropriation is not a passive phenomenon. Receivers always transform, resignify and use according to their visions and interests. Appropriation, and especially the incorrect one, is usually a process of originality, understood as a new creation of meaning. Cultural debate ahs become a political arena for power struggle, both in the symbolic and the social aspects. It is seen both in the cultural adjustments that the subaltern and peripheral sectors are making, as well as in the heterogenization that immigrants are causing in the contemporary megalopolis. Every alrge city today is a dynamic crossroads of cultures. There are many and diverse people incorrectly and unabashedly reworking Western metaculture in their own way, de-eurocentralizing it in plural form. What we call postmodernity is, in good measure, the result of overlapping of all these contradictory processes, they also determine an extraordinary dynamic of identities, with complex adjustments: multiple identities, identities in the form of chinese boxes, neo-identities, mixture of identities, displacement among them, ethnic gamesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦all borders mutate and turn into the critical spaces of our age. The birder and its culture have become paradigms of contemporary cultural processes, but these and other paradigms are at risk of developing into a narrative of harmonization of diversity, leveling contradicitons and masking confrontation of interests. The essay aims to discuss about the loss of cultural identity in this modern society, which lead to the loss of vernacular architecture. Basically vernacular architecture is a category of architecture based on localized needs and construction materials, and reflecting local traditions. It tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural, technological and historical context in which it exists. The building methods are tested through trial-and-error by the society as the people constructing the structure tends to be the person who will use it. However, nowadays, people have mistaken the meaning of cultural identity, they tend to re-create the vernacular architecture into a purpose space where the tradition has been reinvigorate to a resort. People have tried to modernize the vernacular architecture, but still, loss of culture identity is the problem or the modern vernacular. What is vernacular architecture in peoples view nowadays? Will people still respect the culture identity? Why is the topic important in the world or in the context of design? As nowadays, vernacular architecture is gradually disappeared in this modern society. People have started to copy the authenticity to attract the ever-increasing tourists. Figures in architecture hence become less to do with a response to materials and more to do with the associative at tributes of particular shapes and forms. Why is this happening? It was because a global homogenization of the culture of the tourists, an excess of material choice, rapid urbanization, emergence economies, global environmental crisis and politics. Architects have tried using the four ways to modernize the vernacular architecture for now which are reinvigorating, reinventing, extending and reinterpreting tradition, however it still leads to the loss of cultural identity. How will architecture recreate a tradition, a shared ground that provides a basis for the criteria of authenticity and quality? How am I going to approach the topic? The essay will take on a critical regionalism approach of how people view on the vernacular architecture nowadays. Making a point to the loss of culture and how vernacular architecture has slowly fade away, shows how people should react to this issue and also to explain when this vernacular architecture be applied again in this modernized society, create spaces of authenticity of a tradition.

Assassination Of Gaius Julius Caesar :: essays research papers fc

Assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar Caius Julius Caesar, a Roman consul, was a great leader and a terrible dictator. Many of his reforms were excellent, but he also was hungry for the power of Roman Dictator, which would give him absolute power for as long as he required it. Throughout his life he did many things including creating the calendar that we know today, advancing mathematics, and many other scholarly things. When he became dictator in 44 B.C., those in power knew he must be stopped, and so he was assassinated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Caesar was born in 100 B.C., sometime in July. Around the age of 22, unable to gain a political position in the Forum, he went to Rhodes to study rhetoric. There he became a priest and scholar. During the Next 20-30 years, Caesar became a triumvir (consisting of Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar), governor, and finally sole dictator of Rome.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 48 B.C. the Roman Senate gave Caesar the power of dictator for one year. During this time he defeated Pompey. In 45 B.C. the Senate made him consul for ten years, but in 44 B.C. after winning his final victory and pacifying the Roman world, Caesar decided to became dictator for life. This prompted Gaius Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus to plot an assassination to preserve the Roman Republic. On March 15, 44 B.C. Julius Caesar was killed in the Senate house.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The reason behind the assassination of Gauis Julius Caesar was very clear. He just had too much power. Cassius and Brutus knew that if Caesar became the dictator he would destroy the Roman republic. Caesar knew that by becoming the dictator he would have those who did not like him, so he inacted the Sanctity of the Tribunes, which enabled him to be unharmed without dire

A Philosophical Assessment

A Philosophical Assessment in Kauchak & Eggen: Chapter 7 (Examining Your Beliefs). Lance DeLong Of the four philosophies of education; Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism and Social reconstructionism, the one that seem to best fit my fundamental beliefs would be reflected in Essentialism philosophy. This is, because I believe that the role of the public school system is to teach students essential elements of knowledge that then in turn enables the student to development critical thinking skills associated with advanced critical thinking.These learned skills can only be applied after a student has gained the knowledge necessary to function effectively in society, and only after he understands that society can he make critical decisions relating to that society. The dilemmas identified in the situation posed by the text book exercise; â€Å"Decision Making: Developing Your Philosophy of Education†, can be analyzed through the perspective of this educational philosophy as such: The basic premise of what are the responsibilities of the education system and how we achieve critical thinking speaks to the issues presented in the first part of this exercise.The essence of understanding what one is thinking about and making decisions on, must first be established in in the students mind, would be my opinion. Essentialism, is the idea that centers around basic truths that must be learned in order for students to engage and participate in such activates. Essentialism is a belief that life is a series of building blocks and certain truths must be learned that allows the student to achieve advancement and an understanding of the society and the culture in which they are making decision on.This philosophy must also be looked at in the light of our Christian world view and the Bible. The Bible must be the basis and reflection of all philosophical truth. Paul warns us in Col. 2:8, â€Å"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ†. Though not all worldly philosophies are deceiving and drawing us away from Christ, I believe that any that question the basic tenants of education set forth in the scripture to be contrary to said and easily disassociated.The basic principle acknowledged by essentialists is that there are essential truth and those truths are to be imparted in the educational system. While absolute truths are communicated through scripture and basic academic truths regarding history, English, mathematics, and literature are the basis for this philosophy; one must acknowledge this, to be the basic responsibility of an educational system, imparting absolutes, to be an essentialist. Other educational philosophies that foster the process of discovering truth rather than acknowledging truth must be recognized for what they are â€Å"vain deceit†.Another principle the essentialists would hold true to, is that learni ng requires discipline and usually is accomplished through hard work. This seems to be negatively reflected in the situation presented in the text book. The students in the example seem to have been the product of a system that does not teach personal discipline and hard work as evidenced in their attitude for a quick solution and desire to learn just what is required to get by.If these students had been exposed to a system associated with discipline and hard work and that was the standard, questions such as â€Å"why do we have to learn this stuff† would not have been posed and comments such as â€Å"C’mon just tell us what you want us to know† would not need to be made because students would have learned that hard work and discipline produces usually positive results. It seems that these students have been given and have not learned to work for their education.If these foundational principles had been instilled into these students through a disciplined learnin g environment they would not have been left to their own devises as it seems these students have, but would have developed a deliberate regimented method to learning one that would have been measured and proved though testing. Also, in the situation presented, there seemed to be an element of disrespect associated to the system and the teacher. The element of submission to authority has not been instilled in the students.Paul tells us in I Peter 5:5, â€Å"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble†, the element of authority and the respect thereof has seemingly not been established in this learning environment. The essentialist recognizes the traditional teacher centered philosophy where the respect for authority is the basis for the importance of the information being communicated.The imparting of knowledge, information, and skill s from the older (presumably wiser) generation to the younger one is imperative in this philosophy. The teacher's responsibility is not only to impart those mentioned elements of basic education, but also to instill respect for authority, and moral norms as deemed acceptable in a society. The situation described in said scenario seems to be a reoccurring dilemma recognized in our public school systems today. This seems not to be a need to redefine the educational system, but a need to readdress roles and responsibilities.Going back to the principles of the founder of the essentialist educational theory, William C. Bagley seems to be the answer. His basis principles of â€Å"the recognized right of an immature student to the guidance of a well-educated, caring, and cultured teacher†, would seemed to have resolved the assumed attitude of the students in question of non-importance of education. That â€Å"the imparting of the ideals of community to each succeeding generation of children†, would have resolved the issue of respect for the teaching system and teacher and would have fostered the feeling of community and society. Having a specific program of studies that required thoroughness, accuracy, persistence, and good workmanship on the part of pupils†, would have set the precedence and provide the students specifically with what was required of them. I would agree with Professor Bagley’s’ statement of â€Å"(American) essentialism is grounded in a conservative philosophy that accepts the social, political, and economic structure of American society and schools should not try to radically reshape society†.I hold to the same thought that American schools should transmit the traditional moral values and intellectual knowledge and those students need to become model citizens. I hold to the basic tenant that when a student leaves school that they should possess basic skills and an extensive body of knowledge, discipline and a practical mind that then allows them to apply school house lessons in a real and practical world. Finally I believe the American school system is in decline as evidenced in the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).The results of these test showed that only about one third of American students exhibited proficiency in technology and science. â€Å"Living in the past† is the phrase I will use as some reflect on the fact that in the 1950s SAT scores reached an all-time high as reflected by the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), surveying Adults 16-65 relating not to math and science but literacy. As years go by statistics continue to drop. The current administration has promised even more spending on their â€Å"Race to the Top† initiative with seeming little or no positive results.Some will find excuses for the decline, but it seems to me that the progressive mind set relating to current educational philosophies is not necessarily working an d that a return to traditional values and proven theories of education would be prudent to return to. A philosophical model of education that reflects the principles of ultimate truths do not change and that sound conservative practices of essentialism seems be the basis for this return.

How does George Eliot portray the changes of the character Silas Marner Essays

How does George Eliot portray the changes of the character Silas Marner Essays How does George Eliot portray the changes of the character Silas Marner Paper How does George Eliot portray the changes of the character Silas Marner Paper Essay Topic: Literature George Eliot describes Raveloe at the start of the nineteenth century through a changing world. At this time the changes in the industrial revolution were making many poor, working people leave the countryside to work in factories and live in crowded, squalid towns where small religious groups were beginning to form such as the one in Lantern Yard. There were many inequalities of society such as the high living standards of the landowners compared to the poor people in Raveloe. The first change of character is when Marner is made to move from Lantern Yard to Raveloe after being wrongly accused of stealing money from the Deacon. In Lantern yard he was highly though of and was believed to be a young man of exemplary life and ardent faith. When Marners friend, William Dane, betrays him and frames him for stealing money he is called to the church where he believes God would clear him. However he is found guilty and he was said to have despair in his soul that shaken trust in God and man, so now he begins to lose faith and trust in everyone. He is further burdened when his fianci calls the wedding off and is soon married to Marners friend William Dane. At this he moves to Raveloe. George Eliot shows the effect of this event by creating a whole new view of Marner. He looses Religion and trust, which makes him very isolated. She makes him seem like a very dark strange character by using phrases such as The little light that he possessed spread its beams so narrowly, that frustrated belief was a curtain broad enough to create for him the blackness of night. In other words its made out that Marner has nothing to look forward to because of his loss of faith. His loneliness in emphasised when he seems to find company in his money. George Eliot describes them as his seeds of desire, this makes you think that money is the most important thing in Marners life. Also he is made isolated because nothing in Raveloe is the same as Lantern Yard which also creates pity. The reader first regards Marner as being a level headed and much respected character. However when he is betrayed he shows he is very innocent and unsuspecting which shows he is too trustful, and relies too much on the teachings of God. When he moves to Raveloe the reader feels great pity for Marner. George Eliot creates this by making out that Marner has lost everything and by making him so isolated from the rest of the village, he invited no comer to step across his door-sill, and he never strolled into the village. Also the writer makes us commiserate with Marner because he loses all his respect. She creates this by making all the characters in Raveloe think that Marner is strange and also by using a group of lads that pester and torment him to show that this view runs through all the generations of Raveloe. The readers view of Marner again changes when the writer describes his money as they were like the satisfaction of a thirst to him and that his life had reduced itself to the mere functions of weaving and hoarding. It makes him seem as if he is a robot with a program. It makes him seem even stranger but again creates great empathy because he really has no life and its hard to believe that a once well regarded man had become this machine. The second incident is the arrival of Eppie. Eppie a little toddler had been walking with her mother who had passed out from being so cold and taking morphine. She was drawn to the light of Marners fire and she entered the house as Marner stood by the open door having a fit. George Eliot uses imagery of Eppies hair, being golden, looking like gold. When Marner notices her he thinks she is his gold that was stolen from him. This shows how important gold is in his life. He discovered it was a child looking much like his sister. Marner goes to the New Year party at the red house to fetch the doctor after finding the childs mother dead in the snow. Marner wants to keep the child but readers know that it is Godfrey Casss child. In this incident Silas Marner shows many new feelings such as love and importance of being which develops his character. The change in Marner that George Eliot shows is that he has started talking with people and that people in Raveloe have change there view of him and no longer regard Marner as being strange. This is shown when someone talks to him with respectful compassion. George Eliot uses the child to remind the readers of the kindness that he possessed when living in Lantern Yard and also shows a total change in Marner that his life no longer revolves around money but Eppie. This change is so drastic that it even takes Marner by surprise. I know this when he says No-no-I cant part with it. The stuttering at the beginning makes you think that he is confused, but Eppie was said to be almost a revelation. It is like another new beginning for Silas Marner. The fact that Eppie clings to Marner makes him seem like a warm, comforting character. George Eliot creates the warmth by using words to describe Marner and his actions such as soothed, perfectly quiet and wide gazing calm. Godfrey shows jealousy towards Marner but it too proud to say anything because of his conflict of regret and joy. This makes Silas Marners character seem stronger to in the readers point of view. The quote the small hand began to pull at Marners withered cheek with loving disfiguration, show as that he is like a father and rather than being a self absorbed, piteous character he is warm and strong. The strength of his character is emphasised by Godfrey being so weak in this part of the book because of all his mixed emotions. In this part of the book it seems as if Marners character is complete because for once in his life he has a reason for living that he that everyone else regards satisfactory. The reader is reminded of Silas Marners innocent side when he says Till anybody shows theyve a right to take her away from me, The mothers dead, and I reckon its got no father. George Eliot creates shock in the readers when Marner says this by using dramatic irony. This quote again shows Marners strength because he now feels he can stand up to people as from before he didnt even show signs of communication. The reader again feels sorry for Marner when he says My moneys gone, I dont know where-and this is come from I dont know where. It is as if he is still thing to make sense of everything and by comparing Eppie to money, which was the most important thing in his life, is saying that Eppie is now the most important thing in his life. Godfrey gives Marner some money to look after Eppie and states that Eppie is a Poor little thing. This shows characters in the book still feel pity for Marner because they see the child as being a burden but or Silas the child is just what he needed. The reader feels hope for Marner at this point which contradicts the other characters views because only the reader knows hoe truly important the child is to Marner and how hopeless he would be if he didnt have anything in his life still. The final incident I have chosen is in the second part of the book that is sixteen years on from part one of the book. It is when Marners gold is returned to him but is worthless compared to Eppie. Also Godfrey and Nancy (Godfreys wife) went to see Marner and broke the news that Godfrey is Eppies biological father and that he wants her to move in with him. However Eppie will not go as she sees Marner as her father which the reader gets constant reminders of as she always refers to him as daddy or father. George Eliot shows a change in Marner again, as now he is a totally fulfilled character with money and Eppie. However Marner explains to Eppie how he used to count it every night, and his soul was utterly desolate till she was sent to him. This portrays Silas as finally being an ordinary who wants and needs nothing else than Eppie. It shows he has found himself and that he has become totally dedicated to Eppie not money or religion. The writer creates great tension when Silas Marner tells Eppie how she has changed his whole life and that If you hadnt been sent to save me, I should ha gone to the grave in misery. At this Godfrey and Nancy enter Marners house. This sequence of events creates great tension because you know whats coming and you feels so sorry for Eppie and Marner who have got a nice life together which now may be turned into disaster. The tension gathers as it takes so long for Godfrey to break the news. When Godfrey announces he wants Eppie to stay with him the mood between the characters change dramatically. George Eliot creates great frustration between Silas Marner and Godfrey Cass because of the difference in class, which again creates more tension between the characters. When Godfrey says, Make her a lady; shes more fit for it than the rough life, it is like saying your no longer good enough to look after Eppie. When Eppie will not go there is a sense of relief. However when Godfrey tells his news the tension is held at a climax by the angry, shocked mood that George Eliot creates. She is keeps the tension going by using lots of commas and short sentences. George Eliot also uses lots of adjectives to describe the character feelings such as, Lively appreciation and parental fierceness. This makes the feeling more dramatic making them feel more real to the reader. She creates this mood by the actions of Eppie, Eppie had given a violent start, and turned quite pale, and also Marners actions, he answered, with an accent of bitterness. This makes all the characters uneasy with each other and creates the mood. There is great pressure and guilt on Godfrey, especially when Marner states very defensively, Why didnt you say so 16 years ago, and claim her before Id come to love her, when you might as well take the heart out of my body. It is ironic how he is accusing Marner as not being good enough to look after Eppie, when he has taken 16 years to tell her the truth. This shows another change in Marner which is that he will stand up to people even if they are a higher class when it comes down to Eppie. The quote is also another emphasis on how important Eppie is to Marner. There are again many changes in the readers view of Marner. Even in the incident there is a change of character. At first he is said to be always ill at ease when he was being spoken to by betters. However His character becomes stronger and he gains belief in himself. This is shown in the quote of the previous paragraph. Also Marner shows that he very tolerate even to Godfrey who comes across as very unfeeling, selfish and self-absorbed. This is shown when Godfrey, in effect says that Eppie would be better off at the red house. Another change in Marner is that he is always thinking in other peoples best interests, especially Eppies. This is shown when Marner says to Eppie Eppie my child, speak. I wont stand in your way. It also shows that he is very caring. The readers also regard Marner as being very respectful and respected. This is shown when he tells Eppie to Thank Mr. And Mrs. Cass, even after they nearly wrecked his life. It is shown that Marner is respected when Eppie sticks by his side, I cant leave my father. Another change is shown in the readers view of Marner when Godfrey puts pressure on Marner because he tells him he would be better off for money if Eppie went. This shows that Money no longer plays an important part in his life. When Marner tells Eppie that if she stays with him that You must make sure as you wont be sorry shows his sensitive side because he still want the best for Eppie. In incident one when Marner is set up by his best friend I think George Eliot wants us to think about the issue of trust and friendship. I also think she wants us to think how money can effect these issues. For example William was Marners best friend who had profuse amounts of Marners trust and respect. However just to get money he broke these bonds because he though money was worth more. It raises an interesting twist in the book when Marner moves to Raveloe he find that money is the most important thing in his life. Also in Incident one I think she wants to point out that there was no real judicial system and everything went to the church. Almost like god was the judge. It also shows how important religion was in those times and that it lad to injustices. In the world today it seems a strange phenomenon that people thought they could tell who was guilty, and that Marner had so much faith in God that he thought God would show the people that he was not guilty. In incident two George Eliot wants to raise the moral issue of child negligence and single motherhood in those times. She shows the desperation of single mothers in those times, again showing no judicial system and no help for people who werent involved with the church. George Eliot also shows how the whole image, appearance and actions of richer people were so important to uphold. This is shown when Godfrey walks away from his only child and his ex-wife. It is also shown when Mrs Kimble wont take Eppie, Mrs Kimble, hesitating, how-ever to take those dingy clothes into contact with her own ornament satin bodice. Also in incident two the writer wants us to show us the difference in class and how it effected the actions of those people. For example the higher class take pity on the lower class. This is shown by several offers of money to Marner. It also shows that the rich used money to get out of taking responsibilities. In incident three George Eliot wants us to think about the moral issue of class again. It seems ironic how Godfrey feels he has the right to own Eppie after Marner has been her father for sixteen years. She shows how the higher class expects respect from the lower class and the lower class seems to oblige to this expectation. This is shown in the brief quote Thank Mr. and Mrs. Cass. The fact that Marner refers to Godfrey and Nancy as Mr and Mrs shows respect. The writer also wants us to think about the importance of money in the different classes. It seems much more important to Godfrey who uses it to try and bribe Eppie to leaving Marner; this also shows how money makes people think they have power. It used to be of most importance to Marner until he found Eppie. It makes us think about the moral that money is nothing if you dont have anyone to share it with.

media violence and its effects on children essays

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