Morality depends on God’s command Essay

Humans, from the cradle to the grave, are taught to respect society and its many pre-existing intricate systems, often with no rhyme nor reason.   How can one really know what, and if, social systems are beneficial to them, when one is forced to live under the watchful eye of the society who created these systems, and wish them to continue?   Questioning society is something that is reserved for those who wish for better systems than the ones they were given, ones that will serve to improve the human condition.   However, society often neglects these difficult questions, accepting instead easy answers, commonly accepted and passed down through the generations.   Within the confines of a questionable society arises humans who dedicate their lives to the searching for answers to these questions, in hopes of providing humankind with a better understanding of its place.   Philosophers are the title bestowed upon these individuals, and one such philosopher who searched for truth , was Karl Marx. Karl Marx was a philosopher who interpreted the world, and through his interpretations, he succeeded in changing it.   Whether or not it was for the better or the worse, remains discussion amongst many scholars.   Among his many philosophical observations were; religion is a type of illusion, that history itself is linear and progressive.   He also supported women’s liberation and stated that an important goal of improving the human condition to be achieved by creating a new type of society for everyone.   A new society for everyone would mean the abolition of the old.   It was this revolutionary nature of his philosophy which created a fear among those few who were, and those who still are, in power.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Marx was a fervent supporter of social criticism, and he believed that the criticism of religion was the premise of all criticism.   In his view, he found it to be a type of illusion.   Marx borrowed his religious philosophies from Feuerbach who wrote that man makes religion, not vice-versa, and in creating God in his own image, had â€Å"alienated himself from himself† (Marx, 1978/1848, p. 53).   This meant that man had created a greater being in contrast to himself, reducing himself to a despicable creature who needed both the dogma of the church and the laws of government to guide and control him. Marx agreed with this philosophy and described religion as the, â€Å"sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, the soul of soulless conditions,† adding that religion was â€Å"the opium of the people† (1978/1848, p. 54). Marx believed that the human condition causes people to create illusions, religion being one, which create a false happiness.   He called for people to abandon their illusions and demand for their real happiness.   The criticism of religion created an awareness as to its illusory nature, and Marx felt strongly that man should be able to create an illusion-free existence, relying instead on his reason. To Marx, religion prohibits man from realizing himself as the center of his existence, an in place, creates an environment in which religious belief dictates his action.   Men can never be free, as long as they accept their existence as subservient beings, indebted to a omnipotent supreme being.   Religion is a tradition which has survived the ages, though constantly changing to suit the times.   Events such as the Reformation, or the Great Schism, only serve to support this, for religion, like all things man-made, is only used if it is a useful part of society.   Marx believed that if religion were abolished human beings would overcome their self-inflicted alienation.   The abandonment of this illusion, in Marx’s view, could be one of many crucial steps mankind towards advancement. Marx believed that humans could find meaning in history, which he believed to be linear and progressive.   He saw history as the unfolding of class struggles, between the owners of the productive forces, bourgeoisie, and the workers, proletariat.   With his conception of history, Marx used scientific observation to show how history was really the â€Å"history of production†.   He set human existence as being the first premise in history.   Humans must live to create history, so he showed how humans survive, by producing useful things out of natural material. Through this he showed how man is the producer, and by using natural materials, he created a new â€Å"man-made† nature over the original.   This â€Å"material† conception of history is based on Hegel’s conception of history, along with Feurerbach’s criticism of it, but whereas Hegel claims man to be a self-alienating spirit, Feurerbach claims man to be self-alienating in its own, and the â€Å"spirit† Hegel speaks of, is actually the thought process taking place in the mind.   Marx argued that this human thought was determined by social and economic forces, particularly those related to the means of production. He explains that the ruling class of each historic period, is the class that controls the material force of society, and their ideas prevail.   The â€Å"goals† or â€Å"ideals† of each earlier generation, he points out, are only formed by the later generations based the influence the prior generations had.   This led Marx to develop a method of analysis called Dialectical Materialism, in which the clash of historical forces leads to changes in society. He also declared that all history is the history of class struggles, whether it be the slave-master relationship of earlier ages, or the employee-employer relationship of today.   Marx expressed history as the process of human self-development, and criticized the common economic system of Capitalism.   He claimed that Capitalism must be abandoned in favor of a better economic system.   He also felt this would happen, for he believed man to be capable of such a development. What, according to Marx, is the good life? Why is it unattainable under capitalism? Critically analyze Marxs views. Marx believed that the important goal of improving the human condition to create the good life was to be achieved by creating a new type of society for everyone.   Marx claimed that in a Capitalist society, which still remains the most common economic system, the struggle between the working class, or proletariat, and the ruling business class, or bourgeoisie, would eventually end in the formation of a new society, a classless society.   â€Å"Society can no longer live under this bourgoeisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society,† sated Marx his work, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1978/1848, p. 483).  Ã‚   To Marx, the good life was impossible under a capitalist system. Marx points out how human history has delivered its share of class struggles turned to revolutions, and the bourgeoisie society will be no different.   In his writings, he often uses the French Revolution as an example, citing the uprising of the bourgeoisie against the former feudal society.   The one constant in the history of man has been the fact that some men have what other men wish too have, but do not.   This puts man in competition with each other, and this leads to struggle amongst man, rather than cooperation amongst man.   This consequently leads men to feel separated from others, by the share fact that they become opposing forces. Marx applied this idea of alienation to private property, which he said causes humans to work only for themselves, not for the good of their species.   Because Capitalism has its roots in private ownership, he felt that it created an environment, ripe for greed and avarice to develop.   This prevents man from focusing on cooperating, and maximizing their potential.   Marx felt that it must be abandoned for the good of the species, and man’s continuing development towards enlightenment.   The economic system he proposed was a socialist one, or communism.   He called for a communist society to overcome the dehumanizing effect of private property. Marx’s proposed communist society would be one that would provide for all.   Many believe his view on the possibility of communism succeeding was pure idealism, but he believed that it was crucial for man.   By creating a society where man could work together towards a common goal, it would be able to achieve many more important results.   Marx believed that this could help create a classless society in which all men are provided for, and free to endeavor as they please.   Certainly, in its pure form, communism seems that it would be able to thrive.   However, since its inception, it has developed a negative connotation in many countries, especially in the United States, which fought a â€Å"Cold War† with the hated â€Å"commies.†Ã‚   The failure of the Soviet Union, the Communist leader in the world, led many to believe that it was a system doomed to failure.   Despite that, communism and Marx’s beliefs in it, were all part of his plan of lib erating man, and women as well.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Amongst the many little-known facts about the philosophies of Karl Marx, was his support for women’s liberation in a time when they did not share the privileges of men.   He believed that this would encourage greater equality within societies, therefore making life better for the society as a whole.   More than a century ago, many years before women were allowed to vote in the United States, Marx wrote of his views towards women’s rights.   In the modern bourgeoisie society, Marx explained in so many words, that women in a capitalist system were nothing more to men than another instrument of production. Men, who controlled the world as wells as it’s productive forces, also controlled women.   Because the instruments of production are to be exploited, women are exploited.   With the abolition of the bourgeoisie society, women would be free from every form of prostitution, public or private.   For the Communists, there was, â€Å"no need to introduce community of women; it has always existed almost from time immemorial† (1978/1848, p. 488)   But traditional capitalistic values make this fact all but impossible to notice, and for Marx, women’s equality was another step towards human enlightenment and the good life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The philosophies of Karl Marx continue to draw varied opinions.   For many years, people who were believed to be communist were persecuted, many in spite of their actual innocence.   In the United States, propaganda and political movements against Marxist philosophies, created fear in and ignorance in millions.   Perhaps, it is the revolutionary nature of Marxist philosophy that has many men of power frightened.   Perhaps, an educated and motivated working class, with nothing too lose but their shackles, is something which causes fear in those who have everything too lose.   Anyone with common sense would be able to see the benefits of helping our fellow man, and the benefits of pooling our collective talents towards a common goal.   But as long as people continue to accept their oppression, the goal of enlightenment grows more distant.   â€Å"WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!† (1978/1848, p. 500). Works Cited: Marx, K. (1978/1848). Communist Manifesto. The Marx-Engels Reader. Trans. Tucker, R. C., Second Edition. New York:   W. W. Norton.

Decision Making and Reasoning Essay

There are different types of decisions that we must make as well. From simple choices when planning for a vacation or making more life changing choices that require a detailed, logical analysis concerning what to do. Questions about strategy use have been treated in several different lines of decision-making. Largely, a distinction arises in terms of when and why deliberative processing best describes decision-making behavior. Under novel decision-making conditions, there is no prior experience to guide the decision-making process. The process involves selecting the appropriate strategy. Under repetitive successful decision-making conditions, there is a long history of experience. Some decisions become automatic in the sense that they require no deliberation. In this process, we address the issue of how decision processes transit from more controlled or deliberative strategies, to simple decision rules, and finally to automatic or routine strategies. What one sees as rational behavior in many of the social situations that have been studied is likely to depend on whether one conceives of rationality as enlightened self-interest in a fairly narrow sense, or one factors in the roles of such variables as self-image and conscience, or one allows for the possibility that a rational person might take a genuine interest in the welfare of other people, independently of his or her own. In other words, what is perceived as a dilemma from one perspective may not be a dilemma as perceived from another; a decision problem that is very difficult when assessed relative to one set of values may be very easy when assessed relative to another set. Dilemmas are difficult decision problems, necessitating, as they often do, choices between equally unsatisfactory (or in some cases equally attractive) options. Some social dilemmas pit self-interest against the common good. What constitutes rational behavior in dealing with dilemmas has been a question of interest to many theorists and students of human reasoning. Certain prototypical situations—notably various versions of the prisoner’s dilemma have been intensively studied with the hope of gaining insights into the determinants of competitive and cooperative behavior. However, along the way, we may use simple rules to decide when and where to stop and which specific routes to take, depending on incidental factors such as traffic. It is important to understand how these various decision domains are differently perceived and processed. (Betsch et al, 2004, p1) Strategies That Guide Human Decision Making A strategy is used to refer to processes which are relatively slow, goal-directed, systematic, and under explicit conscious control. However, it is also argued that to reason deductively rather than inductively does require a conscious effort at deduction and only occurs in response to specific instructions. Thus deduction is seen as a strategy. An account of strategic deductive reasoning with the mental models framework is preferred. (D’Ydewalle et al, 2000, p1) The strategic phases of decision making are the generation phase, the evaluation phase, and the learning phase. In a very rough sense, these phases correspond to the periods before, during, and after one makes a decision, respectively. Hence, they can be viewed as three successive points in time, but there is a great deal of recursion that can occur between phases. (Klein et al, 2001, p31) The tendency to implement appropriate behaviors strategies is apparent by the number of techniques available. For example, vigilant problem solving found that most executives report that they engage in one of a number of simplistic strategies for arriving at a solution. These simplistic strategies of simple decision rules are grouped them into cognitive categories. The cognitive decision rules: 1. Unreflectively using a standard operating procedure, 2. Accepting the first alternative that comes to mind that is good enough to meet the minimal requirements (satisfying), 3. Searching ones mind for a well-known analogy that turns out to be inappropriate (analogizing), 4. Consolidating the choice discovered through rules (1) to (3) and bolstering it in one’s mind by focusing mainly on the positive features of the choice, 5. Saving time and effort by getting someone who has looked into the issues to provide a brief description of what one should do and why (the nutshell briefing rule). (Byrnes, 1998, p21) For example in a case study format, Suppose that a student already possesses some automatic but dysfunctional strategies for making the decisions the instructor seeks to have make well. Then, before the training effort can begin in earnest, those â€Å"bad habits† have to be eliminated. This will be a prodigious task because, by their nature, the already established strategies will initiate themselves effortlessly, uncontrollably, and beyond the trainee’s consciousness. Because decision making is such a fundamental human activity, which each of us has practiced day-in and day-out all our lives, perhaps the majority of our decision strategies are automated. This means that it is folly to think that it is even possible to fundamentally change a person’s basic decision-making dispositions. (Klein et al, 2001, p25) Managerial leadership is generally considered a major factor in organizational behavior because of its putative effect on individuals, groups, and organizational outcomes. Some regard leadership as a special case of social influence. But progress has been very slow in understanding why leaders exert influence in certain situations while not in others. Research has not produced particularly robust and reliable findings in this regard.

UK wind power Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

UK wind power - Research Paper Example In UK, wind power has been applied as means to overcome the problem of the power shortage. A lot of efforts have been applied in an attempt to make this project successful. Wind power is one of the most efficient sources of power. When the wind turns the wind turbines, the kinetic energy from the wind is converted into mechanical energy. In this form, energy is then used in driving the generator which eventually converts mechanical energy into electricity. The electricity generated is then transmitted to the consumers through cables. UK leads in the European countries in terms of usable wind power. The country has given adequate attention to wind power due to its realization of importance of the wind power in the current world. UK aims at becoming the major supplier of energy in the world by the year 2020. Power is the basic component in the United Kingdom economy which plays a major in economic development. It also plays an important role in increasing the standard of living in the country. There is, therefore, an increased need for a reliable source of electricity supply. Over the past, the country has been relying on coal and gas as a source of energy. However, these sources are non renewable and, therefore, cannot be reliable. This posed a big danger to the country bearing in the mind the current high level of demand for the power in the country.

The Role of Strategic Quality Planning for Quality Minded Essay

The Role of Strategic Quality Planning for Quality Minded Organizations - Essay Example The significance of quality also gets enhanced due to the rapidly increasing competition in the business environment and the continuous requirement of innovative ideas to satisfy the global customers (Mehra & Et. Al., 2001). In this regard, the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) has been introduced to the managerial implication trends of 21st century with the purpose to scientifically manage quality with due consideration to the multifaceted nature of business organizations. Another significant approach to the management decisions in the current phenomenon is the inclusion of strategic management to control, direct, enhance, and organize the managerial decisions in attaining its ultimate objectives. It is worth mentioning, that currently organizations have been witnessed to integrate the two concepts, i.e. TQM and strategic management to enhance their efficiency in achieving competitive advantage, e.g. Toyota (Amasaka, 2005). With this concern, the paper will emphasize on the study of strategic quality management in Toyota as a quality minded organization. ... Effective strategic management is also considered to be crucial in determining the success of an organization in relation to its ultimate organizational objective (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). Strategic management in the post-modern context is defined to â€Å"refer to the managerial decisions that relate the organization its environment, guide internal activities, and determine organizational long-term performance† (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997, pp. 2). On the similar context, TQM is defined as â€Å"a systems approach to management that aims to continuously improve value to customers by designing and continuously improving organizational process and systems† (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997, pp. 4). TQM is also defined as â€Å"a process-oriented philosophy of enhancing customer satisfaction through the production of higher quality goods and services† (Mehra & Et. Al., 2001). Simultaneously, strategic management can also be defined as object-oriented and future-oriented process, i.e . strategic management implications of an organization intends toward the attainment of future objective of the organization (Teece & Et. Al., 1997). Emphasizing on the above mentioned definitions of the two concepts, it can be stated that both strategic management and TQM are interrelated with the purpose of enhancing the organizational efficiency in the attainment of its ultimate objective. Therefore, attainment of a quality efficient organizational process through the implication of TQM can be regarded as the organizational goal and strategic management can be termed as the scientific and organized method aimed at attaining the objective. Furthermore, both the concepts tend to be related to a diversified and broad

Colombia's International Trade Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Colombia's International Trade - Research Paper Example Additionally, there are other factors responsible for the growth of the economic conditions, which include reduction of public debt, rigid government budgets, increased export activities and increased commodity prices. Contextually, improvements relating to security of business affairs and trade policies have been accountable for attracting greater Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) within its national markets, which is further expected to yield greater benefits to the economy in the long run through enriched international collaborations (Beittel, â€Å"Colombia: Background, U.S. Relations, and Congressional Interest†). Contextually, trade operations are determined to play an effective role in developing the economy on the continuous basis over the long run rather than focusing merely on short-run benefits. In this regard, the government has adopted important measures of performing international trade activities with other countries. Moreover, the government has also entered into free trade agreements with the US. Subsequently, the growth of trade operations is quite likely to facilitate in enhancing import along with export operations to a considerable extent. The country is also identified to acquire energy along with mineral resources in abundance to support its developmental needs in the near future (LTBS, â€Å"Focus on Colombia†). Prior to assessing Colombia’s economic indicators, it is essential to note that the country has been engaged in conflicts and dispute situations for a period of five decades in the recent past till the present scenario between Colombian government, the ‘National Liberation Army’ (ELN) and the ‘Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’ (FARC) during the 1950s (Lopez 6-20).

The Marxism of Valentin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Marxism of Valentin - Essay Example For as the play progresses, his inner struggles come to the fore as Molina's character gradually transforms him, influencing Valentin through his romanticism, to be honest with himself. And as he succumbs to Molina's romantic ideals, his typicality is defined as he confesses about Marta "She's upper-class. Pure bourgeoisie. She's got everything. Money, looks, education, freedom... I'm such a hypocrite. Just like all those class-conscious pigs. I must admit, it was convenient. A safe place to stay, when I was forced to hide... Until one day I had to tell her about my other life" (Puig, 63). Perhaps this particular side of Valentin can be regarded as his weakness as their movement demands absolute loyalty. On the contrary, it only proves Valentin's humanity and his capacity for reflection. In my opinion, Molina and Valentin personified Manuel Puig's strongest characters. In Molina, I saw Puig's homosexuality and escapism through films, whereas in Valentin, I saw his Marxist conviction. This is evident in the narration of the film by Molina: But did Puig, as a Marxist, want people to admire Valentin or condemn him Puig has made up Valentin as a fellow Marxist with a substantial amount of political ideals expected of the character, however, I got the impression that Puig wanted people to condemn Valentin. One reason One reason is due to Valentin's belated confession of a mindframe which can prove to be dangerous to the movement, a betrayal to their cause in favor of personal salvation, which was clear when he confided that " I don't deserve to die in this cell. I only confessed some code names they already knew. I can't stand being a martyr. It infuriates me. I don't want to be a martyr - my whole life a mistake" (Puig, 67). Another reason for the condemnation of Valentin is in empathy to the destruction he had wrought on Molina who, after his encounter with Valentin, had a change of ideals when it came to approach, from personal to revolutionary. Molina had sacrificed his finally attained freedom for his love of Valentin only to be mistakenly executed by the movement of his lover. MOLINA: I have a message from Valentin. Are you Lidia YOUNG WOMAN: Yes. Get in. Quick. As Molina reaches for the car door, AN AGENT DIVES AT HIM from behind. AGENT: Get him! As the taxi tears away, the young woman quickly draws a gun and FIRES TWO SHOTS at the agent, he crumples to the pavement. The sharp reports send the bystanders into hysteria. Molina runs off as the other two agents shoot down the street. Molina sprints erratically down a side street. Pedro and another agent are close behind. PEDRO: Stop! Molina -- stop! He fires a warning shot into the air. Pedestrians scatter. The taxi intercepts Molina's path at the end of the street. From inside the car, THE YOUNG WOMAN FIRES THREE SHOTS INTO MOLINA. The taxi speeds off. (Puig, 107-8) The argument present in this paper brought to light our perceptions on the meaning and values embedded in the terms of goodness and the typical. Kiss

Problem Set 6, 7, and 8 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Problem Set 6, 7, and 8 - Assignment Example Thus it is a measure of the strength of relationship between the two variables. David states that when the two variables are continuous-level variables, the value is called Pearson correlation coefficient (David, 1997. Pg100). Suppose an economist wants to determine if higher oil prices increase the cost of shipping and the degree of the relation between the two, in this case, his main concern is the cost of shipping and how it is being affected by the changes in the oil prices; of which he wants to determine whether the shipping cost changes depend on the changes in the oil prices. Thus the dependent variable is the shipping cost while the independent variable is the oil prices. This is basically because the shipping cost depends on the oil prices. To answer his question, the economist can go ahead to collect historical data on the same and probably tabulate his results as below: To measure the strength and direction of relationship/association between two variables, Spearman rank-order correlation can be used. It is a nonparametric measure. David notes that before using Spearman rank-order correlation, it is vital to check the validity of the data (David, 1997. Pg230). This is because not all data is qualified to be analyzed by Spearman rank-order correlation. Thus to use the spearman rank-order correlation, data must meet the following prerequisites: Thus I selected this test to analyze the data based on these two conditions that have been met by the data. Suppose football analysts want to find out the order of the teams between two years in English premier league, Spearman rank-order correlation may be an option. The analyst has collected the following data: 1. Predicting unknown values of a variable from the value of several known variables (predictors) is done using multiple regression analysis. For example, we can predict the value of a dependent variable y so long as we are given the value of xi (x1, x2, x3, †¦xn) Suppose an

Leadership Style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Leadership Style - Essay Example It is very clear from these definitions that the role of the leader is extremely important in influencing the performance of the employees and in a broader aspect the performance of the organization (Altmae, Kulno and Ott-Sim, 2013). According to Kotter (1988) the growing competitive nature of the industries and the rising complexity of the firms are making the role of the leader more important than ever (McDermott, 2007). Over the past few years various theories of leadership have evolved: Participative theory: This theory focuses on the fact that every member has something to contribute towards the organization and the chief responsibility of the leader is to make the employees feel important in the decision-making area. Trait theory and Best man theory: Both of these theories have a similar line of understanding that great leaders are the ones who are born with the leadership qualities in them. These people have certain traits which separate them from most of the common people and drive them to become innovators and leaders. The purpose of this paper is to understand the leadership style of Microsoft leader Bill gates and the ways in which his leadership style has impacted the performance of the company and catapulted it to one of the biggest and the most successful companies of contemporary times. In doing so the objective is to understand which leadership theories has been followed by Bill Gates and the positive impact it had on the efficiency of the employees. The role of Bill Gates as a leader is rather interesting because it has been a long time Mr. Gates has removed himself from the day-to-day operations of Microsoft but his leadership which is greatly exemplified in his leadership style, shows that he had a vision and he aligned the resources of Microsoft according to that particular vision which had resulted in the exceptional

Managing the Curriculum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing the Curriculum - Essay Example to the identification, implementation and evaluation of policies that aim to support the various phases of learning, as these activities are also known as management of the curriculum. The review of the literature related to this subject has revealed an important fact: the state has the key role in defining the curriculum, both as a syllabus and as a learning process; still, the decisive role of principal/ head of educational institute in managing the curriculum cannot be doubted. In fact, the terms on which the management of curriculum is based are highly influenced by the decisions of principals and educators; the latter are those who apply the curriculum in practice and can, therefore, introduce important changes in each management on the basis that the key principles of education, such as equality and diversity are not violated, as analyzed below. A critical issue when managing Curriculum is the right of all children/ students to education no matter their physical or mental conditions. This right has been also described as the right to inclusion and refers to the need for securing the access to education for all children and students despite their potential disability (Wearmouth et al. 2013). Inclusion, as described above, is considered as a reflection of social justice, i.e. the need for the elimination of discrimination in all aspects of social life (Wearmouth et al. 2013). However, in order to be effectively promoted inclusion needs to be based on specific criteria. In other words, without a carefully planned strategy inclusion cannot be achieved at the level that delays would appear in regard to each of its processes (Sydney 2013). From a similar point of view it is noted that inclusion cannot be achieved only by applying a specific policy (Sydney 2013). Rather, it should be based on the understanding of all people in the educational site involved of the value and the necessity of inclusion; in other words, inclusion is

Evil in the Environment Essay Example for Free

Evil in the Environment Essay John Locke is a philosopher known for introducing various significant concepts to different fields of studies. His work encompasses the fields of psychology, political science, and philosophy. One of his main contributions is his assertion that the human mind is completely empirical.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This principle would lead one to believe that every human being is born into this world having the same capacity. All human minds are empty slates (tabula rasa) when one is just born. (Hooker, 1999) Behavior is acquired through the various empirical experiences that a human being undergoes. Moral behavior stems from an individual’s empirical experiences. (Hooker, 1999) As such, it can be assumed that all immoral behavior or all â€Å"evil† is the product of the environment rather than individual. (Hooker, 1999) Such line of reasoning will lead us to assume that evil from the environment can be eradicated by a simple change in human thinking and behavior. This is known as the third â€Å"premise† of the enlightenment thinkers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The said premise remains to be significant in today’s time and age. For one, it helps people today realize that the evil that pervades in society today can be erased by humans themselves. Moreover, it teaches society that there is still hope for a better world and the fulfillment of such dreams lies in the reformation of human beings and society itself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The primary effect of such premise on society is that it gives the responsibility for the evil in the world on the shoulders of people. Fingers cannot be pointed to the heavens or to other creatures to blame them for the evil that continues to exist in the world. Rather, the premise asserts that the evil in the world is the product of human misbehavior. Human wrong doing has created the immorality that exists in the world today. However, the most important lesson that Locke’s principle teaches us today is that just as the responsibility for the evil in the world lies in our hands, so does the responsibility to change and eradicate such evil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are many ways by which humans can reform and change their environment. Locke had asserted that education is the primary way by which the moral and intellectual character of the human being can be changed for the better. (Hooker, 1999) Such assertion remains to be significant in today’s society. What the premise tells us is that education is even more valuable today for it is the way by which the world can be made better. Education exists not simply for the betterment of the individual’s own life. It is not for the sole purpose of helping someone find a better job, a better way of life. Education’s primary purpose is to help every human being to determine how he can help make the world a better place. It is through education that society can reform its ways and help remove evil from the environment. Thus, the role of education is society is exemplified by the third â€Å"premise.† The role of education becomes ever more important and significant basing on what has been stated in the premise. The future of today’s society lies in the hands of human beings. The betterment of the world and the eradication of evil are the responsibilities of all human beings. Just as they can create evil, they can erase them. Reformation of one’s ways is the manner by which evil in our â€Å"faulty environment† can be obliterated. Works Cited: Hooker, Richard. Seventeenth Century Enlightenment Thought. 1999. World Civilizations. 12 Dec. 2006 from: http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/PREPHIL.HTM.

Mozarts Effect On The Musical World Music Essay

Mozarts Effect On The Musical World Music Essay I pay no attention whatever to anybodys praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)(brainyquote.com). This is the very essence of Mozart as he composed to make music that he felt was right and in turn influenced the music world to come. Mozart brought new aspects to things in the music business such as different kinds of operas and the idea of being a free-lance musician, instead of working for the church or the government. This brought about the idea of musicians also being considered artists. Mozart made additions to the classical orchestra and helped to bring great popularity to the Italian and German operas. Even though Mozart has been accused of not actually composing all the pieces he has been credited for, though not proven up to this point, Mozart changed the way music is perceived because of Mozarts decisions that changed the rules of music and things such as The Mozart effect which has been argued by scientists to affect the human brain. Mozarts Life: Mozart has been considered that of a prodigal genius. . . . I must inform [you] that on 27 January, at 8 p.m., my dear wife was happily delivered of a boy; but the placenta had to be removed. She was therefore astonishingly weak. Now, however (God be praised) both child and mother are well. She sends her regards to you both. The boy is called Joannes Chrisostomos, Wolfgang, Gotlieb.(Mozart, L. http://www.mozartproject.org/biography/bi_56_60.html) He was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. Mozarts interest in music peaked at a very young age when his sister Nannerl said that the three year old Mozart often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was always striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. (mozartproject.org). It took Mozart only about half an hour to learn and master his first musical composition which was charted in his sister, Nannerls journal by father Leopold, This piece was learnt by Wolfgangerl on 24 January 1761, 3 days bef ore his 5th birthday, between 9 and 9:30 in the evening. (mozartproject.org). Not after too long of his learning, the young Mozart composed his first composition which he put in Nannerls notebook. His composition only consisted of 6 measures in an andante in C Major. Though the young Mozart possessed great potential as a composer his father, Leopold, decided to direct his aims at his childrens growing progress as pianists. Leopold took his two children to perform on a tour of the courts of Europe. Their first trip did not last long as they travelled to the Munich court but shortly returned to Salzburg. Leopold then set out for a more dynamic tour and the first objective was Vienna. The success of his performance in Vienna caused mass excitement and the young Mozart was invited to perform in major courts of Europe. Leopold wrote. The nobles send us their invitations four, five, six to eight days in advance, in order not to miss us. (mozartproject.org). After all of these performances , the young Mozart was still not even at the age of seven. After returning from Vienna they spent some time back home in Salzburg but accepted an invitation to play in Versailles, France and left on June 9th. This trip would then last for over three years. On their trip to Paris they played many public and private events at the major cities they would pass through on their way to Versailles. Around Christmas Eve the family moved to Versailles for two weeks to experience the life of living in the most culturally influenced court of Europe. In the February following the meeting of the king and queen, Mozart struck with an illness but was active in four days and this month published his first compositions though they are thought to have been written by his father Leopold. There next destination was London as it proved to contain great business in the music market. Within days of arriving to England, Mozart was performing in front of the young king and queen. The king was so taken to Mo zart that he invited him back to play once again. Leopold became ill and this left Mozart with time to compose his own music in which he constructed his first symphony for all the instruments. They left London in of July 1765. In 1767 they headed back to Vienna and stayed there until 1768 when they then headed back to Salzburg. After a year back in Salzburg, Leopold and Mozart travelled to Italy. Wolfgang was put on display once again by his father where he was recognized for his maturing and rapid growth as a composer. He even was accepted to be a member of the Accademia Filarmonica, a distinguished music institute of the time. When in Milan, Wolfgang wrote one of his first operas, Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770), which had success. The next few visits were for the premieres of two more of his operatic pieces, Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772). Even though his Italian travels didnt prove up to the expectations of his father he composed one of his more famous pieces, Exsul tate, jubilate. After returning to Salzburg in 1773, Wolfgang was appointed to be a court musician. During this time he explored many genres in which some of these pieces are still performed today. Mozart gained a liking for violin concertos and composed five and the last three are now seen as the base of the violin concerto itself. His piano concerto in E flat of 1776 was considered by his critics to be of breakthrough success, but Mozart found himself to be upset with his position in Salzburg and mainly wanted to compose operas, which were of rare occasions of the time. In august of 1777, Wolfgang quit his position in Salzburg and set out to travel along with his mother for work. This trip proved to be unsuccessful in Mozart finding what it was he was looking for and the worst of the trip was that of his mothers death on July 3rd, 1778. Mozart returned home on January 15, 1779 and took a new position that his father had rallied for him in which he was now the concertmaster, but Mo zart still found himself discontent in Salzburg. In the January of 1781 his opera Ideomeneo received some success and he travelled with the archbishop Colloredo when attending the celebrations of Joseph II to the throne. Mozart wanted to perform for the Emperor at Countess Thuns, but the archbishop prevented him which offended Mozart and once they returned from Vienna Mozart had attempted to resign but this request was refused. After a month he was allowed to resign, but was resigned in an insulting manner. This began Mozarts travel to Vienna where he decided to settle and be a freelance performer and composer. Once in Vienna, Mozarts career as a freelance musician began well as he managed to find multiple performances as a pianist and had won a competition in front of the Emperor and soon had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna (magicmozart.com). He then in 1782 completed his first opera as a freelance composer which resulted in great success and was perform ed throughout Europe which greatly added to Mozarts reputation as a composer. Within the years of 1782 and 1783 Wolfgang became very interested with the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel which then had a great influence on his own musical compositions which are seen in fugal passages in Die Zauberflà ¶te (The Magic Flute) and the finale of Symphony No. 41. I 1783 Mozart and his wife Constanze visited in Salzburg where Mozart created to be said one of his most liturgical pieces, the Mass in C minor, but were not even completed. Haydn and Mozart met in Vienna and became good friends. Mozart had composed six quartets that were to be dedicated to Haydn. After the pieces were performed Haydns response was I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition. (magicmozart.com).For the three years between 1782 and 1785, Mozart would hav e concerts in which he performed as the soloist. He would perform about three to four piano concertos for each season of the year. Spacing within the theaters was very limited so Mozart would book his performances at places such as a large room in an apartment building or the ballroom of a restaurant. These venues with their larger space helped to add to the popularity and success of his concertos which are still played today as prime examples of the piano concerto. It was written by one of Mozarts critics that he had created a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre (magicmozart.com). With the money Mozart earned from his concerts and other performances he was able to move into an expensive apartment along with his wife and children. He spent his money on unnecessary items and was not able to save any money that would later help them i n Mozarts later years. Around the end of 1785, Mozart once again went back to composing operas along with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte and in 1786 found a successful premiere of Mozarts The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna. Due to the success of this opera made Mozart once again collaborate with Lorenzo Da Ponte on Mozarts opera Don Giovanni which premiered in October 1787 in Prague and then found more success in 1788 in Vienna. These two operatic works are prime examples of Mozarts work and are still popular today, though the complexity of the work made it difficult for listeners and the performers of the time. By the end of 1787 Mozart had finally gained a part time position appointed by the Emperor Joseph II in which he was the Chamber Composer (magicmozart.com). This position only required him to compose dances for the annual balls. Mozart felt underappreciated and told his wife, Constanze that his pay was too much for what I do, too little for what I could do. (magicmozart.com) Even with Mozarts feelings he could not refuse the pay as it helped in Mozarts hard times later in life. The records of the court show that the reason Emperor Joseph II paid Mozart so much was to prevent him from leaving Vienna. In 1787 Ludwig van Beethoven, another great composer of the Classical era, visited Vienna for a couple of weeks in hopes of studying with Mozart. There is no direct accounts recorded that Beethoven and Mozart ever managed to meet or not, but the fact that Beethoven specifically wanted to study under Mozart shows how much of an influence he was on the music world at the time. In 1788, Mozart and his family moved to the suburbs of Alsegrund due to the collapse of the arts in Vienna. This was because there was a war in Austria and the arts had no support from the aristocrats at the time. It is suggested by Maynard Solomon that Mozart had been suffering from depression at the time since his income had decreased even more and he began borrowing money to pay his r ent and his output on compositions slowed as well. The major works he had managed to compose were his last three symphonies all written in 1788 and the last opera that he collaborated with Da Ponte, Cosà ¬ fan tutte which premiered in 1790. Due to Mozarts financial slump he began to make long travels to places such as Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin in 1789 and then set out once again to Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other cities within Germany during 1790. The problem was that the trips during these times only proved some success and didnt relieve the family of their financial stupor. In 1791, before Mozart became deathly ill, he had a great time of productivity in which some historians view that Mozart had renewed himself during this time. Mozart composed many pieces within his final year including his admired pieces such as his operatic movement of The Magic Flute, a distinguished clarinet concerto, his final piano concerto in B- flat, the final of his last series of string quartet, Ave verum corpus, and his unfinished Requiem. By 1791, Mozarts financial debt had begun to improve as wealthy patron from Hungary and Amsterdam paid him well for occasional pieces and his role as the Imperial chamber composer also added to his wealth. Some of his works also received great praise and success in the eyes of the public during this time including The Magic Flute and his Little Masonic Cantata. After Mozarts premiere of the opera La clemenza di Tito he began to fall ill and was then bedridden on November 20th due to swelling, pain, and vomiting. He was then taken care of by his wife Constanze and the family doctor, Thomas Franx Closset. It was said that even in his time of great illness he was still occupied to finish his Requiem. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart finally died at 1 a.m. on December 5th, 1791 at the young age of 35 years old. The cause of his death has not yet been able to be known for certain, but the one proposed diagnosis that is most widely supported is that of ac ute rheumatic fever. Even though Mozart was a great prodigy of his time and made great impacts on music, he was still buried in a common grave and was reported that no mourners were present. Though his funeral is not to reflect on that of his standing as a musician as many memorial services and concerts were attended in his honor. The Mozart effect: J.S. Jenkins, an MD FRCP, says that after being exposed to Mozarts music for 10 minutes that there has been an enhancement on spatial- temporal reasoning performance. This has only been reported by several researchers on this topic which rises a strong sense of controversy upon if the Mozart effect is truly a real effect on the human brain. The subjects that have been reported to the effects on their spatial- temporal reasoning have only seen lasting effects of up to 12 minutes. Then there is the limitation on the research itself due to the fact that many of the experiments were only tested with short excerpts of Mozarts piano sonata K448. Mozarts influences on the Classical era: In Mozarts instrumental music he always incorporated a sense of drama, which contrasted the moods that were set whether they are lively and playful or if they are solemn and tragic. He constructed his orchestration with notable writing of interweaving lines and imitative procedures, Along with the follow up of a development section containing moderately chromatic harmonies. Mozart wrote many pieces of chamber music including divertimentos and serenades that varied greatly. His most famous chamber work was his Eine Kleine Nachtmusik written in 1787. Mozart really favored string quartets as his last 10 quartets are some of the most renowned pieces of string quartets in the category. Mozarts Clarinet and strings quintet is one of the most popular still in todays audience. Mozart was one of the first composers to write for the clarinet which was one of the newer instruments of his time. The clarinet is one of the instruments classified as a color instrument along with instruments such as an oboe as it brings a new sense sound. He also incorporated the clarinet into many of his symphony pieces and created one of the first clarinets concertos. Mozart was one of the most accomplished piano players of his time and he wrote many pieces for his own instrument. His Fantasia in C minor and the Sonata in C minor are some of his most celebrated piano works. Mozart wrote twenty- seven concertos for piano and orchestra which the genre of piano music to one of the top genres of music in the Classical era. Mozarts symphonies and orchestras: Mozarts symphonies are characterized by his richness of orchestration along in part from his freedom of part writing in which he incorporates a large depth of emotion. The exact number of symphonies that Mozart had written is unsure. Four of the forty- one documented pieces are thought to have not been written by Mozart though. There are still newly discovered pieces and reworked compositions which put the number of symphonies by Mozart to over fifty. There are six pieces that Mozart has been dignified to the point of the works being considered masterpieces which were all composed in the last decade of his short thirty-five year life. The genre in which was most central to Mozarts musical art was the opera. Mozart wrote in three styles of the opera while alive: opera buffa, the Italian comic opera (The Marriage of Figaro and don Giovanni), opera seria, the Italian serious opera (idomeneo), and the light form of a German opera including The Magic Flute. Mozart excelled in creating character in his music along with his creativity in lyrics that carefully blended for the human voice. Mozart developed a quick and aggressive rhythmic theme that rises from low to high registers with great speed that became known as the rocket theme that was first present in his Eine kliene Nachtmusik. Mozart, along with Haydn helped to create a dynamic style of writing that included the participation of all instruments and allowed each timbre, The quality of sound that distinguishes one voice or instrument from another ( the enjoyment of Music A22), to be heard throughout the piece. The use of interchanging imitation of themes of the di fferent musical groups allowed for an effect of an exciting conversation between the respected musical groups. Mozart had his own take on the construction of the classical symphony, also referred to as the sonata- allegro form, in which he had two themes with as great of contrast as possible. Conclusion: Mozarts life was that of great excitement and even though was very short in years the things he had accomplished in his life were those greater than many will ever come close to touching in a full lifetime. His composing talents were that of what cannot be seen as less than extraordinary as he himself has over 40 symphonies and orchestras, along with operas, that are all published in his name. His positions reached as composers and orchestrators for royalty and at a very young age toured Europe playing for the most prestigious courts and kings and queens of the continent. Even due to his complexity of his pieces, he has made an impact that researchers have concluded as The Mozart effect. He also made contributions to the classical era such as demonstrating the importance of the modern piano and the creation of popularity for certain types of pieces such as the Opera Buffa and Opera Seria. He also managed to separate the job of being a composer or musician away from the church and the state. This freelance musicianship inspired many others after him such as the great musician also in his time, Ludwig van Beethoven. It is hard to find such another musician at his caliber where so many pieces, even after over 200 years, are still celebrated and well known throughout the world. His pieces are seen as the basis of technicality and precision in modern music. Personally, the contributions he has been able to add to the musical life has been able to effect, even unconsciously, by the most celebrated composers and orchestrators of our time. To conclude the evaluation of Mozarts Life and contributions to music, he has inspired many people, admirers, fans, and musicians alike to pursue such achievements that Mozart has accomplished and to be a freelance musician and be acknowledged on such a wide scale. Without the many contributions Mozart has made in all the composition documented and undocumented, the music world would not be valued at the same standard that they are n ow set at. Mozarts life itself was the change in music that helped bring it to a new age. Bibliography

inof on Joan Makes History :: essays research papers

What we’re after, of course, is stories, and we know that history is bulging with beauties. Having found them, we then proceed to fiddle with them to make them the way we want them to be, rather than the way they really were. We get it wrong, willfully and knowingly. But perhaps you could say that the very flagrency of our "getting it wrong" points to the fact that all stories even the history "story" are made. They have an agenda, even if it’s an unconscious one. Perhaps there are many ways to get it right. The interesting parts of history are probably always what’s not there. My own special area of interest about what’s not in history is the women. As you would all know, by and large they’re sadly absent from the historical record. However, I’m lucky to be the recipient—custodian, even, if that doesn’t sound too grandiose—of a rich oral history handed down from my mother, who got it from her mother and so on back down the line. She’s told me family stories from every generation since our family first came to Australia—in the form of our wicked convict ancestor Solomon Wiseman, in 1806. Sol is supposed to have murdered his wife, and turned his daughter—pregnant to the riding-master—out of the house to starve. (But perhaps, the novelist in me thinks, she didn’t starve , but went on to have, well, a story†¦) There was "Uncle Willie with the red hair" who was "killed [by falling] off a horse when he was eighteen and broke his mother’s heart." There was her own mother, in love with a Catholic boy—a love as unthinkable as between a Montagu and a Capulet and was forced to marry a good Protestant boy. You should see th e look on her face in the wedding photos. This oral history, handed down in a series of formalised anecdotes from mother to daughter, leaving rich areas for speculation in between is, I suspect, one of the things that’s made me a novelist. http://www.nla.gov.au/events/history/papers/Kate_Grenville%20.html SOUL-SEARCHING about our past is the new literary fashion. It is the period in which the breast-beaters, the moral Pharisees, are driven to tell us how, unlike their predecessors, they have political and moral virtue. The Aborigines, women and ordinary people have become the 'goodies', and all those who ignored them in their books or their teaching have become the 'baddies'. The winds of change are blowing over the ancient continent.

Perseverance Despite Persecution Essays -- Literary Analysis, Langston

The founding fathers constructed the Constitution with the notion that â€Å"all men were created equal.† However, many minorities still struggle for the same rights and opportunities as others. â€Å"Mother to Son† and â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers† are poems written by Langston Hughes that use symbolism to exemplify the struggles of African Americans as they attempt to persevere through adversity. Hughes utilizes the stairs in â€Å"Mother to Son† and the rivers in â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers† as his main mode of symbolism. Symbolism in the two works develop the overall themes of the poems, perseverance. In â€Å"Mother to Son,† Hughes uses a worn staircase as an extended metaphor to parallel its flaws to the struggles of African Americans. She urges her son not to give in to the pressures of society, because she has not. By stating â€Å"Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair, (Mother to Son â€Å"MS† line 2) Mother is able to portray that her life is far from perfect. In fact, she describes her life as having â€Å"tacks and splinters†¦with boards torn up† (MS lines 3-5). These defects symbolize the problems in her life that were caused by her race, her gender, or both. In addition, Hans J. Massaquoi’s article â€Å"The Black Family Nobody Knows,† exemplifies that the African American race is a strong and versatile race. He argues that many people tend to depict Blacks through negative stereotypes, such as â€Å"drug abuse,† â€Å"teenage pregnancy,† and â€Å"gang affiliation† (Massaquoi 28). Massaquoi’s article, much like â€Å"Mother to... ... Hughes uses â€Å"geographical landscapes† (Hogan 20), such as the river, as a common passage and a common place for African Americans. Hogan, much like me sees the rivers in â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers† as â€Å"a symbol of both rooted connectedness and fluid mobility† and of â€Å"cultural flow across both space and time.† Through the exemplary use of symbolism, Langston Hughes produced two poems that spoke to a singular idea: Black people have prevailed through trials and tribulations to carry on their legacy as a persevering people. From rivers to stairs, Hughes use of extended metaphor emphasizes the feeling of motion which epitomizes the determination of the people. Overall, the driving feeling of the poems coupled with their strong imagery produce two different works that solidify and validate one main idea.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder & Autism in the Classroom Ess

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder & Autism in the Classroom When teaching it must be expected that there will be students that have behavioral disorders. These disorders must be taken into consideration when giving these students the best education possible. Teachers must accommodate to these children and incorporate them into the daily classroom. Every teacher has their own methods of doing this and can use their creativity to come up with these strategies for teaching. Some strategies may not work, so instructors must put much thought into how they are going to accommodate to these particular students. A very common disorder in children is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. These students have a difficult time holding attention due to the lack of the ability to concentrate. These students tend to act impulsively, have attention deficits, and sometimes exude hyperactive behaviors. Children that have ADHD do not qualify for special education unless they also have another disability. Approximately 7.8 percent of children from the ages of 4 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, research also shows that males are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD over women. These ratios vary from 4:1 to 9:1. These students with ADHD can be impulsive, which means they act before they think or before considering the situation that they are currently in. They also have a hard time concentrating and find it difficult to sit still. There are medications for ADHD, and they are prescribed often, there are also a variety of drugs that have been proven to make a child with ADHD more a ttentive and improve their academic performance. Unfortunately, these drugs have side effects such as weight loss, blood pressure chan... ...ed or wanted. I would also encourage parents to enroll their child in to sensory therapy such as occupational therapy, sensory integration, and developmental optometry therapy to help with possible vision issues. Medication wise I would encourage parents to prescribe their child to Prozac to assist in lowering anxiety, I would encourage this in older aged students. Both ADHD and autism are disorders that all teachers must be educated in before going into this profession. It is important to know the different strategies that can be used to be the most helpful instructor to these students. It is also very important to incorporate these students into the classroom and encourage good social skills with peers. By paying close attention to these students instructors are able to come up with the best strategy to provide the best education to these individuals.

The Mad Woman in the Attic

In the character of Jane Eyre, Victorian-era women found a relatable everywoman who has been viewed by some as an emblem of early feminist characterizations. An orphaned and self-sufficient woman, moving forward in her life alone, first by abandonment and then by choice, she finds love in Mr. Rochester. However, in a disturbing turn of events she finds he is already married to a mad woman who resides in the attic of Thornfield unbeknownst to Jane and the general public. Fleeing the deceit of Rochester and the fracturing of her dreams of a familial happiness, she finds her own way with the same determination.When her own fortune turns for the better and Rochester’s to the worst she once more embraces him. All makes for a very dramatic and socially telling example of the Gothic novel but what of the madwoman in the attic? Rochester’s insane Bertha, heard only through maniacal laughter and an eerie presence? She creeps around the peripheral of Bronte’s masterpiece a nd though her importance as a device to provide an obstacle in Jane’s otherwise seemingly paradisiacal future cannot be undermined, as a character she is shallow.What little information that is gleaned about the woman is through the biased lips of Rochester. With Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea Bertha reverts to Antoinette, a young white West Indian Creole haunted and troubled by her family’s past and trying to come to terms with her identity of being the colonizer and the colonized or rather as critic Elaine Savory has called this struggle, â€Å"Antoinette’s dual location as oppressor and oppressed† (134). Married to young Edward Rochester, a nameless man in Rhys’ version, her essential self begins to deteriorate under the pressures of gossip and alienation within her marriage.Through the three parts of the novel, Rhys attempts to tell the story behind the story; her tale weaving between the blanks in Bronte’s Jane Eyre to give voice t o Antoinette. With Rhys tale, the reader gains insight into the complexities of human relationships based on greed and the effects of the colonial structure on not only the oppressed but also the oppressor. Bronte’s tale of romance is contrasted and given more depth with Rhys examination of the debasement and enslavement of Antoinette by colonial society, a conquering husband, and the prison of her mind.Rochester is also recast, young and full of doubt and anger; in Rhys depiction we can see in him the strange and dark middle-aged man of Jane Eyre. In the similar backgrounds of Jane and Antoinette, the reader can see an overlapping of these two characters into a single woman both taking different paths but holding the hand of the same man. One thrown into hell and the other finding her salvation. With overlapping motifs and characters, Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre become complimentary pieces each lending meaning to the other.The chronology of the novels, both individually and taken as complimentary texts, is interesting in respect to the placement of the characters within their individual societies. In Charlotte’s Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane’s narrative follows a generally linear path from when the reader first meets her as a ward of the Reed’s to her eventual reunion with Mr. Rochester. Jane’s life is enmeshed in the social protocol of her time and dependent on the whim of others, she is thrown away only to find her strength and singularity in hardship.Her story is largely peopled with Rochester and the other persons residing at Thornfield, while Wide Sargasso Sea provides a frame around and through Jane’s tale using only relevant characters from the original text. The three parts of Rhys’ book are positioned around and throughout Jane Eyre’s chronology of events. Middle-aged when he meets Jane, Rochester is only a young man in Wide Sargasso Sea whose still living brother and father have cast thei r net (Edward) to the islands of the West Indies to see what riches they can attain.Antoinette and Edward Rochester’s story, in respect to Jane Eyre, takes place largely before Jane was born except for the third part which commences in the fire at Thornfield. The three parts of Rhys’ book are divided between Antoinette’s early life and childhood, Rochester‘s story, and Antoinette’s rambling from her attic prison. The first allows for an understanding of the characters of Antoinette and Rochester as products and victims of imperialism.With the Emancipation came an end to slavery but also brought a new era of profiteering and exploitation. At the center is Antoinette, her family having lost everything with the emancipation including the little respect and social placement they had once held. Her mother’s marriage to Mr. Mason provided little reprieve as the seeds of hate had been heartily sown. However, Mr. Mason presented a new context for the hatred directed at Annette and Antoinette, a role that briefly would be overtaken by Richard Mason and finally in Edward Rochester.As Veronica Marie Gregg notes, â€Å"Mr. Mason represents a new breed of English merchants and imperialists who still seek to dominate the economic life of the colonies and to coerce the labor force into working to ensure their wealth, even after plantation slavery has formally ended† (91). The people know of his wealth and are not ignorant to profits he has made from the collapse of the system of slavery which left them third class citizens and deeply impoverished despite their freedom.With her marriage to Rochester, which is told in the second part and picks up a short time after her own first part ends, Antoinette discovers her own uncertain place not only in the limited society of the West Indies that she will always belong to while never really belonging but also in the eyes of her opportunistic husband. In part two, Rhys lays the groundwork for Antoinette’s later complete deterioration by showing the hatred and distrust of Rochester. Almost the whole of Jane Eyre could fit in the gap in years that is seen between parts two and three.Jane is born, orphaned, cast aside, educated all within this space. Antoinette’s jumbled narrative in part three illustrates the effects of Rochester’s hatred and indifference, and the maddening effect of her imprisonment. There is no mention of Jane as Antoinette’s world does not exist outside the small room that is her prison. The house around her is an unreal concept and its inhabitants figure little into her life as her struggle has now become completely internalized.As Elaine Savory explains in examining the lack of Antoinette’s grip on the reality of her prison, â€Å"An absence of attachment can be so severe that it makes the place seem unreal, as in the case of the house in England in which Antoinette is imprisoned† (Savory 142). Though we don’t see or hear of Jane in Rhys’ text, in taking Jane Eyre as the complimentary text it is a given that Jane is in the background of this third part just as Bertha/Antoinette exists largely outside Jane’s own tale.The two texts can easily be interwoven to provide insight where once there was none but the question remains if this was Rhys’s true intention. In both stories, we see signifiers of the times. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the story takes place within the context of the West Indies in the 1830s and 1840s, following the Emancipation Act in 1833 (Gregg 83). In Jane Eyre, the signifiers are more subtle but still present. Towards the ending of Jane Eyre, Jane is given the newly published book Marmion which was published in 1808 (83).By this relation of dates, the two texts cannot be connected chronologically because according to the dating of the stories, Antoinette, the first Mrs. Rochester, would have not even been born when Jane, the second Mrs. Roches ter, is hearing her laughing like a loon from the attic. These subtle differences in dates call to question Rhys decision to relocate the overall tale decades into the future and the intention of these discrepancies. Her intention appears to be not to change the eventual story of Jane Eyre but rather to provide a different context for the reading of Wide Sargasso Sea.Rhys was fully aware of the problems in depicting her Antoinette within the context of Bronte’s mad Bertha, The West Indies was †¦ rich in those days for those days †¦ The girls [West Indian Creole women who married Englishmen] †¦ would soon once in kind England be Address Unknown. So gossip. So a legend. If Charlotte Bronte took her horrible Bertha from this legend I have the right to take lost Antoinette. And, how to reconcile the two and fix dates I do not know — yet. But, I will† (qtd. In Gregg 83).Rhys redefines Antoinette’s basic struggle through this relocation in time, f raming the tale within a context, that as Veronica Marie Gregg notes, â€Å"seeks to articulate the subjective and locational identity of the West Indian Creole of the post slavery period†(83). Antoinette’s madness then becomes not a hereditary trait aggravated by alcoholism and promiscuity but a result of historical and social distinctions defining her as an Other, â€Å"Not quite English and not quite â€Å"native,† Rhys’s Creole woman straddles the embattled divide between human and savage, core and periphery, self and other† (Ciolkowski 340).That history supports this characterization is no accident, Rhys used the â€Å"legend† loosely applied to Jane Eyre by Bronte and expanded it to the exploration of a single woman. As Rhys noted in a letter to a friend, â€Å"very wealthy planters did exist their daughters had very large dowries, there was no married woman’s property act. So, a young man who was not too scrupulous could do ve ry well for himself and very easily. He would marry the girl, grab her money, bring her to England [†¦] and in a year she would be [†¦] mad† (qtd.In Gregg 84). While Bronte chose to use class and gender as a center for her story of Jane, Rhys uses the characters of Antoinette and Edward Rochester to illustrate the broader effects of colonialism. Antoinette is the primary character explored and expanded upon in Wide Sargasso Sea, it is her character that spurned Rhys to write the text. Rhys notes in a letter to Selma Vas Diaz in 1958, â€Å"The Creole in Charlotte Bronte’s novel is a lay figure – repulsive which does not matter, and not once alive which does.She’s necessary to the plot, but always she shrieks, howls, laughs horribly, attacks all and sundry – off stage. For me †¦ she must be right on stage† (qtd. In Gregg 82). In Bronte’s text, Antoinette is Bertha, and is as Rhys notes a shallow character revealed more fo r her usefulness in the larger context of Jane’s life decisions than an independent character with distinct traits and history. The little information we learn about Bertha in Jane Eyre is through the dialogue of Edward Rochester and Jane’s visual and auditory perceptions.In Wide Sargasso Sea, the story of Antoinette’s early life and circumstances are explored so that we can more fully understand the events which led to her eventual decline into insanity while also viewing the larger concept of cultural disintegration. The novel begins with the first part of Antoinette’s story and the stage is immediately set to show the class and racial issues particular to their experience of post emancipation and the new intrusiveness of colonialism, â€Å"They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did.But we were not in their ranks† (Rhys 17). From the onset, Rhys establishes Antoinette as an outsider. Though she is white, she and her fami ly are not considered part of white society due to her mother’s French Creole heritage. In Rhys delving into the depths of Bertha’s logic in madness and destructiveness, we find the reasons behind the shrieks and moans and fire that burns through Thornfield in Bronte’s rendition. The crazy mother Rochester describes to Jane as the root of Bertha’s own illness is rendered as a broken and ostracized woman in her inherited homeland.After the death of her husband and fall of the old plantation system, Annette Cosway is not only left to raise her two children alone but is kept separate from the support of the white class system which views her as an outsider, â€Å"part of the hostility toward Annette stems from her being a French West Indian Woman in a British West Indian colony. This alludes to the centuries-long feud between the French and the English in the Eastern Caribbean† (Gregg 85). Unlike the British West Indian women, Annette came from Martin ique as a trophy wife for old Mr.Cosway. It is not so much his death that she mourns in the first section of the Wide Sargasso Sea but instead the end of the society that he represented. The collapse of this society rewrote the rules of race relations and class distinctions, since as Gregg explains â€Å"The racial superiority of the whites depends upon the economic ascendancy achieved by unpaid black labor. Without money, Antoinette’s family become niggers, isolated from the rest of white society† (89).Antoinette excuses her mother’s preoccupation with this change because of her youth and inexperience with a world that was any different than the established plantation society, â€Å"She was young. How could she not try for all the things that had gone so suddenly, so without warning† (Rhys 18). However, while Antoinette is able to find reason in her mother’s psychological collapse, it gives the community outside of the walls of Coulibiri a chance to begin talking.It is here that we see the beginning seeds of the gossip of madness that would later reach Rochester’s ears via Daniel Cosway. It was not only Annette who was effected by the West Indian constructs of race and class, before the Emancipation and after but also all those touched by the enterprises comprising the economic structure, â€Å"All human relationships are marked by slavery and the plantation society, and all are constructed, for the most part, within these parameters.Christophine, we are reminded, was a wedding gift to Annette† (Gregg 86). † In this world, people are property, to be bought and sold, to be tied irreparably to their oppressors even when that oppressor is themselves. Annette’s isolation is partly her own, she keeps herself sequestered and silent from the abuse that is hurled and directed at her family from the blacks and whites. Black society is much more forward in their feelings, while white society speaks softly an d when they think no one is listening.Antoinette sensed the animosity from the whites and was confronted daily with that of the blacks, â€Å"I never looked at any strange negro. They hated us. They called us white cockroaches† (Rhys 23). Elaine Savory in her examination of the politics of a racially charged society observes, â€Å"Displacement is a strong theme in the novel in relation to major characters such as Antoinette, her husband and Christophe [†¦. ] But substantial displacement across racial and class lines severely affects coherent self-definition.Antoinette finds herself called white cockroach by black people, yet she has no place in white culture either† (139). † At the center of Antoinette’s feelings of alienation is not only her relations with the other locals but also the lack of love she feels from her mother, â€Å"Rhys establishes a world in which everything rests on problematic and strained relationships: between people of differe nt nationalities, race, languages, classes, against which the struggle to maintain connection even within a family can seem puny and defeated† (Savory 136).Annette is distant from her daughter as she turns away from the outside world in the decaying of Coulibiri and she remains at a remove even as she shows more interest in Antoinette imminent social position or lack thereof. First exposed to the renewed society, Antoinette’s shabby dress makes her consciously aware of only her mother’s judging eyes, â€Å"All that evening my mother didn’t speak to me or look at me and I thought ‘She is ashamed of me’†(Rhys 26). The judgment Antoinette feels from her mother seems, in light of her later fate, more a look of calculated understanding.Annette understood from firsthand knowledge the path her daughter’s life would inevitably take, â€Å"Both women’s marriages are based on the economy of the slavery and post slavery societies, w ith their bodies as a site of negotiation in this economy† (Gregg 97). The shame Antoinette imagines in her mother’s eyes is really the cool assessment knowing that her daughter will be judged as property, enslaved in marriage. The fire at Coulibiri provides a closure to Antoinette’s jaded childhood, â€Å"When they had finished, there would be nothing left but blackened walls and the mounting stone.That was always left† (Rhys 45). The â€Å"they† in Antoinette’s narrative is the disenfranchised and angry black mob aggravated by the new elevation of their previous oppressors and a fear over the loss of work with the importation of foreign and indentured labor. As Veronica Marie Gregg explains, This intensely charged episode [†¦] emblematizes the post slavery disputes about labor conditions between the plutocracy and the working people in the West Indies.In this historical moment, the ruling class, in order to secure its socioeconomic pos ition and to control labor, sees punitive and coercive measures such as immigration and Asian indentureship as a viable response to the â€Å"laziness† of the African people. The freedpersons respond with material violence as part of their viable means of struggle and resistance at this point† (Gregg 95). The individuals of the mob form into a solid image in Antoinette’s selective sight, â€Å"They all looked the same, it was the same face over and over† (Rhys 42).The episode reinforces Antoinette’s feeling of alienation and also solidifies the division between mother and daughter, as Annette finally descends completely into alcoholism and insanity. Worn out and beaten by the death of Pierre and the willful destruction of her home exemplified by her beloved parrot, she surrenders to her pain. Antoinette is at once orphaned completely, her stepfather serving on an absentee basis but still retaining guilt and thereby trying to secure Antoinetteâ€℠¢s future.It is interesting to note the similarities in the lives of Antoinette and Jane during the periods of their lives when they were both housed in charity house or convent. Both still have living relatives but find themselves living independently of familial love and guidance and both are able to develop relationships which seems, particularly in Antoinette’s case, in a much lighter tone than her previous interactions. Her friendships are far more equal, as the other young ladies at the convent are all white and themselves of upper class descendency.Like Jane Eyre who finds her first examples of friendship as a charity ward where class distinctions do not exist as there is only one class, unwanted, Antoinette finds a similar niche, where she â€Å"soon forgot about happiness† (Rhys 56) and simply lived. It seems a contradiction to find comfort where there is no happiness but for Antoinette whose life has been at the mercy of emotion, the lack of it would seem a r elief. For both women, this time period of their lives was the one in which they had the most ease. In Jane Eyre, Jane experiences few of the belittling feelings directed at her by the Reeds.After the death of Helen Burns, there is nothing else until Jane decides to leave Lowood, â€Å"I am only bound to invoke memory where I know her responses will possess some degree of interest; therefore I now pass a space of eight years almost in silence† (Bronte 77). Similarly, there is little of Antoinette’s life except the convent where â€Å"Everything was brightness, or dark† (Rhys 57). There is a difference though in their views of their time spent secluded from the outside world. For Jane, Lowood is a temporary stop, a school and a home. For Antoinette the convent provides a solution to the outside world and not simply a new home.In the predictability she has found solace, if not happiness, in the mundane routines. However, Antoinette knows that the refuge she has be en allowed in the convent is only temporary, sensing the fate her mother had seen in her from the day she was born a girl. She is not only a daughter to Mr. Mason or a sister to Richard Mason, she is an asset with her beauty and upper class distinction. In her final meeting with Mr. Mason at the convent, she senses her future and is frightened anew, It may have been the way he smiled, but again a feeling of dismay, sadness, loss, almost choked me [†¦] It was like that morning when I found the dead horse.Say nothing and it may not be true [†¦] The girls were very curious but I would not answer their questions and for the first time I resented the nuns’ cheerful faces. They are safe. How can they know what it can be like outside? (59). She has learned from the example of her mother that the security Mr. Mason envisions for her is not a security against the uncertainties and animosities of the outside world she has so far experienced. As a sensitive child, she ascertai ned what it was to belong to the upper class, and knows that despite marriage or perceived respectability she will always be at the mercy of another‘s will.As a woman she is destined for either the convent or marriage, understanding what marriage will mean she prefers the convent. While later she fights against the imprisonment of Rochester, it seems only because she has come to an understanding of a third alternative which is freedom from either, first hinted at by her Aunt Cora. That Antoinette only realizes her freedom through her own death brings her initial fear full circle, â€Å"Her fortune and her beauty make her a prized possession for him, an easy way to acquire his status as an â€Å"independent† gentleman† (Kendrik 236).When he realizes that he cannot attain this status through Antoinette he turns against her. The embodiment of Antoinette’s fear lies in Edward Rochester, seemingly different from Bronte’s romantic hero but really an exten sion of his character, â€Å"not so much a wholesale revision of Bronte’s existing creation as a reillumination and reemphasization of aspects that are present, though perhaps not stressed, in the Rochester of Jane Eyre† (Kendrik 239).Unlike Antoinette, he plays an integral part in both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. Bronte’s Rochester is a middle-aged man, cynical and lacking the attractiveness that would usually be found in a romantic hero. It is this lack of attractiveness that allows Jane to feel proper in first speaking with him, â€Å"Had he been a handsome, heroic looking young gentleman, I should not have dared to stand thus questioning him against his will, and offering my services unasked† (Bronte 105).With Jane, Rochester is proud, jaded, inquisitive and crassly gentle; he is at once attracted to and inclined to suppress her independent streak but â€Å"Jane’s ambiguous class status as a Governess prevents her from being an adequate m irror for Edward† (Kendrik 240). They are able to overcome this class distinction only through Rochester’s loss of property and face and Jane’s own inheritance. The largest distinctions between the Rhys and Bronte’s Edward Rochester lies in experience and the women of their lives.With Jane, Bronte’s Rochester has a puritanically astute woman whose will largely matches his own strength of character but whose properness largely outweighs any true acts of rebellion. As Terry Eagleton notes in his Marxist exploration of Jane Eyre, Bronte’s â€Å"protagonists are an extraordinary contradictory amalgam of smouldering rebelliousness and prim conventionalism, gushing Romantic fantasy and canny hard-headedness, quivering sensitivity, and blunt rationality. It is, in fact, a contradiction closely related to their roles as governesses or private tutors† (Eagleton 30).Jane’s contradictions are largely predictable, Antoinette’s he dis covers are not of any kind he has known. Rhys turns back the clock on middle-aged Rochester to reveal the personality and actions of a much younger, much angrier man. As Elaine Savory explains, Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea â€Å"not only privileges the Caribbean but does a great deal to move Rochester out of the realm of the Gothic romance and explain his capacity for cruelty† (133). In part two of Rhys’s text Rochester is left intentionally nameless (Rhys qtd.In Gregg 100), as Gregg explains, â€Å"His entrance in the novel is a beginning with no introduction [†¦] no thematic preparation or signal to the reader. This is an inscription of the structural origins of the narrative and history of imperial Europe, which designates the West Indies as a blank space on which to inscribe the desires of European man† (100). From the onset his acquiring of Antoinette is that of the conqueror, their marriage is no love story but an arrangement made between Richard M ason and Rochester’s father and brother.Given this understanding, the opening lines of part two, which could be read as a description of courtship take on a darker meaning, â€Å"So it was all over, the advance and retreat, the doubts and hesitations†(Rhys 65). In these lines we see not the mild flirtations of two young people but rather a hunter tracking its prey. In the beginning of their marriage it is notable that Rochester was not always seemingly against Antoinette but at first envisioned a real future with her despite her appearance of foreignness. On the road to Granbois he observes, â€Å"She smiled at me.It was the first time I had seen her smile simply and naturally. Or perhaps it was the first time I had felt simple and natural with her [†¦] Looking up smiling, she might have been any pretty English girl† (Rhys 71). He attempts to draw parallels between the alien West Indian landscape and his own country, â€Å"Next time she spoke she said, â⠂¬ËœThe earth is red here, do you notice? ’/ ‘It’s red in parts of England too’† (Rhys 71). By drawing this comparison he is at once dismissing Antoinette but also trying to locate himself within the larger world he finds himself.Though it is not addressed, it is most likely that young Rochester has little experience with the world outside of England and no concept from which to draw on in the landscape and people that he now finds himself surrounded by. He is deeply aware of the fact that his betrothal was not his own choice but is nonetheless pleased from a collector’s standpoint in the beauty and seeming malleability of his new wife, â€Å"She spoke hesitantly as if she expected me to refuse, so it was easy to do so† (Rhys 67). He asserts his dominance, even as the circumstances of his being â€Å"bought† undermine any goodwill.Even from the beginning his feelings are unstable, â€Å"I have sold my soul or you have sold it, a nd after all is it such a bad bargain? The girl is thought to be beautiful, she is beautiful. And yet †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (70). There is no chance for happiness to grow from this doubt because even as Rochester moves forward he holds himself back out of a sense of Englishness, â€Å"in Wide Sargasso Sea he is the immediate manifestation and enforcer of the network of patriarchal codes (sexism, colonialism, the English Law, and the â€Å"law† which demarcates and creates sanity and insanity)† (Kendrik 235).Antoinette does not fit into the definition of any discourse Rochester understands and is therefore permanently located outside of Rochester’s feelings of self. During this beginning section of part two, we see one of Rhys subtle correlation to Bronte’s Jane Eyre. It is with this and other small concessions that Rhys connects the two texts in more than simply character names and geography. In his first days at Granbois, Rochester sits on the veranda with Anto inette making observations on the wilderness around them, in particular taking notice of a moth alighting by their candle,A large moth, so large that I thought it was a bird, blundered into one of the candles, put it out and fell to the floor. [†¦] I took the beautiful creature up in my handkerchief and put it on the railing. For a moment it was still and by the dim candlelight I could see the soft brilliant colours, the intricate pattern on the wings. I shook the handkerchief gently and it flew away (Rhys 81).In Jane Eyre, Bronte’s Rochester while on a walk with Jane draws her attention to a moth’s wings, â€Å"’Look at his wings,† he said, ‘he reminds me rather of a West Indian insect; one does not often see so large and gay a night-rover in England’† (Bronte 220). By including details on the moth in her telling of Rochester’s early life, Rhys draws a subtle thread connecting the older and the younger experience and memori es. He becomes a continuous character, present in both manifestations. Though the West Indian landscape harbors fond memories, it also embodies Rochester’s doubts and growing hostility towards Antoinette.In the brilliantly colored flowers and trees, the exotic scents, and unknown regions of the island‘s geography, Rochester finds a metaphor for his new wife’s inaccessibility, â€Å"he has come to hate this landscape, because it signifies his wife and his failure to reach her, even to overpower or control her† (Savory 144). Like Antoinette, he cannot deny its beauty but also like his wife he cannot reconcile this type of beauty with his previous experience and knowledge, â€Å"It was a beautiful place – wild, untouched, above all untouched, with an alien, disturbing, secret.I’d find myself thinking, ‘What I see is nothing – I want what it hides – that is not nothing† (Rhys 87). In describing Antoinette, he is similar ly disturbed, â€Å"She never blinks at all it seems to me. Long, sad, dark alien eyes. Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European either† (Rhys 67). He finds himself as unable to penetrate the unknown about her as he is the landscape. In his lust for Antoinette he makes his only connection and breaks down the barrier with which she has sought to protect herself, â€Å"Very soon she was as eager for what’s called loving as I was – more lost and drowned afterwards†(Rhys 92).Like Jane when questioning Rochester on how he will feel about her independence after the newness of the marriage has worn off, Antoinette is beset with doubts on her husband’s true feelings toward her, â€Å"If one day you didn’t wish it. What should I do then? Suppose you took this happiness away when I wasn’t looking†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã¢â‚¬  (Rhys 92). In this exchange Rhys draws another connection between the past and the futur e Edward Rochester. His similar conversation with Jane, though less emotionally fraught than his dialogue with Antoinette, brings into question his dominance,For a little while you will perhaps be as you are now, – a very little while; and then you will turn cool; and then you will be capricious; and then you will be stern, and I shall have much ado to please you: but then you will be well used to me, you will perhaps like me again, – like me, I say, not love me. I suppose your love will effervesce in six months, or less (Bronte 229). In this conversation, Jane senses that Rochester’s love and admiration are fickle in nature, â€Å"Jane has doubts about Rochester the husband even before she learns about Bertha.In her world, she senses, even the equality of love between true minds leads to the inequalities and minor despotisms of marriage† (Moglen 82). Antoinette discovers this through her own experience with him. Though Antoinette brought wealth to the un ion, in doing so she forfeited that wealth, since by English law it becomes her husband’s alone. Resigned to this, she lets down her guard and allows herself to love and lust after the man who becomes first her tormentor and finally her jailer. Jane Eyre knows a slightly different Rochester, less inclined to passion, but still fears for her own independence in a union under English law.She knows that legally she will become the subordinate of her husband but Jane’s nature prevents her from willingly giving into this precept. Without fortune of her own, Jane does not run the same risk as Antoinette but nor does she hold to same status socially, â€Å"as a younger son of the gentry, has suffered at the hands of social convention and so like Jane has a history of deprivation; but unlike her he has achieved worldly success, buts a glamorous figure in county society, and so blends social desirability with a spice of thwarted passion and an underdog past (Eagleton 34).With this combination of traits so at odds with Jane’s own plainness it is easy to see the basis of her doubts. Just as Edward Rochester came to resent Antoinette for the society she represented and the wealth that bought, so also could he come to resent Jane for her lack of either class status or money.

Fiji Red Cross Society Essay

Nearly 9,000 individuals have been forced from their homes by heavy rains and flooding in the western and central divisions of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu. According to weather officials, more major storms are set to impact the Pacific Islands. Five people have already lost their lives, with two additional unconfirmed fatalities, and thousands more have sought safety in more than 100 evacuation centres on Viti Levu. The Fiji Red Cross Society has played a vital role in planning for and meeting the humanitarian needs of many of those displaced during this emergency. â€Å"The Fiji Red Cross Society has taken a proactive role in monitoring this dangerous situation and providing the necessary assistance to affected populations,† says the society’s disaster coordinator Vuli Gauna. â€Å"Assessments are underway, and we’ve already sent our emergency response teams into impacted communities with essential relief supplies for families most affected by the floods. If more assistance is needed, we stand ready to help.† Emergency teams In the coming days, distributions of relief supplies will likely include clothing, cooking items, eating utensils, water collection containers, and tools for temporary shelter such as tarpaulins. The Fiji Red Cross Society has 19 pre-positioned containers ready for distributions of emergency items. â€Å"We work as an important part of a mandated coordinated disaster response network in Fiji,† says Fiji Red Cross Society director general Alison Cupit. â€Å"We are based in communities throughout the islands and our volunteers work with the government and other partners on both preparedness and response to significant disasters. This collaboration is an essential component of our ability to serve those who need our help.† In a demonstration of their focus on preparedness, Fiji Red Cross Society volunteers began encouraging families to heed evacuation warnings as early as 8 January, two days before the flooding began, and disaster relief experts have been supporting emergency response activities for the past five days. Relief programme Fiji Red Cross emergency response teams are conducting damage assessments which will inform specific elements of their ongoing relief programme. The society’s branch office in Ba has been serving as a temporary evacuation centre and Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers have provided support to families forced them to leave their homes in other communities as well. Warning Fiji residents about the impact of additional storms, Gauna stresses: â€Å"We have seen this past weekend what bad flooding can do, so let’s learn from this and prepare ourselves for what’s coming. Prepare for yourself an emergency pack that contains canned food, dry clothes, warm blankets, a first aid kit, and water to last you two days. These things can save your life. 0 0 0 6A Fiji Red Cross four wheel drive ambulance makes its way along muddy roads to the village of Wainibuka. (p18856) (Fiji Red Cross Society) Jason Smith, IFRC, Asia Pacific zone Nearly 9,000 individuals have been forced from their homes by heavy rains and flooding in the western and central divisions of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu. According to weather officials, more major storms are set to impact the Pacific Islands. Five people have already lost their lives, with two additional unconfirmed fatalities, and thousands more have sought safety in more than 100 evacuation centres on Viti Levu. The Fiji Red Cross Society has played a vital role in planning for and meeting the humanitarian needs of many of those displaced during this emergency. â€Å"The Fiji Red Cross Society has taken a proactive role in monitoring this dangerous situation and providing the necessary assistance to affected populations,† says the society’s disaster coordinator Vuli Gauna. â€Å"Assessments are underway, and we’ve already sent our emergency response teams into impacted communities with essential relief supplies for families most affected by the floods. If more assistance is needed, we stand ready to help.† Emergency teams In the coming days, distributions of relief supplies will likely include clothing, cooking items, eating utensils, water collection containers, and tools for temporary shelter such as tarpaulins etc.The Fiji Red Cross Society has 19 pre-positioned containers ready for distributions of emergency items. â€Å"We work as an important part of a mandated coordinated disaster response network in Fiji,† says Fiji Red Cross Society director general Alison Cupit. â€Å"We are based in communities throughout the islands and our volunteers work with the government and other partners on both preparedness and response to significant disasters. This collaboration is an essential component of our ability to serve those who need our help.† Especially the families in the western division of Fiji â€Å"Viti Levu†. women’s crisis centre society. Our next subject or topic we’ll be talkin about is on â€Å"womens crisis centre†. womens crisis centre is a society which is there to help you womens only with anything that makes you feel offended or makes you feel that it is a crisis.Even if it is a lilttle thing? and it makes you feel offended they will try their best to make you feel safe,secured and supported . what makes you feel unsafe in this world? what makes you scared and unsecured? is it the looks of men? sound of their voice? movement of their body? the way they touch you? even if it is a small thing and it makes you feel unsafe â€Å"Fiji’s Women’s Crisis Centre† fiji red cross society Beauty queen of only eighteen She had some trouble with herself He was always there to help her She always belonged to someone else I drove for miles and miles And wound up at your door I’ve had you so many times but somehow I want more I don’t mind spending everyday Out on your corner in the pouring rain Look for the girl with the broken smile Ask her if she wants to stay awhile And she will be loved She will be loved Tap on my window knock on my door I want to make you feel beautiful I know I tend to get so insecure It doesn’t matter anymore It’s not always rainbows and butterflies It’s compromise that moves us along, yeah My heart is full and my door’s always open You can come anytime you want I don’t mind spending everyday Out on your corner in the pouring rain Look for the girl with the broken smile Ask her if she wants to stay awhile And she will be loved And she will be loved And she will be loved And she will be loved I know where you hide Alone in your car Know all of the things that make you who you are I know that goodbye means nothing at all Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls Tap on my window knock on my door I want to make you feel beautiful I don’t mind spending everyday Out on your corner in the pouring rain Look for the girl with the broken smile Ask her if she wants to stay awhile And she will be loved And she will be loved And she will be loved And she will be loved [in the background] Please don’t try so hard to say goodbye Please don’t try so hard to say goodbye Yeah [softly] I don’t mind spending everyday Out on your corner in the pouring rain Try so hard to say goodbyeTop of Form Bottom of Form ————————————————- Top of Form Enter artist/album/so Shorty get down, good Lord Baby got them open up all over town Strictly biz she don’t play around Cover much ground, got game by the pound Getting paid is a forte Each and every day true player way I can’t get her outta my mind I think about the girl all the time I like the way you work it No diggity, I got to bag it up Baby I like the way you work it, No diggity, I got to bag it up Baby, I like the way you work it No diggity, I got to bag it up Baby I like the way you work it No diggity, I got to bag it up I like the way you work it No diggity, I got to bag it up Babe I like the way you work it No diggity, I got to bag it up My Worst Nightmare By Dream Healer Weeouw alk again, how to cope with day-to-day life while carrying around a gaping hole and the ridiculously heavy weight of a broken heart. Never had my faith brought up so many questions, yet at the same time become all I had. Learning to walk again seemed an impossible task. What do you do when the bottom falls out of your life? When you’re left alone and your heart has been smashed to pieces? â€Å"Guard your heart† we’re warned for good reason – when your heart is in complete brokenness, life is beyond difficult. But this wasn’t anything I could have guarded against. My husband, my best friend, gone. Everything changed for the worse. I wanted to run away but I had nowhere to run to where my grief would not follow. I didn’t believe I could ever feel any better. I knew hope that I would one day be in heaven, but had little hope of any day until then being any easier than the complete desperation I knew. God’s promise to be â€Å"close to the broken-hearted’ got me through the day, but His promise to â€Å"heal the broken-hearted† was something I’d have to wait for heaven for – wasn’t it? Every morning I’d wake again to the reality that he wasn’t there. It wasn’t just a bad dream. â€Å"God, you’re going to have to help me through today,† I’d whisper through the tears. Every night when I fell into bed at a ridiculous hour, I would soak my pillow with more tears. The day may have been agony, but God had been there. â€Å"You don’t deserve this,† said a friend. The words hit me. Just as I hadn’t done anything to deserve the beauty of my relationship with Ems, neither was this about what I did or didn’t deserve. From the start I knew that, horrendous as it was, this must be about something much bigger than us. Asking â€Å"why?† was a futile waste of energy but knowing that there was an answer, even if I didn’t know it, gave me peace and purpose. The strength that would be mine as time went on wasn’t through any training of my own but through the tear-stained surrender each morning. Living one day at a time, I would slowly see glimmers of purpose as God allowed my brokenness to reach out to others. Though a world away from life before, once that purpose became more important than my comfort, I would learn to live again. Not even the grave could conquer my experience of knowing what it is to love and be loved. And now I know that, like in the back of that campervan on that beautiful day, my eyes can again well up with the anticipation of a brighter day and the adventure ahead. Watch this video of Ruthie sharing her story at our event at Momentum 2012: We found God in a hopeless place. In April this year I moved from London to Cornwall which has been a dream of mine for years. I can’t emphasise enough how huge this was for me. I was happier than I ever thought possible. I kept pinching myself because I couldn’t believe it had happened. I had handed in my notice at work and was longing for the day when I didn’t have to manage stressful IT projects which I was finding more and more soul destroying. Finally I was to have the life of my dreams, living in Cornwall with a fulfilling job and a little dog to take for walks on the beach – bliss. I had to move with my 81 year old Dad as I had been living with him for 5 years since Mum died, but he was all for it, looking forward to seeing out his life by the sea and the house we bought had a lovely sea view. My only child, my son Toby who was 23 had been living with us for the past year, and we gave him the option to come with us but all his friends were in Cambridge where he had attended University so he went to lodge with a friend and I said I would pay his rent for 6 months until he found a job and could stand on his own two feet. I felt this was a chance for him to finally be independent and make a life of his own. But then it all came crashing down and I still can’t quite take it in. On Sunday July 10th a young policeman knocked on my door at precisely 10 p.m. I know the time as a movie ‘Marley and Me’ had just finished and I was watching the highlights of the British Grand Prix. It was just like a scene from a TV programme where they tell you to sit down and in that moment you know your life will never be the same again. He told me that my beautiful 23 year old son was dead, and in the next sentence he added that he had taken his own life. I didn’t fall to the floor in hysterics as I would have thought. I just immediately went into shock and had to go and tell my Dad upstairs who thought I was so upset because of the end of Marley and Me, where the dog dies. I was pacing up and down muttering and putting the kettle on just in shock. But not once did I scream or cry or break down and I kept commenting on the fact. I kept asking this young policeman why I wasn’t on the floor sobbing. The next 3 weeks I just got on with seeing my son’s body, meeting his friends, arranging his funeral, having an endoscopy, going to the dentist, having the chimney swept, driving from Cornwall to Cambridge and back again twice. How did I do that?. I bought a puppy as I was so scared that if I didn’t have anything to live for when I got back that I would just walk out into the sea and end it all. It is the ultimate irony that suicide can cause suicidal thoughts for the loved ones left behind, where there never had been any before. Then on August 2nd I took my Dad for a routine check up and was told in the hospital waiting room that he had a tumour in his bladder and that it was cancerous. This can’t be happening I thought but it was. So now it is December 7th and Dad is gone too and I am all alone. Dad died on November 19th, I had to go to my son’s inquest on November 25th and hear how he had been found in a field with a bag over his head, then arrange my Dad’s funeral. So that is all behind me but what does it mean for me now. How do I process all this and get on with my life. Some days it is all just too huge and I feel scared. Other days I just get up, take the dog out, have lunch and go about my day and feel numb, devoid of any emotion. I am scared that if I let the emotion in it will devour me and there will be nothing left. Everyone keeps telling me how brave I am, how amazing I am, how strong I am? Am I? I just think I get up every day and breath in and out until it is time to go to bed. What other option do I have? So this blog will chart my journey into the unknown. How does a 55 year old woman, alone with no parents, no children, no partner rebuild her life and find meaning and purpose out of loss and tragedy. Watch this space.