Frederick Douglass Narative Essays - Fiction, Style, Narratology

Frederick Douglass Narative Frederick Douglasss Narrative In Frederick Douglasss Narrative, Douglas himself narrates the novel using story telling to bring both the reader into the story, and the theme into focus. Through his narration, Douglass also uses narrative strategies like anecdotes, and plot twists. Even with it being a true story, Douglass brings the readers attention to a peak with these techniques making the story interesting and appealing. The most influential technique used by Douglass is story telling. He uses little stories, or stories-within-a-story, to make the reader pay attention. With descriptive tales of the plantations he worked on, the beatings and torture of slaves, and learning to read and write, he not only gets the attention of the readers, but he gets them to understand his point of view. For example at the beginning of the narrative Douglass tells a story of his aunt being beating, I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rendering shrieks of an own aunt of mine, (3). He goes on and gets even more graphic and descriptive, The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. (4). Also early in the novel, Douglass writes of the plantation he grew up on, There were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such, (6). Soon after being sold to Mr. and Mrs. Auld, he was taught the alphabet. He uses this exper ience to show to his audience that he is very literate despite his masters wishes, If you teach that nigger how to read there would be no keeping him, (20). So this story shows some more cruelty from his master. Just for reading he would be sold, which shows unfair treatment to the reader. Another similar technique used by Douglass very effectively is anecdotes. He uses anecdotes throughout the story to bring a humorous or interesting little side story into the readers minds. One good example of this is when he is talking about slave songs, I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. (9). This shows the readers of his concerns by just adding a brief story in to interest the reader. Another good anecdote used by Douglass was with his move to Baltimore. She was going to give me a pair of trousers, which I should not put on unless I got all the off me. (17), this is a little story, nothing big in his life but he uses it to show an aspect of his move to Baltimore. Finally, he uses great plot twists to keep the reader on the edge of his toes. At the beginning of the novel you dont really know where he is going with the narrative. With some writers their use of foreshadowing, gives you the narrative 10 pages into it. Douglass however keeps the reader involved in the story because they need to think of what is next. This is shown when he gives no forewarning of his move into the Auld house. He starts chapter five (16) by telling of his treatment on Colonel Lloyds plantation right into I was probably between seven and eight years old when I left Colonel Lloyds plantation. These narrative techniques used by Douglass give the reader an in depth look into his life, and persuade the readers it was directed to in the north to join his abolitionist cause. The narrative is a great piece of literature, not only for his day, but for ours because we can learn so much about slavery from it. Book Reports

Research Paper on Military Spending

Research Paper on Military Spending Even if they have never seen a weapon, millions of children seriously suffer from wars, as resources that could have been invested in development are diverted in armament. Armament spending has both positive and negative impacts on countries. On the plus side, military spending can be a boon to some businesses, which in turn is a shot in the arm to the nations economy as Ill explain later in the essay. On the other hand, there are malicious effects on economy as well. It is true that a large military spending will contribute to economic growth in a short term. Militarization will bring more job opportunities to citizens directly in both military and military-related fields. Meanwhile, the important part is that there is another high amount of secondary jobs has been given. For instance, a new military uniform factory opened. It not only creates jobs for the people in the factory, but also creates jobs for the people working on the cotton field, even the people doing transportations. Furthermore, it increases the employment rate instantly and significantly. Another positive side of a great military spending is that it will put a fuller use of existing productive capacities, and thus increasing output of goods and services. The most important reason to maintain a high military spending is that it will give a country higher national defense capability. It is obvious that the more money government spends on the army, better weapons will be made. It will protect people better as far as the homeland security is concerted. People will live in a safer condition, and not to worry about their family while they are working. Thus, they will put more efforts in their work because theyÐ ±Ã ¶re satisfied of their primarily safety. Hopefully, this will bring a better production to nationÐ ±Ã ¶s economy. Other than the defense, military also plays an important role on countries emergencies. Because the money that government spends on military is enough to train soldiers, they can protect civilians lives from natural disaster. For example, when a country is facing flood, at the first place, the army could bring enough well-trained soldiers to build a bridge and help people get out the danger. Even though there seems to be many reasons to believe that higher military spending will bring a better life to people in a short term, the long run of high defense spending may impede growth and development. First, high military expenditure tends to decrease an economys capacity to meet peoples basic needs, such as food, housing, and medical services. This is because increased military production leaves less national capital and financial institutions for the civilian sector of the economy. In addition, some government cares less about the life of their citizens than how to make the strongest weapons. Its possible to observe that developing countries, despite their lower incomes, tens to spend a similar and sometime larger share of their gross domestic product (GDP) on armed forces and weaponry than do wealthy developed countries. One of the examples will be North Korea, the government spends 32% of their GDP on armaments, rather than try to stimulate their economy, and give their civilians basic food and clothing. Another main disadvantage of high spending is that it leaves less money in the government budget for them to dealing with social, environmental and other developmental issues. According to a recent report from the United States, their federal government spends approximately USD $1.9 trillion in Fiscal Year 2002. Out of all this spending, Pentagon spending now accounts for over half (50.5percent) of all discretionary spending: USD $343.2 billions. In the same year, the U.S. government only spends USD $45 billions on education and USD $20 billions on social services. This translates to smaller social surety checks, less medical coverage, perhaps a third of countrys population doing without health insurance entirely, fewer scholarships and less aid overall for education, especially higher education for the poor people. With all the money spends on the national defense, the government could build three more sets of highway, many more hospitals and YMCAs. In additional, the government cou ld spend money on environmental projects, help economic development, or even on agriculture. All of these will help people to improve their standard of living. Militarization also hinders an economys efficiency, because a lack of competition. Since large amount of military spending creates lots jobs and productions, it becomes the main sources of income. But the military sector often allows military producers to feel less compelled to cut their production costs since they are paid by the government. Therefore, after a period of time, higher average production costs will depress the economy significantly. Meanwhile, it will hurt peoples life due to the high price and low quality. As for the additional employment allegedly provided by the military sector, this is only a short-term effect: military production tends to use proportionately more capital equipment and less labor than civilian industries and so creates fewer jobs than could be created from a similar investment in civilian production, particularly services. From a recent research, people find that USD $1 billion spend by the Pentagon on weapons, supplies and services generates 25,000 jobs. However, the same USD $1 billion would create 30,000 mass transit jobs, 36,000 housing jobs, 41,000 education jobs, and 47,000 health care jobs. (Pentagon Spending) Another important factor is that there is no end line for the military spending. It would be contradictory to continue building the military arsenal while at the same time paying the high cost of destroying the old weapons. For instance, to destroy chemical weapons costs about 10 times more than it does to produce them. In the fiscal year 2002, the U.S. government spends USD $343 billions on the department of defense. Meanwhile, there is a hidden number. In the same year, the government spends USD $200 billions more on military-related fields, such as foreign military aid, military retirement pay, and veterans benefits. Its obvious that the economy will be unbalanced after a short period of time, since most money is given to people with high ranks rather the people who imperatively need them. While putting billions dollars in the army, the mean usage of this money is not necessary for defense, but for offense- developing new weapons. Even just developing, testing, and assembling thing like unclear and biochemical weapons is dangerous, generating huge numbers of fatalities, cancers and injuries- even if the weapons are never once used in anger. As people concerted about their lives, there wont be any positive effects on the economy, because people tend to escape rather than produce. It is clear that reducing military spending will affect civilians life more in those exporting countries such as the United States, England, and France since countries selling their old weapons make them great revenues.

The Development of Humanity in Imago Dei Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Development of Humanity in Imago Dei - Essay Example Human-Kind's knowledge of God or the theorization of Imago Dei ultimately brought about the concept of humanity, as was hinted at in the initial phase of this research (Meta Press 2006). When God created man kind, following Imago Dei, humanity was undoubtedly born but man-kinds ability to hold onto that form of humanity has been sorely tested throughout history. Furthermore, this ideology of humanity was conceptualized by the fact that human beings are the more vulnerable of God's creations and therefore there is a need to try and be humane to one another due to this fact. Also, there is a view that human beings are considered to be the well-being and fate of nature so this is another philosophical reasoning that was born through the concept of Imago Dei and of which stretched into the philosophy of humanity (Fern 2002). This makes perfect sense as the true meaning of "Imago Dei" is actually an interpretation of a mirror image of God. In fact, the terminology in itself is uniquely meant for the human race, as history has shown through biblical times up to present day even. The way in which humanity did actually form has been already stated to be from man-kind's religious perspective and their creation but there is a direct relation to this theory from a passage in the bible which states, "God created man in his own image" (Meta Press 2006). It was of course this pertinent passage which had an incredible influence on man-kind's interpretation of what goodness and humanity should be and they oftened turned to God to guide them and help them in making the right choice to stay on the correct path. Because man-kind developed the rationalization that they were created in God's image they realized that all that they had been endowed with had a form of goodness and humanity about it. For example their freedoms of "self-centeredness, creative freedom, and the option of self-actualization" led them to come to an understanding that having good qualities within their being and expressing a sincere sense of humanity to one another was important in order to stay in God's image (Meta Press 2006). However, human beings can not be equal to God because they are not wholly perfect, although they try to overcome those tendencies that bring in the adverse elements into the human race which affects the idea of humanity (Fern 2002). Karl Barth was an existentialist who believed that humanity developed by man-kinds way of trying to exhibit an idea of goodness in order to be one with God. However, the human race already had an idea of humanity due to the fact that they were created through the theology of Imago Dei. This has been emphasized in this literature and found to hold factual truth throughout periods of history. Furthermore, this is pointed out because Barth taught that man-kind developed a responsibility towards God, again through the ideology of Imago Dei. Also, the freedoms born for man were directly from the idea that God granted them these various freedoms due to the human goodness that they exhibited (Cochrane 1956).However, when man sinned they lost some of the ability to be good due to the fact that the concept of religious belief and the essence of God does not contain the idea of sin, and therefore it was and is an

Cleopatra's Suicide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cleopatra's Suicide - Essay Example They naturally thought of Cleopatra as a manipulative seductress, because she had earlier seduced Julius Ceasar who was thirty years her senior, and her sexual exploits were well known. The Romans were led by Octavius, Octavia's brother who charged in to conquer Egypt and overcome Mark Anthony. Overwhelmed by the Roman forces, Mark Antony chose death by suicide over being captured. After his death and facing the prospect of Roman invasion, Cleopatra chose death as well. As someone who has experimented with poisons on prisoners on different occasions, she knew that the venom of the asp was the least painful and a relatively quicker way of dying. Most privileged or political prisoners were executed in this way by the Egyptians and by the Greeks before them. At this point of time, all serpents were known as asps, and the snake Cleopatra used for her suicide was probably the Egyptian cobra Naja Haje. The cobra was revered by the ancient Egyptians possibly because they lived in close proximity with it, because the rodents commonly associated with humans were their natural prey. Egyptians lost a lot of their own to this snake's potent venom. It was placed on the crown of the Egyptian pharaohs, and was in fact the Royal symbol. It represented the "fiery eye of Re", in which there are two uraei which are placed on either side of a winged solar disk.

Elements of a Binding Contract Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Elements of a Binding Contract - Essay Example The elements in each case will be evaluated against the standard of contract validity. Question 1. In Chong vs. Lee, the first and foremost finding is that a contract never existed. Their agreement fails in every way to meet the legal definition of a contract because of fundamental defects, so there was no contractual agreement to breach or sue to enforce. Way Lee offered to sell five reconditioned motorbikes to Chong for a set price, but Chong didn’t accept Lee’s offer; he deferred his answer indefinitely, saying he would â€Å"think about it.† No contractual agreement was created at that time because there was an offer but no acceptance and both elements must be present to create a valid contract. When Chong wrote to Lee a week later, he included additional sale conditions, specifically regarding painting the bikes. No contractual agreement was achieved in this instance, either. By changing the terms of Lee’s original offer, Chong was effectively making a counteroffer, and implicit in a counteroffer is a declination of the original offer, which then ceases to exist (Graw, 2002). The Postal Rule states that an acceptance is considered conveyed and takes effect at the time it is deposited in a valid postal receptacle or given to a legitimate postal worker properly prepared for posting. A contract would have been formed even if the letter had never been received by the other party. See Adams v. Lindsell (1818). But that rule would not apply here, the main reason being that the letter Chong posted was not a simple acceptance of the original offer, but a counteroffer and Lee could not have been presumed to have agreed to it without any knowledge of it. Even if Chong’s letter had been a simple acceptance of the original offer, a question would have arisen as to whether Lee had intended his original offer to Chong to remain good for a week or whether such a length of time would be deemed reasonable by a judge.

Concepts of Beauty in Art

Concepts of Beauty in Art John Keats Beauty and Truth In his famous apostrophe to the Grecian Urn, the immortal poet, John Keats, wrote: Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst, beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. This very famous statement on Beauty and Truth and their interchangeability poses a very important question in the postmodern era. Art and its convention of the Beauty/Beautiful has imperceptibly changed over the decades, from something that should reflect the Ideal (and in reality, twice removed from it, as per Plato), or in essence complete and offering pleasure to the senses to something, that expresses the unique consciousness/angst of the creator. Art has thus rediscovered its definition for beauty. If beauty is truth, then it may dare to be grotesque too, for truth may be harsh or horrific. Beauty does not suggest something beautiful in the actual sense of the term, but that, which comes closer to the true expressions of the self and the vision of a generations psyche, that is fragmented, kitsch-like, complex and beyond the metanarratives of a suffocating conformity. Beauty has evolved into a freedom for expression. Contemporary art, especially questions the paradigms of aesthetic values, with artists like Chapman Brothers or Justin Novak producing artwork that are clearly meant to provoke reactions and challenge notions of beauty, that had its roots in Kants Critique of Judgment (1790). It contemplated on the pure aesthetic experience of art consisting of a disinterested observer, pleasing for its own sake and beyond any utility or morality. Now, the very word pleasing may have different boundaries and contemporary art is trying to escalate their claims. If Marcel Duchamp made a fountain out of a urinal in 1917, that hurtled the Dadaist movement and that later amplified into a surrealist tendency looking into primitive art for their subconscious inspiration, to reveal the mental process, then the essential motivation behind the whole thing was subversion. If primitivism was motivating a new dimension by which beauty of the mind was revealed, then Picasso completely subjectified art and personal experience into a fourth dimension and created a cubist movement to claim a break down of a canon that no longer held on to techniques, symbols and least of all universal criteria for judging anything. There are many socio-ideological forces behind the same and the destructive World Wars had many reasons to question the notions behind the traditional idea of Beauty, and it addressed the subjective, transcendental and alienated psyche of modern man. Metaphysical hopelessness gave absurdity to beauty, while the meaninglessness of this Being, made beauty seem more akin to grotesque, either by derision or by the light of their tragic truth. What makes the question more intriguing is that, whether contemporary art has found a better form of beauty (constructed to please and create a certain discursive paradigm) in the grotesque, since it frees us from any moral and political/ideological constraints? Can it be linked to greater dimensions of teleological magnitude, or should it be treated as an alternative method of understanding true aesthetic, if not the complete aspect of aesthetic itself? Is grotesque possible without the knowledge of Beauty itself? I shall attempt to answer the following questions that I raised, with a few examples. One must first understand the idea behind perception and the dialogical force that surrounds it. If the world is raised as an illusion in ones mind then the mind has been symbolically trained to read it as a language. This matrix of complex spontaneity is paradigmatically and syntagmatically (Roman Jakobson, 1987) being challenged, when Grotesque plays the part of Beauty. The Dystopia arises out of a shattered archetype that must restructure itself to include elements of the grotesque within the beauty, and reach towards the same aesthetic experience: the sublime. But interestingly what produces sublime is shock. But one must not confuse this with the cathartic experience of the Tragic pity and terror, but something quite opposite to an ideal communicative situation that all such art produces. Thus this element of mimesis and/or representation of the ideal have given way to an infinite subjectivity (Hegel, Lectures on Fine Art, given in the 1820s), or the abyss of the human mind and condition. But the self is interpellated as per Lacan and later Althusser too estimated the impossibility of a single position from where one can judge, since the self was preconditioned with a lot of logocentricism (Derrida), which are again socio-culturally specific as per Barthes. Thus there is a complete inquiry into art through the artists personality or self (or selves). Justin Novaks disfigurine often conforming to the bourgeoisie values, distort them to such an ironic extent that one cannot miss the counter realism that it offers. Often it serves to offer no alternative reality, but just launches one amidst a grotesque re-examination of old values and with its attendant disillusionment. Once there is a silent barrier between class and gender is dismantled, the escape is into nothingness the sublime height of vast unending solutions and this underscores the definite presence and the horrors of undying conformism. If truth is beauty, then Novaks artworks reveal the finer sides of it by shattering the comfortable and compartmentalized thought processes with which one can objectify art from a safe distance. The grotesque closeness of these truths gives beauty to the mind by releasing it from the shackles of confinement and overpowering illusions. Truth is not universal, but a power to accept the inextricable complexity of human behaviour, mind and his /her social, cultural and historical environment. Is Grotesque a rebellion? Or is it an inextricable element of beauty? Disfigurines 2006, by Justin Novak Grayson Perrys ceramic works portray this polemic by making them superficially beautiful (as beauty has been notoriously claimed to have been) and underneath it remains the darker motives of an artist who tries to wrest with disturbing truths (or shall one call them home truths, with a larger social back drop to them). His works like Coming Out Dress 2000, Weve Found the Body of your Child 2000 or the Boring Cool People 1999 (reminds one of Eliots famous lines from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michaelangelo). Not only does he deal with issues like cross-dressing, child abuse and social sterility (spiritually hollow cool fashionistas), but also he plays with this abnormal interrelation between beauty and grotesque. He raises questions about taste and the sublime. In short he subverts the notion of beauty with beauty that is skin deep! Reality is a diabolical faade and Perry questions whether hegemony denotes or connotes the medium o f taste in art. Transvestite to transgression, the Chapman Brothers question the inevitability or orthodox value of the canon. This reflects in their works, defacement and torture figures create the complete picture of Beauty. They usher in a new experiment with taste, bad taste and the notions of good taste. Art moves into the realms of public or mass low category, which becomes an essential democratic medium for evoking or carrying forward a provocation to rouse the sense of that horrifying answerless void. With the Chapman brothers there is a sadist tone attached to their insult or reiteration of Goyas influence especially in the irrecreation of his Disasters of War, which inflict bold horror. But the grandeur of that horror is reduced to a trivial and yet a sardonic sensationtaste comes off them. They twist the sensation of violence into an aestheticground and arouse a variety of physical and mental demands for perceiving Beauty amidst such a squandering grotesqueness. Beauty here lies in the re lease from holding back appreciation, awe and complete shock. Violence does not stand-alone and nor does any other human emotion. Sex, 2003 is thus desire, decay, diabolical, deliberate, freedom or defeat. Purity is not that far fromits pornographic mockery of it and they are interrelated in their apparent verisimilitude. A true representation of kitsch art, their works like Zygotic Acceleration, roused shock as they attempted to portray the sexualisation of children due to the media and increased gender awareness. These treatments nevertheless push questions about morality that grotesque beauty actually challenges. Thus morality and beauty in its aesthetic straight forwardedness seem to flatten out newer boundaries of experiences, which the Chapman brothers challenge through their craftsmanship. Traditional Sculpture, especially in the hands of the Chapman Brothers and Justin Novak or Grayson Perry are objects of anti-canonical parody, grotesque imitations or thought-provoking reverse-discourses. All these postmodern artists are challenging aesthetic experience. All these artworks succumb to one the power of the grotesque that sublimates beauty with its truth, and they make us realize that truth is not about a fixed standard, but accepting the actual absence of it. What makes contemporary art more beastly in its beauty is the power to derive happiness (or sado-masochist satisfaction) out of this grotesqueness. The grotesque shocks but this is a pleasure in itself, because it is the very representation of the consciousness. Theatre and artwork met with experimentalism in the stage by Artaud, who made audience a spectator to cruelty that is harsh, exceptionally brutal and yet beautiful. By shattering estrangement and by creating something that allows no objectivity (in the lik es of Kant or Brecht) Artaud demands a complete involvement of the senses. Moreover, this is where art threatens to change the soul of the perceiver by its dominating beauty, which horrifies the perceiver with its verity and unique angst. Wittgensteins concept of seeing-as, allows contemporary art to shun master narratives completely and standout on their own purely as visual sensations. From British Avant-Garde art that confuses common and the uncommon (like use of mannequin by Chapman Brothers or genitals replaced by the faces in their remake of Goyas Disasters of Wars series). Grotesquerie is about questioning the status quo, about unflinching self-criticism and about embracing outsiders. From Simon Carroll deconstructing the chronology of ceramic vases with his pastiches like Thrown Square Pot2005, engages the observers mind with complex questions that he poses through the irregular construction of his surfaces. Thrown Square Pot  2005, Simon Carroll. The artists seem to dwell on the apparent hyperreality of contemporary situation, where art has become a vastly reproduced object fractured beyond identity. Formlessness becomes the beauty without symmetry and deliberate cruelty an aesthetic grotesqueness. Thus the gap between what is apparent and what may actually exists gives the artists ample space to bridge this defined categories with crushing forces of expressions that though grotesque to the shocked senses is ultimately beautiful by virtue of its truth. Works Cited Eliot, T. S The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Eliot, Thomas Stearns. Prufrock and Other Observations. London: The Egoist, Ltd, 1917; Bartleby.com, 1996. www.bartleby.com/198/. [30.01.2007]. ON-LINE ED.: Published May 1996 by Bartleby.com; Copyright Bartleby.com, Inc. (Terms of Use). Hegel, Lectures on Fine Art, (edited by Hotho) Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art, Vol. 1.translated by T. M. Knox, 1973. Poetical Works. London: Macmillan, 1884; Bartleby.com, 1999 Jakobson, Roman. Language in Literature. Ed. Krystyna Pomorska and Stephen Rudy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1987. See influential essay Linguistics and Poetics by Roman Jakobson, in their collection Language in Literature (1987).

Americas Abortion Debate Essay -- Abortion

Abortion is one of the most controversial issues in the United States today. According to oxford dictionary, abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks. The two factions involved in this controversy are poles apart in their views on abortion: where as the pro-choice movement contends that a woman’s right to abortion is absolute, the pro-life movement asserts that a fetus’s right to life is indisputable. The argument has become very pronounced since the U.S Supreme Court ruling in the year 1973 in Roe V. Wade, which legalized abortion. According to the ruling, a woman’s right to abortion outweighed the rights of a nonviable fetus and prohibited the State interference. In addition to the fact that pro-choicers have always praised Roe for recognizing that a woman’s right to control her body is more important than a fetus’s right to life, this idea is also supported by different organizat ions such as Alan Guttmatcher Institute (AGI) whose mission is â€Å"to protect the reproductive choices of all women and men in the United States and throughout the world.† (Par 1) While some people believe that abortion is immoral others argue that it is a woman’s right to have full control of her body. A typical pro-life believer argues that fetuses posses a characteristic such as a genetic code that is both necessary and sufficient for being human. This idea is mostly propagated by the principle of the Roman Catholic Church â€Å"In 1995 Pope John Paul II officially condemned abortion in his â€Å"Evangelium Vitae,† calling it a villainous crime that kills an innocent human being† (Knapp Pg 16) and supported by many fundamentalist protestants groups, though not by majority of Catholics an... ...ciples, the pro-choice position is certainly not obviously wrong. Consequently, when abortion advocates try to make the argument more or less probable, they call for pro-life citizens to completely cease from bringing the legitimate idea of freedom to life for the purpose of protecting the unborn from harm, these abortion-choice supporters are by so doing encouraging their fellow pro-choice citizens to silently and politely remain firm that the unborn are not fully fledged members of the human community therefore are not entitled to protection by the state. To the opponent of abortion, this request hardly seems tolerant or liberating. Works Cited Francis J. Beckwith Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Lynette Knapp: The Abortion Controversy San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2001