Orality (Communication) - Definition and Examples

Orality (Communication) s Orality is the use of speech  rather than writing  as a means of communication, especially in communities where the tools of literacy are unfamiliar to the majority of the population. Modern interdisciplinary studies in the history and nature of orality were initiated by theorists in the Toronto school, among them Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Eric Havelock, and Walter J. Ong.  Ã‚   In Orality and Literacy (Methuen, 1982), Walter J. Ong identified some of the distinctive ways in which people in a primary oral culture [see the definition below] think and express themselves through narrative discourse: Expression is coordinate and polysyndetic ( . . . and . . . and . . . and . . .) rather than subordinate and hypotactic.Expression is aggregative (that is, speakers rely on epithets and on parallel and antithetical phrases) rather than analytic.Expression tends to be redundant and copious.Out of necessity, thought is conceptualized and then expressed with relatively close reference to the human world; that is, with a preference for the concrete rather than the abstract.Expression is agonistically toned (that is, competitive rather than cooperative).Finally, in predominantly oral cultures, proverbs (also known as maxims) are convenient vehicles for conveying simple beliefs and cultural attitudes. Etymology From the Latin oralis, mouth Examples and Observations James A. MaxeyWhat is the relationship of orality to literacy? Though disputed, all sides agree that  orality is  the predominant mode of communication in the world and that literacy is a relatively recent technological development in human history.Pieter J.J. BothaOrality as a condition exists by virtue of communication that is not dependent on modern media processes and techniques. It is negatively formed by the lack of technology and positively created by specific forms of education and cultural activities. . . . Orality refers to the experience of words (and speech) in the habitat of sound. Ong on Primary Orality and Secondary Orality Walter J. OngI style the orality of a culture totally untouched by any knowledge or writing or print, primary orality. It is primary by contrast with the secondary orality of present-day high-technology culture, in which a new orality is sustained by telephone, radio, television, and other electronic devices that depend for their existence and functioning on writing and print. Today primary oral culture in the strict sense hardly exists, since every culture knows of writing and has some experience of its effects. Still, to varying degrees many cultures and subcultures, even in a high-technology ambiance, preserve much of the mind-set of primary orality. Ong on Oral Cultures Walter J. OngOral cultures indeed produce powerful and beautiful verbal performances of high artistic and human worth, which are no longer even possible once writing has taken possession of the psyche. Nevertheless, without writing, human consciousness cannot achieve its fuller potentials, cannot produce other beautiful and powerful creations. In this sense, orality needs to produce and is destined to produce writing. Literacy . . . is absolutely necessary for the development not only of science but also of history, philosophy, explicative understanding of literature and of any art, and indeed for the explanation of language (including oral speech) itself. There is hardly an oral culture or a predominantly oral culture left in the world today that is not somehow aware of the vast complex of powers forever inaccessible without literacy. This awareness is agony for persons rooted in primary orality, who want literacy passionately but who also know very well that moving into the excitin g world of literacy means leaving behind much that is exciting and deeply loved in the earlier oral world. We have to die to continue living. Orality and Writing Rosalind ThomasWriting is not necessarily the mirror-image and destroyer of orality, but reacts or interacts with oral communication in a variety of ways. Sometimes the line between written and oral even in a single activity cannot actually be drawn very clearly, as in the characteristic Athenian contract which involved witnesses and an often rather slight written document, or the relation between the performance of a play and the written and published text. Clarifications Joyce Irene MiddletonMany misreadings, misinterpretations, and misconceptions about orality theory are due, in part, to [Walter J.] Ongs rather slippery use of seemingly interchangeable terms that very diverse audiences of readers interpret in various ways. For example, orality is not the opposite of literacy, and yet many debates about orality are rooted in oppositional values . . .. In addition, orality was not replaced by literacy: Orality is permanentwe have always and will continue to always use human speech arts in our various forms of communication, even as we now witness changes in our personal and professional uses of alphabetic forms of literacy in a number of ways. Pronunciation: o-RAH-li-tee

Biography of Larry Swartz, Convicted Murderer

Biography of Larry Swartz, Convicted Murderer Larry Swartz struggled his whole life, first as a foster care child, then as one of two boys adopted by Robert and Kathryn Swartz. In the beginning, Larry was his parents favorite. In time that changed, and he became their next victim. Robert and Kathryn Swartz Robert Bob Swartz and Kathryn Anne Kay Sullivan met while both were students at the University of Maryland. Soon, they discovered they had a lot in common, most notably childhoods marked by structure and stern discipline. As devout Catholics, neither had been active in the dating scene in either high school or college. After getting married, the couple settled in Cape St. Claire, Maryland. Kay got a job teaching high school and Bob started working with computers. Kay was unable to have children so they decided to adopt. The thought of opening their home to unwanted children fit right in with their active participation with pro-life groups. Lawrence Joseph Swartz Lawrence Larry Swartz was six years old and the first child to join the Swartz family. His birth mother had been a waitress in New Orleans and his father was alleged to have been an East Indian pimp. Larry had spent his life in foster homes. Michael David Swartz Eight-year-old Michael was the second child that joined the family. Prior to that, he had moved from one foster home to another and had developed into a rebellious child. He spent two years on a probationary period in the Swartzes home before being legally adopted. Favoritism Larry and Michael were only six months apart in age, with Michael being the oldest. A bond between the two brothers developed quickly, and they became best friends. Bob and Kay wanted both boys to receive a good education, but their ambitions became a source of family tension. Michael was a smart child and a quick learner. He excelled in his first few years in school, so the Swartzes decided he was under-challenged and insisted he jump from the second to the fourth grade. The change did not work out. Although intelligent, Michael was emotionally immature. His grades dropped and his disciplinary problems increased. He was impulsive and disobedient, often had fits of anger, and did not seem to understand right from wrong. Larry on the other hand was a poor student. His parents became concerned about his academic struggles and had him tested. It was determined that he was learning disabled. He was placed in special education classes, which had a positive effect on his performance. Larry was also a quiet, mild-mannered child who followed the rules at school and at home. He rarely caused any disciplinary problems and had a close relationship with his mother. He was clearly the favorite son. Abuse The mood within the household turned volatile as the boys hit adolescence. Bob and Kay were strict disciplinarians with rigid house rules. They also lacked good parenting skills and were becoming overwhelmed with the challenges inherent in raising two teenagers. Bob and Kay subjected both boys to constant criticism and harsh scoldings, and they often punished their children for even the most minor infringements of the rules. When it came time to deal with more serious problems, like Michael being disruptive at school, the at-home punishments became more severe. During family fights, Larry would try to calm his parents. Michael would do just the opposite. He often talked back and agitated the fighting. Bob had a ferocious temper and zero tolerance for Michaels rebellious behavior. It did not take long for the verbal lashings to turn into physical abuse. Larry managed to escape the beatings, but not the verbal and psychological abuse. The Swartzes were determined not to let Larry end up like Michael, and they kept a close watch on his activities. Being around the constant fighting and the physical abuse took a toll on Larry, and he obsessed about ways to keep his parents happy. Annie Swartz When the boys were around 13, the Swartzes  adopted their third child, four-year-old Annie. She was born in South Korea and had been abandoned by her parents. Annie was cute and sweet, and the entire family adored her. She also became the new favorite child of Bob and Kay, which bumped Larry down to second place. Hit the Road One night Michael asked his parents if he could visit some friends. The answer was no, so Michael snuck out of the house. When he returned home around 10 p.m., he discovered that he was locked out. After knocking failed to get his parents to let him inside, he began to yell. Finally, Kay opened the window and informed Michael that he was no longer welcome at home. The next day Kay reported Michael as a runaway to his social worker. He was given the choice to move into a foster home or go to juvenile court, which would have likely meant going to a juvenile detention home. Michael elected to move into a foster home. As far as the Swartzes were concerned, Michael was no longer their son. Next in Line Michael and Larry remained in touch with one another and talked for hours together on the telephone. They shared their frustration and anger over how their parents were treating them. Larry could not believe that his parents had disowned Michael. It not only angered him that a parent could just throw out their child, but it also caused him to feel severely insecure. He was scared that one day he would also be cast out of his home. Now that Michael was gone, his parents were always on his back about something. Larry couldnt understand why his parents didnt seem to like him. He was popular at school and had a reputation among his peers and his teachers as a nice looking, easygoing, and polite young man. However, his mild manner and friendly nature made little impression on his parents. Just as they had with Michael, Bob and Kay soon began to find fault with everything Larry did and the friends he chose to hang out with. His relationship with his mother, which had always been good, began to disintegrate. The more she screamed at him, the harder he would try to figure a way back into her good graces. But nothing seemed to work. Backfire In a desperate attempt to regain his favorite child status, Larry told his parents that he wanted to be a priest. It worked. The Swartzes were thrilled, and Larry was sent to a seminary to begin his first year of high school. Unfortunately, that plan backfired. After failing to make the necessary grade point average after two semesters, Larry was encouraged by the school not to return. The clashes with his parents intensified after he returned home. Drivers Education Most teens start annoying their parents about allowing them to get their drivers license as soon as they reach the legal age to drive. Larry was no exception. For the Swartzes, however, this hinged entirely on Larrys grades. They agreed to allow him to take drivers education if he make all Cs or better on his report card. By the following semester, Larry managed to get all but one C. Bob stood his ground and refused to give in because of the single D. Larry kept at it. The following semester he received two Ds and the rest were Cs. Again, that was not good enough for Bob and Kay. Destructive Criticism Arguments between Larry and his parents became a regular occurrence. They fought with him in particular over his extracurricular activities. They didnt care that their son excelled at sports and was co-captain of the junior varsity soccer team- in fact, they were adamant that sports was a distraction from his studies. He was often grounded and was only permitted to go to school and church and to attend his wrestling matches and soccer events. Socializing with friends was restricted. When Larry did manage to go on a date, his parents unfailingly criticized the girl he went out with. Larrys performance in school deteriorated as a result. At 17, his C average was now a D average. His hopes for a drivers license were completely dashed. In order to numb his pain, Larry began to hide liquor in his bedroom and often got drunk after fleeing to his room after a fight with his parents. As for Michael, he had been court-ordered to go to a psychiatric facility for testing after he continued to get into trouble at the foster home. The Swartzes never wavered in their decision to cut all ties with him, and Michael became a ward of the state. Snap, Crackle, and Pop The night of January 16, 1984, was a typical night in the Swartz home. Larry had been dating a girl that Kay disapproved of and she told him she didnt want him to see her again. Shortly after that argument ended, Bob blasted Larry for messing with his computer, which had erased some work. The fight escalated to ferocious levels. Larry went up to his bedroom and began to drink from the bottle of rum he had hidden there. If he was hoping to squelch his anger, it did not work. Instead, the alcohol seemed to fuel the resentment and rage he felt towards his parents. A Call to 9-1-1 The following morning, at around 7 a.m., Larry placed a call to 9-1-1. The Cape St. Claire emergency workers arrived to find Larry and Annie holding hands at the door. Larry calmly let the paramedics into the house. First, they found Bobs body lying inside a small basement office. He was covered in blood and had several gash marks on his chest and arms. Next, they found Kays body in the backyard, lying in the snow. She was nude except for a sock on one foot. It appeared that she had been partially scalped, and her neck had been deeply lacerated in several spots. Against police protocol, one of the paramedics covered Kays body with a blanket. Larry told the paramedics that Annie woke him up because she could not find their parents. He said that he looked out the kitchen window, saw Kay laying in the yard, and immediately called for help. The Crime Scene When the detectives from Arundel County Sheriffs Department arrived, they immediately secured the crime scene. A search of the home produced several clues. First, nothing of any value seemed to have been stolen. A blood trail led outside, indicating that Kays body had been dragged to where it was found. In addition, a bloody palm print was found on the glass of the patio door. They also uncovered a bloody maul out in a wet, wooded area behind the house. A neighbor alerted the detectives to blood that he saw in the front of his home. Investigators followed that trail, along with a series of footprints, from the neighbors house through the neighborhood and into the woods. The footprints included human shoe prints, paw prints from what was likely a dog, one bare footprint, and one that may have been made by someone wearing a sock. It appeared that Kay Swartz survived her initial attack and managed to escape the house, but was then chased through the neighborhood by her assailant until she was caught and murdered. The Interviews The detectives turned their attention to Larry and Annie. Larry told them the same story he told the paramedics about looking out the window and seeing his mother lying in the snow, except this time he said he looked out of the dining room window, not the kitchen window. He was also quick to implicate his brother Michael as a possible suspect. He told the detectives that Michael hated his parents for disowning him and sending him back to foster care. Larry pointed out that the family dogs knew Michael and probably would not bark at him if he entered the house. He told them that Kay confided to him that she feared Michael, and that Michael had once joked about stabbing their father in the back. Annie told detectives that she heard a voice around 11:30 p.m. that sounded like her father calling for help. She then described a man that she saw in the backyard. His back was to her, but she could see that he was tall, with dark curly hair, and that he was wearing jeans and a gray sweatshirt. She went on to describe a bloody shovel that he was carrying over his shoulder. For as young as she was, she remembered a lot of details. When asked if the man was as tall as Michael was, Annie answered yes. Michael was over six feet tall and towered over Larry. Michaels Alibi But Michael had an alibi. According to him and the staff at the Crownsville Hospital Center, Michael had been locked inside the dormitory during the night. One of the staff members confirmed that hed seen Michael around 11:15 p.m. Based on the time that Annie said that she saw the man in the yard, that would have given Michael only 15 minutes to get to the house and kill his parents. The detectives knew that there was no way that Michael was the killer. He could never have made it to the Swartz home that quickly. Cool, Calm, and Overly Helpful Everyone who came to the Swartz home that morning- the paramedics, police, and the detectives- remarked on Larrys emotional state. For a kid who had just found his parents murdered, he was amazingly cool and calm, to the point of appearing disconnected to the horror that had gone on inside his house. The detectives were also suspicious of his attempt to make Michael look like a suspect. There was also the batch of papers concerning Michaels legal problems, which had conveniently been left in open view in the living room. The Arrest The detectives knew that if they found out who left the bloody palm print on the glass door, they would probably find the killer. It did not take long for the FBI to make a match. The palm print matched Larrys palm print, a fact that did not surprise any of the detectives. Larry was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. His bail was set at $200,000. Annie went to live with family friends in Annapolis. A Confidential Confession Three days after his parents funeral, Larry confessed to his lawyers that he was the killer. He outlined the events prior to the attack, describing the arguments hed had with his parents. He said he went to his bedroom, started drinking, and then went downstairs, passing his mother, who was watching television. She asked him about some tests he had taken at school that day, and Larry told her he thought he had flunked one but done okay on the others. According to Larry, Kays response was sarcastic and belittling. In response, Larry picked up a nearby wood-splitting maul and smash it over her head. He then stabbed her multiple times in the neck with a kitchen knife. Bob came in to see what was going on and Larry plunged the knife into his chest. He continued stabbing Bob around his chest and heart multiple times. Once Bob and Kay were dead, Larry busied himself trying to make it look like a crime that was committed by someone who had broken into the house. Someone like Michael. Final Act of Revenge- Humiliation Larry explained how he dragged his mother out through the patio door and across the snow in the backyard and laid her out near the swimming pool. He removed her clothes and then in a final act to humiliate her, he moved her body into an obscene position and then assaulted her with his finger. He then got rid of the murder weapons and his bloody clothing by throwing them into the wet, wooded area behind his house. When he returned inside he went to Annies room. She had woken up during the commotion, but Larry assured her it was a nightmare and told her to go back to sleep. Larry did not mention anything to his lawyer about chasing Kay through the neighborhood. When asked about it, Larry said he had no recollection of that happening. The Trial Larry sat in jail for 15 months before going to trial. On the day before it was to begin, his lawyers and the prosecutor reached a plea bargain. Judge Bruce Williams questioned Larry on the witness stand, verifying that he understood that he was going to plead guilty to the two counts of murder. He then announced his sentence. Judge Williams referred to the murders as one of the most tragic events in the history of the county. He showed compassion when speaking of the trouble that went on in the Swartz home. He said although Larry appeared normal, his court-ordered psychological testing showed that the teen was in great need of treatment. He sentenced Larry to two concurrent 20-year sentences and suspended 12 years from each. Freedom Larry was released from prison in 1993, after serving nine years of his sentence. Inexplicably, a family who had read about his case adopted him as their son. He lived with his new family for several years before leaving. He moved to Florida, married, and had a child. In December 2004, at the age of 38, Larry had a heart attack and died. The case was the inspiration for the best-selling book by Leslie Walker, Sudden Fury: A True Story of Adoption and Murder. In addition to the book, a movie based on the murders was made in 1993 called A Family Torn Apart, which starred  Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Howser, M.D. as Larry Swartz. Michaels Unhappy Ending Michael continued to get in trouble, and as he got older his criminal behavior became more severe. At the age of 25, he was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole, for participating in robbing and murdering a man. His bounty? A jar of coins. Teens Killing Parents A number of articles about children who kill their parents have been published over the years, many of them in Psychology Today. Most experts agree that its the fastest-growing form of family homicide, committed primarily by males between 16 and 19 years of age. The reasons are unknown, although some doctors posit the high divorce rate may play a role. It is an area of crime that continues to be studied in great depth.

Misuse of Media Advertisement by Fast Food Brands Essay

Misuse of Media Advertisement by Fast Food Brands - Essay Example The essay "Misuse of Media Advertisement by Fast Food Brands" presents the outline for a research paper on the misuse of media advertisement by fast food brands. This paper discusses on recent food trends in the US and dwells on the fascination of children towards fast food. It then discusses the trends in media ads by fast food brands. Media plays a key role in the promotion of food products and children are the major target of fast food advertisements. I will use the book by Victor Strausburger and Barbara J Wilson to support my claims in this context. Techniques that fast food advertisers in the media deployed to lure children into consuming their products: TV ads: This portion will contain a discussion of how advertisers use TV as a major tool to attract children. To support the claims, I will use proof as emerging from the article by Chou Yi Shin, Inas Rashad, and Michael Grossman. I will further solidify the evidence through information taken from the article by Sarah E Speers, Jennifer L Harris, and Marlene B Schwartz. The Internet (Websites): Using web sources of Happy Meal and Burger King Crown, I will argue how these brands are using impressive web pages, games cartoons, video clips etc on their sites to grab children’s attention. Magazines: This part will discuss, with examples, on how advertisers use magazines, through promotion schemes and puzzles, to persuade children to buy their products by citing supporting evidence from the article written by Amanda Reid and Sandra C Jones.

How Do You See Ancient Greece In Today's World Essay

How Do You See Ancient Greece In Today's World - Essay Example We must, then, think of Greece as having influenced the West, and also consider that the West has influenced much of the rest of the world: to withhold talk of gods and goddesses for now, it was the Greeks who created today’s world of reason, logic, and understanding, where cause and effect are supreme, in place of a chaotic, mysterious universe, incomprehensible to humankind. We have, however, in early Greece itself, a division fundamental to Western philosophy. Platonists believe the truth is to be searched for in Plato’s well-known â€Å"world of ideas†; the Aristotelians’ belief is that truth must be deduced, induced, or otherwise gleaned from observation of the outside world. In Platos Theory of Creation, as in Timaeus, God creates from his blueprints, called the Forms, for which Matter is the receptacle. This is similar to the Indian conception of God as the masculine force and the Earth as the feminine—which, indeed, gives us one of several links between the Greek conception of the universe and the Oriental. Now here is the poet Heine: â€Å"Plato and Aristotle! These are not merely two systems, but rather two types of human nature, that stand, since time immemorial, in hostile opposition. Across the entire middle ages, to the greatest degree, and up to the present day, this battle was waged†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Heine) Seen in this light, we in the West are all Aristotelians; our marriage to technology proceeds directly from the view that the external world is to supply us with all our truths. Despite all of Aristotle’s classic mistakes, the man and his views live on: we with our machines are the proof. From Aristotle, we turn to a phenomenon called Hippocrates – the first ever physician to have considered medicine as science rather than sorcery. Hippocrates is rightly called the Father of Medicine, believing, as he did, that

The Native Family Versus the Dominant Culture Essay Example for Free

The Native Family Versus the Dominant Culture Essay The current interest in what has come to be called multicultural literature has focused critical attention on defining its most salient characteristic: authoring a text which appeals to at least two different cultural codes. (Wiget 258) Louise Erdrich says shes an emissary of the between-world. (Bacon) I have one foot on tribal lands and one foot in middle-class life. Her stories unfold where native family and dominant culture clash yet rarely blend, a kaleidoscope of uneasy pieces. The reader becomes the mediator, an observer on the edges as two cultural codes (Wiget 258) collide. She creates dyads: shards of interaction as identities reflect patterns from both cultures. Born in 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota, Louise Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota. Her heritage includes a French-Ojibwe mother and a German father. With encouragement from her father, she learned to write stories and read William Shakespeares plays (Giles 44). Her parents taught at the Bureau of Indian Affairs School while her grandparents lived on Turtle Mountain Reservation nearby. She did not study the Ojibwe language or culture until she moved to New Hampshire with her husband, Michael Dorris. She had taking an anthropology class taught by Dorris at Dartmouth, which stimulated her interest in Native American storytelling. Feeling estranged from her family and heritage after moving away, she decided to learn more about the High Plains setting of her stories. (Habich) During her lifetime, Erdrich probably experienced racism or prejudice because of segregation laws in the fifties. A member of the first coeducational class at Dartmouth in l972, she earned an MA in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University. (Habich) She worked at a variety of jobs: life guarding, waitressing, teaching poetry in prisons, weighing trucks on the interstate and hoeing sugar beets. Erdrich found urban life different from reservation life when she became an editor for the Circle, a Boston Indian Council  newspaper. She raised several children, some adopted, which provided insight and an understanding of human experience from yet another point of view. Louise Erdrich reveals the Native American lifestyle and collects truths common to all races in her books of poetry, Jacklight and Baptism of Desire, and novels, The Beet Queen, Tracks, Love Medicine, and The Bingo Palace. She commented in a 1991 Writers Digest interview: The people in our families made everything into a story. They love to tell a good story. People sit and the stories start coming, one after another. You just sort of grab the tail of the last persons story: it reminds you of something and you keep going on. I suppose that when you grow up constantly hearing the stories rise, break and fall, it gets into you somehow. (Giles 43) Family for Native Americans means living as a tribe where all adults share some responsibility for socializing the children. The extended kinship system connects an individual to all members of the society, either by descent or marriage, or through formal religious or social affiliations. (Encyc of No Amer Indians) In American Horse, Erdrich combines pieces seeking configuration. Erdrichs characters are met the way people in real life are met: you meet them and then you start knowing who their family is and what their background is. (Huey) Set on the North Dakota Indian reservation, Erdrich creates dyads of conflict where characters interface. A mirroring polarity also occurs between two feminine worlds in American Horse. Albertine exists as the mother living in hiding and fear that the authorities will take her son, Buddy. The social worker, Vicki Koob, approaches with clouded notions of what is best for him. In all likelihood, she never has experienced motherhood. Each relates from her culture of inner core values and contradictions. Through Buddy, Erdrich reveals a mother-son dyad. He is the product of the man she had loved and let go. (American Horse l96) Erdrich uses visual imagery throughout the story to reflect what is perceived and what is real. Buddy had been knocked awake out of hiding in a washing machine while herds of policemen with dogs searched through a large building with many tiny rooms. . . .Tss, his mother mumbled, half awake, Wasnt nothing. But Buddy sat up after her breathing went deep again, and he watched. There was something coming and he knew it. (American Horse 196) The reader has sound and visual cues to determine Albertines condition. Is she sleeping or in a stupor? Later the social worker alludes to Albertine as an alcoholic. [But notice that the child only speaks of the sweet scent of powder on his mother, not of alcohol] Buddy is sitting on the edge along with the reader. When Erdrich changed the Buddy character to Redford for a chapter in The Bingo Palace, she included the words that hes been knocked out of a dream where he was hiding in a washing machine. (Bingo Palace 171) providing more insight into how he gained his surrealistic visions. Buddy has a picture in his mind: It was a large thing made of metal with many barbed hooks, points, and drag chains on it, something like a giant potato peeler that rolled out of the sky, scraping clouds down with it and jabbing or crushing everything that lay in its path on the ground. (American Horse 197) In Bingo Palace, it becomes, something like Grandma Zeldas potato peeler providing a concrete connection to Buddys apprehension. Buddys vision reveals that hell be peeled away from his home. Buddys sexual identity also is awakening. He learns about women through Albertine with visual and tactile clues. The confliction further increases since he has created their situation, even though he realizes his importance  in her life. he felt like hugging her so hard and in such a special way that she would say to him, Lets get married. there were also times he closed his eyes and wished that she would die, only a few times, but still it haunted him that his wish might come true. (American Horse 197) The narrative sets up for the dominant white cultures power play, represented by the white social worker, Miss Vicki Koob, two police officers, a tribal officer named Harmony and a state officer, Brackett who have legal papers to take Buddy. They show no respect to Albertine, her maternal or civil rights. The dyad of two women has different visions for Buddy and of human life. One woman will fight for his life; the other becomes more concerned about her hair and sexual excitement with a co-worker. She treats Buddy like a used car: I want to find that boy and salvage him, Vicki Koob explained to Officer Bracket as they walked into the house. Look at his family life the old man crazy as a bedbug, the mother intoxicated somewhere. (American Horse 201) [Notice how she assumes that she can salvage him or that he needs salvaging. She just assumes that she can embrace and hold him and it will be better than the embrace of his mother.] Not one thing escaped Vicki Koobs trained and cataloguing gaze. (Indian Horse 202) Vicki, in her focus on details, misses the family productivity seen in quilts made from salvaged wool coats. She sees only the television sets in various states of repair, and the minimal food in the refrigerator. Never reacting with the compassion of a woman nor a mother, her perception has limited vision. Harmony vacillates in his identity as Indian and member of the white mans world as peace officer. Harmony cannot achieve his own name. Nor is it to be expected that the identity eventually achieved will be associated with  any recognizable single culture. (Caws 372) As a tribal officer who could be counted on to help out the State Patrol, Harmony thought he always had to explain about Indians or get twice as tough to show he did not favor them. (Indian Horse 199) With the battle lines set, Uncle Lawrence comes eye to eye with Miss Koob. The eye bulged impossibly wider in outrage when he saw the police car. But the eyes of the two officers and Miss Vicki Koob were wide open too. (Indian Horse 199) Lawrences vision extends beyond all of them. He must appear crazy to survive even though he knows they will take him away. Erdrich inserts a bit of comic relief and develops Lawrence as a trickster. Its impossible to write about Native life without humor thats how people maintain sanity. (Bacon) Uncle Lawrence wore a thick white corset laced up the front with a striped sneakers lace. His glass eye and his set of dentures were still out for the night so his face puckered here and there, around its absences and scars, like a damaged but fierce little cake. (Indian Horse 199) In the final conflict between Albertine and Harmony, he shows a dreamy little smile of welcome. Albertine appeals to ancestral wisdom, her fathers power and grace: [her father] American horse took the butterfly, a black and yellow one, and rubbed it on Albertines collar bone and chest and arms until the color and powder of it were blinded into her skin. For grace, he said. (204) She removes her belt to defend herself, swinging the turquoise butterfly that  protects from negative energy. A Native American symbol of power, it represents life itself. A personal fetish was usually a crude representation of an object seen in a dream, either by the wearer or by someone who transferred it to him, together with the powers or benefits accruing from the dream (Callahan). She flings her final vestiges of power: Her fathers hand was on her chest and shoulders lightening her wonderfully. Then on wings of her fathers hands, on dead butterfly wings, Albertine lifted into the air and flew toward the others. (American Horse 205) Albertine expects to be shot but Harmony only hits her on the head and leaves her behind. To him she is trouble and not worth taking. The last paragraph sets the scene for the helpless Native American, forced to assimilate into the dominant white culture. Albertine is knocked out on the ground. Miss Koob gives Buddy a candy bar while he rides in the back seat of the police car. Then Buddy reflects: There was no blood on Albertine, but Buddy tasted blood now at the sight of her, for he bit down hard and cut his own lip. He ate the chocolate, every bit of it, tasting his mothers blood. And when he had the chocolate down inside him and all licked off his hands, he opened his mouth to say thank you to the women, as his mother had taught him. But instead of a thank you coming out he was astonished to hear a great rattling scream, and them another, rip out of him like pieces of his own body and whirl onto the sharp things all around him. (American Horse 206) Does Buddy taste the blood of his fallen ancestors from years of domination? Will Albertine rise again to find him? Erdrich leaves the final judgments to the reader in the hopes the story does not play out as it always has before. [Use hanging indents for the Works Cited page see example below] Works Cited Bacon, Katie, An Emissary of the Between World. A Conversation with Louise Erdrich, Atlantic Unbound, January 17, 2001www.theatlantic.com/cgibin/send.cgi?page+http%3A/ . Callahan, Kevin, An Introduction to Ojibway Culture and History http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5579/ojibwa.html. Caws, Peter. Identity: Cultural, Transcultural and Multicultural. Multiculturalism. A Critical Reader. David Theo Goldberg,Ed. Malden, Massachusetts:Blackwell Publishers. 1994 371-386. Childrearing. Encyclopedia of North American Indians http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_007000_childrearing.htm. Erdrich, Louise. American Horse. Stories from the Promised Land A multicultural anthology of American fiction, Eds. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 1991. 196-296. Erdrich, Louise. The Bingo Palace. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Giles, James R. and Wanda (ed). The Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, Incorporated, 1995. Habich, John. Louise Erdrich: 2001 Artist of the Year Star Tribune December 30, 2001. About Louise Erdrich. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/erdrich/about.htm. Huey, Michael, Two Native American Voices: Interview with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris. Christian Science Monitor, March 02, 1989. http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/getasciiarchive?tape/89/ulouise. Owens, Louis. Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. Spillman, Robert. The Creative Instinct. The Salon Interview. (9 July 1997). Wiget, Andrew. Identity, Voice, and Authority: Artist-Audience Relations in Native American Literature. World Literature Today. Volume: 66. Issue: 2.1992, 258.

Victorian Furniture of the Middle Class :: Victorian Era

Victorian Furniture of the Middle Class According to the Middle Class Victorians, less was definitely not more. In fact, in the case of the Victorians, the more ostentatious and packed a house was, the higher the status of that family. A house in the Victorian Era would most likely be cluttered until nothing else could fit. Not only was there clutter, but the rooms were "quite dark with busily patterned wallpaper (Victorian Home Life Changes)" and lots of gold garnishments. Fashions of Furniture and Their Influences Beginning in the 1830's, the first influences of Victorian furniture were from the English architect, Augustus Pugin. These were of the "Neo-gothic Design (Sometimes More is More)" characterized by dark woods, pointed arches, trefoils and other Gothic cathedral carvings. By incorporating previous influences from cathedrals, furniture represented morality in the Victorians lives (Sometimes More is More). A trefoil looks like a three-leaf clover and is found in wooden furniture. By the 1850's, a new inspiration came from the "Rococo Revival." This was a more "romantic form (Sometimes More is More). " It was characterized by "swirling lines, natural motifs like fruit and flowers, and dark woods like mahogany, rosewood and black walnut (Sometimes More is More)." The design came from France and included the use of not so dark wood and looked more natural. The Rococo Revival ended around 1870. Meanwhile, during that time period, around 1860 until 1880, the Renaissance Revival took place. Instead of having expensive, richly made furniture, the Victorians merely began placing expensive additions to inexpensive, poorly made furniture. During the 1850s, mass production of carpeting took place as well as patterned wallpaper (Sometimes More is More.) This allowed the Victorians to decorate their houses with even more colors and clutter. Who Decorated the House and What Were Some Typical Pieces of Furniture Overstuffed divans and couches were a staple in most middle class houses (Furniture).

Sor Juana

Writing Assignment Maria Zuniga Book ReportDecember 9, 2005 Corrections â€Å"Sor Juana† is a biography of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz written by Octavio Paz and translated by Margaret Sayers Peden. It is a book of 470 pages divided in six parts that besides Sor Juana’s life and work, explain the difficulties of the time for an intellectual woman. It was published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1988. Reading this book gave me the best opportunity to know more about someone that although has been very influential in my entire life, I didn’t know all her history.My admiration and respect for Sor Juana started since I was a child and one of my sisters used to read her poems. Through my literature classes I knew a little more about her and the admiration and respect continued growing. Sor Juana became for me a stereotype of intellect, power, femininity, persistence and freedom combined with the devotion to God. Her story ma kes me learn to follow my dreams, to be ambitious, and over all to never ever give up. Juana Ines de la Cruz was born in Mexico in 1648. She grew up in the Panayan Hacienda, which was run for her mother for more than thirty years although she never learned to read.Sor Juana started to take lessons at age or three. During a long period of her childhood, she didn’t eat cheese because â€Å"It made one slow-witted,† and â€Å"Desire for learning was stronger than the desire for eating. † By the time she was six or seven, she knew how to read and write. As she couldn’t go to the university (because she was a woman), she studied and read by herself. She used to cut-off several inches of her hair (when hair was considered one of the most important female features), as a challenge for new learning â€Å"A head shouldn’t be adorned with hair and naked of learning† If she didn’t meet the goal, then she cut it again.Sor Juana was sent to Mexico City when she was eight to live with her grandfather, who had one of the biggest libraries of those times. By age 15, as one of the most learned women in Mexico, she was presented at court with the Viceroy and his wife (maximum authorities in Mexico). As a lady-in waiting, Juana Ines would become known at court for her wit and beauty as well as for her erudite intelligence. To ascertain the extent of her learning, the Marquise gathered together some of the most astute minds of the day, poets, historians, theologians, philosophers, and mathematicians.Juana Ines answered the questions and arguments directed at her, impressing them all with her mental prowess. At age 20 she entered the Convent of San Jeronimo, known for the mildness of its discipline. The convent was not a ladder toward God but a refuge for a woman who found herself alone in the world. She lived in a two-storey cell where she read insatiably and amassed an impressive library while pursuing her writing and intellectual pursuits. She brought the elegance of the court with her by transforming the convent locutory into an intellectual salon.The next Viceroy, the Marquis de La Laguna and the Marquise Maria Luisa, the Countess de Pareda, were among the court society and literary devotees who came to talk and debate with Sor Juana. Sor Juana wrote sacred poems and erotic love poems, vocal music, villancicos performed in the cathedral, plays, secular comedies, and some of the most significant documents in the history of feminism and philosophical literature. Her use of language, though characterized by the Baroque style, has a modern essence.Her public face reveals the impiousness of an undaunted spirit who appears, not as a nun, but as an independent woman. One of Sor Juana’s archetypes was Isis, Egyptian goodness inventor of writing, a symbol of intellect. She also identified herself with maidens of antiquity, poetically divinely inspired to produce poems and prophecies thinking â€Å"There we re not enough punishment or reprimands to prevent me from reading. † The life and work of Sor Juana lines can be summed as: knowledge is a transgression committed by a solitary hero who then is punished.Not the glory of knowledge (denied to mortals) but the glory of the act of knowing. Sor Juana was a pivotal figure who lived at a unique point in history bound by two opposing world views: one the closed universe of Ptolemy and of the Inquisition, which still held sway in Mexico/New Spain; the other characterized by the new science of Copernicus, Newton, and Galileo. On her monumental philosophical poem Primer sueno/First Dream the soul is pictured as intellect, not a religious pilgrim. At the height of the journey, at the fullest understanding reason can attain, there was no vision.Instead, the soul drew back at the immensity of the universe and foundered in confusion. In 1690, requested by the Bishop, Sor Juana wrote her only theological criticism, which she insisted not for public view. However, the Bishop published and censured it with an imaginary name of â€Å"Sor Philotea. † In defiant response, Sor Juana wrote â€Å"La Respuesta de la poetisa a la muy ilustre Sor Philotea de la Cruz,† a feminist manifesto defending women’s right to be educated and pursue learning, citing over 40 women who had made significant contributions throughout history.This work ignited the church’s wrath. In a climate of intimidation and fear Sor Juana signed â€Å"Protesta que rubricada con su sangre, hizo de su fe y amor a Dios† a statement of self-condemnation in bloodShe renewed her vows and surrendered her musical and scientific instruments, as well as her library of 4,000 volumes, considered at that time to be the largest in Mexico. Two years of silence and penance followed. Then in 1695, while ministering to nuns struck by an epidemic, she herself succumbed and died.Sor Juana has been an inspirational model to follow through all the situations that she faced. She succeeded in a world that was completely against her. The lack of father, which was almost a crime in that time, the lack of freedom to study, to talk, even to think, and over all the prohibition to be herself were some of her obstacles. Every time I am facing an obstacle, I just recall her story and imagine the innumerable sacrifices she had made to get the freedom of learning.After reading her story, I see the world in a different way. Now I know that all those small decisions that I take every day, such as the cloth I wear, what to eat, to read, what to say, and even what to feel are privileges granted for marvelous people like Sor Juan Ines de la Cruz. I also know that all those people had to pay a high price for these privileges; some of them pay with their lives. I feel not just impressed, but grateful to Sor Juana, her cultural heredity, and woman’s worth.

Agrarian Reform: a Struggle for Social Justice

The paper entitled â€Å"Agrarian Reform: A Struggle for Social Justice† aims to give the current status of agrarian reform in the Philippines. It also aims to provide the struggle of Filipinos for social justice in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). This paper aims to explain why land reform is slow here in our country. This will also try to shed light on what agrarian reform is and will give the clear and precise Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. Furthermore, this paper will also tackle the issues involving the fairness of social justice in the agrarian reform. A part of this paper is also given for the land conversions and other ways to circumvent CARP.OutlineI. Introduction & Objectives A. Specific objectives II. Background Information A. Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in the Philippines 1. History 2. Definition 3. Purpose B. Social Justice in the Philippines 1. History 2. Definition 3. Purpose III. Analysis & Discussion A. Issues on the agrarian reform implementation in the Philippines B. Reasons for the slow implementation of agrarian reform C. Land Conversions and other ways to circumvent CARP IV.Conclusion V. References Cornista, L. B. (1987). The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program: An Analysis of its Policies and Processes. Laguna: University of the Philippines.Lopez, A. P. (2003). Batas: The Uncompleted Historic Mandate, Quezon City: DAR.Sebucao, J. T. (1995). The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) as critically viewed by the DAR officials and beneficiaries: its economic and educational contribution.Annotated Bibliography1. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program : an analysis of its policies and processesThis book provides information about the policies and processes of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.2. Batas: The Uncompleted Historic MandateThis book is about Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in the Philippines and provides information on the history of land ref orms in our country. This also provides information on the government policies regarding land reform in our country.3. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) as critically viewed by the DAR officials and beneficiariesThis book provides the analysis of DAR officials and beneficiaries on what the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is.

Weakness in the Articles of Confederation essays

Weakness in the Articles of Confederation essays The Articles of Confederation, active from March 1, 1781, to June 21, 1788 was the first constitution established in the New World. The articles were drafted by the British colonists in order to help unify the 13 colonies under a common government. This document expressed the form of government the early Americans used until June 21, 1788 when the present constitution was drafted. The articles came out of a need for the colonies to unite after being freed from British rule, and in this need, the articles were effective in putting into words the colonists desire to establish a centralized government. Unfortunately, through the colonists desires to establish a centralized government that was nothing like that of the government imposed on them in England by the King, a central government without sufficient power to govern effectively was created. Along with this major weakness, many other weaknesses followed. The governments lack of power rendered it unable to regulate trade and levy taxes to the colonies. Finally, a unanimous approval was required to pass laws, leaving the ability to change or to pass laws at the mercy of one state when all twelve other states agreed. First of all, the governments inability to regulate trade was a huge problem. The states, without any government regulation, were free to set their own taxes on goods. There was not a set tax on certain goods; taxes on the same goods were different in every state. This inflated state of taxes, fluctuating from state to state, made interstate commerce very expensive. Tariff wars resulted when one state would raise its taxes after getting mad at other states for having high taxes on goods. As a result, interstate commerce almost completely diminished as tax inflation became too high for trade to flourish. Interstate commerce was furthermore hampered by the existence of different currencies in every state. Trade became very tough an ...

18 Types of Spanish Verbs

18 Types of Spanish Verbs There may be as many ways of classifying Spanish verbs as there are people doing it, but discovering how Spanish treats different verbs differently is nevertheless a key part of learning the language. Heres one way of looking at the types of verbs, keeping in mind, of course, that verbs can fit into more than one classification. 1. Infinitives Infinitives are verbs in their most basic form, the way you find them listed in dictionaries. Infinitives by themselves tell you nothing about who or what is performing a verbs action or when. Spanish infinitives- examples include hablar (to speak), cantar (to sing), and vivir (to live)- are the rough equivalent of the to form of English verbs and sometimes of the -ing form. Spanish infinitives can function as verbs or nouns. 2, 3, and 4. -Ar, -Er, and -Ir Verbs Every verb fits into one of these types based on the last two letters of its infinitive. In Spanish there is no verb that ends in anything other than one of these three two-letter combinations. Even verbs that are made up or imported such as surfear (to surf) and snowboardear (to snowboard) require one of these endings. The distinction among types is that they are conjugated based on the ending. 5 and 6. Regular and Irregular Verbs The vast majority of -ar verbs are conjugated in the same way, and the same is true for the other two ending types. These are known as regular verbs. Unfortunately for Spanish students, the more used a verb is, the more likely it is not to follow the regular pattern, being irregular. 7 and 8. Defective and Impersonal Verbs The term defective verb is usually used to refer to a verb that isnt conjugated in all its forms. In traditional Spanish, for example, abolir (to abolish) has an incomplete conjugation set. Also, soler (to usually do something) doesnt exist in all tenses. Most defective verbs are also impersonal verbs, meaning that their action isnt performed by a distinct person or thing. The most common such are the weather  verbs such as llover (to rain) and nevar (to snow). Since theres no logical reason to use forms that mean something like we rain or they snow, such forms dont exist in standard Spanish. 9 and 10. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs The distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs is important enough to Spanish grammar that the classification is given in most Spanish dictionaries- vt or vtr for verbos transitivos and vi for verbos intransitivos. Transitive verbs require an object to make a complete sentence, while intransitive verbs do not. For example, levantar (to lift or raise) is transitive; it must be used with a word that indicates what is lifted. (In Levantà ³ la mano for He raised his hand, mano or hand is the object.) An example of an intransitive verb is roncar (to snore). It cannot take an object. Some verbs can be transitive or intransitive depending on the context. Most of the time, for example, dormir is intransitive, as is its English equivalent, to sleep. However, dormir, unlike to sleep, can also mean to put someone to sleep, in which case it is transitive. 11. Reflexive or Reciprocal Verbs A reflexive verb is a type of transitive verb in which the verbs object is also the person or thing performing the action of the verb. For example, if I put myself to sleep, I could say, Me durmà ­, where durmà ­ means I put to sleep and me means myself. Many verbs that are used in a reflexive way are listed in dictionaries by adding -se to the infinitive, creating entries such as dormirse (to fall asleep) and encontrarse (to find oneself). Reciprocal verbs take the same form as reflexive verbs, but they indicate that two or more subjects are interacting with each other. Example: Se golpearon uno al otro. (They beat up on each other.) 12. Copulative Verbs A copulative or linking verb is a type of intransitive verb that is used to connect the subject of a sentence with a word that describes it or says what it is. For example, the es in La nià ±a es guatemalteca (The girl is Guatemalan) is a linking verb. The most common Spanish linking verbs are ser (to be), estar (to be), and parecer (to seem).  Verbs that arent copulative are known in Spanish as verbos predicativos. 13. Past Participles A past participle is a type of participle that can be used to form the perfect tenses. Most past participles end in -ado or -ido. As in English, past participles can also usually be used as adjectives. For example, the past participle quemado , from the verb quemar, meaning to burn, helps form the present perfect tense in He quemado el pan (I have burnt the bread) but is an adjective in No me gusta el pan quemado (I dont like burnt bread). Past participles can vary in number and gender like other adjectives. 14. Gerunds Present adverbial participles, often known as gerunds, end in -ando or -endo as the rough equivalent of English -ing verb forms. They can combine with forms of estar to make progressive verb forms: Estoy viendo la luz. (I am seeing the light.) Unlike other types of participles, Spanish gerunds can also function much like adverbs. For example, in Corrà © viendo todo (I ran while seeing everything), viendo describes how the running occurred. 15. Auxiliary Verbs Auxiliary or helping verbs are used with another verb to give it vital meaning, such as a tense. A common example is haber (to have), which is used with a past participle to form a perfect tense. For example, in He comido (I have eaten), the he form of haber is an auxiliary verb. Another common auxiliary is estar as in Estoy comiendo (I am eating). 16. Action Verbs As their name suggests, action verbs tell us what someone or something is doing. The vast majority of verbs are action verbs, as they include the verbs that arent auxiliary verbs or linking verbs. 17 and 18. Simple and Compound Verbs Simple verbs consist of a single word. Compound or complex verbs use one or two auxiliary verbs and a main verb and include the perfect and progressive forms mentioned above. Example of compound verb forms include habà ­a ido (he has gone), estaban estudiando (they were studying), and habrà ­a estado buscando (she will have been seeking). 10, 20, and 21. Indicative, Subjunctive, and Imperative Verbs These three forms, known collectively as referring to a verbs mood, indicate the speakers perception of a verbs action. Simply put, indicative verbs are used for matters of fact; subjunctive verbs often are used to refer to actions that the speaker desires, doubts or has an emotional reaction to; and imperative verbs are commands.

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 18

Assignment - Essay Example ?The way schools work: A sociological analysis of education† and â€Å"School and Society† were the most critical readings.The books served to introduce the contexts of how schools served to promote social values. This paper will present a reflection of the critical things I learned throughout the course. The first chapter of â€Å"The way schools work: A sociological analysis of education† introduced an interesting concept that helped me to understand the purposes for the different systems of organizations evident in schools today. For a long time, I had been wondering why American schools have adopted the modern system of organization. Chapter 2 of the same book helped me to recognize the structures and dynamics of schools that qualify them to be social organizations. Worth noting is the fact that students from different backgrounds have an opportunity to interact freely with the school systems. In addition, the school content covers certain critical social concepts that shape the perception of the students. It emerged to me that schools are critical social organizations explaining why it is important to develop an effective curriculum for the American schools. In the third chapter of the book, I gained familiarity with the social impact that schools have on children. Notabl y, the interactions between different children in the school setting lead to an exchange of social and cultural values. For many students, it is impossible to resist the social impact experienced in schools. Therefore, there is a salient need for teachers to promote positive socialization within the school system in an effort to avoid negative social impact. From a personal experience, schools can affect an individual in different ways. During my early school days, I gained familiarity with different cultural aspects. For this reason, I have first-hand experience that schools have a critical social impact on students. The content discussed in the school system also served to shape my social

DB 4 Carminsl Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

DB 4 Carminsl Justice - Essay Example To that end, significant research is being conducted to find out ‘what works’ to end the cycle of recidivism. In recent years, various strategies have been tried. During the next ten years we must capitalize on what we have learned, and use the hard-earned tax-payer money that we are spending in ways that will be both cost-beneficial and socially responsible. (Maurer, Susan L. 2001). Crime control must be examined in relation to the community roots of social problems like poverty, unemployment, drugs, and inadequate housing. Penal reform should be planned in relation to societal reform in areas like education, economic opportunity and racial equality. We need a new paradigm for sentencing and corrections. The continued reliance on imprisonment is costing society a tremendous amount of money, wasting lives, and doing little to prepare offenders to be successful in the community. To face these challenges, three steps should be taken: 1) Create a task-force to examine corrections. 2) Study the problems. 3) Prepare an action-oriented strategic development plan, to ensure that critical problems will be addressed. Among the basic theories relating to criminal justice and its relation to individual rights and social control, is community justice or restorative justice. Restorative justice is future-oriented, focuses on restoration for the victim and society, and is less expensive for the taxpayer. Victims have historically been left out of the criminal justice process. Only recently have programs been started to assist victims and ensure that their voices are heard throughout the process. Also, taxpayers do not have to spend large amounts of money to punish and incarcerate non-violent offenders, who represent little risk to their communities. Restorative justice emphasizes that they should â€Å"make right† the harm that they