The Crucible Fictional Account Of The Salem Witch Trials

The 1996 film The Crucible is a fictional account of the Salem witch trials. While there are many historical inaccuracies in the movie, it does capture some of the themes in scholarship on the period. The film presents the town of Salem in a similar way to how it is depicted in the textbook. The film gets the basic outline of the Salem witch trials right. A group of girls started a panic by accusing an enslaved woman and two other women of bewitching them. During the event more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 19 people were hanged, the large majority of them women (Boyer, Salem Witchcraft, 1). The depiction of the girls and women who became â€Å"possessed† and accused others of bewitching them is consistent with the†¦show more content†¦In so doing, it misses an opportunity to explore the complicated ways that gender oppression played into the witch trials. In fact, the movie somehow manages to make an event that was explicitly about the injustice with which women were treated into a story about a noble man who suffers and repents for his sins and ultimately dies a martyr. The Salem Witch Museum website contains a great deal of historical information about the witch trials and elaborates on the information presented in The Crucible. In addition to providing a basic overview of the major events that occurred during the witch trials, the web site features videos called â€Å"Presenting the Evidence† in which tour guides tell the stories of women who were condemned drawn from primary sources. One video called â€Å"Sarah Good’s Mistake† describes the ordinary events and behaviors that were later used against Good in her trial for witchcraft. The narrator points out that Sarah Good balked the social expectations of women in her era. Since her husband could not support their family she often had to beg. One day the pasto r gave something to her daughter and Sarah murmured something under her breather. Later the pastor would testify that she cast some kind of affliction on him. Another factor that was used against Sarah Good at her trial was the fact that she did not attend meetings regularly. Her excuse for not going was that she did not have the proper clothes to wear. She was convicted of witchcraft and hangedShow MoreRelatedSummary : The Crucible Essay964 Words   |  4 PagesOpportunity #4: Attend a performance of â€Å"The Crucible† on one of the following performance dates: Oct 10, 15, 16, or 17 at 7:30pm or the matinee performance on Sunday, Oct 18 at 2pm at the SMSU Fine Arts Theatre Note: The performance on Thurs, Oct 15, is free to all SMSU students with a valid student ID. Admission at all other performances is $10. â€Å"The Crucible† is a fictionalized account of events that occurred during the Salem Witch Trials. Salem is a small Puritan town in MassachusettsRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1852 Words   |  8 Pagesof Michigan, was able to transform one of the most notable accounts of mass hysteria and loss of rational thought, and mold it into an elaborate and complex drama. Miller’s, The Crucible tells the story of the Salem witch trials that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century. Literary lenses are used to assist readers in admiring and evaluating literary works, in an overabundance of ways. When analyzing The Crucible through the historical, psychological, and archetypal lensesRead MoreCauses of the Salem Witch Craft Trials2052 Words   |  9 Pagesin Salem Village, and there is no evidence from the time that Tituba practiced Caribbean black magic, yet these trials and executions actually still took place, how can you explain why they occu rred? The Salem Witchcraft Trials began not as an act of revenge against an ex-lover, as they did in The Crucible, but as series of seemingly unlinked, complex events, which a paranoid and scared group of people incorrectly linked. And while there were countless other witchcraft trials, Salemîâ€" ¸ trials remainRead MoreFeminist Approach to Witchcraft; Case Study: Millers the Crucible6554 Words   |  27 PagesTitle: Re(dis)covering the Witches in Arthur Millers The Crucible: A Feminist Reading Author(s): Wendy Schissel Publication Details: Modern Drama 37.3 (Fall 1994): p461-473. Source: Drama Criticism. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. Document Type: Critical essay Bookmark: Bookmark this Document Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning Title Re(dis)covering the Witches in Arthur Millers The Crucible: A Feminist Reading [(essay date fall 1994) In the followingRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare And Tolstoy s War And Peace1762 Words   |  8 Pagesevents.’ This strong dismissal from historians most likely came about due to the audiences of fictional literature believing every word as though it were a history book. Rather than turning to the factual guides for knowledge, the public relied on stories that kept them engaged and brought emotion to otherwise dull fact. ‘A number of the early readers of [Robinson] Crusoe read the narrative as a factual account,’ due to the nature of the book being written as though it were a biography. However, what

Miguel Cabrera Free Essays

INTRO: As most of you guys know, I really enjoy statistics so when Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown this year, I instantly knew what I was going to inform you guys about. What makes this even better is that I have been a tigers fan all my life and he is my favorite baseball player of all time. With made his season really incredible in my eyes is that he changed positions to 3B before the season to welcome his good friend from Milwaulkee, Prince Fielder. We will write a custom essay sample on Miguel Cabrera or any similar topic only for you Order Now FIRST SLIDE: Explain them and how this year he has only beat his other year’s statistics in 3 of the 5 categories. SECOND SLIDE: How close it was in each stat. * Home Runs: Granderson/Hamilton needed just 2 more HRs out of their 596/562 ABs * RBIswas the frathest stat away. Hamilton was 11 back but 3rd place had 110 (Willingham-Min) * Batting average: Mike Trout needed just 8 more hits out of his 559 Abs THIRD SLIDE: â€Å"Most of you are going to ask how Miguel Cabrera couldn’t possibly win the AL MVP after becoming the first triple crown winner since 1967 but there is actually a chance that he doesn’t. It also wouldn’t be the first time a triple crown winner lost the MVP. Frank Robinson lost the MVP race the year that he won the triple crown. † * Miguel was 14th player to win triple crown * 1st in slugging percentage, 2nd in hits, 7th in doubles, 4th in OBP * Mike Trout was the first player to ever have 30 HR, 45 SB, and 125 R. * 1st in SB, 1st in wins above replacement, 1st in runs by 20 runs, 3rd in OBP The MVP is announced November 18th so we won’t know who won it for another 34 days. ENDING * Miguel Cabrera * Triple Crown Winner * First since 1967 (Carl Yastrzemski) * AL Most Valuable Player? * Detroit Tigers * AL Central Champions * Beat the White Sox by 3 games * American League Division Series Winners * 3-2 over the athletics * American League Championship Series * Up 2-0 in best of 7 over the Yankees FINAL LINE: â€Å"Overall I hope you have learned more about the Detroit Tigers 3B Miguel Cabrera and how one of a kind his season really was and how it still isnt over yet. † How to cite Miguel Cabrera, Essay examples

Everyday Use Walker Essay Example For Students

Everyday Use Walker Essay Art is used, expressed and described in many different ways. With her story Everyday Use Alice Walker uses quilts to symbolize art and discovers that art should be a living, breathing part of culture it arose from, rather than a frozen timepiece to be observed from a distance. Although the story focuses on a symbolic piece of art it also involves the way in which an individual understands his present life in relation to the traditions of his people and culture. From the beginning of the story we see that Mrs. Johnson, who describes herself as a large, big boned woman with rough, man-working hands (678). She enjoys a rugged farming life in the country and after her first house burned down moved to a small, tin-roofed house surrounded by a clay yard in the middle of a cow pasture. She has two daughter Maggie who is much like herself living at home and uneducated, and Dee who was destined to go out into the world to see change and to be changed. Although Mrs. Johnson had two daughters, she places Dee her oldest daughter on a pedestal. She dreams about being reunited with Dee on a television talk show. During this time she would be ushered by a limousine and brought into a room where Johnny Carson shakes her hand and tells her what a fine girl she has (678). Dee has always been scornful of her family s way of life. She hated the first house they lived in and was happy to see it burn down. Dee s contentment was so focused on the burning of her house that she was completely oblivious to the fact that her sister had been burned and scarred for life. The selfish way Dee has behaved her whole life makes her visit home very ironic. She arrives home with a male companion, which leads the reader to believe they may be married. You advance to this conclusion because Dee has wrote her mother in the past telling her No matter where we choose to live, she, meaning Dee, will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends (679). When Dee and Hakim-a-barber get out of the car she is strangely delighted by her old way of life. After complaining for years about her families way of living she ironically jumps out of the car and takes photographs as if she missed the farm and appreciated every bit of it. To her mother s surprise, Dee claims she had changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. Mrs. Johnson is very disappointed because she had named her daughter after her sister. When asked why making such a big decision Dee states I couldn t bear it any longer, being named after people who oppress me (680). During Dee s visit she started to show the true meaning of her visit home. While examining different artifacts in the house Dee asks her mother if she could have the old butter churn so she could use it as a centerpiece for her table. This is completely ridiculous on Dee s part. She only wants the item to impress her peers. They have no sentimental value and she would probably not even know how to use it. After confiscating an item that Mrs. Johnson and Maggie still use, Dee had the audacity to take two quilts out of a trunk and expect to take them with no questions asked. When Mrs. Johnson told Dee that she had promised them to Maggie Dee being the self centered person she is says, Maggie can t appreciate these quilts (682)! She d probably be backward enough to put then to everyday use (682)! This really bothers me because Dee was offered the quilts before she had left for college but they were not fashionable to her so she refused them. Now she has changed her mind and expects she can get whatever her heart desires. .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e , .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .postImageUrl , .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e , .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e:hover , .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e:visited , .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e:active { border:0!important; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e:active , .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u5db836c3c592cba23010b856e50efb5e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Social services EssayShe is very immature in the fact that she has to put down her sister to make what she perceives is a good point. Maggie on the other hand, is a generous character she tells her mother she can have them, Mamma (682) offering to go ahead and give the quilts to Dee. In the Houston A Baker article they quote Maggie is the arisen goddess of the Walker s story; she is the sacred figure who bears the scarifications of experience and knows how to convert patched into robustly patterned and beautiful quilted wholes (Baker 416). Maggie is the one true character in this story. Even though she has lived a sheltered and boring life she is smart. She is in a better off position than Dee and her materialistic images of life. The quilts are the most important part of this story. The quilt as interpretive sign opens up a world of difference, a nonscripted territory whose creativity with fragments is less a matter of artistic choice than of economic and functional necessity (Baker 415). The history of these quilts is a history of the family. These quilts are a family heirloom, they not only represent the family, but they are an integral part of that culture. Dee s confusion about the meaning of her heritage also emerges in her attitude toward the quilts and other household items. While she rejects the names of her immediate ancestors, she eagerly values their old handmade goods. To Dee, artifacts such as the churn or the quilt are strictly aesthetic objects. It never occurs to her that they, too, are symbols of oppression. Her family made these things because they could not afford to buy them. Her admiration for them now seems to reflect a cultural trend toward valuing handmade objects, rather than any sincere interests in her heritage. Dee is a fashionable denizen of American s art/fantasy world. She is removed from the everyday uses of a black community that she scorns, misunderstands, burns. Certainly she is unconventionally black (Baker 417). The two sister s values concerning the quilt represent the two main approaches to art appreciation in our society. Art can be valued for financial and aesthetic reasons, or it can be valued for personal and emotional reasons. Neither of these ways are right or wrong, but in the case of this story Alice Walker chooses to value the meaning of this story on a personal basis and expresses this form of art to be used as everyday use.

Why Taiwanese Women Posponing Marriage free essay sample

As the world constantly changing, there is no doubt that the role women plays in the society have changed a lot comparing than previously. It is not hard to find out that women are more active in many countries, which leads to a great impact on the whole society in different aspects from social structure to social welfare. According to â€Å"The Economist†, August 20th-26th 2011, there are over one-fifth of Taiwanese women in their late 30s are single; most will never marry. Apparently, the great improvement or change in feminism has brought both advantages and disadvantages to the society, which is something that I would like to discuss in this paper. I would especially like to discuss about a common phenomenon that happens among many Taiwanese women nowadays, which are postponing or avoiding marriage and producing children. According to the official statistics, in recent years, Taiwanese women have been postponing their marriage and, after marriage, have avoided producing children, which I believe happens for reasons. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Taiwanese Women Posponing Marriage or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Marriage used to be viewed as the most important thing or as a final target of a woman’s life before, while things are totally different due to a few reasons. I remember I had once read an article about why women postpone or avoid marriage; overall there are three big reasons that contemporary women are more pickier, lazier and busier, comparing to women in older generation. They are picky because they have wider knowledge of this world, hence, consider in more aspects when speaking of marriage; they are lazy because they find it troublesome to manage relationship and they are busy for their career. Based on the claim I saw in the article, I developed several reasons of what I think are the reasons for this phenomenon. First of all, one important factor for this phenomenon is due to the better education women can easily access nowadays. Comparing to 80 years ago, when education is not common and popular, women was taught to becoming a housefrau. Women in that generation is brought up under the concept of that a woman’s virtue is to have no talent, therefore, all they need to know is about how to cook, how to raise their children and so on instead of knowing how the society works, how to speak English†¦etc.  such things that we will learned in school, which makes us well-function in the society. There is no doubt that after a long term social structure changing process, women now have higher social status that some of them are even at a higher level than men at work. Beforehand, women are just women that people would say† go to your kitchen†, but now they can do things that men do. Since women nowadays have better education as well as higher social status they would want to pursue a career as well just like how men do not only because of the way they are brought up but also to proved the fact that women could be just as habile as men do. Economic concern is another factor of why women either postpone or avoid marriage. Obviously, it is easier to rely on men for living, but living with only one salary could be very hard, hence women would rather go out and work in order to live better life. In addition, a woman nowadays would prefer to be financially independent for having freedom to go out, enjoying life with her own money instead of being stuck at home. Another reason is that as the society goes diversified, women are more willingly to be with women because it might be more comfortable to be with a person who knows what a woman really wants. Moreover, I think high divorcing rate is another reason for women might hold concern of whether marriage could make them happier or not. When it comes to making decision, women nowadays might think, †maybe it is not time yet† instead of â€Å"oh my god! I need to get married†. What mentioned above are some reasons I think why women postpone or avoid their marriage. Another thing that is just as vital as the issue that I discuss above is while after women get married, they somehow avoid producing offspring. To my belief, there are a few reasons that prevent women from having children. Generally speaking, women find it troublesome to have baby and to take care of them, not to mention that women usually become fat and ugly after pregnant, which is something terrible for women nowadays. Additionally, the mindsets of modern women have changed a lot than the mindset of women in older generation like my grandmother or mother. Having baby used to be a must do things in life of women in early ages, especially for traditional family for the purpose to have a son to carry on the family name. Whereas, having baby or not is just not as important to women now. I think this is mainly because of the priority of life that women have has changed. Despite the fact that not everyone avoid having children, there is no doubt that there are more women doing so out of their ambitions or plans of work. Some women might also think that having kids might threaten their performance at work because they have to pay extra attention on children and might distracted them from work. Last but not least, due to the high prices of commodities of current society, people could buy fewer things with same amount of money, which means that life is harder. People might not even able to survive with their low paid salary, not to mention having children, raising them, providing them education and so on. Synthesize the problems and the factors mentioned above; I list out several problems that might emerge on account of those phenomenons. Women postponing or avoid marriage as well as creating children might leads to low birth rate, aging population society, solitude elders issue and international brides, especially from china and south Asia. Although international brides indeed bring new culture into Taiwan, which force Taiwanese society to become more open, there are still some problems such as prostitution or problems of communication between international brides and Taiwanese happens now and then. To view these problems in a long-term way, they will eventually decrease the competitiveness of Taiwan among other countries. I think this is a condition that we need to change. I know the government have offered extra premium to those people who get marry or giving birth. I suggest that our government should raise the amount of the bonus, which will be more attractive to people nowadays. The current bonus is just so low that doesn’t fit the cost benefit for that raising a kid will cost a lot more than the bonus that government offering now. Besides, I think the government should improve and provide more social welfare for women that it will be more convenient for them to get married or to give birth and provide more integrated laws that guarantee their benefits, rights and interests of their jobs while they are experiencing pregnancy. The most important of all, the government should educate people by analysis the pros and cons of both marriage and producing babies via different activities like lectures, movies, advertisement and so on. In essence, women postponing or avoiding marriage or offspring is a vital and urgent problems that our society have now. The seemingly â€Å"personal behavior† would actually lead to severe consequences like the competiveness of our country. I agree it is good that women nowadays have higher social status, which strengthens the concept of sexual equality. However, we can’t ignore the issue of women not getting or delaying marriage and giving birth. It is a essential problems that worth our attentions and thoughts.

Lee Harvey Oswald (media bias) essays

Lee Harvey Oswald (media bias) essays The killing of John F. Kennedy is still a mystery today. It is proven that Lee Harvey Oswald was the killer, but it is not understood why he did it. After reading two different magazine articles on the shootings of JFK I found slight differences of bias between each other. These two articles are similar in content but one was leading towards the facts found and is trying to convince people that this was exactly the way it happened. The other took more of a broad approach and mentioned all the possible scenarios that could have happened. The first article I read was OSWALD SHOOTS JFK, which came from the magazine History Today. This article was written by William Rubinstein, he reported all the facts that were found in the investigation and then tried to link Oswald with a motive for killing JFK. A motive was not found, that is why this is one of the most unusual murders in history. The evidence that was found in this case was thought to be linked to a conspiracy. This idea was formed because Oswald had no problems with JFK; and why would Jack Ruby follow through with killing Oswald with fifteen armed cops and seven news reporters present unless there was something to cover up? Authorities later found out that Oswald had a strong dislike for John Connally (Texas Governor) that was sitting in front of Kennedy in the limousine. If Connally was the intended victim them this would have been an open and closed investigation. The intention of William Rubinstein was to report the event, which happened on November 22nd 1963. He stated all the facts found within the case and presented all the possible circumstances that might of taken place on that historical day. The way he presented this story to the public was different from most because he left the decision up to the reader to believe whatever made the most sense to them. The second article is called THE LONE GUNMAN, which is in Texas Monthly. This article was written b...

Harry Bingham A Man Who Said No To the Worlds Biggest Publisher

Harry Bingham A Man Who Said No To the Worlds Biggest Publisher Saying "no" to the world’s biggest publisher - An interview with Harry Bingham For many first-time authors, indie publishing is rapidly becoming a natural decision when it comes to publishing their first book. But what happens when an experienced author who has published thirteen books with four traditional publishing houses decides to go it alone? Harry Bingham is one such author. Harry was first published by HarperCollins back in 2000 and over the last fifteen years has witnessed the all the excitement of the publishing evolution. In 2015, he decided to self-publish the US release of his latest book The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths. Now, for the first time he has written about his experiences in Big Publishing and Me on his blog.Harry is also founder of The Writer’s Workshop - the world’s leading consultancy for first-time writers - and Agent Hunter - a comprehensive database of literary agents. He has also written books on Getting Published and How to Write among several others.With his unique experience, we had no choice: we simply had to talk to him. This morning Harry was kind enough to talk to him  about writing his latest book, his approach to marketing and the benefits of self-publishing. I’m very pleased to be interviewing Harry this morning and to ask him some questions about his latest book and his publishing process. So Harry, if you wouldn’t mind starting off by giving us a little teaser about your latest book.It’s called The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths and it’s the third in the series I’ve been writing for a while. She’s a young Welsh detective who works in Cardiff, but that’s not really the USP. The USP is that she’s a really unusual person: the whole thing is written first person in her voice. She had a breakdown when she was a teenager and suffered from a real-life condition called Cotard’s Syndrome. In Cotard’s Syndrome, the sufferer believes themselves to be dead. So she’s a detective who spent two years thinking she was a dead person. And she’s got an interesting relationship with corpses and an interesting outlook on life, let’s put it that way†¦Sounds ama zing, wow! Written in the first person, how did that work?Yea, well the question I’m asked most actually is â€Å"You’re writing in the first person as a woman, don’t you think that’s quite hard?† I’m thinking, actually you know, I’m married to a woman, I know quite a lot of women and there are quite a lot of women in the world. Surely the question is: â€Å"You’re writing in the voice of somebody who used to think they were dead!† Isn’t that the bigger trick?In the end, writing fiction is make-believe and if you’re good at it, you should be able to make-believe. Of course, you should be able to write as a woman, or a man, or as people with weird conditions. Although this woman is very different from me, and she has a strong, emphatic voice of her own, I’ve never felt more comfortable writing everything, so what that says about me I don’t know!The most immediately striking thing about the book is the cover - it’s absolutely stunning. Can you tell me a little more about how you went about that?It’s slightly more complicated because I’m published all over the world. It’s published in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, America and other places too. Every publisher in their own market chooses their own cover and Orion in the UK has got a very strong look for the book and you can definitely tell there’s a series of books going on. In US I was published with Random House and I had a terrific editor there - the same editor who publishes Lee Child. Their cover for the book was fine, but not really stand out. Then for various reasons we will probably get into later, I started self-publishing in US - whereas I’m conventionally published everywhere else - and I commissioned that cover myself.I went to an outfit called 99 Designs, where you can put the design out to a large number of designers and people compete for a prize that you off er. I looked at literally dozens of high-quality designs, any of which could have graced the cover of any one of my books. The one I ended up picking is very striking: it works really well in thumbnail and it’s different - it doesn’t look like everything else there. Given that readers are looking at pages of Amazon thumbnails when they’re figuring out what next to buy, it had to work particularly well in that smaller size.Your publishing story is really fascinating. You’re clearly published with many traditional houses around the world and now this one’s partly self-published. How is it going, how are you finding the process?It’s early days. The minimal threshold for me is that I wanted to be able to publish the book properly, commission a good cover design, do some copy editing work and get the book properly formatted. I used proper professionals, I wasn’t using a â€Å"friend of my brother’s who knows something about photosh op†. By making the book available for sale before launch, I built up hundreds of pre-orders and the result was that on the day of publication I had paid off all my costs. So what I’m looking at now is how much money I make. It’s selling 20-30 copies a day, I’d like it to be selling 2-3 times that in due course.Readers don’t care when a book was published, so whereas in the print market you’re only on the shelves of the retailer in a prominent position for maybe 3-4 weeks, so that early window is everything for a regular publisher. Outside that window, you effectively get very little support from your traditional publisher. If you’re self-publishing, there is no window. The book is eternal and if I completely neglected the book for a year and then put some marketing energy behind it, no-one would particularly care. So it is early days and I’m not attaching too much significance to that early window, and at the moment things are g oing fine.You’ve written in your blog posts recently about how some books are very successful and that some can be published well and be great books but don’t work at all. Your attitude seems to be that â€Å"you can only do so much† since there are so many complex forces at play.Yes, to give it some background, I’ve been more-or-less a full time writer for 15 years or so. Not to boast, but in that time I have had significant relationships with significant publishers - I’m probably now on my fifth six-figure book deal with a conventional publisher, so I’ve played the big game with some big boys. As you know from my blogs, some of those things have worked out well, and some have been absolute car crashes. There is no certainty in this game. If you have a conventional deal with a publisher, you will get your advance, so in that sense there is certainty to traditional publishing. But the sales outcome is really a total unknown. I’ve had some absolute car crashes in traditional publishing, including instances where I’m certain I could have sold more copies of the book myself than via a traditional publisher. So there’s a roulette-wheel quality to the game, no matter if you self-publish or conventionally publish.One of the beauties of self-publishing is a) you retain control and b) if the first thing doesn’t work and the second thing doesn’t work, you can go onto the third and fourth thing - it never runs out like that. So at this stage I’m relaxed.Do you mean that in terms of retaining financial control, or creative control - which one is more important?Just everything! Certainly the book cover. Supposing I were to get negative feedback from readers on the cover, heck I could just change it! I wouldn’t have to be lobbying my publisher to do it, and my publisher would be intensely resistant because of the costs involved. Or if I needed to rewrite the ending I could do that. O r if I decided I was going to slash the price and put it out for free, or for 99c on Bookbub, I can do that and I can go on tweaking things whenever I want.Again one of the big tools in online promotion of any sort is email lists. Conventional publishers - I’ve really no idea why - but they make very little use of those things. With every book I’m selling, I’m asking people â€Å"If you enjoyed this, add your name to my email list.† I’m not going to fill their inboxes with corporate nonsense, but a couple of times a year they’ll get an email that a new book is coming out and if you’d like to buy that book, terrific.It’s those sorts of things that I can do. I can adjust my strategy and I don’t have to go through some sort of complicated corporate process to make those things happen. And the truth is, the author is largely outside that corporate process so that an author’s ability to impact on those things with a co nventional publisher is pretty restricted.Yes, a lot of what we’ve been trying to do at Reedsy is to make that process easier and to provide tools that will make the process of creating the book so much easier, so that authors can edit and have that flexibility.Exactly. At the moment there are three types of authors: conventionally published authors who are happy with the way things are - absolutely fine. There are indie-types who relish the process of designing covers and editing manuscripts - they like the entrepreneurial quality of all that. Then there’s definitely a group in the middle who think, logic says self-publish, but they don’t know how to put the whole package together and there will be services like yours who offer to integrate those in a pretty simple way, so that that blockage that is stopping some people making the leap, will become smaller.What is it that really lies behind your excitement for what you call the current â€Å"era† of publ ishing? Is the flexibility and freedom the biggest part, or is there more?I think often-enough big publishers have taken their authors for granted. Sure, they compete for them at that really early stage when a literary agent takes a book out for auction. But once that deal has been done, it’s pretty rare for authors to jump publisher unless something has gone badly wrong, which means the publishers can take their authors a little bit for granted.Some of the treatment I’ve had has been very very good indeed. Some of the treatment I’ve had from publishers has been not so good. And there’s never been a meaningful alternative to those Big-5 type publishers for the certain sort of books that I write. Just the existence now of self-pub, which really is only going to work for genre-type authors at the moment - there aren’t many signs it’s going to work for literary fiction yet - but for genre-type authors, we now for the first time have a meaningfu l alternative to just going with a regular publisher. Now there is another negotiating presence in the room: I don’t have to take your offer, there is an alternative. That has really not been present before, and I think that’s a fabulous thing for all authors, whether they take the self-publishing route or whether they don’t.From your position it’s interesting, because you’ve already established yourself for many years as an author working with traditional houses, your route to self-publishing means that you already have a name behind you. I think it will be interesting to see how authors who go straight into self-publishing establish a name for themselves: that is really interesting to me.Yes, and I think the emerging model of successful self-publishing is first of all, you probably need to be a genre author, secondly you need to be quite prolific, and third you need to apply the â€Å"write, publish, repeat† model. It’s possible, bu t not likely that your first book becomes a big viral hit, but let’s face it, loads and loads of good books never become viral hits: even though in principle they could, it just doesn’t happen. No one will ever be able to trace the reason why it doesn’t happen - in fact, the rule is that it doesn’t happen, it’s just that occasionally it does!So the â€Å"write, publish, repeat† model is incremental. It means your readership grows. Jumping from traditional publishing to self-publishing, yes sure I’ve got more interest in my books and more book reviews and so on than I would have otherwise. But in many ways it’s the same: I’m creating my email list from scratch and those things will just take time to build.The presence of an author’s back-catalogue online, that doesn’t disappear, means it’s much easier to bring back an older one, and a book that has been published previously could find an author that t hey’d not previously had.My first book The Moneymakers was published in the UK in 2000; I never sold the US rights. And I never sold the ebook rights, because no-one sold ebook rights back then. So, I retained the rights to that book, and I no longer had a manuscript because I’ve been through multiple computers since then. I sent the hard copy of the book off to a place in London that scans there things for  £10. They send me back a word document - that has some typos, so needs some careful copyediting. But for  £10 and a day of my time, I had a typescript of my original manuscript, popped it up online on Amazon and I make a couple of hundred quid a month. That’s not astonishing money, but hey, it’s a couple of hundred quid that I wasn’t getting otherwise.Exactly, your content goes so much further. How are you engaging with other online communities - what’s your approach?There’s an infinite amount of stuff that one could do. I thi nk there is relatively little evidence to suggest that Facebook and Twitter and that kind of thing is really a strong way of promoting books. There will be exceptions to every rule, but most books I don’t think achieve many sales like that. I have a couple of books-related websites: The Writer’s Workshop, which helps first time writers with their skills and Agent Hunter, which helps writers find literary agents. Between those two platforms, I’ve got websites that have traffic of 70-80 thousand visitors a month. I’ve got mailing lists of probably 15-20 thousand names. All of these people are writers, but therefore also presumably interested in reading books.I’ve used those things a bit, but not much: I don’t expect to get significant sales from them. It’s partly because I don’t want to contaminate those brands, but it’s also that I think people don’t like being marketed at and the online platforms that work well, w ork when there’s a really natural synchronicity between people’s interests in coming to the site, and the product you’re developing.So that means, if you like being active on Goodreads for example, that seems to me a really natural way to spend time. I don’t particularly enjoy it: that means I’m never going to be that committed to it, that probably means that’s not the right marketing route for me. But there are no general rules here: it really depends on each author and their own individual preferences, their own particular book, and what kind of existing digital presence they already have.It’s about authors remaining true to themselves.Yes! You can’t fake it can you? There are people who enjoy engaging in Twitter: they’ll make friends, engage in conversations, and when they do have something to market, they have a community of people who don’t feel they are being exploited for their wallets. They are Twitter fri ends and have been over the months and years. I’m just not like that. I hate Twitter. I use it as little as I can. I do pump stuff out now-and-again because I kind of think I have to, but it’s never going to be a strong channel for me. But there are online communities of every sort.And new ones which will develop in the future. The beauty of publishing is that so many different types of authors will find so many different types of routes: not just through various distribution channels, but routes that can create a much closer fit with online communities.Yes, in the end it’s always going to be a word-of-mouth thing. There will come a point where you might be able to initiate a fire, but in the end it’s going to come from readers, talking to friends about books they’ve recently enjoyed.You might be able to take sales from 2-3 a day to 20-30 a day, by really pushing the marketing routes that you have, but to achieve sales beyond that point, youâ€℠¢ve actually got to get a community of people going â€Å"Hey this book is great!† and they are talking about it with their friends and book groups. That’s how any viral process - whether traditionally or self-published - is created.Thanks so much. I think this is going to be of great help to so many of our readers on Reedsy.Just to end on a note that would be positive to both you and your community, which is, there is still a perception of self-publishing as â€Å"I wasn’t good enough for traditional publishing, so I’m self-publishing† and that perception has certainly changed, but there’s no question it’s still there. I am a conventionally published author and I’ve had some terrific book reviews, and I’m self-publishing because I want to, and for me it really isn’t because â€Å"I couldn’t cut it with the big boys†, but actually that I wasn’t prepared to take what the big boys were offering me. I didn’t want it.I preferred the risks and the rewards and the opportunities of self-publishing to working with what is the world’s biggest publisher. I’ve definitely hedged my bets, because I’m still conventionally published here in the UK, but I love this model of being a hybrid author and I think people will go both ways: successful self-pub authors will become hybrids in the other direction. I do think it’s a new world we’re now living in.That’s a very inspiring message to pass on to our readers. Thank you very much and best of luck with it all!Follow Harry and Reedsy on TwitterDo you think it’s better to be self-published today, or to go with a traditional publisher?

Proposed Website Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Proposed Website - Assignment Example The body of the essay will explore various aspects of the proposed website. The proposed website Jenkins (2012, p. 9) in his studies described a website as, â€Å"a set of related web pages that contain contexts such as audio, video, image, and text, among others.† McNeil (2010) further noted that a website is usually hosted on a web server that can be accessed through the Internet or through a local area network that has an internet address, which is known as Uniform Resource Locator. Since Dual-Tech Inc is in the business of selling and distributing electrical appliances, the proposed website will be a commercial website that will serve various purposes and therefore, it will fit into various classifications of websites. For example, the proposed website will be a corporate website that offers information about Dual-Tech Inc and secondly, the proposed website will be an electronic commerce website that enables vendors to purchase electrical appliances via the online channel. On the basis that the proposed website will be an e-commerce website, it is of essence to note that it will be product based. This means that the proposed website will involve the actual selling of electrical appliances through the website whereby vendors will be required to wire funds or payments through electronic transfer and afterwards the company will dispatch the electrical appliances to their preferred location. Secondly, on the basis that the website will be an electronic commerce website it is beneficial to note that the proposed website will act as shop window for Dual-Tech Inc. Basic features of the proposed website First of all the website will be accessed through the local area network within Dual-Tech Inc premises and secondly it will be accessed through the internet connection, which will enable employees to login into the website from any location outside the business premises. This will be enabled by hosting the website in a server that offers both connectivity and is reliable. Secondly, by giving the website a unique domain name it will enable users to access the website easily as it will come as the first item during any search. On the issue of connectivity, the proposed website will be designed in a manner to ensure that users can access the website through smart phones and tablets, and this will be guaranteed by hosting the website in a web server that offers great connectivity from any location using various mediums such as personal or work computers, smart phones, and tablets. Since three different users will be using the website, it will have three different levels of access. The public will not have any special access rather they will only be allowed to view pages within the website that gives a preview of the company, stocks available, location of the business premises, key officials of the company, mission statement, and the objectives of the company. Vendors and employees of Dual-Tech Inc will have different access panels. Vendorsà ¢â‚¬â„¢ access panel will lead them to a web page that contains the list of stocked items and available online payment options that are secure. As for the employees’ access panel, it will lead them to

Philosophy of Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Philosophy of Education - Essay Example An essential aspect of education is the willingness, or voluntariness, of the learner. Peters attempts to elucidate the concept of education by formulating the four criteria which characterize the processes involved in ‘being educated.’ By his own admission, Peters formulates his criteria as a â€Å"guide,† and not as a â€Å"definitive statement† of law (2). Taken in this perspective, his criteria for ‘being educated’ appear very reasonable. Peters’ lists four criteria which are essential for a process to satisfy the concept of education: education involves a body of knowledge and an understanding of associated principles; education implies a transformation of outlook; education involves caring and commitment; education must have a cognitive perspective. Peters’ four criteria succeed in giving us a very clear idea of the concept of ‘being educated,’ although they cannot be accepted as absolutely categorical. The firs t criteria laid down by Peters, to which the processes of education must conform, is the possession of knowledge and an understanding of underlying principles. ... The knowledge possessed by an educated person cannot be just â€Å"a collection of disjointed facts† (8). Peters clearly differentiates between training and education: training is â€Å"equipping people with necessary skills for a job† (7). Education has another dimension than mere training. Training can have educational value, but the concept of education transcends the mere acquisition of skills. Peters categorically states that the objective of education is not extrinsic: extrinsic objectives, such as making the learner job-worthy, fall under the ambit of training. On the other hand, the objectives of education are intrinsic, including â€Å"the development of individual potentialities --- intellect and character† (5). In differentiating between training and education, Peters now leads into his second criterion, which is based on the change brought about by education. According to Peters’ second criteria, ‘being educated’ brings about a cha nge in the outlook of the educated person. He elucidates the kind of knowledge which an educated man must possess, in order to be called ‘educated,’ and not just ‘knowledgeable’. The knowledge acquired by an educated person is active, and his â€Å"outlook is transformed by what he knows† (9). This knowledge comes to characterize his way of looking at things, and does not exist in isolation from the other spheres of his life. In other words, Peters’ emphasizes that the knowledge possessed by an educated person is not inert: it is actively applied to every aspect of that person’s life. Peters’ concept of the ‘active’ nature of education is also marked by another characteristic, which forms his next criteria. Peters’ third criteria is closely

Realism In International Affairs Essay Example for Free

Realism In International Affairs Essay Realism in politics is a political philosophy, which tries to observe, shape and predict political relations. It is based upon assumption that power should be the primary goal of any political act, both in international or domestic sphere. As far as domestic affairs are concerned, this theory states that political figures are supposed to direct all efforts to maximizing their power. Accordingly, in the international sphere nation should aim at maximizing its power among other states. This theory can be regarded as a prescription to be followed by politicians and states or as a description of current affairs of the state or politician pursuing self-interest. Realism in politics is often defined as a principle of power supremacy, and it has a long history since the ancient times. It was reflected in Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. This theory was also touched by Machiavelli in his writing The Prince, as well as by other outstanding philosophers like Spinoza, Hobbes and Rousseau. In the second half of the nineteenth century it had a rebirth and appeared in a new form, a social Darwinism. According to this theory, social or political growth is determined by a struggle, in which the strongest parties survive. According to the theory of political realism, interests should be satisfied by means of power exercise, and the world is defined by competing powers. In this context, the adherents of Marxist theory refer to classes, while other political theorists to states. (Ahrensdorf) Political realism is explained in the following way: â€Å"Prior to the French Revolution in which nationalism as a political doctrine truly entered the worlds stage, political realism involved the political jurisdictions of ruling dynasties, whilst in the nineteenth century, nationalist sentiments focused realists attentions on the development of the nation-state, a policy that was later extended to include imperialist ambitions on the part of the major Western powers-Britain and France, and even Belgium, Germany and the United States were influenced by imperialism. † (Viotti, Kauppi). Important difference between social darwinism and other branches political realism is as follows: adherents of the former state that some nations are destined to rule over other nations, while other part of realists pays most attention to the need of ensuring that nation, culture or politician sets or secures own needs before needs or interests of others. Political realism in international affairs Political realism of an expressive kind stands for the suggestion that international commonwealth is distinguished by anarchy, since there is no absolute world government, that could rule with an all-purpose policy code. Since the anarchy does not need a chaotic nature, thus allowing member nations be involved into trading schemes or treaties, the theorists mostly agree that morality or law are not the dominating factors outside one particular state. In this particular characteristic this hypothesis agrees with the Hobb’s theory: Where there is no common Power, there is no Law: where no Law, no Injustice ? if there be no Power erected, or not great enough for our security; every man will and may lawfully rely on his own strength and art, for caution against all other men. (Hobbes, Leviathan , Part I, Ch. 13 Of Man, and Part II, Ch. 17, Of Commonwealth, cited in Griffiths, O’Callaghan). Respectively, without any supreme international force, nations treat each other with hostility or fear, and it damages the system. Another aspect of the theory is an assumption that a state can promote its interest against the needs and interests of other states, it proves that international surrounding is not stable. Any order is affected if states compete for the same need, and under such circumstances, as the realists state, the nation may rely on itself only. There are definite contradictions that can be found in the concept of political realism: descriptive realism may be regarded as a true theory or false concept. Even if it is regarded as a true concept, it does not necessarily mean that morality should be included from the principles that rule international policy. One of the strong forms if descriptive type of political realism states that states should be self-seeking, that they should build their policy basing upon desired gains of the nation and should not ignore their interests and demands. Simultaneously, â€Å"if descriptive realism is held, it is as a closed theory, which means that it can refute all counter-factual evidence on its own terms (for example, evidence of a nation offering support to a neighbor as an ostensible act of altruism, is refuted by pointing to some self-serving motive the giving nation presumably hasit would increase trade, it would gain an important ally, it would feel guilty if it didnt, and so on), then any attempt to introduce morality into international affairs would prove futile. † (Stern) The assessment of expressive kind of political realism power depends upon the chance of understanding political reasons, which requests understanding the causes of state diplomats and representatives. The pattern of officers’ relations, their motives and actions is complex. Waltz says that the closed nature of expressive realism includes a oppose scheme that nations does not serve any needs at all, or can serve the needs of others only. The logical value of the three theories resulting from this concept offers that preferring one condition to another is an optional decision, if an assumption is accepted, or not. (Waltz) The present international sphere of nations’ interaction is defined by the lack of supreme power. In the past, wars were a strong argument in support of political realism – there have been more than 200 wars since the middle of the 17th century. This condition seems to have a chaotic nature, and some thinkers are likely to compare it to domestic anarchy, when state government is not able to rule the state: ‘Without a world power, war, conflict, tension, and insecurity have been the regular state of affairs; just as a domestic government removes internal strife and punishes local crime, so too ought a world government control the activities of individual states-overseeing the legality of their affairs and punishing those nations that break the laws, and thereby calming the insecure atmosphere nations find themselves in†. (Kegley, Wittkopf) At the same time, such comparison leads to a conclusion that the relations between the state and the individuals are alike. Such argument includes the personification of the states and collectivization of individuals. Some theorists state that the relations between states and the citizens cannot be compared to the relations between the states and the relations of the individuals, and therefore should be differently judged. In addition to the propositions of descriptive realism, there are notions offered by prescriptive political realism, for instance, the statement that a certain nation should follow its own interests and needs independently of the relevant state of international relations. This theory can be divided into various aspects, depending upon proclaimed interest of the nation and the allowability of the tools that would be used to reach desired goals. As far as the national interest is concerned, there are distinct opinions of what it should be, but all of them agree that the state should be self-efficient in economical and political sphere, cutting dependency on other nations. (The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations) The statement supporting the supremacy of self-sufficiency of the state has appeared long time ago. Plato and Aristotle referred to this aspect as a ground necessary to provide security of the national power, they insisted that nation should import only insignificant commodities. This economic theory has been used for supporting political realism, especially in the 18th century the theorists of political sphere stated that the political power of the nation is reached and supported in the terms of reduced import and increased export only. Difference between neorealism and classical realism Conflict is regarded as a key element in politics, including international affairs, by all realists, however, there are two different sources of conflict, pointed out by different realist authors. For instance, classical realism theory starts with a pessimistic viewpoint on the human nature. As the adherents of this theory believe, selfish, competitive and striving for power behavior in inherent for the humans. Hans Morgenthau states that each individual is enforced to act uncaringly to protect himself, and this situation leads to the disagreement: â€Å"What the one wants for himself, the other already possesses or wants, too. Struggle and competition ensue. Man cannot [therefore] hope to be good, but must be content with not being too evil†. (Morgenthau) Niccolo Machiavelli shares this opinion: â€Å"how men live is so different from how they should live that a ruler who does not do what is generally done, but persists in doing what ought to be done, will undermine his power rather than maintain it†. (cited in The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations). These ideas performed specific approach to a strategy applied in international affairs: a careful statesman must avoid optimistic view on others’ aims and intentions and limits their initiatives to those that may help if the situation goes better. For instance, Henry Kissinger warned the leaders of the USA and Israeli against the intentions of Syria and Palestine, during the negotiations on Middle East conflict: â€Å"It is likely that agreements will be reached because the alternatives will, in the end, seem more dangerous. But when this happens, we must avoid euphoria. An agreement will represent a strategic interlude for the Syrians and most of the Palestinians, not a commitment to a new world order. † (Legro, Moravcsik) In other words, classical type of realism regards conflict and competition as essential element of international affairs, referring the origin of conflict to the human nature. Humans struggle with each other for resources they need and strive for power to rule over other people. This is a set pattern, which cannot be changed. Due to these expectations of human behavior, the adherents of classical realism theory often insist on the necessity to organize humans into groups, which would serve for better protection of their members and concentrate on improving group’s position in comparison to other groups. Another theory, neorealism or structural realism, refers the origin of conflict to interstate condition, the lack of legally restricting rules in particular, rather than to human nature. The adherents of neorealism state, that â€Å"the absence of a neutral authority that can enforce rules and agreements creates an insecure, self-help situation in which all policy makers are pressured to act competitively, regardless of their individual natures or personal preferences. † (Kegley, Wittkopf) This statement is not new, it appeared in the 17th century in the work of Thomas Hobbes. In his writing Leviathan he states that the in the world, which lacks supreme power that could provide security, people has a right to use any tools to protect themselves. Besides, he assumed that â€Å"all mankind [has] a per ¬petual and restless desire of power after power that ceases only in death. † (cited in The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations) Modern tradition in neorealist theory declines the assumption that individuals strive for power due to a natural inclination, and concentrates on the motives produced by a lack of a neutral power that can set rules for interstate relations. For instance, Kenneth Waltz says that â€Å"the main cause of war must lie in some regularity at the level of the interstate system, rather than within particular leaders or states, since war has been waged for all sorts of specific reasons and by good as well as bad leaders. † (Waltz) According to Waltz, this regularity is the pressure, produced by anarchy: â€Å"Without enforceable interstate rules, states must either resist possible domination by others through a policy of balancing against others power capabilities, or by bandwagoning-joining a coalition that supports an aggres ¬sive state, in hopes of turning its aggression elsewhere†. (Waltz) Waltz states that large states possess the capacity and desire to withstand the strength of other states. This results, as he sees it, in a tendency of competitiveness among states independently of the views of their leaders concerning domestic policy. Actually, the prediction of this statement is not much different from the assumption made by the adherents of classical realism. As soon as it is based on the assumptions concerning human nature, classic realists expect that the makers of policy also act competitively. The difference lies in the way this conclusion is reached. As Waltz sees it, this is the pressure of competitiveness, produced by anarchy, which significantly influences the human behavior. Those strategies that are oriented on power, appear because the leaders are forced to struggle for security, rather than because they desire just to obtain power. Realistic approach in modern international affairs Realism was a concept for analyzing world politics since remote times, because much of humankind history was characterized by wars. As soon as the states’ interests come across in conflict, it is expected that leaders pay much attention to their positions in power. â€Å"The classical realist worldview appealed to many statesmen during the period that states were evolving in Western Europe-an era rife with conflict, as medieval forms of rule broke down and rulers asserted new claims to authority against feudal lords or the Pope. It jumped to the United States when the experiences of World War II were followed by the onset of the Cold War. Neorealism later emerged when the bipolarity of the Cold War drew analysts attention to the effects of the structure of the interstate system†. (Lieven, Hulsman). At present, ethical realism is offered to the USA as a leading principle that should define the foreign policy of this state. As it is described by the supporters of this type of realism, it bases upon â€Å"prudence; a concentration on possible results rather than good intentions; a close study of the nature, views and interests of other states, and a willingness to accommodate them when these do not contradict Americas own truly vital interests; and a mixture of profound American patriotism with an equally profound awareness of the limits on both American power and on American goodness† (Lieven, Hulsman). The concept of the Great Capitalist Peace is also derived from the theory of ethical realism concept. It is based upon the ideas of Kennan and Morgenthau, including the concepts of diplomacy purposes and international order. It proclaims that a global order is needed to be agreed by the largest states, to provide the promotion of their interests and reduce the threat of terrorists. Accordingly, the USA power is treated as an element, vital for keeping the Great Capitalist Peace. At the same time, it is added that the limits should be put on the US power, in order to legitimate interests and needs of other states should be satisfied. Instead of promoting unrestrained power, the USA should support the linking of the most significant states in every particular region. For instance, in the Middle East region the USA should use its power and resources to support creation of a regional patter for the states, including Syria and Iran, and to make this pattern functional enough to regulate Iraq conflict after withdrawal of the US troops from this country. (Lieven, Hulsman) As far as the Far East is concerned, the USA should paid attention to the primary role, which should be played by China in this region, but not by the United States. China is treated as a state, ready to act in cooperation with other states and act responsibly, that’s why USA should allow China to occupy a leading position in finding resolutions to the actions of the regime in the North Korea, and other possible challenges in this region. (Lieven, Hulsman) Sources Waltz, K. N. Structural Realism after the Cold War. International Security. Summer. 2000 Morgenthau, H. J. Politics Among Nations: the Struggle for Power and Peace. McGraw Hill: NY, 1993. Stern, G. The Structure of International Society. London: Pinter Publishers, 2000. The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations. edited by Baylis, J. and S. Smith. Oxford University Press, 2004 Griffiths, M. , O’Callaghan, T. International Relations: The Key Concepts. London, Routledge, 2002 Kegley, C. Wittkopf, E. World Politics. Thomson/Wadsworth, 2005. Viotti, P. R. Kauppi, M. V. International Relations Theory: Realism, Pluralism, Globalism. Macmillan Pub Co, 1993. Legro, J. W. Moravcsik, A. Is Anybody Still a Realist? International Security. Fall 1999 Jervis, R. Realism, Neoliberalism, and Cooperation.. International Security. Summer 1999 Ahrensdorf, P. J. Thucydides realistic critique of realism. Polity Winter 1997 Lieven, A. Hulsman, J. Americas World Role Has to be Realistic and Moral. October 17, 2006, retrieved at http://www. realisticforeignpolicy. org/archives/2006/10/americas_world. php.

suzy :: essays research papers

A Soldiers Home â€Å"A Soldiers Home† by Ernest Hemingway takes place during the late summer of 1919, during the post-war era of WWI. Krebs, the main character in the story, returns to his small hometown in Oklahoma much later than when the rest of the soldiers had returned. â€Å"The men from the town who had been drafted had all been welcomed elaborately on their return†(Hemingway, 145). The â€Å"people seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over†(Hemingway, 145). Krebs returns from war to live in the same dysfunctional home and environment with his mom, dad, and two younger sisters. â€Å"Krebs’ noncommittal father is obviously dominated by his wife; she makes the decisions†(bridgewater, 1). She has determined that Krebs â€Å"should live in God’s â€Å"Kingdom,† find a job, and get married like a normal local boy†(bridgewater, 1). Krebs has not yet recovered from his various psychological post-war wounds, and is trapped by the sick marriage of his parents. â€Å"By the time Krebs returned to his hometown in Oklahoma, the greeting for heroes was over†(Hemingway, 145). At first, he did not want to talk about the war at all. As time went on, â€Å"he felt the need to talk, but no one wanted to hear about itâ€Å"(Hemingway,145). This was due to the great deal of hysteria which the town had endured years ago when the other soldiers returned from the war. This was all old news, and they were tired of hearing about the war(Hemingway, 145). The town’s atmosphere was not helping his state of post-war mental anguish because they â€Å"had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualitiesâ€Å"(Hemingway, 145). â€Å"Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lieâ€Å"(Hemingway, 145). Krebs lived in a â€Å"Mayberry† kind of town. It was small and everybody seemed to know each other. The pool hall, the library, the schoolyard and the First National Bank, where his dad works, is all within walking distance from his house. Krebs would sometimes walk to the schoolyard to watch his sister play baseball. Krebs day consisted of little more than sleeping late in bed, walking downtown to the library to get a book, or reading on the front porch until he became bored. Krebs would walk down â€Å"through the town to spend the hottest hours of the day in the cool dark of the pool room†(Hemingway, 146).

Theme of Revenge in Hamlet

In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the theme of revenge is so prominent that it could be considered its own character. The vengeance in Hamlet is essential to the development of Laertes, son of Polonius, Hamlet, prince of Denmark, and Fortinbras, prince of Norway. Revenge is an unnecessary evil causing humans to act blindly through anger rather than through reason. Referring as far back as Hammurabi’s idea of â€Å"An eye for an eye,† revenge is merely a chain of wrongdoings stimulated each time by a reciprocated act of evil.Revenge is set to conquer anyone who comes to seek it. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet while there is the theme of revenge, that theme is divided into two separate entities. There is Laertes’ active seeking of vengeance and â€Å"Hamlet’s inner struggle to take action. † (Shmoop 1) Laertes is extremely quick to take action to avenge the murder and suicide of his only remaining family. Returning home from an adventure for his own e ducational purposes, Laertes learns of his father murder by a sword through a tapestry.Upon arrival, Laertes finds his delusional sister, Ophelia, too involved in her songs of â€Å"Hey nonny, nonny† to really understand anything happening at that moment. Ophelia drove herself to an actual insanity from death of her father, or perhaps the rejection of Hamlet. Hours later, Ophelia is found in a pond after she committed suicide. Laertes wishes to seek revenge on Hamlet for his direct and indirect cause of his family’s deaths. Claudius is now also presented with his chance for his own revenge against his nephew, or his son in accordance with his incestual marriage.However, Claudius is only seeking â€Å"revenge† for fear of being found out, and hides his cowardice by helping Laertes kill Hamlet. Hamlet is a completely different example from Laertes. Through his father’s ghost, Hamlet is given the task of avenging his father in his untimely death. â€Å"Reve nge his foul and most unnatural murder. † (Act I, Scene iv, Shakespeare) Hamlet was given multiple opportunities to take the life of his uncle, but failed to do so. Not even sure of himself or of the request the father of his ghost, that he may or may not have seen, demanded. To be certain of Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet decides to re-enact the murder of his father with the production of The Murder of Gonzago (known also as the play within the play or The Mousetrap). † (Shakespeare-online 2) â€Å"The play’s the king Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king. † (Act II, Scene ii, Shakespeare) However, even when he is completely sure Claudius is guilty of killing his own brother, he still finds trouble acting. Hamlet finds Claudius after the play to exact his revenge, but finds Claudius praying.With his sword at the ready, he starts to talk to himself about how he cannot kill his uncle while his father is â€Å"Doom'd for a certain term to wal k the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. † (Act I, Scene iv, Shakespeare) Hamlet actually manages to convince himself to not act now, and that another opportunity will present itself. If Hamlet had only taken the time he used to talk to himself to quietly listen he would have notice Claudius’ inability to utter a prayer, leaving the perfect opportunity untaken.What does separate Hamlet from others around him is his reason for his revenge. Hamlet achieves his revenge in the final scene of the final life. â€Å"In large part his course to the fifth act is the result of his moral sensitivity, his unflinching discernment of evil and his determination that it shall not thrive. † (Prosser 1) His â€Å"hatred of corruption† and his â€Å"vision of what man should be† fueled him through all his pretenses into his final moments.While â€Å"Hamlet is definitely a great e xample of a typical revenge tragedy† (NovelGuide 4) he is unique in the way he hesitates in his path to destroy what is evil and to preserve whatever little good is left. Hardly mentioned at all, there was another character in Hamlet that received his revenge at the end of the play. Fortinbras, prince of Norway set off to regain the lands of Denmark, which were lost to King Hamlet Senior years ago. Fortinbras was returning to win back his lands, which he did, and he did so very peacefully.Fortinbras regained the lands that were rightly his, as there were no more heirs to the Danish throne. Horatio almost foreshadows the movements of Fortinbras, but no further of him is mentioned until the end of the play. â€Å"Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes, For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in't; which is no other— As it doth well appear unto our state—But to recover of us, by strong hand And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands So by his father lost. (Act I, Scene I, Shakespeare) Fortinbras choice for revenge is the only one that ended up with no more murder involved. All three characters, Laertes, Hamlet, and Fortinbras, were so obsessed with avenging their father’s death, nobody survived to be able to gloat about his victory, except for Fortinbras. Revenge is characterized by a chain of bad choices with another individual feeling he is obligated to make the situation fair once more. Hamlet by William Shakespeare is powerful play that exemplifies the cruelty of revenge and how much anger and how little reason are truly involved.There is never a real need for revenge, as more of it will eventually lead to the demise of everyone involved. Thousands of years before Shakespeare wrote his plays, Hammurabi created the first law book, almost foreshadowing the dangers of revenge. â€Å"An eye for an eye will lea ve the whole world blind†, while murder for murder will only lead to more murder. Works Cited â€Å"Elizabethan Revenge in Hamlet. † Novel Guides. Web. 1 Jan 2013. ;http://www. novelguide. com/ReportEssay/literature/shakespeare/elizabethan-revenge-hamlet;.Prosser, Eleanor. â€Å"Hamlet and Revenge. † HowlandPak. HowlandPak, Web. 1 Jan 2013. ;http://howlandpowpak. neomin. org/powpak/cgi-bin/custom_page_display. pl? id=thomas. williams;cp=28;. Mabillard, Amanda. â€Å"Revenge in Hamlet. † Shakespeare Online, 12 2011. Web. 1 Jan 2013. ;http://shakespeare-online. com/playanalysis/revengetragedy. html;. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. London, England: 1603. Print. â€Å"Shmoop. † Hamlet. Shmoop University, Inc. Web. 1 Jan 2013. ;http://www. shmoop. com/hamlet/;.

4 mat review entwistle Essay

In the book, Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity by David N. Entwistle (2010) the reader is first introduced to the conflict of the integration of psychology and Christianity. The thought is that Christianity is based on faith and psychology is based on truth. As a result, it is the idea that Christianity and psychology may be impossible to coexist. â€Å"The integration of psychology and theology is virtually inevitable due to their mutual interest in understanding the ambiguities and mysteries of human behavior and healing human brokenness.† (Entwistle, 2010, p. 51) Essentially, this statement is a summation of the entire reading. Even though Christianity and psychology are at two opposite ends of the spectrum, the two ideas still carry the ability to be integrated with one another and implemented. Entwistle, explains the integration of psychology and Christianity by first providing a historical overview of scientific and theological communities in order to provide a more in depth understanding of the modern process of integrating psychological thought with Christianity. Entwistle states that the term â€Å"integrated† should also be viewed as a noun because he says, â€Å"If Christ lays claim to all of life, then the work of integration becomes not just feasible, but imperative, as we attempt to understand the essence of unity.† (Entwistle, 2010, p. 16) To continue, Entwistle explains that science and faith have always been conflicting ideas because science is contradictory to theological concepts. Entwistle some what agrees with this idea but based off of a person’s previous assumptions or knowledge about psychology and theology. If a psychologist were to recognize their faith bias when operating in their chosen specialty of psychology, then they could use science as a means of evidence or testament to the auspiciousness of Christ (Entwistle, 2010). As the book goes on, Entwistle introduces five different disciplinary relationships, which include enemies, spies, colonialists, neutral parties, and allies (Entwistle, 2010). Enemies can either be secular or Christian but the common factor is that they agree that there can be no coexistence of faith and science within the field of psychology. Spies are members of the Christian faith who happen to have a background in psychology but are only interested  in the â€Å"benefits of their own religious system† (Entwistle, 2010, p. 182). Spies could also include those who wish to explore the effects of faith on an individual. Colonialists use parts of psychology integrated with their own ideals and beliefs. Neutral parties are indifferent to both secular and theological arguments for the integration of psychology. However, neutral parties are able to maintain that indifference by keeping science and Christianity separate (Entwistle, 2010). The allies’ mode is different from neutral parties model because it is against that idea that theology is docile to psychology and that faith is a â€Å"vehicle to express psychological truth and to foster psychological benefits† (Entwistle, 2010, p. 206). The remaining reading is geared towards understanding truth as it relates to the psychological and theological mindset. In order to better understand the integration of psychology and theology and the similarities and differences between the two, Entwistle explains that we can gain a better understanding of human ps yche and consider completing developmental research in order to come up with counseling techniques that will be valuable for future generations. Concrete Response As a young child I remember growing up my parents explained to me that I would have to work hard in order to achieve success. My parents are very successful people with multiple degrees and although I was a stellar student, I wasn’t the least bit interested in school. I would much rather play sports or dance. My mom came to me one day and said, â€Å"I don’t know if you’ll ever be a doctor or lawyer the way we planned but whatever you decide we will be proud.† I was happy and sad at the same time because although she knew that I am intelligent, she didn’t try to press upon me something that her and my father’s plans for my life. However, I didn’t feel like my parents believed that I could become someone great. I must say that my parents have allowed me and continue to allow me to flourish into the person that God designed for me to be. Even though I appreciated my mother for making that clear to me, I still felt as if I had something t o prove to them. I set out to take as many collegiate level classes as possible in high school and even pushed myself to the limit in my undergraduate courses. On top of all of my schoolwork, I pushed myself to commit to extracurricular  activities within my church and school. When I first read Entwistle’s description of the allies’ model, I immediately thought of myself as an ally. Although our goal at the end of the day is to please God, I felt as if I had to please my parents through my education but I would eventually have to follow God’s plan for my life. While I took the time to find myself, I was forgetting about my religion and solely focused on my psychological wellbeing. I definitely had to get to a place where I was able to integrate both my mental health and well being as well as focus on my relationship with Christ. Reflection In the book Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity, the reader is introduced to the understanding and correlation of psychology and theology. The study of psychology is referenced throughout this book many times but one ideal that is not addressed is the answer as to what a Christian should do with the ideals that are presented in this text. As it is well written, this particular text is invaluable to students and professors or those who wish to study the integration of psychology and theology as it relates to academia. On the converse, what about a regular church pastor or missionary who would like to be more well-versed in their counseling strategies or teaching people who to heal and deal with mental health conditions. The book is well written in the fact that any person who is not familiar with psychological or theological terminology can also understand the content of the text. Although the book many questions in relation to the integration of psychology and theol ogy, it is apparent that the author did not mention the definitions of â€Å"nature† versus â€Å"unnatural.† Nature does not exist today because of the fall of man therefore, we as humans today only know the unnatural. This is a part of the reason that we find human beings to be so unnatural in their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Because of sin, there is no more innocence of creation has been destroyed and can only be restored through the blood of Christ. As psychology and theology integrate, humans can be studied in their natural state. Action For a counseling psychologist or anyone who would like to practice professional counseling, one of the most important steps would be to understand the disciplinary models presented in the text. The Christian community may not be knowledgeable how a person would be classified within the five models. The typical Christian would not know whether or not they would be helping or hindering the individual if they were not familiar with the ideals and beliefs that goes along with each particular model. Having a better understanding of each model will allow a psychologist, or even a regular church pastor to understand where they fall within each model and which model will allow them to provide the best care plan for that client. The following step would be to also evaluate scientific models of psychology in order to better understand which model would integrate well with theology and the five disciplinary models. Understanding what each option and/or technique will provide will allow evidence of Christ through science. As a result, disciples will be brought to Christ because then they will believe. Integration of psychology and Christianity (theology) is more than just ideas and techniques, but the integration of the two will provide insight as to how we as humans live our lives before Christ (Entwistle, 2010). References Entwistle, D. N. (2010). Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity: an Introduction to Worldview Issues, Philosophical Foundations, and Models of Integration (2nd ed.). Eugene, OR

Interracial Marriages essays

Interracial Marriages essays The United States has witnessed a considerable amount of social and cultural desegregation between African-Americans and Caucasians. However, despite years of desegregation, social and cultural differences still exist. One of these differences that still exists is in the institution of marriage. Americans have been and are continually moving slowly away from segregation. In the past forty years, a multitude of changes have transformed schools, jobs, voting booths, neighborhoods, hotels, restaurants and even the wedding altar, facilitating tolerance for racial diversity (Norman 108). In the 1960's, when housing discrimination was outlawed, many African-Americans moved into mainly Caucasian neighborhoods. The steadily growing areas in the west and southwest are least segregated, because these areas never had the entrenched African-American and Caucasian sections of town (Up For Separatist 30). Even more visible signs of desegregation can be seen in the areas of education. A study done by the University of Michigan shows that integration on campuses occurs on a regular basis. The racial lines are crossed routinely; about 50% of African-Americans and 15% of Caucasians reportedly study together. Eating patterns also share the same similarities. At a social level, there has been a steady convergence of opinion on a variety of racial issues. Since 1972, surveys have asked whether the respondent would favor a law making inter-racial marriages illegal. In 1980, the results showed that 30.1% of Caucasians and 18.3% of African-Americans favor such a law. By 1994, the collected data showed 14.7% and 3.2% respectively. Similar trends have also been observed in busing and even integrated social clubs. (Up For Separatist 30) A simple analysis shows that on the surface desegregation is moving in the right direction. Notwithstanding these examples of desegregation, a deeper analysis shows that there are still signs of racial discriminations, m...

7 Proofreading Steps

7 Proofreading Steps 7 Proofreading Steps 7 Proofreading Steps By Mark Nichol Proofreading is the last line of defense for quality control in print and online publishing. Be sure to conduct a thorough proofread of all documents before they are printed for distribution and of all Web pages before they go live, using these guidelines. But before you proof, you must edit. (This post explains the difference between the two processes.) There’s no use expending time and effort to check for minor typographical errors until the editing stage is complete. Review for proper organization, appropriate tone, and grammar, syntax, usage, and style before the document is laid out. Stakeholders should read the edited version before layout and submit requests for revisions during the editing stage. If anyone other than the editorial staff must see the proof, remind him or her that only minor changes should be made at this point. 1. Use a Checklist Create a list of important things to check for, such as problem areas like agreement of nouns and verbs and of pronouns and antecedents, and number style. 2. Fact-Check Double-check facts, figures, and proper names. If information remains to be inserted at the last minute, highlight the omission prominently so that no one forgets to do so. 3. Spell-Check Before proofreading a printout, spell-check the electronic version to find misspellings, as well as errors you or a colleague make frequently, such as omitting a closing parenthesis or quotation mark. 4. Read Aloud Reading text during the proof stage improves your chances of noticing errors, especially missing (â€Å"a summary the report follows†) or repeated (â€Å"a summary of the the report follows†) words. 5. Focus on One Line at a Time When proofing print documents, use another piece of paper or a ruler to cover the text following the line you are proofreading, shifting the paper down as you go along. This technique helps you keep your place and discourages you from reading too quickly and missing subtle errors. 6. Attend to Format Proofreading isn’t just about reviewing the text. Make sure that the document design adheres to established specifications. Check page numbering, column alignment, relative fonts, sizes, and other features of standard elements such as headlines, subheadings, captions, and footnotes. Inspect each type of feature within categories, such as looking at every headline, then every caption, and so on. 7. Proof Again Once revisions have been made, proofread the document again with the same thoroughness, rather than simply spot-checking the changes. An insertion or deletion may have thrown off the line count, for example. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Direct and Indirect Objects41 Words That Are Better Than GoodIs "Number" Singular or Plural?

Nitrogen Oxide as an Environmental Pollution Essay

Nitrogen Oxide as an Environmental Pollution - Essay Example with the first section covers the common nitrogen oxides, followed by the sources and potential sinks in the environment, then the chemical behaviour of these oxides, the impacts on human and ecosystem, and finally the prevention and control of these pollutants. Nitrogen oxides mainly consist of nitrogen and oxygen, and the most common nitrogen oxides are nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (Farmer 2013, p.26; Harrison 2001, p.179). Notably, nitrous oxide and nitrogen dioxide are emitted when nitrogen reacts with oxygen in the air during combustion at high temperatures and this shows that the amount of nitrogen oxides produced depends on temperature of combustion. Another nitrogen oxide is nitrous oxide (N2O) which is a greenhouse gas that has a greater impact on climate change. Nitric oxide is a colourless gas with a sharp and sweet smell, but nitrogen dioxide is a colourless gas with a strong, harsh odour. Of the nitrogen oxides emitted, nitric oxides forms the larger part, followed by nitrous oxide then nitrogen dioxide which is produced in low amounts, and also it is important to note that both nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxides does not have prolonged lifespan in the atmosphere as compared to nitrous oxide. Nitrogen oxides are produced naturally but they are as well produced by various human activities including agricultural activities, transportation and industrial processes and many others. In nature, nitrogen oxides are produced because of bacterial processes, biological growth and decay, forest fires (Lippmann 2009, p.823), volcano, and lightening among others (Hill 2010, p.128). Thunderstorms lead to the production of nitric oxide as a result of high heat of lightening released in the process of breaking down nitrogen molecules. On the other hand, burning of fossil fuels is considered the primary source of nitrogen oxides as part of human activities. Transportation fuels when burned produce nitrous oxide and mostly, motor vehicles and trucks