Steinbeck is interested in the ways hardship and suffering human character Essay Example for Free

Steinbeck is interested in the ways hardship and suffering human character Essay Steinbeck is interested in the ways hardship and suffering human character. Discuss how this is portrayed in Of Mice And Men Of Mice and Men is a novel very much affected by the time in which its author lived. Steinbeck wrote and set Of Mice And Men in a time of great economic change in America, when the countrys 125,000 threshers (men who harvested grain- Californias major product) were slowly being replaced for the new and more efficient form of harvesting-mechanical combines. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 heralded the start of the Great Depression that swept America in the 1930s, and the consequences of this on farming was compacted and increased with the famous dust bowl crisis, forcing many farmers into poverty and immense debt. Migrant farm workers such as Lennie and George fuelled and made possible the intensive farming economy. They travelled many miles by foot or other cheap forms of transportation for a temporary job that would pay enough to survive on, only to be told to leave when they were no longer needed. They would then have to wait for the next vacancy available. In these conditions men most usually travelled alone- it was hard to form any stable relationships in a life where it was vital to travel so often and when self-survival was more important than anyone elses. Its in this world of self survival that John Steinbeck based Of Mice And Men, which is a portrayal of effects these conditions can have on human nature. The most prominent of these effects in the novel itself is loneliness, (a major theme) which is present in some way in every one of Steinbecks characters. The book itself has been described as a symphony of lonliness. In a world where ones own survival and well-being is priority and you are mostly alone, the workers became very isolated. The effects of the lack of friendship, love or compassion on the workers have made them unable to relate in any way to anyone but themselves, and the self-importance that is forced to become their priority renders them unable to feel much pity or empathy for anyone or anything, turning them inwards and embittered towards a world which hasnt treated them well. They all live an existence in which every day is taken as it comes, each one matters in the fight for survival. They do not think in the long term, they spend the small wages they receive as soon as they can in taverns and whore-houses, they do not have dreams of the future. Loneliness effects some characters in other ways. For example, Curleys wife lives a life rivalling and arguably, exceeding the workers in isolation and loneliness. She has entered into a loveless and -the suggestion is- brutal marriage on a ranch full of wary, frightened and suspicious men with no-one to talk to, no love or tenderness, no prospect of change or escape from it. Unlike the men, she also has no motivation to survive. The workers aim in life is to survive, to keep on going, to keep on surviving through all the deprivation, as some still have prospects for change. Curleys wife is stuck at a figurative dead-end. She has arrived at the place she will remain for most probably the rest of her life, in an incessant routine of lonely, endless monotony. It is this isolation and the dissapointment of niave dreams of Hollywood and broken trust that has turned her into the character we are presented with in the beginning chapters of the book. The whore, the slut, the jail-bait, and the tart are her own form of survival- whereas the men have had to become totally self-interested and self-dependent in order to survive, Curleys wife has had to survive by attempting to gain power and attention in the only way she can in a ranch full of men- through sexual supremacy. However it appears there are infact two characters in the novel less affected by the isolation than the other characters, Slim and Lennie. It could be argued that George is also less affected, as his friendship with Lennie saves him from turning totally inward. Lennies friendship and care stop George from becoming like the other ranch workers, as he has to think about Lennies well being in addition to his own. George and Lennies relationship is almost more like that of a parent and child than of friends, and George has to look after Lennie, therefore George thinks about someone other than himself. So far his relationship has had its downsides, because as this isnt a normal friendship and Lennie is less capable mentally, Lennie keeps getting George into trouble. This proves that George needs to become isolated, lonely and inward as the others if he wants to be able successfully to survive. The conditions of the workers affect them in sad, terrible ways, yet its interesting that they actually need to be behave in this way if they want to survive. There is a strange need for loneliness and isolation, and this is how loneliness effects George and ultimately, George and Lennies friendship.

The Death Penalty Debate Essay -- capital punishment debate

The death penalty is one of the most debated issues in the United States. It is a judicially ordered execution of a prisoner for a capital crime. There are many people who oppose the death penalty and then there are many people who support the death penalty. People who are against it think it is inhumane or it is too expensive. The people who are for the death penalty feel that it gives a chance for individuals to be accused for their wrongful acts. Each year billions of dollars are spent to sentence criminals to death. The death penalty costs $24 million dollars on average per execution (Pudlow). Since the death penalty is so expensive thirteen states have made it illegal to use the death penalty, and thirty seven states still have the death penalty. The US military and the US federal government still have the death penalty so thirty nine jurisdictions in all still uphold the death penalty to this day. This paper will examine reasons to support the death penalty and reasons to go against it and what type of crime determines whether or not you get the death penalty in America starting at colonial times. There are reasons to support the death penalty for instance it keeps people who are convicted of heinous and brutal crimes off the streets. The death penalty also keeps killers from killing again. The death penalty can also deter future criminals from committing murders (White). If felons believe that they are more likely to be arrested, convicted, and executed, they will be less inclined to commit homicides. The use of the death penalty is extremely rare since 1967 there has been one execution for every 1600 murders, or 0.06% (Hugo). There have been approximately 560,000 murders and 358 executions from 1967-1996 (Oshinsk... ...ose morale and righteous conflict among people. There is no clear answer to the resolution of this problem. Works Cited Hugo, Bedau. The Death Penalty in America. 1. 1. New York: Oxford University Press inc., 1998. 213. Print Oshinsky, David. Captial Punishment on Trial. 1. 1. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010. 178. Print Pudlow, Jan. "Take a hard look at the real cost of the death penalty." The Florida Bar News, 13/02/2011. Web. 13 Feb 2011. . White, Deborah. "Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty." About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2011. . Death Penalty Information Center, 11/02/2011. Web. 13 Feb 2011. .

Hidden messages of objects of African art Essay

In our modern world works of art play a role which is quite different from the role they used to play in the past. Indeed, in ancient times the craftsmanship of masters who produced utensils necessary for daily needs was already the source of art, because their products were among few vehicles of self-expression. As the result, many of the objects of the ancient art were simultaneously the objects of use, like vessels for liquids, different decorated tools, etc. However, with time and along with the social developments at least since Hellenistic culture art in the Western world was becoming more a means of self-expression of man and of our human striving for beauty. This process, while preserving the attraction to objects of practical utilization endowed with artistic qualities, also led to the separation of decorative art into a means to achieve aesthetic satisfaction. At a certain moment, art began to be integrated into the approaches towards creation of living spaces of human beings, and, importantly, the works of art began to be valued for their own sake. Since the industrial revolution, when technologies enabled mass production of products, the role of art in the Western world underwent further transformation art because capitalism initiated â€Å". . . the bringing of art . . . into subordinate relation . . .†[1] Since those times there appeared a tendency to perceive works of art as a kind of modern icons enclosed in museums for public viewing. Thus, â€Å"the religion of art . . . was born†[2], and art as a consecrated phenomenon has been by now somewhat isolated from our everyday lives. In this regard, one of the most important tasks of museums is to find the most effective ways to immerse people into artistic environment and to teach them not only to contemplate objects with their eyes, but as well to feel them with all their senses, as if reliving experiences of those human beings who created artistic objects. This task becomes especially challenging when it comes to the presentation of artifacts of cultures that significantly differ from our own. To see such challenges we may turn our attention to art of Africa, which contains a lot of exotic elements for modern viewers. One of the most important qualities of art in African cultures is its focus on immediate human experiences. In addition to racial differences among the ethnic groups of Africa that are reflected in their approach towards depiction of human beings, works of African art in most cases also look so strange for modern viewers because they represent world views and unique experiences (already fixed by addition of â€Å"and unique experiences†) of their creators which are really different from ours. Indeed, African art builds upon heritage of several millennia of various cultural traditions embodied in such diverse artistic artifacts as sculptures created for ritual purposes, wooden and golden monuments, ornaments made of silver and gold, unique garments, masks, and other artifacts. On grounds of this diversity, it is very hard to make generalizations about the African culture. However, there are some common elements that can be viewed as main motives and themes of African art. For example, it is a well known fact that African natural environment is very harsh in comparison to other regions of the world. Consequently, for African denizens the answer to the need to maintain population has traditionally been the bearing of numerous children. Therefore, African women are primarily associated with the symbol of life, because the existence and integrity of families and clans depends on one hand upon ability of woman to give birth to children, and on other hand upon her role as supporter of old parents and upon her mission in many African societies of contacting with spirits of the ancestors through prayers and ritual offerings. On ground of this, many themes in African art are in one way or another linked with symbols of fertility of women, of soil as another source of life, and of animals and plants. For example, many African shrines are dedicated to spirits that are believed to provide fertility, and they often contain some sculptures or other art forms that symbolize fertility. In a more direct fashion, in many African cultures there is an abundance of art objects that directly depict pregnant women. In this way we can see that African art has traditionally been influenced by specifics of its environment. However, one of the Western approaches to African art lies in our attempts to find out whether Africans make art for its own sake, and this approach may be somewhat misleading. At this point we may recall our considerations of the development of art in the Western world when until relatively recent times art was not meant to be placed in museums as it is often the case today, but rather was integrated in the life of society, for instance in religious and even political practices. In this connection, African art seems to have retained the ability to keep itself close to everyday concerns of people as far as it aims to reflect upon the most urgent concerns of African people. The objects of African art bristle with expressive emotions of their masters who with the help of objects of art try to investigate their relation with the world, and who through art communicate their striving to survive in a tough environment. Therefore, African art can hardly be separated from the lives of people who created it, and this unity seems to be stronger than in the Western artistic tradition.[3] One of the very exciting exhibitions where we can find beautiful exemplars of African art is the exhibition devoted to Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Let us with the help of this exhibition explore how modern viewers perceive objects of quite a different culture, and whether this exhibition manages to make the displayed objects of art speak to spectators in their native language. For this task we may pick several objects representative of the African culture as far as they reflect upon the main traditional themes of past and present African art. It must be pointed out from the outset that very often there are no firm dates for many of objects of African art. This is because African artists neither signed nor dated their creations. However, as many pieces of African art are made of wood, which is not a very long-lasting material, especially in African environment, it is thought that most of the wooden pieces of African art can probably be dated as belonging to the end of the nineteenth or the beginning of the twentieth century. Of course, aside from wood many objects are made of stone, clay, bronze, silver, gold, ivory, and terracotta. Such objects are long-lasting and those of them that have been found in known archeological contexts and in properly investigated archaeological locations have more or less fixed dates attributed to them. I propose to choose the following objects for the further research: A seated figure of a male from the thirteenth century, which offers an impressive image of anxiety that speaks directly to viewers` emotions (figure 1 in Appendix). This object originates from Inland Niger Delta region, the site named Jenne-jeno, which is the most ancient known city of sub-Saharan Africa. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired this object in 1981 as a bequest from Joseph Pulitzer, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Rogers Funds. (already fixed) A memorial head of a ruler of the Akan ethnic group from Western Africa from the seventeenth century that reflects idealized notions of African people (figure 2 in Appendix). This object`s origin was Hemang city in the Twifo region of Ghana, the land of the Akan ethnic group. It was initially a part of Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection and was given to museum by Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1967. A pendant mask dated of the sixteenth century, which has an interesting history and therefore can enhance our understanding of the role of art in African cultures (figure 3 in Appendix). This object originates from Benin, a culturally important region populated by Edo speaking people that is a part of southern and northern The mask has a rich history of ownership, as it belonged to Brenda Z. Seligman, Prof. C. G. Seligman, and Sir Ralph Moor. In the end, it also became a part of Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection and was gifted to museum by Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1972. (I`m afraid that if more detailed info is needed on provenance, the only way to get it is to visit the museum and find out, because officially Metropolitan Museum states only what we have mentioned above, i.e. that â€Å"it belonged to Brenda Z. Seligman, Prof. C. G. Seligman, and Sir Ralph Moor. In the end, it also became a part of Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection and was gifted to museum by Nelso n A. Rockefeller in 1972†) Of course, there exists a diverse and comprehensive body of research dedicated to such a complex phenomenon as African art. Most of the books dedicated to this topic attempt to integrate African art with social and ethnographic peculiarities of African cultures. I believe that this is a rightful path to follow, because if we try to comprehend the meaning of African objects of art while ignoring their context we risk not grasping their true meaning that was assigned to them by their creators. Among books that provide such an integrated approach to the research of African art we may highlight several. One of them is the work History of Art in Africa by Monica Blackmun Visona and numerous co-authors. This book is not that much a strictly formal research but rather a detailed guide that increases our understanding of artistic forms created in different regions of Africa by different peoples and cultures, especially those of the Sub-Saharan areas. From the academic point of view, by means of a combination of modern research of various forms of African arts and their attempts to apply those findings to different geographic regions and different times of African history authors had made a significant contribution to the literature devoted to the history of art. Another relevant work that deals with African art is the book edited by Tom Phillips Africa: The Art of a Continent. It is one of the most thorough general works on African art that provides detailed overview of art forms and styles, and at the same time gives extensive description of African tribes and their influence on regionalized art forms. In this way, this book is helpful as a reference for those who would like to systemize the knowledge of African art that one already has, and to localize cultural centers of African art. In addition to the mentioned books, the work of Sidney Littlefield Kasfir Contemporary African Art is the worthy piece of reasearch that treats the transformations in African art in the latter half of the 20th century. It is a very helpful direction of research because, among other things, it shows how the traditional forms of African art are reevaluated by contemporary African artists themselves. The high level of scholarship of the author and his masterful ability to tie modernity with history co-operate to paradoxically make this book relevant for those who aim to better understand not only modern African art, but its traditional forms as well, which is the important achievement for this author. Each of the mentioned books contains some outstanding points, but at the same time none of them can pretend to be a fully comprehensive guide to African art, if it is at all possible to make a such a guide. But as all those books cover somewhat different aspects of African art, I believe that our task is to try to combine their findings with our immediate impressions from the contemplation of the objects of African art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to achieve the highest possible level of comprehension of the uniqueness of African cultural heritage. This aim leads me to a more general task which I will try to accomplish, namely to see whether it is possible for a museum as a kind of â€Å"modern cultural church† of our society to present objects of an unfamiliar culture in such a way as to enable viewers to really penetrate beyond the objects` material form and recreate in their minds experiences similar to those of artists who embodied their feelings in artistic creations. This task presupposes some psychological research, of which my own impressions from the exhibition will be the object, and also considerations about the general level of successfulness of the exhibit as measured by visible impressions of its other visitors. The first object of our analysis is a seated figure of a male. Due to the age of this piece of art and the fact that African artists did not inscribe their names on their creations it is impossible to know who exactly was the author of this object. However, we know that this sculpture originates from a location known as Jenne-jeno, which was the most ancient known city of sub-Saharan Africa. This was a center that thrived around the ninth century AD, but declined by the beginning of the fifteenth century leaving numerous artifacts made of forged iron, cast brass, and clay. While performed archaeological digs give only a vague glimpse of the true role of art in that region, the available heritage of the old culture of Jenne-jeno definitely shows that artists of the urban society of that time possessed highly sophisticated artistic skills. For example, this particularly impressive figure, with its legs crossed, its chest almost pressed against a leg, and its head touching its knee, transmits the sensation of anxiety and stress, or, alternatively, of a full immersion in a prayer. This frozen emotional load of the sculpture bespeaks the motives of a creator of this piece of art that apparently were aimed at expressing intense emotional experiences that could arise from such events as ritual commemoration of the death of loved people. The method of direct portrayal of emotions as if written on the face of the figure serves to actually dissolve boundaries of time and make this object universally understood. (well, sometimes we have to defend our position, and in this case it actually could be both that the figure is tense or relaxed in prayer, and it`s not a contradiction. In fact, I checked the website of the Metropolitan and, ironically, there it is also said that this figure â€Å"simultaneously suggests the knotted tension of anxiety and the sublime absorption of deep prayer†) At the same time, sculptures like this one despite their concreteness of representation could simultaneously serve as a symbolic image of ancestors or mythic heroes, in this way existing in realms of both the material and spiritual, and therefore most probably were employed in ritual ceremonies. Indeed, the shaved head of this figure and its state of self-immersion are somewhat symbolized and remind of mourning practices that are still used by many cultures of sub-Saharan Africa.[4] In this way, this object enables us to suppose that such practices were as well common 700 years ago among peoples of the Inland Niger Delta. But, of course, due to the mentioned scarcity of our knowledge of the true role of art in the region of Jenne-jeno we cannot convincingly limit the role of this figure exclusively to mourning practices. In terms of materials used, this object is made of terracotta, a brownish baked earth clay that is a durable and easily workable substance. Usually, found terracotta figures have a lot of detail, because this material was widely used in African art for production of bodily ornaments and jewelry. This sculpture is not an exception as can be seen from its physical appearance and its surface qualities. For example, the technique used for the creation of this object enabled the author to make the parallel lines of knobs and dots on the back of the figure in such a way as to give it a heightened sense of relief. By the way, such knobs and dots were employed in African art quite often, sometimes covering the whole space of human figures. It is thought that this element in art was supposed to stand for signs of some kind of sicknesses that abound in African environment. [5] Combining the mentioned aspects of this object of art, I have to admit that I was greatly impressed by its overall look, and I noticed that the general response of other museum visitors was similar as people were apparently staying near this object for a longer time than on average. I believe the reason for this is the skillful work of the artist who managed to embody in the material shape a lot of emotional load, and therefore reached a powerful effect. But what made me especially excited about this object was the realization of the fact that for the author of this work its message was most probably personally experienced, and therefore this object conforms to one of the most important tasks of art, which lies in the creation of universal space of communication that transcends bounds of time and cultures. The second object of our research is a memorial head of a ruler dated of the seventeenth century, and for which we also do not know the author. This terracotta object is a decorated portrait that depicts a serene man with accurately balanced facial features and striped long neck. This form of African art belongs to what is called in some West-African cultures as â€Å"mma†, an idealized image that depicts the positive qualities that were expected from a ruler. Therefore, one of the main motives for the creation of this object was its involvement in ritual procedures. In fact, it is known that such portraits were crafted posthumously and were left along with similar images of preceding rulers in special sacred cemeteries and shrines called â€Å"mmaso† that had to keep the memory and the history of lineage of noble members of African societies. Additionally, this practice of posthumous pictorial commemoration of rulers also extended to members of his court and his servants, who were supposed to continue their service for their ruler after his death as well. â€Å"Mmaso† cemeteries were the places of regular offerings and prayers aimed at the constant support of the deceased ancestors.[6] On these grounds, it stands to reason that artists who created portraits such as the one we are studying were adding a great deal of symbolism to their creations. Indeed, the general appearance of this object is such that for me it was hard to imagine the person who it was intended to copy, and I suspect that the exact physical resemblance might not have been the main concern of the author of this memorial portrait. This head is also made from terracotta, and is decorated with fragments of quartz. But in contrast to the previous terracotta object that depicts a figure in a very plastic and emotional way, this object looks as if it was consciously processed by the artist without excessive modification of the original terracotta sphere. It seems that the facial features of the man float above the rough material they are inscribed on, and radiate a kind and positive irony, which to my judgement testifies to a very subtle technique used by the artist that is on a par with the best recognized masterpieces of fine arts. At the same time, it seems to me that this object of art retains some mystery, as if the closed eyes of the man say that we cannot see the world that his eyes had seen, and that we might have to become one of his contemporaries to fully perceive the world view of this ancient ruler and the artist who immortalized him. (Hm, it`s really hard to say what the professor meant by putting â€Å"!† along this portion of the text. . . Do you know exactly?) Interestingly, many people in the museum behaved as if feeling in some subconscious way the ultimate futility of efforts to fully comprehend the message of this object, because I noticed that in most cases visitors did not spend much time near this memorial head. But I believe that with this work the artist reached perhaps the most important artistic effect, that of its ability to intrigue truly attentive viewers, and therefore make them wonder about the hidden aspects of the culture that gave birth to this object. The last target of our research is a mask, the object strongly associated with African art. And, indeed, this mask had a special meaning for its creators. It is dated of the sixteenth century, and in contrast to previous anonymous works this artifact can give us some hints as to its artistic origin. In fact, this mask is thought to have been created in the beginning of the sixteenth century for the king of Benin Esigie. The mask depicts the elaborated and thoughtful portrait of the mother of the king, and it was probably used in rites that honored the king`s mother. From this we can guess that this mask was created by some court artist specifically for the ritual purposes, moreover that even today in many African cultures similar pendant masks are always involved in yearly rituals of spiritual purification. To reinforce this assumption we should point out that this mask is primarily made of ivory, the material that in Benin is associated with the white color that symbolizes ritual purity of the god of the sea named Olokun. This god was also viewed as a spiritual guard of kings, so this mask could bear several meanings.[7] In addition to ivory as a primary material, this mask is decorated with metal mosaic, has carved superficial incisions in the skin of its forehead, and holds below the chin beads made of coral. Interestingly, the collar and the diadem of the mask contain images of mudfish and bearded Portuguese. Mudfish live both in the water and on land, and thus it stands for the dual nature of the king who is simultaneously human and divine. On the other hand, Portuguese, who arrived from the sea, were perceived as coming from the spiritual realm. In this way, this mask integrates in it numerous symbols of the African culture. In general, this object of art conveys a somewhat different impression than previous ones. First of all, its high level of detail draws attention and begs for an especially careful inspection from the side of a viewer. On the other hand, despite having many types of decorations this mask nevertheless looks very integral and thematically complete. Moreover, among the objects of our research this mask is the most realistic one in terms of its resemblance to an actual human being. But at the same time it seemed to me that maybe because of its portrait-like look many people fail to notice the depth of its symbolical meaning of which the facial form of the mask is merely a small part. Thus, we can see that African artists already long time ago fully possessed the skill of integration of multilayered symbolical messages in a work of art, which uncovers the richness of their world views. On ground of our observations, we may conclude that museum exhibits can really give visitors a chance to relive experiences of cultures as different from ours as African ones are. However, the expansion of our cultural awareness is a task that perhaps to a larger degree depends on a viewer himself. Indeed, if a viewer just walks by the exhibit, she may get only a very limited impression of African art which may only confirm some formulaic notions that many of us have about it, like that there are a lot of masks, that objects of African art are of a strange look, etc. Even I must admit that without the deeper investigation of the history and hidden messages of the objects of African art that we had researched I would most probably also fail to see the true meaning of the works of African art, because a superficiality of judgement reduces the artistic creations merely to their material form and ignores their spiritual connotation. On a more practical side, I would recommend that in relation to exhibits devoted to exotic forms of art, of which African art is a good example, museums should not merely provide a passive presentation of artistic objects, but rather should take more proactive steps in terms of attraction of visitors` attention towards hidden aspects of art that may defy superficial attitude. For example, this purpose may be achieved through organization of publicly open regular thematic seminars on new historical, ethnographic and iconographic research devoted to African and other exotic forms of art, and through advertised presentations of new objects obtained by museum. All of this would help put what otherwise might be perceived as isolated individual objects of art into a larger cultural context, and therefore might increase public awareness of the specifics and values of art of different regions of the world.    Bibliography: â€Å"Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas†. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006. Bacquart, Jean-Baptiste. The Tribal Arts of Africa. Thames & Hudson, 2002. Brettell, Richard R. Modern Art 1851-1929 : Capitalism and Representation. Oxford University Press, 1999. Drewal, Henry John, Pemberton, John III, Abiodun, Rowland, and Wardwell, Allen, (Ed.). Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. Harry N Abrams, 1990. Ezra, Kate. Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992. Hahner-Herzog, Iris, Kecskesi, Maria, and Vajda, Lazlo. African Masks: The Barbier- Mueller Collection. Prestel Publishing, 1998. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield. Contemporary African Art. Thames & Hudson, 2000. Mills, C. Wright. Power, Politics, and People: The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills Oxford University Press, 1967. Phillips, Tom, (Ed.). Africa: The Art of a Continent. Prestel Publishing, 1999. Thompson, Robert Farris. African Art in Motion: Icon and Act in the Collection of Katherine Coryton White. University of California Press, 1974. Turner, Victor Witter. Revelation and divination in Ndembu ritual (Symbol, myth, and ritual). Cornell University Press, 1975. Visona, Monica Blackmun, Poynor, Robin, Cole, Herbert M., Harris, Michael D., Abiodun, Rowland, and Blier, Suzanne Preston. History of Art in Africa. Prentice Hall, 2003. Willett, Frank. African Art. Thames & Hudson, 2002. Works Cited: Hahner-Herzog, Iris, Kecskesi, Maria, and Vajda, Lazlo. African Masks: The Barbier- Mueller Collection. Prestel Publishing, 1998. Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield. Contemporary African Art. Thames & Hudson, 2000. Mills, C. Wright. Power, Politics, and People: The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills. Oxford University Press, 1967. Paz, Octavio. Convergences: Essays on Art and Literature. Harvest/HBJ Book, 1991. Phillips, Tom, (Ed.). Africa: The Art of a Continent. Prestel Publishing, 1999. Visona, Monica Blackmun, Poynor, Robin, Cole, Herbert M., Harris, Michael D., Abiodun, Rowland, and Blier, Suzanne Preston. History of Art in Africa. Prentice Hall, 2003. (As you could see, I already have removed Paz from Bibliography)

Strikes in the Early 1930’s

Strikes were common place in the early 1930†³s in all industrial and manufacturing corporations. They were used to win power away from the corporate giants, and put it in the hands of the working class. Labor used strikes for a variety of reasons, some for higher wages, some for working conditions, some for safety on the job, and still others for recognition. In a book entitled, â€Å"I Remember Like Today: The Auto-Lite Strike of 1934† Philip A. Korth and Margaret R. Beegle compile an oral history account of this fight for the rights of the working class. To gain the knowledge acquired for this book, the authors searched high and low to ind the living survivors of this turning point for organized labor in Toledo. After discovering the individuals who could help, the investigators interviewed and then recorded the men and women†s accounts of the strike. Then they transcribed the interviews verbatim. This method provides for a more personal approach to learning what had happened in the strike. It allows the reader to see what actually happen through the The book is a collection statements, stories, and feelings of the men and women involved in the strike. Each individual tells their story based on headings, and that is what complied the chapters. In this method, the reader gets to hear all sides of the story because Korth and Beegle get some who were union supports, union organizers, some who were strike breakers, management. Certainly no critic can say, this book only tells one All of the forth-coming events, activities, and problems took place in Toledo, Ohio at the Electric Auto-Lite Company. The Electric Auto-Lite Company was a part of the automotive assembly industry. It used mainly unskilled workers to operate the machinery, and the machinery was that There were two separate strikes at Auto-Lite. The first was used to orce the company into recognizing the union; that was the first step towards collective bargaining†¦ recognition. It stared on February 23, lasted only four days, and resulted in the reinstatement of the 15 workers who walked out, and an agreement. The workers won the battle but that was a long way from winning the war. Auto-Lite gave the union a 30-day contract, which basically stated the company would recognize the union for thirty days, but even in that thirty days the company refused to recognize the union as a bargaining representative of the workers. When this thirty ays reached its conclusion, the union was no better off then when it started. In fact in those thirty days the company was preparing itself for a strike. They started mass hiring new workers, so they could keep running the company if the labor walked out. The second strike began on April 13, and consisted of some 400 Auto-Lite workers. The strike seemingly divided the work force equally, as many went in as picketed. Then on May 3, a court injunction restricted the number of picketers at one time to a minuscule twenty-five. This rallied the surrounding men and women in the area to unite and break this injunction hat limited all of their freedom. On May 21, 22, and 23 more then 6,000 men and women united in front of Auto-Lite to hear speakers and to protest the company, along with protesting the court injunction. This is when the real trouble started for the company and the picketers. On May 23, A young women by the name of Alma Hand was stuck by a steel bracket which caused a riot among the crowd, and which initiated a raid on the building. The deputies fired tear gas at the would be invaders to stop them from storming the facility. That night a raging crowd refused to allow the scabs off the premises. After this episode, the Ohio National Guard was called in to restore the peace. These guardsmen only worsened the situation. On the next day, May 24, they charged the crowd wounding 12, then firing their rifles and killing one, then later that same day, they fired once again wounding two more picketers. By the 26th of May, with demands that the plant be closed and the Guard withdraw, another tragic confrontation occurred. The crowd attacked the Guard, 200 were injured and 50 were arrested. The plant remained closed for the following week and did not reopen until June 5. At this point, the strikers had emerged victorious. After all the hardships, injuries, and deaths, the union had been established and recognized. This was a shallow victory at first due to a number of circumstances. First of all, the old workers who remained at work throughout the strike had preference during the rehiring process. Secondly, betrayers who associated themselves with management formed their own bargaining organization called the Auto-Lite Council. This organization acquired for them preference in rehiring. The Auto-Lite Council soon diminished in numbers, while Local 18384 was increasing dramatically. This was due to the realization that the strikers were the ones who had won them collective bargaining, not the Auto-Lite Council. Therefore, their loyalties lied with the organization that had created the situation in which they had more power, respect, and The Auto-Lite strike is a perfect example of how the labor movement has advanced. The first strike only involved a mediocre 15 men. The second strike reached out to about 50% of the work force. The men and women of Auto-Lite had embraced their union and made it their own. This represents the labor movement because at the start only about million workers were unionized. At the pinnacle of the movement nearly 50% of the work force was organized, the number was in excess of 10 million individuals. Workers saw how the union could help them. They saw solidarity and unity, which when combined produced a force to be reckoned with. The union provided for higher wages, more benefits, and better working conditions. This idea is what attracted more members and this belief is what united the men and women at Auto-Lite. The strike also represents the risks and hardships accepted by the organizers who take on the challenge of forming a union. The 15 who went out in the first Auto-Lite strike took the chance of losing their jobs and hampering their families welfare to form a union just to help every worker in the plant. The men also accepted that they were going to lose their jobs and would have to fight for reinstatement. But all the risks taken, and all the brief hardships felt were well worth it considering the ends. Their union was recognized. Not to the extent they wished, but nonetheless they won recognition, which catapulted them to eventual complete victory. This result was not always the case. In some strikes the union failed nd the workers lost big. To the credit of the workers, their supporters, and their organizers the men and women of Auto-Lite were triumphant and won the fight of all fights; to gain respect, power, and recognition. This event was the turning point in labor relations in the city of Toledo. It gave confindence and self worth to the working class, and stripped the company management of their unimpeded omnipotence. The Auto-Lite Strike of 1934 changed the entire way that company operations were run, and for that, those who work in Toledo should be applauded, and recognized for the achievements they accomplished.

The History Of Philosophy Theology Essays

The History Of Philosophy Theology Essays The History Of Philosophy Theology Essay The History Of Philosophy Theology Essay I, 12 ; Cicero: Tusculanae disputationes , V, 8-9 ) . The attribution is based on a transition in a lost work of Herakleides Pontikos, a adherent of Aristotle. It is considered to be portion of the widespread fables of Pythagoras of this clip. Philosopher replaced the word Sophist ( from sophoi ) , which meant wise work forces , instructors of rhetoric, who were of import in Athenian democracy. [ edit ] Ancient doctrine ( c. 600 BC-c. AD 500 ) Chief article: Ancient doctrine Aristotle Plato Ancient doctrine is the doctrine of the Graeco-Roman universe from the sixth century [ circa 585 ] BC to the sixth century AD. It is normally divided into three periods: the presocratic period, the period of Plato and Aristotle, and the post-Aristotelian ( or Hellenistic ) period. A 4th period that is sometimes added includes the Neoplatonic and Christian philosophers of Late Antiquity. The most of import of the ancient philosophers ( in footings of subsequent influence ) are Plato and Aristotle. [ 7 ] The chief topics of ancient doctrine are: understanding the cardinal causes and rules of the existence ; explicating it in an economical manner ; the epistemic job of accommodating the diverseness and alteration of the natural existence, with the possibility of obtaining fixed and certain cognition about it ; inquiries about things that can non be perceived by the senses, such as Numberss, elements, universals, and Gods ; the analysis of forms of concluding and statement ; the nature of the good life and the importance of understanding and cognition in order to prosecute it ; the explication of the construct of justness, and its relation to assorted political systems. [ 7 ] In this period the important characteristics of the philosophical method were established: a critical attack to have or established positions, and the entreaty to ground and debate. [ edit ] Medieval doctrine ( c. 500-c. 1350 ) Chief article: Medieval doctrine St. Thomas Aquinas Medieval doctrine is the doctrine of Western Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages, approximately widening from the Christianization of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance. [ 8 ] Medieval doctrine is defined partially by the rediscovery and farther development of classical Greek and Hellenistic doctrine, and partially by the demand to turn to theological jobs and to incorporate sacred philosophy ( in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity ) with secular acquisition. The history of European medieval doctrine is traditionally divided into three chief periods: the period in the Latin West following the Early Middle Ages until the twelfth century, when the plants of Aristotle and Plato were preserved and cultivated ; and the aureate age of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries in the Latin West, which witnessed the apogee of the recovery of ancient doctrine, and important developments in the field of Philosophy of faith, Logic and Metaphysics. The medieval epoch was slightingly treated by the Renaissance humanists, who saw it as a barbarian in-between period between the classical age of Greek and Roman civilization, and the metempsychosis or Renaissance of classical civilization. Yet this period of about a thousand old ages was the longest period of philosophical development in Europe, and perchance the richest. Jorge Gracia has argued that in strength, edification, and accomplishment, the philosophical blossoming in the 13th century could be justly said to equal the aureate age of Grecian doctrine in the 4th century B.C. [ 9 ] Some jobs discussed throughout this period are the relation of religion to ground, the being and integrity of God, the object of divinity and metaphysics, the jobs of cognition, of universals, and of individualization. Philosophers from the Middle Ages include the Muslim philosophers Alkindus, Alfarabi, Alhazen, Avicenna, Algazel, Avempace, Abubacer and Averroes ; the Judaic philosophers Maimonides and Gersonides ; and the Christian philosophers Augustine of Hippo, Boethius, Anselm, Gilbert of Poitiers, Peter Abelard, Roger Bacon, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Jean Buridan. The mediaeval tradition of Scholasticism continued to boom every bit tardily as the seventeenth century, in figures such as Francisco Suarez and John of St. Thomas. Aquinas, male parent of Thomism, was vastly influential, placed a greater accent on ground and debate, and was one of the first to utilize the new interlingual rendition of Aristotle s metaphysical and epistemic authorship. His work was a important going from the Neoplatonic and Augustinian thought that had dominated much of early Scholasticism. Many modern ethicians both within and outside the Catholic Church ( notably Philippa Foot and Alasdair MacIntyre ) have late commented on Aquinas s virtuousness moralss as a manner of avoiding utilitarianism or Kantian sense of responsibility ( deontology ) . Through the work of 20th-century philosophers such as Elizabeth Anscombe, his rule of dual consequence and his theory of knowing activity by and large have been influential. Cognitive neuroscientist and philosopher Walter Freeman proposes that Thomism is the system explicating knowledge that is most compatible with neurodynamics, in a 2008 article in the diary Mind and Matter entitled Nonlinear Brain Dynamics and Intention Harmonizing to Aquinas. The influence of Aquinas s aesthetics besides can be found in the plants of the Italian semiotician Umberto Eco. [ edit ] Renaissance doctrine ( c. 1350-c. 1600 ) Chief article: Renaissance doctrine Giordano Bruno The Renaissance ( metempsychosis ) was a period of passage between the Middle Ages and modern idea, [ 10 ] in which the recovery of classical texts shifted philosophical involvements off from proficient surveies in logic, metaphysics, and divinity towards eclectic enquiries into morality, linguistics, and mysticism. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] The survey of classics, peculiarly the freshly rediscovered plants of Plato and the Neoplatonists, and of the humane arts more by and large ( such as history and literature ) enjoyed a popularity hitherto unknown in Christendom. The construct of adult male displaced God as the cardinal object of philosophical contemplation. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] The Renaissance besides renewed involvement in nature considered as an organic whole comprehendible independently of divinity, as in the work of Nicholas of Kues, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, and Telesius. Such motions in natural doctrine dovetailed with a resurgence of involvement in thaumaturgy, hermeticism, and star divination, which were thought to give concealed ways of knowing and mastering nature ( e.g. , in Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola ) . [ 15 ] These new motions in doctrine developed contemporaneously with larger political and spiritual transmutations in Europe: the diminution of feudal system and the Reformation. The rise of the monarchal nation-state found voice in progressively secular political doctrines, as in the work of Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas More, Jean Bodin, Tommaso Campanella, and Hugo Grotius. And while the Reformers showed small direct involvement in doctrine, their devastation of the traditional foundations of theological and rational authorization harmonized with the resurgence of fideism and incredulity in minds such as Erasmus, Montaigne and Francisco Sanches. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] [ edit ] Early modern doctrine ( c. 1600-c. 1800 ) John Locke This is the high period for modern doctrine and besides for British doctrine. Modern doctrine built upon the rebellion against Scholasticism initiated in the 1500s by authors such as Machiavelli. Francis Bacon in peculiar argued the instance for materialist experimental scientific discipline, and in the 1600s and 1700s modern scientific discipline became progressively separate from doctrine. Doctrine in this period centered on the relation between experience and world, the ultimate beginning of cognition, the nature of the head and its relation to the organic structure, the deductions of the new natural scientific disciplines for free will and God. Work besides began upon building a layman, materialist moral and political doctrine. By the terminal of this period classical economic sciences had started to go a separate subject from doctrine, with its ain advice to give about political relations and moralss. Chronologically, this epoch spans the 17th and 18th centuries. Canonic figures include Hobbes, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Rousseau, Hume, and eventually Kant. [ 18 ] The period is by and large considered to stop with Kant s systematic effort to accommodate Newtonian natural philosophies with traditional metaphysical subjects. [ 19 ] Kant saw himself as trying to react to the challenge of Rousseau and Hume, whose plants had triggered uncertainties most significantly about the possibility of cognition itself, and hence non merely about the value of all doctrine and scientific discipline, but besides the political and moral deductions of modernness. In this regard Kant can be seen as a gustatory sensation of farther uncertainties to come in the 19th and twentieth centuries. [ edit ] Nineteenth-century doctrine Chief article: Modern doctrine Subsequently modern doctrine is normally considered to get down after the doctrine of Immanuel Kant at the beginning of the nineteenth century. [ 20 ] Many of the most noteworthy authors of this period were in Germany. German dreamers, such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, transformed the work of Kant by keeping that the universe is constituted by a rational or mind-like procedure, and as such is wholly cognizable. [ 21 ] However, uncertainties about the possibility of cognition or doctrine, and about modern life itself, became a memorable subject of German doctrine by the terminal of this period, which had far-reaching influence upon the remainder of the universe. Arthur Schopenhauer s designation of this world-constituting procedure as an irrational will to populate influenced subsequently 19th- and early 20th-century thought, such as the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. After 1830, 19th-century doctrine mostly turned against idealism in favour of assortments of philosophical naturalism, such as the positivism of Auguste Comte, the empiricist philosophy of John Stuart Mill, and the philistinism of Karl Marx. Other philosophers, many working from outside academe, initiated lines of idea that would go on to busy doctrine into the early and mid-20th century, for illustration * Gottlob Frege s work in logic and Henry Sidgwick s work in moralss provided the tools for early analytic doctrine. * Charles Sanders Peirce and William James founded pragmatism. * Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche laid the basis for existential philosophy and post-structuralism. * Karl Marx began the survey of societal materialist doctrine. [ edit ] Twentieth-century doctrine Chief article: Contemporary doctrine Within the last century, doctrine has progressively become a professional subject practiced within universities, like other academic subjects. Consequently, it has become less general and more specialised. In the position of one outstanding recent historiographer: Doctrine has become a extremely organized subject, done by specializers chiefly for other specializers. The figure of philosophers has exploded, the volume of publication has swelled, and the subfields of serious philosophical probe have multiplied. Not merely is the wide field of doctrine today far excessively huge to be embraced by one head, something similar is true even of many extremely specialised subfields. [ 22 ] In the English-speaking universe, analytic doctrine became the dominant school for much of the twentieth century. In the first half of the century, it was a cohesive school, shaped strongly by logical positivism, united by the impression that philosophical jobs could and should be solved by attending to logic and linguistic communication. The pioneering work of Bertrand Russell was a theoretical account for the early development of analytic doctrine, traveling from a rejection of the idealism dominant in late nineteenth century British doctrine to an neo-Humean empiricist philosophy, strengthened by the conceptual resources of modern mathematical logic. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] [ 25 ] In the latter half of the twentieth century, analytic doctrine diffused into a broad assortment of disparate philosophical positions, merely slackly united by historical lines of influence and a self-identified committedness to lucidity and asperity. The post-war transmutation of the analytic plan led in two wide waies: on one manus, an involvement in ordinary linguistic communication as a manner of avoiding or redescribing traditional philosophical jobs, and on the other, a more exhaustive naturalism that sought to fade out the mystifiers of modern doctrine via the consequences of the natural scientific disciplines ( such as cognitive psychological science and evolutionary biological science ) . The displacement in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, from a position congruent with logical positivism to a curative disintegration of traditional doctrine as a lingual misinterpretation of normal signifiers of life, was the most influential version of the first way in analytic doctrine. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] The ulterior work of Russell and the doctrine of W.V.O. Quine are influential examples of the naturalist attack dominant in the 2nd half of the twentieth century. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] But the diverseness of analytic doctrine from the 1970s onward defies easy generalisation: the naturalism of Qui ne and his epigoni was in some precincts superseded by a new metaphysics of possible universes, as in the influential work of David Lewis. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] Recently, the experimental doctrine motion has sought to reappraise philosophical jobs through societal scientific discipline research techniques. On Continental Europe, no individual school or disposition enjoyed laterality. The flight of the logical rationalists from cardinal Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, nevertheless, diminished philosophical involvement in natural scientific discipline, and an accent on the humanistic disciplines, loosely construed, figures conspicuously in what is normally called Continental doctrine . twentieth century motions such as phenomenology, existential philosophy, hermeneutics, critical theory, structural linguistics, and poststructuralism are included within this loose class, which began at the bend of the century in the thoughts of Edmund Husserl, who sought to analyze consciousness as experienced from a first-person position, [ 34 ] [ 35 ] and found unconventional but influential articulation in the plants of Martin Heidegger, who drew on the thoughts of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl to suggest an experiential attack to ontology. [ 36 ] [ 37 ]

High Stakes Curriulum and Teasting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

High Stakes Curriulum and Teasting - Essay Example ontributing to the high stakes curriculum and testing since it greatly supports standard-based education reforms by ensuring schools institute high standards and setting measurable to improve the quality of education in American schools. The RTTT contributes to high stakes curriculum and testing since it promotes innovation and reforms with local and state district K-12 education. The Common Core Standards contribution is pegged on the fact that it clearly denotes what students should learn and the basic skills they should acquire in each grade. According to Oakes and Lipton (2007), the main advantage of these initiatives is that they mainly seek to improve the quality of education and ensure American children gain quality and relevant education in order to sustain the future growth of the Nation. Secondly, Sowell (2010 stated that the initiatives aim at ensuring public schools offer quality education unlike the usually norm whereby it is perceived that only private schools offer quality education. Thirdly, Sowell (2010) wrote that the initiatives aim at creating a just society whereby every child is able to gain quality education that will make him or her competitive in the future. Sowell (2010) lamented that the main disadvantages of these initiatives is that they create confusion within the education sector because of varying requirements imposed on schools and the insistence of uniformity among schools, hinders some schools from customizing their education program in order to address their individual or state challenges that is impairing their education

The Analysis of the Strategic situation of ARM Holdings Essay

The Analysis of the Strategic situation of ARM Holdings - Essay Example he foremost suppliers of intellectual property (IP) semiconductors that possess a significant impact upon the advancement as well as the progression of digital electronic products. The company’s headquarter is located in Cambridge of United Kingdom and it has engaged more than 2000 people within their organisation. The company has its offices worldwide including its design centres especially in France, India, Sweden and the US (ARM Ltd., 2012). ARM Holdings was founded in the year 1990 and the profits of the company rapidly expanded over and above the total profits of the then semiconductor industry. The company sells over 800 processor licenses to in excess of 250 companies throughout the world with superior quality. Along with rapidly expanding in terms of profits within the overall semiconductor industry, ARM also has gained outstanding market share as compared to its other competitors (ARM Ltd., 2012). ARM Holdings mainly deals with outstanding products such as high-performance processors, system IP products, astonishing multimedia hardware products, extensive offering of physical IP products and software development instruments that are utilised in every phase of application development (ARM Ltd., 2012). In the paper, an overall analysis of the different business strategic circumstances especially of ARM Holdings will be taken into concern. Various aspects that include the application of Porter’s five forces model, value chain framework analyses of ARM Holdings along with Intel as comparison in order to evaluate their business models, suitable recommendations and an amassed conclusion will be portrayed in the discussion of this paper. ARM Holdings is essentially regarded as a part of semiconductor or microprocessor industry. The microprocessors are a kind of semiconductors. The semiconductors are the materials that generally conduct electricity and can be easily regulated acting as conductors and insulators. Presently, the semiconductor appliances are