Monday, September 30, 2019
Movie review jobs
The movie I choose to write my review on is not one of my all-time favorites movies but the person who the movie is based on has been huge interest to me since I heard his story. The movie is titled ââ¬Å"Jobsâ⬠; it is based on the true story of Steve Jobs, one most innovating men in 21st century. The movie is a series of events in Stave's life that started from when is Just dropping out of college to when he is a success business man. In the movie you can expect his struggle of trying to build a innovative technology company during the time of early technology boom.One of my favorite things about the movie ââ¬Å"Jobsâ⬠is how inspiring it is. How despite all the negative people and things he still finds a way to focus on his dream or goal. One of my quotes form the movie ââ¬Å"here's to the crazy ones the misfits the rebels the trouble makers the round pegs in the square holes the people that are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the one who doâ⬠Steve Jobs. The quote is taken from one of my favorite scenes towards the end of the movie when he starting to realize why is doing things. If I had to give an award to the best actor In this film ââ¬Å"Jobâ⬠It would have to go toGaston Catcher. Gaston played the role of main character Steve Jobs, Gaston was able absorb many of Steve mannerisms such as the way Steve spoke with his hands to the way he walked. Something I was surprised to see from Gaston was how he played the part with so much emotion ad passion. You cannot forget the great acting by the support role Josh Gad. Josh did a great Job In playing a funny type role In the beginning and then towards the end a very serious and passionate role. I also have to give a round of applause to the director In picking the actors.At the end when the reedit were rolling they had picture of the actor and the actual people they played and they all looked Identical. There wasn't much I didn't Like about the movie. One thing that did stand out was that the movie was cut short. As fan of Steve Jobs I'm Interested to see how the story continues. Growing up In the time when he was around I know that there was much more of the his story to tell. I have a feeling they left off were they did for a second film. (Which Is a shame). The movie ââ¬Å"Jobsâ⬠Is full of passion, hope, selfishness, love and Innovation.I think his Is a movie that everyone should watch but who I think would enjoy the movie most would be anyone Interested In technology, college student or Interested In learning about a man who changed the world. Even with the movie being cut short I still found that this movie was an Inspiration to me. If I had to give an award to the best actor in this film ââ¬Å"Jobâ⬠it would have to go to support role Josh Gad. Josh did a great Job in playing a funny type role in the to give a round of applause to the director in picking the actors. At the end when the and they all looked identical.There wasn't much I didn't like about the movie. One thing that did stand out was that the movie was cut short. As fan of Steve Jobs I'm interested to see how the story continues. Growing up in the time when he was around I know that there was much film. (Which is a shame). The movie ââ¬Å"Jobsâ⬠is full of passion, hope, selfishness, love and innovation. I think this is a movie that everyone should watch but who I think would enjoy the movie most would be anyone interested in technology, college student or interested in still found that this movie was an inspiration to me.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Conflicts by Pyong Gap Min
The book Changes and Conflicts by Pyong Gap Min gives us an analysis on how and why Korean migration to the United States has altered their traditional family system. Allyn and Bacon published the book in 1998. The book focuses on changes in gender roles and marital relations. Also Korean child socialization, adjustments of the elderly, and the nature of transnational families and kin ties are topics Min discusses in the book. Min uses results of several surveys as well as his own ethnographic research to back his claims. Min used his own personal family experiences, his observations of other Korean families, informal discussion with Korean school teachers and social workers, and Korean newspaper articles for insight on Korean immigrant families. He also interviewed 50 Koreans in N. Y. representing a broad range of Korean people. Finally, Min used census and survey data, including his own surveys of Koreans in New York, to provide statistical information about Korean immigrant families. Min starts his analysis of Korean immigrant family by providing some background information on the Korean community in N. Y. Min explains that recent Korean immigrants can be characterized as being highly educated, urbanized, and predominately Christian. Korean immigrants began to settle in New York after 1965. One reason is the need for medical professionals during the 1960s in the New York and New Jersey area. The demand for medical professionals attracted many Korean professionals to the area. These professionals later on became naturalized and were able to invite their relatives for permanent residence. A characteristic o f the contemporary Korean community living in N. Y. are their concentration in small business. Min explains that the vast majority of the Korean work force is segregated in the Korean sub-economy, either as business owners or as employees of co-ethnic businesses. Some Korean businesses include green groceries, trade business dealing, import business, dry-cleaning service, and nail salons. Min states that the segregation of Korean immigrants in the work place promotes the preservation of their Korean cultural traditions and social interactions with co-ethnic. Min then proceeds to examine the role Confucianism plays on the Korean family system. Min claims that Confucian values that emphasizes filial piety, family/kin ties, the patriarchal family order, and childrenâ⬠s education still have a powerful effect on the behavior and attitudes of all Koreans. For example, Korean government, school, and community encourage people to practice filial piety by rewarding those who are exceptional in showing loyalty, respect, and devotion to their parents and by punishing those who deviate far from the norm. Also the concept of patriarchy has helped establish a male dominated society in Korea. In Korea, boys are preferred and are treated more favorably than girls and more emphasis is placed on boysâ⬠education than girls are. Finally, the emphasis on child education can be seen in Korea where formal education is used as a means of social mobility. According to Min, the most significant change brought about by international migration is the phenomenal increase in wivesâ⬠economic role coupled with the weakling of husbandsâ⬠role as provider. Korean immigrant working women make an important income contribution to the family finances. Min claims that Korean wives play a more important role than their husbands do in many family business, particularly small dry cleaning shops and small restaurants. Also it is easier for Korean immigrant wives to find jobs compared to their husbands because of the demand for blue-collar jobs. Even though Korean wives play an important economic role, their power and status in Korean society does not increase. Min claims the status of a Korean woman as a ââ¬Å"helperâ⬠in the family business rather than as a co-owner also diminishes her social status and influence in the Korean immigrant community. Also the segregation of Korean immigrants at economic and religious levels bolsters the patriarchal ideology they brought with them from Korea. However, reality still remains and Korean womenâ⬠s increased economic role in many Korean immigrant families has reduced their husbandâ⬠s patriarchal authority, creating new sources of marital conflict and sometimes leading to separation and divorce. Koreansâ⬠child care and child socialization patterns undergo significant changes when they move to the United States. The major reason Min gives is the increase in Korean Immigrant womenâ⬠s participation in the labor force. In the U. S. Korean women who work and have pre-school children depend on private nurseries or an elderly mother or mother-in-law for child care while they continue to work. This is a contrast compared with life in Korea where women who have pre-school children usually do not participate in paid work, but instead focus on child care. Also because both Korean parents work long hours outside the home, many children are left unsupervised at home. Min believes that this has lead to juvenile delinquency among Korean children, and may cause problems in the psychological development of a child. Another change in Korean family lifestyle is in gender socialization. There has been a change from the preference of male children, and equal treatment in educational aspects between boys and girls. However, the emphasis on childrenâ⬠s success in education has not changed since Korean immigrants moved to New York. Korean par ents push their children to do academics so they can attend a prestigious college and choose a field that leads to a high-status more common for them to live with their daughters than with sons. Second, Korean elderly do not depend on their children for financial support or expect support from their children. This is due to the welfare programs for the elderly, which have made them independent from their children. Finally, Min states that the vast majority of Korean elderly are satisfied with their lives in N. Y. and plan to live here permanently. The reasons Min gives for Korean elderly life satisfaction are their economic and residential independence, involvement in strong . The Korean elderly have also been affected by the changes in the traditional family system. First, many Korean elderly live independently of their children, and it is friendship networks and access to ethnic services in Queens, low expectations for economic and occupational success, and their deeply religious lives. Finally, Min explains how new technology and improvements in international travel has helped Koreans maintain strong ties to friends and relatives in their home country. The advanced in these two areas of technology and travel has lead to improve communication between family members. For example, more Korean family members can keep in touch with their relatives in Korea because of the increased convenience and affordability. The increase in communication between Korea and the U. S. has lead to the creation of ââ¬Å"international commuter marriagesâ⬠. Min describes international commuter marriages as being marriages where the husband has returned to Korea for a better occupation while his wife and children remains in the U. S. to take advantage of educational opportunities. Th advance in communication and travel has helped international commuter marriages prosper because now spouses can visit each other several times a year and talk on the phone every week. Min provides a detailed analysis of the Korean family. Minâ⬠s book opens up the reader to a society that the public knows little about. He provides an understanding of norms and beliefs of Korean society. By doing so, Min dismisses the stereotypes that plague Korean society. The data used in the book is solidly backed up by experiences of Korean people making it valid and logical. Finally, the book was written in 1998 making Minâ⬠s ideas relevant for todayâ⬠s Korean society.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
A Babel of Tongues â⬠The Dialectic of Communication and Solitude in Virginia Woolf
A Babel of Tongues ââ¬â The Dialectic of Communication and Solitude in Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolfââ¬â¢s answer to Mr. Ramsayââ¬â¢s philosophical pursuits in To the Lighthouse is a reconciliation of both worlds ââ¬â subjective perception and interpretation, and external objectivity. The first chapter of the novel is entitled ââ¬Å"The Window,â⬠and serves to represent the point of contact between subjective and objective states. This, Woolf believes to be our reality. External facts are arbitrary and meaningless until they are apprehended by a subjective state which gives them form; on a social level, communicating as a participant in society exposes the individual to an incoherent tumult of impressions that have to be reorganized into a coherent whole in solitude. Only then can one achieve peace. The individual is hence continually in search of an equilibrium in the dialectic of communication and solitude. Peter Walsh summarizes this concept in Mrs. Dalloway: For this is the truth about our soulâ⬠¦our self, who, fish-like inhabits deep seas and plies among obscuritiesâ⬠¦suddenly she shoots to the surface and sports on the wind-wrinkled waves; that is, has a positive need to brush, scrape, kindle herself, gossiping. However, to re-enter society as a participant entails at least a partial suspension of oneââ¬â¢s subjectively constructed reality. Creative organisation is forfeited, and the ââ¬Å"infinite richnessâ⬠of life that Peter experienced a moment ago gives way to anxiety and a sense that events are spiraling out of oneââ¬â¢s control. The city appears to be ââ¬Å"floating off in a carnival,â⬠and the febrile party of life ââ¬â ââ¬Å"the flare and the glareâ⬠ââ¬â becomes lurid and chaotic. The coherent whole fragments and becomes meaningless isolated elements of reality that wash past Peter in an incomprehensible manner: ââ¬Å"the cold stream of visual impressions failed him now as if the eye were a cup that overflowed and let the rest run down its china walls unrecorded.â⬠The consequence of this is that ââ¬Å"the brain must wake nowâ⬠¦the soul must brave itself to endure.â⬠Previously, as an invisible flà ¢neur amidst the bustling city, Peter could relax his mind to appreciate the myriad impressions of London life. To join the party would entail shedding invisibility and arresting these mental excursions in order to function socially. He takes out his pocketknife again, as he did when he first went to see Clarissa in the morning. T.E Apter suggests that the pocketknife is ââ¬Å"a tool with which to pare down his perceptions, to preen his identity, and to defend himself against othersââ¬â¢ views.â⬠This is observed in Peter Walshââ¬â¢s proleptic defense constructed in his thoughts against societyââ¬â¢s voice, including Clarissaââ¬â¢s. He defends himself against the labels ââ¬Å"Socialistâ⬠and ââ¬Å"failure,â⬠asserting that the future of civilization lies in the ââ¬Å"hands of young men like[himself],â⬠a nd diminishes Clarissaââ¬â¢s negative opinions of him by suggesting that she is superficial and snobbish. While Apter feels that Peter Walshââ¬â¢s pocketknife is not a ââ¬Å"worn-out masculine symbol,â⬠Peterââ¬â¢s self-defensive maneuvers are undeniably offensive. Watching Peter handle his pocketknife, Clarissa imaginatively formulates his self-defense as revealed in his interior monologue ââ¬â that she was ââ¬Å"frivolous; empty minded; a mere chatterbox.â⬠His self-defense invariably becomes an attack ââ¬â interaction and communication hence turn into a battleground. Clarissa retaliates ââ¬Å"like a Queen whose guards have fallen sleep and left her unprotected,â⬠and ââ¬Å"summoned to her help the things she did; the things she liked; her husband; Elizabeth; her self, in shortâ⬠¦to come about her and beat off the enemy (my italics).â⬠Her self, violated by misrepresentation, seeks to validate itself and emerges as the ââ¬Å"indomitable egotismâ⬠that safeguards her vanity by overriding Peterââ¬â¢s claims. As a result, both Peter and C larissa ââ¬Å"challenge each otherâ⬠as in a ââ¬Å"battle.â⬠Clarissa validates her identity through external indicators ââ¬â ââ¬Å"the things she did; the things she liked; her husband; Elizabeth.â⬠This is because a pattern of symbolic interpretation preexists the objects she names. Husband, daughter and hobbies can therefore be used as symbols representing success and felicity to vindicate Clarissaââ¬â¢s choices in life and challenge Peterââ¬â¢s position. However, these external indicators often make reductive summaries of their characters that they would not accept so easily in solitude. Clarissa chooses to define herself in these terms insofar as they offer her protection against Peterââ¬â¢s accusations; they cannot, however, fully represent her essential being, which explains ââ¬Å"the feelingâ⬠¦of dissatisfactionâ⬠she often experiences of ââ¬Å"not knowing people; not being known.â⬠On the other hand, using social language to ââ¬Å"preen oneââ¬â¢s identityâ⬠does scale down the task of defend ing oneself against the whole of society into manageable proportions. One tactic Peter employs is in reproducing the external indicators imposed upon him in a dismissive tone (hence ââ¬Å"preening his identityâ⬠), as he does later during the party. This subverts the significance of the criticisms and places him in a more enviable light than the term ââ¬Å"failureâ⬠would normally allow. This is done without necessitating a head-on battle against societyââ¬â¢s rather ill-founded impositions and labels ââ¬â a task which would only make him appear insecure and, indeed, even more of a ââ¬Å"failure.â⬠Another means of self-defense is to appeal to another set of external indicators, which Peter does in response to Clarissaââ¬â¢s attack. He draws upon his ââ¬Å"praise; his career at Oxford; his marriageâ⬠and tackles societyââ¬â¢s implicit criticisms with another implicit social argument, and hence simultaneously defends and misrepresents himself. When one is alone, the self is relieved of the tedious tasks of self-defense and self-validation. The individual is allowed his own subjective understanding of events passing in the world and meets no resistance in his interpretation. Peter, upon leaving Clarissa, can therefore criticize her as having ââ¬Å"something cold,â⬠ââ¬Å"a sort of timidity which in middle age becomes conventionality,â⬠without facing Clarissaââ¬â¢s offensive self-defense. These criticisms are individual interpretations and are expressed in terms that are more subjective and descriptive, though less peremptory (which reduces their defensive power) than the predetermined arguments implicit in reductive and generalized social indicators. While these interpretations would afford a more meaningful debate, their lack of defensive power causes them to be eschewed on social battlegrounds where the more imperious external indicators are favoured. Only in solitude is Peter able to organize a more meani ngful representation of reality based on his own subjective interpretation of the events around him. Social language can be seen to impose frameworks of identity on characters, denying them the validity of their subjectively construed self-representations. It is this imposition of identity that characters in The Hours find unbearable. Cunningham describes his text as a ââ¬Å"riffâ⬠on Mrs. Dalloway. Faithfully enough, his text is informed by the same theories of identity as a fluid concept as is seen in Woolf, where the self is constantly foiled and resurrected in an etiology concerning identity shaped by communication and solitude. Richard feels that the party could go on ââ¬Å"with the idea of [him].â⬠His self identity has been subsumed into facile social categorization, and he is defined as the tragic and sick artist who writes ââ¬Å"weird book[s].â⬠It is for this reason that he feels he ââ¬Å"got a prize for [his] performanceâ⬠¦for having AIDS and going nuts and being brave about it.â⬠The external indicators ââ¬â his sickness and his lengthy book ââ¬â once again triumph over the true qualities of the self, here partially represented by the actual contents of his work, which nobody seems to understand. Laura Brown likens her anxieties about meeting her husband to the feeling one gets when ââ¬Å"about to go onstage and perform in a play for which [one] is not appropriately dressed, and for which [one] has not adequately rehearsed.â⬠She is acutely aware of the disparity between her self-perceived identity and the identity society has constructed for her, which she has to assume. She finds social identity ââ¬â ââ¬Å"the inchoate, tumbling thing known as herself, a mother, a driverâ⬠ââ¬â superficial and meaningless, and liberates herself from the constraints of being a wife in a perfect home by escaping into a hotel. She experiences there ââ¬Å"a sensation of deep and buoyant release,â⬠which is the solace of self-reconstruction in solitude. Having ââ¬Å"slipped out of her lifeâ⬠and escaped social imposition, she experiences ââ¬Å"a sensation of unbeing,â⬠for she has just lost social definition. Formerly, the being and the living had been the existence defined by society ââ¬â the meaningless performance. The dissolution of the social ââ¬Å"Iâ⬠in solitude allows her self to emerge and conceive how ââ¬Å"it is possible to die,â⬠how death has a ââ¬Å"dreadful beauty.â⬠The ââ¬Å"neutral zoneâ⬠of the hotel room is void of socially imposed reality, and it is there, for the first time, that L aura is able to understand the appeal of death. This appeal is Lauraââ¬â¢s subjective interpretation of the world (and of death in particular), and is an interpretation that has thus far been suppressed by social definition. Her ââ¬Å"patriotismâ⬠for her husband ââ¬â her civic responsibility to remain by his side and uphold the social tenets of familial duties ââ¬â previously made such an idea unthinkable. A more insidious aspect of social interaction and communication is highlighted in Mrs. Dalloway and is represented by the two ââ¬Å"Goddessesâ⬠of ââ¬Å"Proportionâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Conversion.â⬠These are essentially abstractions of social establishments that enforce definitions regarding moral, political, emotional, or aesthetic realities, and which are given a satirical mythological status. They ââ¬Å"smite out of [the] way roughly the dissentient, or dissatisfiedâ⬠and ââ¬Å"bestowâ⬠¦blessing on those whoâ⬠¦catch submissively from [their] eyes the light of their own,â⬠asserting their blinkered positions to be the only truths. Hugh Whitbread, who kissed Sally Seton to ââ¬Å"punish her for saying that women should have votes,â⬠could be said to be an agent of ââ¬Å"Proportionâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Conversion.â⬠He masquerades under the ââ¬Å"venerable nameâ⬠of ââ¬Å"kindnessâ⬠and does more harm than ââ¬Å"the rascals who get h anged for battering the brains of a girl out in a train.â⬠Having been converted, he becomes a proponent of the ââ¬Å"Goddessesâ⬠: by embodying outward social perfection without real depth of character, he is empowered, under the aegis of society, to stifle imagination, creativity and understanding, and repudiates Sallyââ¬â¢s self-conceived reality, which made only the very modest claim that equal voting opportunities are appropriate in a civic moral society. Michael Cunningham, in The Hours, examines Woolfââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Proportionâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Conversionâ⬠in the context of the homosexual identity. By transposing Woolfââ¬â¢s diegesis of anomie onto the postmodern constructionistic concepts of identity, Cunningham is able to intensify the paradoxical tensions concerning the need for validation of oneââ¬â¢s subjective experiences and the longing for social acceptance and integration. Walter Hardy, desiring acceptance, succumbs to ââ¬Å"Conversion.â⬠He possesses physical health, wealth and happiness ââ¬â the touchstones of social success ââ¬â leaving not a trace of the ââ¬Å"overweight, desperately friendlyâ⬠child ââ¬Å"able to calibrate the social standing of other ten-year-olds to the millimeter.â⬠But by accepting societyââ¬â¢s criteria for judging success, he affirms its truth. Richard is hence justified in saying that ââ¬Å"eternally youthful gay men do more harm to the cause than do me n who seduce little boys.â⬠At least in seducing little boys, these men are affirming their subjective life experiences (which are their homosexual attractions and emotions), whereas men like Hardy, by their outward subscription to the social norm and passive assimilation of societyââ¬â¢s ideological truths, allow the cycle of self-invalidation to continue into the next generation, and end up as simulacra of the ââ¬Å"boys who tortured them in high school,â⬠becoming the very forces that convert other individuals into the ââ¬Å"Proportionsâ⬠of masculinity and success. Oliver St. Ives is another character that embodies ââ¬Å"Proportion.â⬠Sally remarks ââ¬Å"how much Oliver resembles himself.â⬠The Oliver as movie star is almost identical to the Oliver of real life. As a movie star his image on television is defined through popular appeal, through societyââ¬â¢s ideals. That his private image should correspond so well with societyââ¬â¢s golden standard reveals Oliverââ¬â¢s lack of true self-identity ââ¬â ââ¬Å"as if all other brawny, exuberant, unflinching American men were somehow copies of him.â⬠He is the face of the American male. Characteristically, his movie panders to societyââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"Proportionâ⬠: an action thriller with a guy ââ¬Å"who saves the world, one way or another.â⬠An additional caveat attached reveals that ââ¬Å"this one would have a gay man for a hero.â⬠Unfortunately, saying that ââ¬Å"itââ¬â¢s not a big deal. He wouldnââ¬â¢t be tortured about his sexuality. He wouldn ââ¬â¢t have HIVâ⬠is once again to deny the homosexual experience, to insist homosexuals had ââ¬Å"never been strange children, never taunted or despised,â⬠and to reinforce the experiences of societyââ¬â¢s heterosexual norm. As David Bergman points out in ââ¬Å"Gaiety Transfigured: Gay Self-Representation in American Literature,â⬠ââ¬Å"the child who will become gay conceives his sexual self in isolation. I cannot think of another minority that is without cultural support in childhood.â⬠This precarious identity developed in solitude is allowed to be stampeded by the need for social confirmation, and Oliver becomes the very force of ââ¬Å"Conversion.â⬠Sallyââ¬â¢s anger with ââ¬Å"every optimistic, dishonest beingâ⬠who denies their subjectively construed identity in favour of societyââ¬â¢s brutal misrepresentation is hence vindicated. Such are the perils immanent in social participation that make a retreat into solitude so appealing. ââ¬Å"Our apparitions, the things you know us by, are simply childishâ⬠ââ¬â here, Mrs. Ramsay recognizes that the self is inevitably distorted by and heavily concealed from society. Human relations are ââ¬Å"flawed,â⬠ââ¬Å"despicableâ⬠and ââ¬Å"self-serving at their best,â⬠because people inevitably choose to understand the world in a manner most gratifying to oneââ¬â¢s vanity. She relishes the solitude wherein ââ¬Å"she needs[s] not think about anybody,â⬠and needs not continually fight for self-validation. ââ¬Å"Having shed its attachments,â⬠her self is free to wander uninhibited, and ââ¬Å"the range of experience seem limitless.â⬠These ââ¬Å"strangest adventuresâ⬠are not merely Mrs. Ramsayââ¬â¢s escapist fantasies of traveling to Rome and India; they are life experiences that are reorganized and refashioned by the â⠬Å"unlimited resourcesâ⬠within one, and which form a subjectively conceived coherence ââ¬â ââ¬Å"a summoning together, a resting on a platform of stability.â⬠Society foists itself on the individual, and it is only through ââ¬Å"losing personalityâ⬠and escaping social participation ââ¬â whether as mother, wife or host ââ¬â that the external world is held back, enabling one to lose ââ¬Å"the fret, the hurry, the stirâ⬠and create ââ¬Å"this peace, this rest, this eternityâ⬠by and for oneself. In retreating into the ââ¬Å"wedged-shape core of darknessâ⬠of her self, subjective experience seemingly overwhelms the external objective world and turns it into a self-referential mirror ââ¬â ââ¬Å"She (Mrs. Ramsay) became the thing she looked at.â⬠This mirror affords ââ¬Å"peaceâ⬠because it is the expression of the ââ¬Å"core of darkness,â⬠the moi splanchnique. Seeing the self reflected on the face of the world lets i t conceive of a harmonious unity, as if the essential truths of reality are indeed within oneself. Woolf, however, as a lover of parties, maintained that communication with the external world is not only desirable, but also necessary. Septimusââ¬â¢ decline into solipsistic insanity corroborates the idea that ââ¬Å"communication is health; communication is happiness.â⬠Septimus may also be seen as Clarissaââ¬â¢s doppelgà ¤nger. The tragic force gathers him, the alienated individual, in its nihilist folds and leads him to a premature death just as the comic force in Clarissa repeatedly pulls her back into societyââ¬â¢s embrace in an affirmation of the positive and the social order. Shell-shocked after the war, Septimus appears to repudiate the impositions of the objective world ââ¬â the social and the external ââ¬â and constructs a reality based almost exclusively on his thoughts and emotions. His preoccupation with Evans conjures up images of him with hardly any objective stimulus ââ¬â he hears him sing and speak where there could only possibly be birds singing or people talking. The objective world is lost to him, and he reveals: ââ¬Å"I went under the seaâ⬠¦ but let me rest still.â⬠He has collapsed into himself; his reality implodes. ââ¬Å"Under the seaâ⬠he stays immersed in his own self and societyââ¬â¢s call for him to emerge is feverish, lurid and cacophonic: But let me rest still; he beggedâ⬠¦and as, before waking, the voices of birds and the sound of wheels chime and chatter in a queer harmony, grow louder and louder and the sleeper feels himself drawing to the shores of life, so he felt himself drawing towards life, the sun growing hotter, cries sounding louder His ââ¬Å"doomâ⬠was hence ââ¬Å"to be alone forever.â⬠By the end of the novel he turns away from life and his doctors who are ââ¬Å"forcing (his) soul,â⬠committing suicide to preserve ââ¬Å"the thingâ⬠¦that mattered.â⬠This is the self which is ââ¬Å"wreathed about with chatter, defaced, obscuredâ⬠¦let drop every day in corruption, lies, chatter.â⬠ââ¬Å"Closeness draws apartâ⬠because social language is inadequate. He cannot survive in this solitude and appealed to death for ââ¬Å"death was an attempt to communicate.â⬠Clarissa does come to intuit his self-identity in the solitude of her ââ¬Å"little roomâ⬠by imaginative recreation of his death, drawing material from her own experiences and emotions. She feels his ââ¬Å"terror; the overwhelming incapacity,â⬠the ââ¬Å"indescribable outrageâ⬠of a ââ¬Å"soulâ⬠being ââ¬Å"forc[ed]â⬠and experiences his death vicariously ââ¬â ââ¬Å"her dress flame d, her body burnt.â⬠She appeals to her own understanding of the world, remembering how she once felt ââ¬Å"if it were now to die, ââ¬â¢twere now to be most happy.â⬠She seeps into Septimusââ¬â¢ consciousness thus by an empathetic subjective understanding. If Septimusââ¬â¢ death is a triumph against Timeââ¬â¢s transience and an offering to the epiphanic moments of life, then Clarissaââ¬â¢s quote from ââ¬Å"Othelloâ⬠would be representative. In solitude, through these references to her subjective world she achieves communication with Septimus. Woolf thus presents a paradox of opposites which is developed further in To the Lighthouse. Lily Briscoe, the artist, finds that ââ¬Å"distance had an extraordinary power.â⬠Distance enables withdrawal from social participation. As she paints, Lily retreats into solitude, going ââ¬Å"out and outâ⬠¦further and further, until one [she] seemed to be on a narrow plank, perfectly alone, over the sea,â⬠in order to peer into ââ¬Å"the chambers of the mind and heartâ⬠of Mrs. Ramsay. To understand the ââ¬Å"sacred inscriptionsâ⬠of Mrs. Ramsayââ¬â¢s soul, Lily has to rely on her subjective understanding of the people and places which completed her. As Clarissa Dalloway suggests, ââ¬Å"to knowâ⬠¦anyone, one must seek out the people who completed them; even the places.â⬠It would hardly be conceivable to accomplish this mammoth task physically. Lily, however, is able to ââ¬Å"make up scenes,â⬠of which ââ¬Å"not a wordâ⬠¦was true.â⬠While objectively speaking these events had never occurred they are nonetheless completely plau sible, extrapolated hypothetically based on oneââ¬â¢s understanding of other people. Fiction, formed by the creative self, is hence a useful tool for exploring human responses to various situations and elucidating their characters. Lily realizes that ââ¬Å"it was what she knew them by all the same,â⬠and views and reviews Mrs. Ramsay from the subjective viewpoints of the Rayleys, of Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Bankes and the other Ramsays. She felt she needed ââ¬Å"fifty pairs of eyes to see withâ⬠in order achieve reconciliation amongst the kaleidoscopic representations of Mrs. Ramsay, so that her portrait is not saturated with her limited perspective. Eventually, like Clarissa, she has to experience Mrs. Ramsayââ¬â¢s emotional and intellectual experiences vicariously to achieve understanding. ââ¬Å"What did the hedge mean to her, what did the garden mean to her, what did it mean to her when a wave broke?â⬠ââ¬â all these questions Lily strives to answer through imaginative enactment of events. She eventually manages to apprehend the world through Mrs. Ramsayââ¬â¢s consciousness and her fear for Mr. Ramsay segues into love and need ââ¬â ââ¬Å"she wanted him.â⬠This is probably one aspect of Mrs. Ramsayââ¬â¢s emotional response to her husband which Lily has never shared. In this rare instance of human communication, Lily achieves the same unity and peace that Mrs. Ramsay experienced with the lighthouse beam earlier on, for she had become, ââ¬Å"like waters poured into one jar, inextricably the same, one with the object [Mrs. Ramsay] one [she] adored.â⬠The mirror returns, and she solves Mr. Ramsayââ¬â¢s philosophical conundrum ââ¬â the relationship between subjective and objective worlds ââ¬â by creating a work of art that affirms the expression of the subjective self using material from the objective world. Her portrait is accurate for the ââ¬Å"odd-shaped triangular shadowâ⬠corresponds with the â⠬Å"wedge-shaped core of darknessâ⬠so essential to Mrs. Ramsayââ¬â¢s identity; the finishing stroke scored through the middle of the canvass is also reflective of the severance in human relationships that Mrs. Ramsay has always fought against. Lily, like Woolf herself, rejects the notion of art as mimesis. ââ¬Å"To be on level with ordinary experienceâ⬠is to experience the phantasmagoric flux of fact and dream, to interweave between objective reality and subjective organization of that reality. Her painting is hence a ââ¬Å"razor edge balance between two opposite forces; Mr. Ramsay and the pictureâ⬠ââ¬â the uncompromising facts of objective reality embodied in Mr. Ramsay and Lilyââ¬â¢s own subjective understanding of them come together, equipoised, ââ¬Å"clamped together with bolts of iron. Objectivity in society and subjective latitude in solitude soldered together ââ¬â this is Woolfââ¬â¢s answer to the dialectic of the comforts of solitude and the asperity of communication in external society.
Friday, September 27, 2019
An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench 304 Essay
An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench 304 - Essay Example market. Theoretical frameworks of Porterââ¬â¢s five forces, Ansoff Matrix and Marketing Communication mix has been used in this paper. The paper suggests that AQC must continue with its quest of new product development primarily focusing on healthy products for consumers. A slightly high price can be charged from the consumers if they assume that the products provide functional value. The global fruit juice industry is also facing a number of challenges from the health organizations in the developed countries regarding their fatty contents and the amount of sugar in these drinks. It has therefore become difficult for fruit juice companies to retain their market share in face of volatile demand conditions. In this light, this paper makes an attempt to create a marketing plan for Atlantic Quench Cranberries (AQC), a US based agricultural cooperative which have pioneered in the production of canned fruit juices. AQC had a slow but steady beginning in 1930ââ¬â¢s. It started as a cooperative which was initially controlled by three farmers from New Jersey and Massachusetts. Presently the company is the top player in the U.S. fruit juice market. The success story of AQC had been strong even in the United Kingdom ever since its entry in the U.K. market. This report provides an elaborate marketing plan for AQC in the next one year so that the company can increase its market share in the U.K. The government of the U.K. is trying to introduce measures to reduce obesity and fruit juices are items which contains high volume of saturated sugar. However, Atlantic Quench produces drinks with very low sugar content and low calories that provide chances of growth in the U.K. markets. The market conditions in the U.K. fruit juice industry are quite dynamic. An estimated growth of 10% has been noted in the value of fruit juice markets including the smoothies. Despite the
Thursday, September 26, 2019
The Muslim brotherhood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words
The Muslim brotherhood - Essay Example The brotherhood was initially formed essentially as a small charitable society with religious goals. During the authoritarian regime in Egypt, the brotherhood became the most prominent and effective opposition sector. The brotherhoodââ¬â¢s ambitions were shaped by the existing political and social scenario. It was during mid 1980s, that the brotherhood spread its activities and asserted its presence in different facets of public life. Starting from this period, the brotherhood designed its objectives towards global democracy and human rights (Wickham, 20,46). It is an organization whose ultimate goal is to establish a full Muslim state where there will be no extreme disparity of wealth distribution with the rich and poor holding equal status (Oliver & Atmore, 194). Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers or the Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Hasan al-Banna in the year 1928. Hasan was a scholar and schoolteacher born in Egypt. He was born to a local sheikh in Cairo , and his father instilled in him ââ¬Å"classical and traditional religious learning and pietyâ⬠(Wickham, 21). ... He made this his mission, and the way he chose was to preach and teach the Islamic ideals and concepts both to the young people and their parents. In the following years, he established himself as a powerful and intensely effective orator with the skill to spread his message. He began to give his sermons in local mosques and coffee houses. His mission of bringing to the forefront the Islamic way of life, and his dedication to look after the welfare of the Muslims influenced six labourers from a British military camp. These laborers approached him, and requested him to become their leader. The name of the group as Muslim Brotherhood was selected by Hasan since all the member of the brotherhood was primarily dedicated towards the service of Islam (Wickham, 21). The Muslim Brotherhood is a religious and social movement that is composed of Sunni Muslims, and is one of the biggest, oldest and the most significant Islamist organizations in the world. Initially, Egypt was the only country w here the Brotherhood concentrated its activities and movements. However, currently it is estimated that the group has spread its wings in more than 70 countries, while according to other estimates the group is establishing itself in more than 100 countries. When Hasan formed this Brotherhood, his main assertion was that Islam be granted the supreme authority over all matters of life. With this ultimate goal, the Muslim Brotherhood strives to establish an Islam kingdom or monarchy extending over not only the current day Muslim population across the world, but over all communities around the globe. Another purpose of the Brotherhood is to establish the Islam law or the Shariââ¬â¢a as the sole law of court in all countries across the globe. This is the principle philosophy
Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 23
Economics - Essay Example Brooks argues that this migration to what he terms ââ¬Å"sprinkler citiesâ⬠is a part of the American character. While taking a tongue-in-cheek look at the peculiar nature of these new exurbanites (massive outdoor grills, SUVs and shopping at mega-box stores) he focuses more sincerely on his observations about what really motivates this group of people to live in sprinkler cities. Brooks concludes that it is a combination of factors that are uniquely American. He says that the belief that greener pastures are always to be found in another place is a part of American mythology. This desire for movement is coupled with the desire to be surrounded with people that are similar to them. The belief in technological solutions to modern problems, the desire for relaxed camaraderie and providing a traditional childhood for their children drive them to create new spaces that fit their ideal. Katz feels that the real cause of the outward expansion of population from city centers isnââ¬â¢t caused by something inherent in American culture. He identifies a lack of cooperation between governmental entities as the real root cause of the problem. He argues that misguided land use policies and funding for transportation systems that encourages exurban growth create the atmosphere needed for the expansive growth. He shows that as households move away from urban centers and older suburbs, what they leave behind is broken neighborhoods and crumbling social and physical infrastructure. I agree most with the article written by Katz because his focused on sound economic principles. Actually, Brooks alluded to these principles but did not identify them as a real part of the problem. Brooks speaks of the underused six-land highways, the in-ground sprinkling systems and the availability of enough treated water to have lush grass even in the most arid climate. He identifies these trappings as necessary for the new exurbanite to create their own little
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Greatest Communicator Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1
Greatest Communicator - Essay Example It should also be known that a good communicator has effective listening skills. Moe has outstanding qualities when it comes to communication. It is from how he speaks to the audience that makes him unique. Moe has impacted lives of most students positively as well as keeping in check the performance of the students. In terms of monotony, Moe breaks it by adding stories to the speech. Moreover, he also involves his audience in the conversation by asking questions. Moe has various communication skills that make him notable. Moe has an impressive confidence that makes him stand out from other communicator. Confidence is vital because it ensures that the communicator delivers a speech full of content. Moreover, Moe uses direct contact in ensuring that he clearly delivers the message. The use of eye contact also ensures that the communicator gets the attention required from the audience. The ability to influence the audienceââ¬â¢s emotions by his sense of humour clearly makes Moe unique in terms of communication. Effective communication skills by Moe impacts individuals on a significant margin. When presenting a speech, it is crucial that the audience gets emotionally tuned as well as enjoy the speech. Use of gestures like Moe ensures that the audience gets information clearly as well as enjoys the speech. The speakerââ¬â¢s use of non-verbal cues is of great necessity as it ensures that the audience does get bored. Hence, this impacts individuals especially those in management position and leadership positions to sharpen their communication skills (Cohn, 2007). Moreover, involving the audience in the presentation of speech makes them ride along. Direct eye contact is vital in enhancing emphasis to a given statement or speech. Moe also involves the audience in the speech makes the audience interact freely with the speaker and in case of this relations the speaker may takes some time to mentor his audience. Communication when done in the most effective way becomes
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
THE STOCK MARKET PART II (case) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
THE STOCK MARKET PART II (case) - Essay Example 85). Based on the three companiesââ¬â¢ financial statements and historical data, the best company to invest in is Oracle. Oracle is the highest in terms of revenue growth, net income growth, net profit margin, growth rate and dividend growth (see figure 1). Compared to Darden and Sony, Oracleââ¬â¢s performance is more impressive, thus making it the best candidate that would be able to generate more income in the future. Based on stock price forecast for the next 12 months, Oracle will have a high estimate of $42.00 or +32.8% while its median price forecast will be $38.00 or +21.9%; however, the investment would be risky considering that the lowest forecast is $26.00 or a decreased of -17.8% (Oracle Corp., n.d.). Furthermore, it is expected that from 2008 to 2012, the annual growth of earnings per share will be 30.73% and the annual growth of sales will be 32.16%. On the other hand, Oracleââ¬â¢s financial ratios are above average for its industry such as the industry median for price/sales ratio (3.81), price/earnings ratio (14.25), and price/cash flow ratio (11.01) (see figure 2). Also, the current ratio and quick ratio of Oracle is high and this is a good sign that the company has the ability to meet and alleviate its short term obligations when they are due, thus the company is in good financial health. It also shows that Oracle is safe from liquidity problems and its position is much better compared to Darden and Sony. In addition, the stock P/E ratio of Oracle is traded at higher rate than the other two companies because its forecasted earnings growth is also high, making the investment more risky. However, ââ¬Å"rational investors generally require riskier investments to offer higher returns than less risky investmentsâ⬠(Easterling, 2006, p. 82). The high net profit margin of the company implied that the business is doing well and that they have the capacity to control their expenses or liabilities in the company. Investing in Oracle
Monday, September 23, 2019
Technology and Management Functions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Technology and Management Functions - Essay Example Secure Call Management was basically a call center operation prior to acquiring the Image Project. As a call center technology played a huge role as well in the day to day operations. The manager of the call center would utilize satellite image transfer to create virtual meetings with salespeople across national and international boundaries. The wireless internet service the company utilized for its requirements of communication with field employees allow anyone to connect to the internet from any remote location. When the iPhone came out on June 29, 2007 it was suggested that they could replaced the current practice due to its smart phone capabilities, but using a laptop computer was more practical because the iPhone inter phase did not allow for a professional to work efficiently (Timesonline, 2007). When the image project started the team was given an open space. We had to build the infrastructure necessary from scratch. The project manager utilized the designing software, Alibre Cad, to create the facilities layout. The twelve members of the team received a PDA that displayed the design. We had to build 150 small office modules for the workers. It took us approximately four to complete the construction project. Whenever there were any minor design changes the PDA which were connected to the company wi-fi system would enable us to see the changes and change our work specifications accordingly. The next stage of the project was the installation of the computers. The firm bought 200 new dell computers. The project manager showed us a delivery confirmation slip that he retrieved from the UPS website. It said the computers would arrive at 12:10 P.M. on a Sunday. Good news for us it meant we would get paid some good overtime on a Sunday for our work. The computers arrived on time. T he manager was able to accelerate work because he had information he obtained thanks to technological advancements that were not available in the past. We had installed all the
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Emotion as Mediators Analytical Tool and Hurdle Essay Example for Free
Emotion as Mediators Analytical Tool and Hurdle Essay Emotion is often associated with feeling expressed in any situation at any given time an individual may encounter. ââ¬Å"In psychology it signifies a reaction involving certain physiological changes, such as an accelerated or retarded pulse rate, the diminished or increased activities of certain glands, or a change in body temperature, which stimulate the individual, or some component part of his or her body, to further activityâ⬠(Microsoftà ® Encartaà ®, 2007). It is very peculiar for a person not to show any reaction to circumstances especially when provoked by another person he is in conflict with. In this light, the role of a mediator is very important in bridging the gap between parties in conflict to find a common ground that possibly move toward a resolution. This paper will discuss the vital role of emotion in conflicts. Considering that emotion is the center of creation and nature of conflict, the probability of managing conflicts may be influenced by emotion as well. The book Meditating Dangerously tells that ââ¬Å"The ostensible purpose of mediation is to ameliorate danger, pacify hurt feelings, and create safe spaces within which dialogue can replace debate, where interest-based negotiation can substitute for a struggle for powerâ⬠(p. 3). A challenge is laid on my table, to be able to answer how much emotion can only surface to make any progress in the case? How does a mediator controls his emotion over the case? Background of the study It was on 11th of April, 2008 when I first went solo as a mediator. Prior to my case was my friend Diego working on his case between a tenant demanding from her landlord. It was a messy case, but the point to me was how hard it was to manage the raucous lady. She kept screaming and interrupting the landlord and the mediator with her suffered pain with her grievance. It was to the point where we had a security coming in from other room to tell us to calm things down because there was a trial going in our adjacent room. Still she did not cooperate. Having to observe Diego went through a very hard time over his case with the uncontrollable lady and her landlord, the sense of trepidation that I felt had challenged me. I needed to manage my own case without having to go through the same traumatic experience. When my turn came, I had to face five ladies ââ¬â three plaintiffs and two defendants. I laid out the general rule of explaining mediation as a voluntary process and the bound to confidentiality, etc. I wanted to make sure that my case will not go mishandled. Also, I wanted to assure myself and the parties involved that we are there to solve not a screaming spar like the previous case. During the debriefing with Professor Joshua Jack, he asked why did I say ââ¬Ërespectââ¬â¢ and ââ¬Ëno yellingââ¬â¢? By laying the ground rules in the beginning, did I hinder the partiesââ¬â¢ true feelings to come out? Professor Jack gave further comments on my case: ââ¬Å"Parties in conflict very often come into the mediation with strong senses of victimization, self righteousness, mistrust, and other negative judgments of one another. If a person thinks that the other is a liar and cheater both in this situation and generally, can they express this honest perspective and still be within the bounds of our rule? It is my view that, if we have any hope of facilitating any real transformation, we have to allow parties to express their true, even if ugly, perspectives. â⬠If we tell people to be nice, they will sometimes accommodate us, but by squelching the expression of the true depth and magnitude of their experience and perception, we also squelch the potential for real transformation and resolution. â⬠According to Bowling and Hoffman (2003), ââ¬Å"The most direct and obvious impact that the mediator has on the mediation process comes from the techniques he or she uses to influence the course of negotiations. These interventions, based on the mediatorââ¬â¢s assessment of the obstacles to settlement, might involve giving the parties an opportunity to vent emotional reactions to the dispute, encouraging the parties to focus on interests rather than positions, or helping the parties generate options for settlementâ⬠(p. 19). With all due respect to Professor Jack, I know he is a great and experienced mediator. However, as a new mediator, the first thing I want to do is to make sure I have the case in control with confidence. By saying respect, I gave the parties the notion that we are to discuss the dispute, and find a solution as educated people. With the said experience, Professor Jeanne Cleary gave her comments as well: ââ¬Å"Tricky issue, how much control to start out with, based on past experience and with the understanding that the folks in front of you are new and not the past case. You will find your balanced style with this ââ¬â between too much control that may stifle whatââ¬â¢s really going on for them (which will most always include feelings) and too little control (which will be unproductive for folks to hear each other). Keep at developing your sense of that balance as you continue. â⬠Emotional Intelligence as a Tool for Mediators It is not as strange as it may sound to mindfully express emotion with dignity still intact. Emotional intelligence, defined by Salovey and Mayer (1990) in their Ability Model as ââ¬Å"the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage emotionsâ⬠is very helpful for a mediator in handling mediation between two clashing parties to surface the emotion and be adept at bringing out the feelings from the parties while remaining impartial. Caruso and Salovey (2004) expounded this model as four key emotional skills in Table 1. In this manner, Golemanââ¬â¢s (1998) (as cited in Johnson, Levine, and Richard, 2003) definition of emotional intelligence (EQ) ââ¬Å"as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationshipsâ⬠(p. 317) was able to strengthen the argument of emotional intelligence as a tool for mediators. According to Johnson et al. (2003), ââ¬Å"Allowing emotion to emerge in a mediation, however requires a mediator with a high degree of emotional intelligence â⬠¦ improving oneââ¬â¢s emotional intelligence is an essential development path for mediators. As EQ improves, a mediator becomes more comfortable with his or her ability to manage an emotional process successfullyâ⬠(p. 155). Johnson et al. (2003) were also sharp by saying the essence of developing emotional intelligence because ââ¬Å"Absent the ability to deal with emotions, the true power of mediation is lost. Absent the ability to create space for parties to express difficult emotions, it is unlikely that any resolution reached will lastâ⬠(p. 164).
Friday, September 20, 2019
Facial Emotion Recognition Systems
Facial Emotion Recognition Systems CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION 1.1: Introduction Face plays important role in social communication. This is a window to human character, reactions and ideas. the psychological research shown that nonverbal part is the most enlightening channel in social communication. Verbal part offers about 7% of the message, vocal 34% and facial expression about 55%. Due to that, face is a theme of study in many areas of science such as psychology, behavioral science, medicine and finally computer science. In the field of computer science much effort is put to discover the ways of automation the process of face detection and segmentation. Several methods addressing the problem of facial feature extraction have been proposed. The key problem is to provide suitable face representation, which leftovers robust with respect to diversity of facial appearances. The method of face recognition plays an important role in peoples life ranging from commercial to law enforcement applications, such as real time surveillance, biometric personal identification and information security. It is one of the most challenging topics in the interface of computer vision and cognitive science. Over past years, extensive research on face recognition has been conducted by many psychophysicists, neuroscientists and engineers. In general views, the definition of face recognition can be formulated as follows Different faces in a static image can be identified using a database of stored faces. Available collateral information like facial expression may enhance the recognition rate. Generally speaking, if the face images are sufficiently provided, the quality of face recognition will be mainly related to feature extraction and recognition modeling. Facial emotion recognition in uncontrolled environments is a very challenging task due to large intra-class variations caused by factors such as illumination and pose changes, occlusion, and head movement. The accuracy of a facial emotion recognition system generally depends on two critical factors: (i) extraction of facial features that are robust under intra-class variations (e.g. pose changes), but are distinctive for various emotions, and (ii) design of a classifier that is capable of distinguishing different facial emotions based on noisy and imperfect data (e.g., illumination changes and occlusion). For recognition modeling, lots of researchers usually evaluate the performance of model by recognition rate instead of computational cost. Recently, Wright and Mare ported their work called the sparse representation based classification (SRC). To be more specific, it can represent the testing image sparsely using training samples via norm minimization which can be solved by balancing the minimum reconstructed error and the sparse coefficients. The recognition rate of SRC is much higher than that of classical algorithms such as Nearest Neighbor, Nearest Subspace and Linear Support Vector Machine (SVM). However, there are three drawbacks behind the SRC. First, SRC is based on the holistic features, which cannot exactly capture the partial deformation of the face images. Second, regularized SRC usually runs slowly for high dimensional face images. Third in the presence of occluded face images, Wright et al introduce an occlusion dictionary to sparsely code the occluded components in face images. However, the computational cost of SRC increase drastically because of large number of elements in the occlusion dictionary. Therefore, the computational cost of SRC limits it s application in real time area, which increasingly attracts researchers attention to solve this issue. 1.2: Psychological Background In 1978, Ekman et al. [2] introduced the system for measuring facial expressions called FACS Facial Action Coding System. FACS was developed by analysis of the relations between muscle(s) contraction and changes in the face appearance caused by them. Contractions of muscles responsible for the same action are marked as an Action Unit (AU). The task of expression analysis with use of FACS is based on decomposing observed expression into the set of Action Units. There are 46 AUs that represent changes in facial expression and 12 AUs connected with eye gaze direction and head orientation. Action Units are highly descriptive in terms of facial movements, however, they do not provide any information about the message they represent. AUs are labeled with the description of the action (Fig.1). Fig. 1: Examples of Action Units Facial expression described by Action Units can be then analyzed on the semantic level in order to find the meaning of particular actions. According to the Ekmans theory [2], there are six basic emotion expressions that are universal for people of different nations and cultures. Those basic emotions are joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise (Fig. 2). Fig. 2: Six universal emotions The Facial Action Coding System was developed to help psychologists with face behavior analysis. Facial image was studied to detect the Action Units occurrences and then AU combinations were translated into emotion categories. This procedure required much effort, not only because the analysis was done manually, but also because about 100 hours of training were needed to become a FACS coder. That is why; FACS was quickly automated and replaced by different types of computer software solutions. 1.3: Facial emotion recognition systems The aim of FERS is to replicate the human visual system in the most analogous way. This is very thought-provoking job in the area of computer vision because not only it needs effective image/video analysis methods but also well-matched feature vector used in machine learning process. The primary principle of FER system is that it would be easy and effective. That relates to full automation, so that no extra manual effort is obligatory. It is also chosen for such system to be real-time which is particularly significant in both: human-computer interaction and human-robot interaction applications. Besides, the theme of study should be permitted to act impulsively while data is being captured for examination. System should be intended to evade limitations on body and head movements which could also be an important source of data about shown emotion. The limitations about facial hair, glasses or extra make-up should be reduced to lowest. Furthermore, handling the occlusions problem looks to be a test for a system and it should be also considered. Other significant features that are wanted in FER system are user and environment independence. The prior means that, any user should be permissible to work with the system, regardless of of skin color, oldness, gender or state. The latter relates to conduct the complex background and diversity in lightning conditions. Further advantage could be the view independence in FERS, which is likely in systems based on 3D vision. Face Detection As it was stated earlier, FER system comprises of 3 steps. In the first step, system takes input image and does some image processing methods on it, to detect the face region. System can function on static images, where this process is called face localization or videos where we are working with face tracking. Main problems which can be come across at this step are different scales and orientations of face. They are generally produced by subject movements or changes in remoteness from camera. Substantial body actions can also reason for severe changes in position of face in successive frames what makes tracking tougher. What is more, difficulty of background and variety of lightning circumstances can be also quite puzzling in tracking. For example, when there is more than one face in the image, system should be able to differentiate which one is being tracked. Finally, obstructions which usually give the impression in impulsive reactions need to be handled as well. Problems stated overhead were a challenge to hunt for methods which would crack them. Among the methods for face detection, we can differentiate two groups: holistic where face is treated as a whole unit and analytic where co-occurrence of characteristic facial elements is considered. 1.3.2. Feature Extraction Afterward the face has been situated in the image or video frame, it can be examined in terms of facial action occurrence. There are two types of features that are frequently used to define facial expression: geometric features and appearance features. Geometric features quantity the displacements of certain parts of the face such as brows or mouth corners, while appearance features define the variation in face texture when specific action is done. Apart from feature type, FER systems can be separated by the input which could be static images or image sequences. The job of geometric feature measurement is generally connected with face region analysis, exclusively finding and tracking vital points in the face region. Possible problems that arise in face decomposition job could be obstructions and incidences of facial hair or glasses. Besides, defining the feature set is tough, because features should be expressive and possibly not interrelated. Recognition of Expression The latter part of the FER system is based on machine learning theory; exactly it is the classification job. The input to the classifier is a set of features which were recovered from face region in the previous stage. The set of features is designed to describe the facial expression. Classification needs supervised training, so the training set should consist of labeled data. Once the classifier is trained, it can distinguish input images by assigning them a specific class label. The most usually used facial expressions classification is finished both in terms of Action Units, proposed in Facial Action Coding System and in terms of common emotions: happiness, unhappiness, fury, surprise, disgust and fear. There are a lot of different machine learning methods for classification job, viz.: K-Nearest Neighbors, Artificial Neural Networks, Support Vector Machines, Hidden Markov Models, Expert Systems with rule based classifier, Bayesian Networks or Boosting Techniques (Adaboost, Gentleboost). Three major problems in classification job are: picking good feature set, effective machine learning method and diverse database for training. Feature set should be composed of features that are discriminative and characteristic for expression. Machine learning method is chosen usually by the sort of a feature set. In conclusion, database used as a training set should be adequate and contain various data. Methods described in the literature are presented by categories of classification output. 1.4: Applications Enormous amount of different information is encoded in facial movements. Perceiving someones face we can absorb about his/her: â⬠¢ Affective state, connected with emotions like fear, anger and joy and moods such as euphoria or irritation â⬠¢ Cognitive activity (brain activity), which can be seeming as attentiveness or boredom â⬠¢ Personality features like sociability, nervousness or unfriendliness â⬠¢ Honesty using analysis of micro-expressions to disclose hidden emotions â⬠¢ Psychological state giving information about illnesses helpful with diagnosis of depression, mania or schizophrenia. Due to the variety of information visible on human face, facial expression analysis has applications in various fields of science and life. Primarily, teachers use facial expression investigation to correct the struggle of the exercise and learning pace on a base of reaction visible on students faces. Virtual tutor in e-learning planned by Amelsvoort and Krahmer [26] offers student with suitable content and alters the complexity of courses or tasks by the information attained from students face. Additional application of FERS is in the field of business where the measurement of peoples fulfilment or disappointment is very important. Usage of this application can be found in many marketing methods where information is collected from customers by surveys. The great chance to conduct the surveys in the automatic way could be able by using customers facial expressions as a level of their satisfaction or dissatisfaction . Furthermore, prototype of Computerized Sales Assistant, proposed by Shergill et al.à chooses the appropriate marketing and sales methods by the response taken from customers facial expressions. Facial behavior is also studied in medicine not only for psychological disorder diagnosis but also to help people with some disabilities. Example of it could be the system proposed by Pioggial et al.à that aids autistic children to progress their social skills by learning how to recognize emotions. Facial expressions could be also used for surveillance purposes like in prototype developed by Hazel hoff et al.. Suggested system automatically perceives uneasiness of newborn babies by recognition of 3 behavioral states: sleep, awake and cry. Furthermore, facial expression recognition is broadly used in human robot and human computer interaction Smart Robotic Assistant for people with disabilities based on multimodal HCI. Another example of human computer interaction systems could be system developed for automatic update of avatar in multiplayer online games. 1.5: Thesis Organization The thesis is organized as follows: The thesis is opened with an introduction i.e., Chapter 1, in which it is discussed about the introduction, physiological background and facial emotion recognition systems along with the Thesis organization and the Tools used for the whole project. Chapter 2 discussed about the literature survey in which the brief explanation of previous works is given and explained. Chapter 3 discussed about the proposed system in which the each part of the face was detected and the emotion of the person is detected based on extreme sparse learning. Here we use the spatial-temporal descriptor and optimal flow method to recognize the emotion. Chapter 4 plays key role in this project which gives the information of software that used for the project i.e. MATLAB. The results and discussions are presented in Chapter 5. This chapter describes the results that are obtained for the proposed system. Chapter 6 discussed about the advantages of the proposed system and disadvantages of the existing systems. Hence the conclusion and future work, references are presented in chapter 7. Then the references are mentioned in the chapter8. 1.6: Tools Used Image processing toolbox MATLAB R2013a(version 8)
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Docter Faustus Essay -- essays research papers
The truth that ambition and desire for material objects does not always satisfy the soul is a major theme depicted in Christopher Marloweââ¬â¢s Doctor Faustus. The poem on page 93, lines 96-113 is the essence of this theme. It describes Faustus meeting, what he believes, is the icon of perfection. This perfection is a mere human women, yet, to Faustus, she is worth his life. Marloweââ¬â¢s use of syntax and diction, allusions and references, and other literary devices throughout this monologue give support to the theme while adding rich symbolic images. The first example of diction in the monologue is the use of the saying, "the face that launched a thousand ships" (l. 96). This is a commonly applied expression when speaking about Helen of Troy. Throughout the play, Faustus fluctuates between the use of advanced and lesser vocabulary. Here, he is so shocked by Helenââ¬â¢s beauty that he knows nothing else but this typical phrase. This implies that Faustus is in a state of hypnosis. He is taken over by Helenââ¬â¢s beauty, and in the process, loses his soul. Another illustration of the trance Faustus is in, is by the use of alliteration in the first two lines of the poem. This device causes the reader to read the lines more slowly. The pronunciation of words in a moderate fashion suggests this trance, and makes the rest of the passage more comprehensible. In contrast to the first two lines, the rest of the section can be read more easily and therefore, faster. Few caesuras are utilized in this part, making the para graph flow better. The quick pace of the these lines indicate excitement on Faustusââ¬â¢ part. If this is the case, it is understandable how he loses his soul without resistance. The last line is brought back to a slower pace. The word "paramour" lends itself to a laggard pronunciation, which enforces Faustusââ¬â¢ realization that his soul has been taken. This is all due to Marloweââ¬â¢s choice of words and sentence structure. Because the reader can experience Faustusââ¬â¢ state of mind through the writing, they can relate to the upcoming circumstances. Faustusââ¬â¢ excitement of the need for the material aspects of life, lead to his downfall. Allusions and references also add to the comprehension and depth of this piece. Many references are made to familiar Greek mythology characters, including Paris, Menelaus, Achilles, Jupiter, ... ...ted at as being a demon, their kiss makes him cursed. In the Catholic church, relations with a demon is unpardonable, and in turn kills any chance of Faustus being redeemed by G-d. Because he wanted Helen for her material beauty, he had to sacrifice his soul. When he finally does sacrifice his life to Helen he gives a brief cry for help. He underestimates the damage he has done and screams, "Her lips suck forth my soul. See where it flies" (l. 99)! He returns to her asking her to kiss him again, soon forgetting the damage he has done. This example of a litotie is contrasted with Faustusââ¬â¢ hyperbole of Helenââ¬â¢s magnificence. The juxtaposition of these concepts against each other prove that Faustus cared little for his spiritual body, and more for Helen ââ¬â the material body. Marloweââ¬â¢s use of strong literary devices in lines 96-113 on page 93 greatly supported the theme that only striving for material objects will only lead to harm. Faustus exemplified this theme in his Helen of Troy monologue, where he asked for her in return for his soul. In the end, Helen took Faustusââ¬â¢ soul, leaving him with neither, the material pleasures, nor a spiritually complete life.
Digital Cash Can Never Work Essay -- Money Internet Businesses Essays
Digital Cash Can Never Work The continued growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web is making a means of secure, on-line monetary transfers a necessity. This growth requires that companies and individuals be able to transact business safely across Cyberspace. Without incentive, in the form of increased revenues, businesses and individuals will lack the financial incentive to continue investing in the Internet. Without continued investment, the Internet will never reach its potential to dramatically change, and hopefully improve, the way that we live our lives. Fortunately, the push for digital cash is already underway. The only question is, regardless of whichever of these payment systems succeeds, will the transaction be truly anonymous or not? [FN1] The major concern of those opposed to non-anonymous digital cash is a loss of privacy. This is a legitimate concern, although exaggerated by fear of a "Big Brother" type state. The spending of cash has never been anonymous. A cash transaction, whether it be at a store, with a vendor, or just on the street, always involves two parties. In all of these transactions the payee and the payer meet face to face as the cash is exchanged. The privacy that people feel during these types of cash transactions stems, not from cash being a truly anonymous payment system, but from the anonymity of society itself. In a society built of large metropolises, anonymity is achieved by not knowing everybody else rather than not being able to find out who they are. If someone tries to pass off counterfeit money to a shopkeeper, regardless of that individuals anonymity because the shopkeeper doesnââ¬â¢t know them, the shopkeeper has the recourse of calling the police and being able to give a descript... ...where information is power, deleting all information represents an absolute loss of control and safety because information protects us all. [FN 1] For a discussion of the various payment methods proposed and the entities involved see: Udo Flohr, Cash, checks and coupons are all going digital. Here are the technical underpinnings of tomorrowââ¬â¢s legal tender, Byte, June 1996. On the Internet at: http://www.byte.com/art/9606/sec7/art1.htm; and A. Michael Froomkin, Flood Control on the Information Ocean: Living With Anonymity, Digital Cash, and Distributed Databases, 15 U. Pittsburg Journal of Law and Commerce 395 (1996). On the Internet at: http://www.law.maimi.edu/~froomkin/articles/oceanno.htm#xtocid583121 [FN 2] David Chaum, Achieving Electronic Privacy, Sci. Am., Aug. 1992, at 96. On the Internet at: http://ganges.cs.tcd.ie/mepeirce/Project/Chaum/sciam.html
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Privatization of Social Services Essay -- Public Policy Management
The Benefits of Privatization of Social Services Contracting out is the process through which public organizations contract with private sector organizations to provide services normally provided by public agencies. It is a form of privatization, which is defined as any shift of activity or functions from the state to the private sector, more specifically, the shift of production of goods or services from public to private. (Starr, 5) Privatization reduces the role of government and increases the role of private sector agencies. However, public agencies maintain ultimate control over the provision of services and they control government funding. In an effort to reduce costs, enhance efficiency or improve services, many states have started privatizing or contracting out many of their social service programs. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 greatly influenced agencies to explore contracting out as a means of delivering services. Privatization is not a new concept for social services, however, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act gives states more flexibility to administer TANF and other related services. (Yates, 1) The County of Los Angeles, Department of Public Social Services is one such organization that is seeking to provide effective, efficient services while meeting the mandates of welfare reform regulations. CalWORKS (California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids) GAIN Division (Greater Avenues for Independence) is responsible for providing Welfare-to-Work services to Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) (formerly known as AFDC) recipients. Welfare reform time limits have made it necessary for the organization to becom... ...wn Author. "The Growing Cost of Contracting Out". Internet http://www.afge.org/SWAMP/factsheet2.htm Nelson, F. Howard. "Analyzing the Cost of Contracting Out". Internet http://www.aft.org/research/reports/private/contmanu.htm Nightingale, Demetra Smith and Pinus, Nancy. "Privatization of Public Social Services: A Background Paper". 1997. Internet http://www.urban.org/pubman/privatiz.html Starr, Paul. "The Meaning of Privatization". Internet http://www.princeton.edu/~starr/meaning.html United States Government Accounting Office. "Social Service Privatization". Internet GAO/HEHS-98-6, October 1997. Yates, Jessica. "Managing the Contracting Out Process for Results in Welfare Reform". Internet http://www.welfareinfo.org/contractissue.htm Yates, Jessica. "Privatization and Welfare Reform". Internet http://www.welfareinfo.org/jessica.htm.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Mary Shelley novel ââ¬ËFrankensteinââ¬â¢ Essay
Once, Victor completes his creation of the being he finds him to be very repulsive and he feels it is impossible to love such a ââ¬Ë thing ââ¬Ë, ââ¬Ë His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black and flowingâ⬠¦ but these luxuries only formed a more horrid contrastââ¬â¢. Instead of staying to understand why and how his experiment went so drastically wrong, or to take care of his creation, he runs away from his responsibilities with fear ââ¬Ë one hand wrenched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escape and rushed down stairsâ⬠¦ ââ¬Ë During Victors encounters with his creation he treats his creation with disrespect and hatred even though it was he who created this monster. Victor feels his creation is disdain and malignant, he also feels that his creatures ââ¬Ë ugliness rendered it almost too horrible for human eyes ââ¬Ë. During this time Victor is very childish in his opinions as he insults his creation ââ¬Ë it ââ¬Ë hasnââ¬â¢t done anything wrong. But on the other hand, his creation tries to be civilized and reasonable. Victor tries using his intelligence to fight against the creature, as the creature defeats him in any imaginable physical aspect. But Victor underestimates the creatureââ¬â¢s true intelligence and understanding of life; the creature returns the fire back to Victor with his own degree of intelligence. This situation soon turns to Victor becoming seriously immature and irresponsible, as he tries to incorporate a verbal battle into the damage relationship between them unlike the creature who tries to civil. Initially Frankensteinââ¬â¢s creature is seen as aggressive and violent but this is only shown in the eyes of Victor Frankenstein. The creation is no portrayed a thoughtful and caring creature but this is overshadowed by his aggression which he only uses to emphasise is want for a father figure and a friend, so he looks to Frankenstein, his creature. Because of Frankensteinââ¬â¢s rejection the creature becomes more and more bitter and rejected and as a result becomes more violent and aggressive which is his way of portraying hatred towards Frankenstein. At this point of the novel the creature created by Frankenstein acts more adult-like than Frankenstein himself. I feel that Frankenstein should take responsibility for his own action and consider the consequences, and then reflect on these consequences, but he totally rejects the creature because of its appearance. The creation has learnt a lot of advanced knowledge in a short space of time, and has become more lingual than his creator, which shows that the creature could live alone in the world but it just needs a companion or a father figure to help him on the way. Victorââ¬â¢s tragic fate is sealed by his growing obsession to destroy his creation because of all the hurt it has caused him in the latter stages of the novel. As Victorââ¬â¢s obsession to destroy the monster grows he begins to have a role reversal as he becomes the outsider and the creature becomes the supremely intelligent one, now he experiences all the misery and hatred that the monster felt after he rejected him. This change is quite ironic as the creature and Victor switch roles. This ironic change also shows Frankenstein how he treated people at this time from this Victor learnt a very important lesson ââ¬Ë Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself ââ¬Ë. This change now begins to change Victorââ¬â¢s perspective on life, as he starts to feel guilty for what he has put his creation through, the torture and rejection. The guilt has now been emphasised by the hatred of Frankenstein of him self and his hatred of the creature. In conclusion the tragic fate of Victor Frankenstein is brought about by his own careless actions. Mary Shelley is showing us that the causes of Victorââ¬â¢s death were down to himself and his own actions. Victorââ¬â¢s careless pursuit of scientific knowledge is partly to blame for his fate as he never, until his monster was created thought about the consequences. Victorââ¬â¢s overstepping of human boundaries by defying God and going against nature is also partially to blame as, he again never considers the moral issues surrounding the recreation of people. Finally the main point of his fate was caused by his inability to love what he has given to live. Frankenstein only sees his creation for its inhuman looks and physical appearance, instead of the creatureââ¬â¢s personality and feelings; he only shows a one-dimensional view of the monster. Mary Shelley has given the novel a hidden message, this message is trying to put across the dangers of pride and egotism, as in the novel Victor feels that when he recreates life he will become world famous. The second message of this novel is that the careless use of science can become dangerous. Frankenstein not considering the consequences of his action is showing this careless use of science. Mary Shelley does not criticize this act of creation, but Victor is unwilling to accept responsibility, for his deeds. His creation only becomes a monster because of its rejection from humans and especially Victor Frankenstein. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mary Shelley section.
Monday, September 16, 2019
Knowledge Development In Nursing
Knowledge development in nursing has been somewhat of a hot topic in the more scholastic endeavors of the profession for quite some time. As the profession grew from a focus centered on treating physical symptoms and conditions to a more well-rounded approach that considered psychological, social, and spiritual needs in addition to physical illness, the need to break down the process of knowledge development arose.By utilizing nursing theories, which support the use of evidenced based practice in most cases, it seems as though the profession of nursing gained more credibility in the scientific community as far as the value of the knowledge produced; I feel that utilizing processes akin to those already accepted as prudent by more ââ¬Ëestablishedââ¬â¢ scientific fields helped achieve that credibility.In order to get to nursing theories, however, the process had to begin with a philosophical component that can allow for a separation from concrete/ scientific knowledge, among othe r things, in order to promote more abstract concepts and different methods to look at how we come to that knowledge. McCurry (2009) touches on this premise as she describes how a common theme, in this case the common good of society, can be looked at from many different perspectives, as it creates an arena in which those perspectives can be arranged to determine how to go about investigating the perspectives further.Although it wasnââ¬â¢t the center piece of the article, one highlight was a breakdown of how more abstract thoughts can be linked to the application of intentional actions through the use of theories, which stems from philosophical questions. Philosophy lays the ground work for knowledge production to be built upon. In a way, Kim (1999) echoed these sentiments as she discusses critical reflective inquiry and its applications in relation to pain management in a South Korean hospital setting.She admits that nursing has situations in which our therapeutic actions can be supported by one theory and conflicted by another. What it seemed to re-enforce was how our drive to answer the philosophical questions created by the issues we wish to address can use various forms to achieve that common goal, however, those that are centered around the evaluation of how our therapeutic actions actually pan out versus how we think they pan out will help us gain the most useful knowledge as long as we are able to recognize the need for, and benefit of, changes that help our patients out the most.We wouldnââ¬â¢t be able to gain the ââ¬Ëknowledgeââ¬â¢ that specific actions and changes are therapeutically beneficial without understanding why we wanted to make changes in the first place, and generating multiple attempts at making those changes to see which ones actually accomplished the goal would seemingly allow us to have the best chance at achieving what we set out to.Evaluating the nursing interventions we utilize to affect our patients for the better is im portant, we all know that. Abbott (1988) pointed out that although nursing is capable of evaluating our interventions in practice, we do not tend to emphasize the importance of breaking down specific practical interventions in an abstract way that allows for our ability to link the interventions we utilize to the thought processes behind it while we are out practicing our craft.This I can personally relate to, when considering how the first couple years of my personal practice was spent learning how to simply accomplish the tasks I was presented with in the time frame I was to accomplish them in (assessment, documenting, intervening, documenting, evaluating, intervening, documenting, documenting, documentingâ⬠¦ugh). I knew that there was good reason behind the things I was doing; however, I was not keenly aware of the concepts and philosophies that comprised that reasoning, I was simply focused on completing my tasks in a timely, safe fashion.Reed (2006) promotes the idea that n urses tend not to have a full understanding of the ââ¬Ëwhyââ¬â¢ we do the things we do, and went so far as to say that there might be a level of mysticism when it comes to the healing processes we are engaged in. That mysticism was essentially summed up by purporting that when we canââ¬â¢t put our finger on the ââ¬Ëwhyââ¬â¢ we do what we do, we fall back on concepts like intuition and gut feelings. Itââ¬â¢s not to say that we are incorrect in our intuitions, however, we donââ¬â¢t have a strong link to the rationale behind it all the time.This is where the concept of breaking down the ââ¬Ëwhyââ¬â¢ we do what we do into more abstract, philosophical components can really benefit us, as we can extrapolate on the intuitions and gut feelings into philosophical questions and building blocks that theories can be generated from. When we utilize practice centered theories that arise from abstract, philosophical questions, the whole process of ââ¬Ënursingââ¬â¢ can be explained and evaluated with more ease, and the knowledge we generate could be seen as more credible.Just saying something is true because it is doesnââ¬â¢t have a whole lot of weight behind it; showing how the knowledge we reference as truth comes to be and having evidence that supports it with results that highlight it is, by and large, the best way that nursing knowledge can be produced in a fashion that holds credibility with those that arenââ¬â¢t of our discipline. We know how awesome we are, but itââ¬â¢s hard to prove it to others without a process that everyone can relate to; that all starts with philosophy.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Compare the way love is presented in ââ¬ËValentineââ¬â¢ and ââ¬ËSonnet130ââ¬â¢ Essay
Compare and contrast the way in which love is presented in the poems ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢ by Carol Ann Duffy and ââ¬Ësonnet 130ââ¬â¢ by William Shakespeare. In this essay I am going to compare and contrast the way in which love is presented in the poems ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢ by Carol Ann Duffy and ââ¬Ësonnet 130ââ¬â¢ by William Shakespeare. I will be drawing links of comparison and will explain the similarities and differences between them. The first poem ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢ was written by Carol Ann Duffy. It has no set rhythmic pattern and the stanzas are all different lengths. There are 7 stanzas in total. The title of the poem Valentineââ¬â¢ sounds very romantic and suggests that the poem is about hearts and roses and other items linked with the word valentine, however, once the first line is read this assumption is wiped away. The word satin from the first line ââ¬Ënot a red rose or a satin heartââ¬â¢ immediately makes the reader think of a romantic gift that is soft to the touch and quite luxurious. However the line starts with ââ¬Ënotââ¬â¢ suggesting that she is not going to give her lover a normal valentine present. This line is on its own which could mean that it is important and has been left on its own to stand out to the reader. The second stanza then starts by saying ââ¬ËI give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paperââ¬â¢. The writer uses juxtaposition to compare an onion to a ââ¬Ëmoon wrapped in brown paperââ¬â¢. The onion represents love and is symbolic and carol Ann Duffy makes the onion seem like a very special thing rather than just an onion. By saying that it is a ââ¬Ëmoon wrapped in brown paperââ¬â¢ it makes it sound like a present or a package waiting to be unwrapped. The next line ââ¬Ëit promises lightââ¬â¢ then goes back to the moon and light is normally seen as a special and good thing which represents their relationship. The stanza then ends by saying ââ¬Ëlike the careful undressing of loveââ¬â¢. This is an effective way of ending the stanza as she connects the onion to their relationship. This is because by saying ââ¬Ëcareful undressingââ¬â¢ she is referring to the layers of an onion whereas by mentioning love it goes back to their relationship and how there are different stages or ââ¬Ëlayersââ¬â¢ to it. The third stanza starts with a one worded line-ââ¬ËHereââ¬â¢. This is short and concise and calls the readerââ¬â¢s attention away from the description of the onion and starts to say what the onion would do. The next line, ââ¬ËIt will blind you with tears like a loverââ¬â¢, connects the onion to love and compares the way an onion makes you cry to how love can make you cry. The word ââ¬Ëblindââ¬â¢ is used as when people cry their eyesight becomes blurred and put off. The stanza ends by saying ââ¬Ëit will make your reflection a wobbling photo of griefââ¬â¢. This is because when you have been or are about to cry water build up in your eyes and makes you vision go wobbly and blurred. The next two stanzas are each only one line. The first reads ââ¬ËI am trying to be truthfulââ¬â¢. The word ââ¬Ëtryingââ¬â¢ suggests that it is the thought that counts and her gift of an onion has a lot of importance. ââ¬ËTruthfulââ¬â¢ could indicate that she wants to give a present that means more than a typical valentine present. The second stanza ââ¬Ënot a cute card or a kissogramââ¬â¢ is also only one line. This could be because the writer wanted to make an impact on the reader and wanted the line to stand out. The line links to the first stanza of the poem through the repetition of the word ââ¬Ënotââ¬â¢. It is also saying the same thing ââ¬â that she is not giving her lover a typical valentine gift, such as a ââ¬Ëcute cardââ¬â¢ which holds no importance or meaning. The sixth stanza begins with the use of repetition as it repeats the line ââ¬ËI give you an onionââ¬â¢ used in the beginning of the poem and refers back to the poems meaning. It could also suggest that carol Ann Duffy felt strongly about giving the onion and it held a lot of importance to her. The next line ââ¬Ëits fierce kiss will stay on your lipsââ¬â¢ implies the onion brings everlasting love. The word ââ¬Ëfierceââ¬â¢ relates Duffyââ¬â¢s passion to her lover, with an onion and by using the word ââ¬Ëkissââ¬â¢ she brings a romantic and passionate atmosphere to the stanza. The taste of an onion is sharp and stays on the lips for a long time, similarly to a kiss which is remembered and can be felt on your lips a long time after as it is an important part of the relationship. The following line is only three words ââ¬Ëpossessive and faithfulââ¬â¢ and is describing the kiss using very powerful adjectives that make an impact on the reader. She is saying that it is not an ordinary kiss but one with a deeper meaning which relates to an onion and how it leaves a strong taste on your lips. Duffy ends the stanza with ââ¬Ëas we are, as long as we areââ¬â¢ stating that she hopes her love will last forever however know that it may not. The final stanza of the poem starts with a short line that reads ââ¬Ëtake itââ¬â¢. This is left on its own to stand out to the reader and is in a commanding tone. It shows that it is important to Duffy that her lover takes the onion. The consecutive line ââ¬Ëits platinum loops shrink to a wedding ringââ¬â¢ refer to the loops of an onion that get smaller as you go up the onion. By using the word ââ¬Ëplatinumââ¬â¢ which is very precious she is making the onion seem much more valuable than it is. ââ¬ËIf you likeââ¬â¢ then changes the tone of the poem as she is giving her lover a choice whereas in the first line she was ordering him. The nest line ââ¬Ëlethalââ¬â¢ is saying that love can be dangerous and it has been left on its own to stand out to the reader. The final two lines are ââ¬Ëits scent will cling to you fingers, Cling to your knife. The word ââ¬Ëclingââ¬â¢ sounds like it will not let go. The next poem, sonnet 130, was written by William Shakespeare. Unlike ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢ there is a set rhythmic pattern in the beginning of the poem (ABABCDCDEFEFetc.) however changes to rhyming couplets in the last two lines to make them stand out and show their importance to the reader. ââ¬ËSonnet 130ââ¬â¢ like ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢ also compares love with strange objects for example; he describes his mistressââ¬â¢s hair as ââ¬Ëblack wiresââ¬â¢ which is not normally associated with beauty. It suggests that her hair is thick and wiry. Throughout the poem he criticises her in this way. By doing this he could be suggesting that beauty isnââ¬â¢t only skin deep and there is more to a relationship than looks. He believes that his love for her is rare and he accepts how she looks in an honest way because he loves her. Shakespeare also uses strong and powerful words, like ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢, however uses it differently. While Duffy uses words such as ââ¬Ëpossessiveââ¬â¢ to describe an onion, Shakespeare uses words like ââ¬Ësnowââ¬â¢ or ââ¬Ërosesââ¬â¢ which create imagery. These words can be used by the reader to create their own image in their mind. Most of the words he uses such as ââ¬Ësunââ¬â¢, ââ¬Ësnowââ¬â¢ or ââ¬Ërosesââ¬â¢ represent good things and relate to happiness. However he says that his lover is the opposite of all theses things and therefore the reader creates a negative image of his lover in their head. He also uses juxtaposition but in a different way to carol Ann Duffy. Duffy uses juxtaposition by comparing love with an onion throughout the poem however in ââ¬Ësonnet 130ââ¬â¢ Shakespeare uses juxtaposition in each line, contrasting objects with positive imagery with his mistress however saying that she is the opposite of them, for example, ââ¬Ëbut no such roses see I in her cheeksââ¬â¢. Shakespeare juxtaposes beauty to ugliness which makes this line effective. This contrast changes the tone of the poem. Roses are used to represent beauty and delicateness, however Shakespeare juxtaposes this by saying the woman does not remind him of roses. This suggests that his mistress is not beautiful. To conclude, I feel that ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢ was a much more effective poem as Duffy managed to get a lot of meaning out of just an onion and she used a lot of powerful language such as ââ¬Ëpossessiveââ¬â¢. She also used many metaphors and similes and although the poem did not rhyme, the range and different lengths of stanzas had a good effect as it made certain things stand out. ââ¬ËSonnet 130ââ¬â¢ was also an enjoyable poem to read as it had a good rhythm throughout and had a lot of deep meanings to it. It also had good use of juxtaposition and the words used helped created imagery inside the readers mind. However, it was not as interesting as ââ¬Ëvalentineââ¬â¢ and did not express as much emotion.
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