As Separate Peace Essay

It has connections between Genesis and the fall of man throughout the book underlining the main story. Genesis and the fall of man are used in the novel solely to understand human nature and the good and evil living inside everyone. Throughout the book the protagonist Gene, puts himself in a competition with his best friend and biggest enemy Finny. Finny is the perfect athlete and caries along innocence and pure thoughts of life itself and others around him. Gene and Finny both show representations of Cain and Abel as well as the creation of man with Adam and Eve. Much like Cain’s jealousy towards his brother Abel, Gene is very jealous and envious of Finny. Abel was the pure and honest brother who carried out all of Gods orders and pleased him very much, while Cain was the complete opposite. He was seen as rather corrupted and sinful. Gene, in this way, is portraying Cain because in the novel Gene realizes the strong hold that sin has on him and the strong hold on it has on his soul, and he says â€Å" It was just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that’s all it was† (183). Unfortunately, Gene becomes overpowered by his jealousy towards Finny just as Cain did towards Abel. Gene’s jealousy takes control of his mind and body when he finally realizes he will never be as perfect as Finny. He will never be as good athletically or he will never be as good morally and mentally either. Gene says â€Å"there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he† (59). Which shows he knows that he will never win with Finny there. The pain of Gene knowing this makes him make a very unreasonable and ridiculous action that he regrets the rest of his life. Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step forward and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening thud† (52). The story in Genesis of Cain and Abel is exceedingly similar to that. â€Å"Now Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field. ’ And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him† (Genesis 4:8). These two incidents directly parallel each other and unveil much about human nature. When Gene finally admits to the realization that he will never beat Finny or get close to his level he subconsciously lets his jealousy kill the better man inside of him so what is left is an empty soul. The fall of Adam and Eve is also coinciding with Gene’s tremendous fall in the novel. In Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve is set in the Garden of Eden. In the garden there was no sin, suffering or pain. Everyone was happy and had everything they wanted. The one thing God told Adam and Eve was to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and to not eat the fruit from that tree, yet that was too much to ask. â€Å"When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he also ate it† (Genesis 3:6). This sin had grave consequences such as â€Å"the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig-leaves together and made coverings for themselves† (Genesis 3:7). Gene’s sin had similar results from when he shook the tree and Finny fell, his life changed largely. The impact of his actions struck him extremely hard and at once he became ashamed and embarrassed of what he did, just as Adam and Eve were of their nakedness so they hid. Gene’s shame relates to the story of Adam and Eve but not just that, it relates to a large population of people today and this is the point Knowles was making and why he related his book to Genesis. As humans, people are automatically going to hide their transgressions behind something else and that’s just human nature. To be able to fully understand this novel you need to know about creation and the fall of man. In every human there is good and there is evil, it will come out at different times and one might overpower the other, but there is till both. Cain and Abel’s story, along with Adam and Eve’s story equally show how the evil overpowered Gene.

Is the Uk political system democratic? Essay

â€Å"A government of the people, by the people, for the people.† The word democracy comes from the Greek words â€Å"demos† which means the people and â€Å"kratos† which means authority, or power. A democratic political system is one in which the ultimate political authority is vested in the people this means that all eligible citizens are able to participate equally either directly or through elected representatives in the proposal, development, and creation of laws that will change and shape everyday life. A democratic country aims to have an accountable government that serve the best interests of the people it is governing. The UK is a liberal democracy which ensures that citizens should be able to influence governmental decisions made. The UK’s governmental system contains no written constitution. This means that theoretically the government are free to pass any legislation as long as they have the majority in parliament which could be easily achieved if the party has a large majority of seats. This means there is no safeguard for laws that can be altered or new ones that could be created. This is very undemocratic as the government therefore have too much power. The government is also in possession of other powers such as the royal prerogative that allows the prime minister to go to war without consent from parliament. An example of where this was used was the Iraq war in 2003 which was heavily resented by a large majority of the public. The most important thing is that true democracy is participatory democracy, where members of the public are effectively members of the government by voting directly on policies. However this is difficult to administer and as a result most modern democracies are representative. The public chooses who they wish to possess power and trust that person to devise policies that will benefit them. A representative democracy can easily become an elected dictatorship if the population’s views are not heard. Considering it from a purely political stance, democracy is power to the people, which establishes itself through the vote. We vote on members of the Commons but not on the Lords. We vote on local representatives but not party leaders. We vote on people but not policies. We vote people into Parliament but not out of it. We vote for a particular party but our second choices are not considered. We vote on only that which we are asked to vote on. We cannot ensure policies are maintained throughout a ministerial term by our vote. Evidently our democracy is far from flawless, and this is not even considering the social aspects of its meaning, i.e. the extent to which we are free police barraging of public protesters and Rupert Murdoch’s mass media control showed us that we are not quite as free as the democratic terminology seems to suggest. You could say that the UK can be made more democratic through a proportional electoral system, compulsory voting, a removal of unelected members of Parliament and more referendums. But it seems in these examples, more democratic is inversely proportional to more efficient. Proportional electoral systems may confuse voters and will result in less strong government, compulsory voting would cumber us with the careless votes of those uninterested in politics and therefore would not be an accurate representation of what the population wants a removal of unelected members of Parliament may increase political bias and reduce the expert value of the Lords. Referendums may be subject to people who do not know what is best for the country, and even then only those who set the agenda of democracy can be understood as a process of people governing their state and managing community affairs all together, based on consensus. The UK is in many ways not democratic. Firstly, the UK amongst many other countries claims to be a democracy. This would suggest that UK citizens have effective influence over government and over decisions that affect them. However there has been much controversy over this claim some arguing that power lies in the hands of just a few and others standing by the allegation that power in the UK is widely distributed. Secondly, First Past The Post has had a big impact on UK democracy. The system we use to elect our MPs has a real impact on how politics works in The UK. It has a direct effect on whether politicians truly represent us and whether we can hold them to account if they let us down. The defeat of the 2011 Alternative Vote (AV) referendum means it is now more important than ever to discredit our failed system and we are continuing to build the case for change at Westminster. This in turn means any of our votes just don’t count. Millions of people have no chance of deciding who their MP will be. And our votes are wasted by the system. Additionally, parties continue to focus all their time, money and effort on a handful of ‘marginal seats’, so just a few thousand voters can decide who runs Britain. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau highlighted in The Social Contract democracy in its political sense can only be efficient when the general will of the people is the same as each and every individual will. Here he argues that this can only be achieved through a classless society with censorship and civil religion. As democracy in modern society is now taken to be equal to freedom its efficiency as a political system is halted by its connotative meaning. This means Rousseau’s method of effective and true democracy would be considered undemocratic in the modern world. Britain may not be truly democratic but it is as democratic as it can be whilst maintaining the constancy and competency of its political workings.

Eradicating Social Ills

ASSIGNMENT 2 FIK 3042 ENGLISH FOR COMMUNICATION 2 ERADICATING SOCIAL ILLS AMONGST TEENAGERS GROUP: EL-AO4 Prepared by NAME| ID NUMBER| TELEPHONE NUMBER| Kasthuri Bai A/P Thangarajah| D20111049818| 013-9801264| Lecturer : Dr. Lajiman bin Janoory Dateline :6th November 2011 ERADICATING SOCIAL ILLS AMONGST TEENAGERS. Nowadays, the social ills amongst teenagers are so rampant that they are posing a great problem in the society . Before we go further , let us see what are actually these social ills among the teenagers.There are many types of social ills that are affecting our teenagers at an alarming rate. Some of them are addiction to drugs , smoking,gangsterism,vandalism,bullying,illegal racing and many more. Everyday we hear and see the effects of these social ills in the form of suicide,accidents,rapes,snatch thieves and brutal crimes. The effects of these social ills amongst teenagers are affecting the nation badly and causing great setbacks in the country. The spreading of social il ls have to be stopped immediately to save our youngsters who are the future generation.How are we going to eradicate these social ills if we do not know the root causes of these problems Therefore,before we find ways to eradicate the social ills amongst our teenagers, let us also dwell in the root causes of why the youngsters of nowadays fall an easy prey to the negative elements awaiting them. These causes can be categorized into several factors,mainly due to family crisis and external factors such as the influence of friends and environment.Living in this materialistic world can be very challenging to even adults,so what more to say for a teenager who is still struggling between adulthood and childhood. The need for good guidance ,counceling and parental love is essential to these youngsters. Whom should they turn to if the circumstances arise? Can they turn to their parents? Yes, under normal circumstances ,parents should be the child’s number one counsellor but,is this th e case in most child’s life? In fact the parents are the last to know about their child’s problem,which is a pity!This is because nowadays,mostly both parents are working and are too busy chasing their own goals, that they fail to see what their children are undergoing. Usually these parents leave their children to fend for themselves or in the care of a babysitter who most of the time doesn’t put her heart into the responsibility given . The outcome is , the child feels neglected and deprived of parental love. Another reason is when a child comes from a broken family,the frustration and anger is taken upon the poor child.As a result a child grows up to be insecure and lacking in direction. Hence falling an easy prey to the awaiting threats outside. Children are also stressed when parents are not understanding and pressure them to study something which is not of their interest . Parents who subject their own desires and ambitions on their children can cause a lo t of unnecessary pressure on them. Peer pressure and the need to proof oneself in order to be accepted is also another factor why the teenagers so easily succumb to the social ills around them.Constant innovation and development also provide boundless network which promotes extreme socialisation among our teenagers. Hence the exposure to all the unwanted elements in the society! Teenagers who do not know how to cope with stress, resort to these unwelcome means of escapism. We have seen some of the main reasons of why the social ills are spreading like an epidemic amongst our teenagers. What can we do to help them or to curb these social ills? There are a few very important things that can be done to nip the bud from the beginning itself.Firstly,the role of a family is very important . Parents who are responsible,who allocate enough quality time with their children can be a source of confidence for their children. Children will be able to rely on their parents for any advice and grow up to be a confident and secured person. These children often will not fall prey to the social ills as they are able to differentiate between good and bad and have no need for any form of escapism as they get enough love from their parents. Parents also must make sure that their children do ot lack of religious knowledge. As we know, all religion wants its followers to be a good human and abide by the rules. So if a child is given enough religious education and is taught to respect the humankind then,the chances of him or her resorting to violence is slim. Too much freedom and too much money given to teenagers will only mean trouble. Therefore parents should act wisely and explain to their youngsters why sometimes they cannot have whatever they want and why they must always obtain their parents’ permission before going out.Parents should always be aware of their child’s whereabouts but at the same time should not also be too strict and practice veto power at home. The y should be able to compromise,understand and respect their child’s feelings too. Maintaining a healthy relationship with children is an important measure in reducing these social ills amongst teenagers. Otherwise most teenagers will choose to rebel against their parents and try to prove to everyone that they are in control of their lives Besides the role of family ,the role of teachers and counsellors in schools is also very important in preventing social ills amongst teenagers.A teacher must always be sensitive to a child’s problem . A teacher must be able to gain a child’s trust in order for the child to confide in her or him. A teacher must make it her responsibility to solve a child’s problem and not be someone who simply wants to teach but is not much bothered about the child’s affair. Teachers can help a lot to curb these social ills if they play their role kindly and caringly. They should notice things and try to help the youngsters by send ing them to a counsellor or by counselling them themselves.While teaching in class , a teacher must always stress on the moral values and teach their students to avoid falling prey to bad influences. The education department and the mass media must always remind these teenagers to avoid doing all these illegal activities and the repercussions should anything unpleasant happen. The enforcement agencies can be invited to give talks and show slides of what is happening and how bad it can turn into,to create awareness amongst teenagers. A lot of opportunities must be created to allow teenagers to involve hemselves in activities such as outdoor games,indoor games,dancing and drawing classes,photography clubs and some social services that will divert the attention of these teenagers . The teenagers will not only be occupied but will also benefit from these extra activities. This healthy activities can be organised by the residential commitees or by the â€Å"ketua kampung†. Healthy competition with lucrative prizes can be held to attract these teenagers. The State government and the district office can help with these measures.Money used to cure the victims of the social ills in the form of rehabilitation centres and their medication can be put into a more healthy usage such as the above mentioned activities. After all one must agree that â€Å"Prevention is better than Cure†As a conclusion , everybody has to play an important role in eradicating social ills amongst teenagers . Eventhough these problems seem difficult to solve but as an Ethopian proverb says, â€Å"When the spider webs unite,you can tie up a lion. † (Infinity Web Development, LLC, 2002-2011) (OPpapers, 2011)

The Virgin of Vladimir

http://www. flickr. com/photos/t-a-a/5340663023/  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Virgin of Vladimir Byzantine painting was not realistic in its representations of the divine and super natural. (Online Lectures) The final results were paintings and mosaics that had a blending of some naturalistic elements and abstractions. (Online Lectures) The unifying element was that the works were depictions of the Divine for the Church. (Online Lectures) The Virgin of Vladimir an image depicting a mother and child was given to the Russian ruler by the Byzantine emperor somewhere between 1130 and 1135. This image later became known as the Virgin of Vladimir which is believed to have been one of St. Luke’s original paintings painted from real life. (Unknown) As of today it is now considered to be the work of a twelfth century Byzantine artist, to date its true creator is still unknown. This icon has come to be considered the most important and most powerful icon in Russia. (Unknown) This is one of the most copied icons over generations. This icon was credited with protecting Russia in several battles. F. S. Kleiner) Because of this, the Virgin of Vladimir was held in close regards by rulers of Russia. (Unknown) Whenever the capital moved, the icon moved as well. It eventually ended up in Moscow in the late fifteenth century. The Virgin, as seen in the example image that I choose, is holding the child in a tender embrace while looking out to the viewer. It has been said that she is acknowledging Christ’s future sacrifice for all of mankind. This image exhibits all of th e characteristic Byzantine traits: her straight long nose and small mouth, the golden rays in the infant’s drapery; the decorative sweep of the unbroken contour that encloses the two figures; and the flat silhouette against the golden ground. †   (F. S. Kleiner)   This work of art is unified. The artist used actual proportions in this painting; the child is proportionally smaller than the mother. The vividness of the hues of yellows and oranges worked well creating a harmonious piece of art. Overall, I think that this is an interestingly balanced piece of art. Works Cited Kleiner, Fred S. and Mamiya, Christin J. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Concise History of Western Art. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2007. â€Å"Byzantine Art. † Online Lectures: History of Art in Early Civilization ART1020 XD. Web. 3 September 2011. Unknown. Art Through Time: A Global View . unknown unknown unknown. 4 September 2011 ;http://www. learner. org/courses/globalart/work/219/index. html;.

FInancial Eco and Asset Pricing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

FInancial Eco and Asset Pricing - Essay Example Transitivity of preferences suggests that consumer is able to make a choice between different alternatives and these choices are transitivite i.e. if choice A is preferred over choice B and B is preferred over C than A is preferred over C. The choices made by the investors therefore need to follow these axioms in order to make them rational. The assumptions of expected utility hypothesis suggest that out of different choices available to the individual investor, only those choices will be preferred which can offer the highest expected value. The use of the expected utility hypothesis is specially more meaningful under the uncertain risk environment because investors tend to chose those investments which offer the higher expected values. However, higher expected values are often associated with the higher risk also. Considering the above discussion, the different assumptions of the mean variance theory under the simple decision problem as well as on the market equilibrium model sugges t that that at the given mean values, lower variance is preferred whereas at the given variance levels, higher mean values are preferred. Thus the assumptions of mean variance theory and analysis suggest that in any case the investor will be concerned with the mean and variance of his portfolio over the given period of time. The overall shape of the opportunity set however, depends upon the covariance of different assets in the portfolio. Properties of the indifference curve under the mean variance analysis are based on the assumption that the returns are elliptically distributed. Based on this, the optimal portfolio is constructed when the asset returns are tangential to the capital market line. Portfolios with higher returns will be tangential on the upper part of the capital market line suggesting that the higher indifference curves will lie where the overall standard deviation of the portfolio is lower and mean returns are higher. It is also implied from this analysis that for a n individual investor, the optimal portfolio will lie on the CML in such a manner that his total wealth will be divided between the tangency portfolio and the risk free assets. The optimal portfolio however, is achieved where the slope i.e. the sharpe ratio is at the highest. In order to understand as to how the mean variance assumptions help to generate the market equilibrium, it is important to assume the homogeneity of the expectations held by all the investors. According to the two fund separation theorem, all the investors actually held the efficient portfolios and that the holding of risky securities is always done in the same proportion thus in order to generate the market equilibrium, it is important that the market portfolio is constructed by having the same portfolio weights. Under these assumptions the CAPM will therefore generate the market equilibrium in such a manner that the above equation provide the equilibrium relationship between the risk and return under the assu mptions made under mean variance analysis and CAPM. 2) A model is always considered as good if it attempt to provide answers to the different emerging problems and help to sort them out. However, every model is based on certain assumptions under which the different propositions of the model work and if these assumptions

The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock - Essay Example Perhaps that’s why it’s effective, because you do not know what’s going on. The tension is quite evident as the film starts and it never ends until you press stop in your player. I think it is a metaphor for new relationships. The movie Birds is about how jealousy can bring havoc to people’s lives. I personally think fear is a product of ignorance and mistrust, for that matter. And Hitchcock, as a master observer of the human condition, perfectly captures this idea. The story of the movie is loosely based on a novella written by Daphne Du Maurier which has a similar title. However, only the concept and the title were used. The setting, characters, milieu and other elements of the story were dropped. The story is centered on two characters: Melanie and Mitch, who began their relationship at the start of the movie. They met in a pet shop and they quarreled over love birds. Melanie â€Å"lost† the fight and bought the lovebirds and delivered it to Mitc h’s house secretly. This act leads the audience to encounter more female characters: Mitch’s mother (Lydia), Mitch’s sister (Cathy) and Mitch’s ex-girlfriend (Annie). Then when Melanie stays over for a night in Mitch’s house, a bird killed itself (yes, like suicide) because it hit the front door. Then another bird attacks in Cathy’s party, then more attacks come, until the climax came when Lydia discovers her friend lying dead in his bathroom. Many theories started to go about in the town. Talk about the apocalypse was the most popular theory. A tourist cried not to talk such things because it’s scaring her children while an amateur ornithologist claims that those are not bird attacks since birds do not attack. Then a gasoline station explodes, invariably caused by a bird. Then more deaths ensue, and more violence is caused by birds. For some reason, the tourist blames Melanie for the attacks, and then the next big scene we see is tha t Annie is lying dead, with Cathy crying over her. The couple, together with Cathy and Lydia, takes refuge in an abandoned home and they boarded it up. Throughout the night, they hear bird noises on the roof, scratching and trying to break into the house. Now Melanie did some investigation when everybody was asleep late in the night. She discovered that the birds have infiltrated the attic! The birds attacked her, and Mitch comes to save her. The movie ends while the family boards the car as they try to bring Melanie to the hospital, and the birds look at them menacingly, although they did not attack them. The theme of this movie is fear, and our reactions to fear, especially when it comes to personal relationships. Many people have different analyses over the film, and the most convincing take on it is that it’s about the birds symbolizing the women. Look at it this way: the movie’s main characters are Mitch and Melanie. The whole avian ordeal began when they picked u p the fight in the pet shop. Perhaps, you know, the tourist was right in saying that Melanie was indeed the cause of the bird attacks, but of course, we do not know that, and that gap in knowledge provides the necessary tension in the movie. Anyway, Mitch and Melanie are the main characters. Then the movie shows different women characters: Lydia, Cathy and Annie. They’re all basically birds (chicks) and they all vie for the attention of one man, Mitch. This is all about women (birds) being territorial. It is

Profile of a Theorist (Edward T. Hall) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Profile of a Theorist (Edward T. Hall) - Essay Example olars, among them the famous Marshall McLuhan who came out with the mantra, â€Å" the medium is the message†, and with whom Hall had a long and fruitful correspondence. Hall is universally acknowledged to be the founding father of studies on intercultural communication, because it all started with his early work in the 1950s for the United States State Department in order to coach foreign service personnel survival skills in intercultural communication. He realized that a majority of the communication gaps between people from different cultures could be because of different perceptions they had about the same thing, based on their cultural background. Intercultural communication is usually defined as any direct communicative interaction between individuals or groups of individuals belonging to different cultures. In other words, the term denotes interpersonal communication between "strangers" on the micro-level of face-to-face interaction. In a wider sense, however, the term is also but less frequently used to refer to direct or indirect interactions or contacts between ethnic groups, nations or cultures, thus denoting culture contact and cultural exchange on the meso- or macro-level. ( Roth, Klaus, 1999, p.206 ) The formal beginnings of intercultural communication are usually traced to the 1959 publication of â€Å"The Silent Language† by Hall. In this book, he defined culture as a concept, and described its role in setting expectations during the process of communication. He contradicted the prevalent natural assumption that communication styles and core values can be universal for all cultures. Instead, he proposed that a majority of human communication is actually non-verbal, mostly subconscious, and is determined to a large extent by cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In this book, he came up with the theory that not only does peoples cultural background act as a medium of communication, it also forms a subconscious part of the communication method.His