Eluded Socialist Allusions within Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath :: essays papers

Eluded Socialist Allusions within Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath Imagine awaking to the first rays of dawn, finding yourself lying on a tattered scrap of cardboard beneath a highway overpass. Your empty stomach churns with numbing hunger and you know today will be yet another listless scramble for survival. Homeless, jobless, and hungry, you glare with fervent jealousy at those clothed, groomed, and pompous passers-by grasping their purses and wallets tightly when they catch sight of you. Ashamed and enraged, you feel cheated and wonder how it is possible for such financial diversity to exist within the same city. You pitifully prop yourself against a wall on a busy street corner and await the morning rush hour that will supply your meager breakfast. The extreme poverty experienced by the unfortunate farmers who were forced into vagrancy during the Great Depression is not unlike the neediness that exists in American ghettos today. Such widespread destitution is a direct result of an inadequate economic system. Through tales of helpless fa milies’ tribulation, Steinbeck and Kotlowitz disclose the defects of the capitalist system in The Grapes of Wrath and There Are No Children Here, meanwhile alluding to an alternative economic structure: socialism. Throughout the novels, disadvantaged families become helpless victims of the lack of effective government aid in their area, an adverse effect of extreme capitalism. The Chicago Housing Authority actually hired â€Å"private security guards [who] searched out the squatters and physically removed them† (Kotlowitz 79). By kicking homeless people back out on the street, this government outfit coldly disregarded the basic human need of shelter in order to preserve their right to the decrepit property of the Henry Horner Homes. Such self-interested procedures are frequent and permitted through the capitalist ideas of personal property ownership. The â€Å"salesmen, neat, deadly, [with] small, intent eyes watching for weakness† depicted in an intercalary chapter are exemplary members of those who abuse the system . These malefactors, examples of limitless capitalism fueled by selfishness and greed, are able to prey on the vulnerable migrants because the mandating power set no restrictions against such unjust monopoly. Similarly, the violence that denigrates childhood in There Are No Children Here could be prevented if the government enforced laws against such brutality. Unfortunately, rash and illegal gang business is transacted with impunity in the Henry Horner Homes area daily because no one bothers to regulate illicit activity.

Ancient Olympics Essay -- essays research papers fc

History of the Ancient Olympic Games The Ancient Greek Olympics were not only sporting events, it was a celebration to honor the great and powerful Zeus. The Ancient Olympics were held every four years at the famous Olympia, a district of Elis, here all free Greek men were allowed to compete. The first record of the Olympic Games was held in 776 B.C. The main sports were the Pentathlon, the Equestrian Events, Pankration, and Boxing. The Pentathlon was the name for the five events in Greek gymnastics: running, jumping, wrestling, discus throwing, and javelin throwing which began with the 18th Olympiad. In the wrestling event, wrestlers were anointed with oil, dusted with powder, and forbidden to bite or gouge one another. Wrestling was looked upon as a weapon-free military exercise. Since there was no weapons wrestlers that competed used their weight and strength as an advantage especially since there were no weight categories. The Javelin was thrown in the same form back in ancient times as it is thrown today. The first recorded Olympic Games had one event, a race, called the stade which is a measure of the distance of the length of the track. By 724 B.C. a two-length race was added and by 700 B.C. there were longer distance races. By 720 B.C., men participated naked, except in the foot race in armor that weighed between fifty to sixty pounds. The outfit included a helmet, greaves, and a shield that helped young men build speed and stamina in preparation for war. The Pentathlon included three running events such as the Stade, the Diaulos, and the Dolichos. The Stade was a 200 yard foot race, was the first and only Olympic event for 13 Games. The dolichos was a variable length foot race averaging twenty stades or four thousand yards for the fifteenth Olympiad. The Diaulos was a four hundred yard foot race that was instituted for the next Olympic Games. The discus was considered by ancient Greeks, an event of rhythm, precision, and finesse of a competitor to throw the discus was as important as his strength. The discus was made of stone, iron, bronze, or lead, and was shaped like a flying saucer. The Sizes were different for the boys' division, since the boys were not expected to throw the same weighted discus as the men. The athletes who competed in the jump event used lead or stone jump weights called halteres shaped like telephone receivers to increase ... ...rces, but in the historic years their founder is said to be Oxylos whose descendant Ifitos later rejuvenated the games. According to tradition, the Olympic Games began in 776 B.C. when Ifitos made a treaty with Lycourgos the king and famous legislator of Sparta and Cleisthenes the king of Pissa (Coote p. 13). The text of the treaty was written on a disc and kept in the Heraion. In this treaty that was the decisive event for the development of the sanctuary as a Panhellenic centre, the "sacred truce" was agreed, that is to say the ceasing of fighting in the entire Greek world for as long as the Olympic Games were on. As a reward for the victors, the cotinus, which was a wreath made from a branch of wild olive tree that was growing next to the opisthodomus of the temple of Zeus in the sacred Altis, was established after an order of the Delphic oracle. Works Cited Coote, James. A Picture History of the Olympics. London, England: Tom Stacey Limited, 1972. Kristy, Davida. Olympics How the Games Began. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company, 1995. Grolier, the Associated Press. The Olympic Story. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Enterprises INC., 1979.

Violent Video Games Are Harmful to Young People

Violent video games can definitely be harmful to young people, especially very young, easily influenced children. Maybe they don’t affect each child the same, but I’m sure that there are times when they negatively affect the life of an adolescent. I would imagine that any one exposed to violence like some I’ve seen on some video games, would pick up the behavior subconsciously over time, even if they don’t consciously act violent. Sometimes young people who play games like these sort of separate themselves from reality, which leads to angry behavior.Other times, it leads straight to violence because that’s what these kids know and experience daily on the television screen. Everyone has heard the controversy surrounding the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto games. In which, young people steal cars and kill people for absolutely no reason. I see this as a perfect example. I wonder how often kids spend time playing this game, or others similar to it, and suddenly start acting out violently as a result. I believe that young people don’t always necessarily have the maturity to realize that video games aren’t real.It’s at these young ages that our lives are shaped, and we learn by example to become well rounded adults. If kids are constantly observing violence, then as they age they are sure to act violently or at least harbor a great deal of anger into adulthood. While I haven’t seen this happen first hand, I’m sure that this type of thing happens all the time with young people who play violent video games all the time. Doubt: I seriously have to wonder if violent video games are harmful to young people.It seems like blaming video games is the most pleasant way for parents to avoid taking the responsibility for raising a violent kid. It’s just like how so often people blame kids’ bad behavior on music or television shows. I’ve watched violent movies, heard violent music, even pl ayed violent video games, but I don’t run around killing people or robbing liquor stores. Does that mean that the games I played weren’t violent enough to affect me? If these games are so harmful to young people, then how did I avoid these harmful side effects of them?Furthermore, if violent video games have the potential to turn sweet little children into murderers, then why does our government allow them to be sold all over our country? To me it sounds awfully familiar to the concept that rock n’ roll taught children to be wild and rambunctious. Then there’s the claim that rap music makes kids hate women and sell drugs. Young people might be easily influenced, but they aren’t stupid. It all boils down to how they were raised. I think that violent adults are most likely the result of parents who didn’t do their jobs correctly when their children were young.I mean, give young people some credit, most of them turn out all right, despite the t hings they are exposed to on a daily basis. Assuming that violent video games makes every kid violent is like believing that every young person that observes a person smoking a cigarette is going to pick up the habit. Just because kids are young that doesn’t mean that they don’t have the brain to choose how they act. I know plenty of people who love violent video games, and who are not violent people. Therefore, it’s wrong to claim that violent video games are harmful to all young people.

Pop Art Was Simply a Reflection of Consumer Society and Mass Media

Pop art was simply a reflection of consumer society and mass media, not a critique. Discuss with reference to the work of 3 artists. Pop Art was one of the major art movements of the twentieth century. It brought art back to the material realities of daily life, in which ordinary people derived most their visual pleasure from popular mass culture, such as advertising, television, magazines, or comic books and comic strips. As it emerged from the experiments of the fifties, was the ideal instrument for coming to grips with the American urban environment. Stangos, 1997) As the post-war generation and the stable political situation, it drove people back to the qualities of life. At the same times, America urban environment was influence by industrialism, consumer society and the mass media explosion. The pop artists have found subjects, which have previously been ‘invisible’ because they are so much a part of our surroundings that we don’t see them. These things now begin to appear, once the artists have pointed them out, and we discover that the world is full of ‘Pop object,’ which are expressive of our times and our values for better or for worse. Mahsun, 1989, p. 163) Pop art was established from the reality of basic consumer society; therefore, it was accepted by the society easily.Pop art is said to be a reflection of culture as artists are giving new interpretation to different ordinary objects in their art works. Jasper Johns establish his career in art in 1954, he uses flags, numbers, letters and maps these kind of common symbols in daily life as element or theme of his art work. Jasper talks about his work, ‘Flags’ (fig. ), in which he thinks that flag this kind of most ordinary objects ‘can be dealt with without having to judge them, they seem to me to exist as clear facts, not involving aesthetic hierarchy. ’ (Harrison and Wood, 2001, p. 721) He adds that ‘one thinks it has forty-eight sta rs and suddenly it has fifty stars; it is no longer of any great interest. ’‘The painting of a flag is always about a flag, but it is no more about a flag than it is about a brush-stroke or about a color or about the physicality of the paint, I think. (Harrison and Wood, 2001, p. 723) People will not care anymore about the cultural meaning of a flag, such as the meaning behind the number of stars of flag, but it transforms to a new representation of merely art element—- brush-stroke, color and paint. The deform of ordinary objects is reformed into a new image using oil and collage on fabric. By looking at the quality of work, one may say it is unfinished, however Jasper said it is his intention. ‘I think a painting should include more experience than simply intended statement.I personally would like to keep the painting in a state of ‘ shunning statement’, so that one is left with the fact that one can experience individually as one pleases; th at is, not to focus the attention in one way, but to leave the situation as kind of actual thing, so that the experience of it is variable. ’ (Harrison and Wood, 2001, p. 726) Besides he is interested in deforming objects, he also intended to leave the painting not ‘perfect’ as people usually conceived, to let viewer to ‘experience’ and interpret the painting in their own way.Lippard (1966) also said that he has neutralized the gap between life and art by composing ‘imperfect synthesis of motif and treatment’. The question about is it a painting or flag is no more important. He integrates art and life with the use of ordinary objects and the imperfect way to treat his art. The new interpretation of ordinary culture is arousing resonance of viewers rather that a voicing out a statement to challenge the society. Andy Warhol, another master of pop art giving a new interpretation of mass production. For the most 1950s he was a successful gra phic designer, particularly in the field of shoe illustration.In 1960, Warhol, produced his first canvases depicting comic strip characters. The canonical repeated Soup Cans, Disaster, Elvises and Marilyns followed in 1962. Warhol talks about his work, ‘Campbell’s Soup Cans,’(fig. 2), for the reason he start painting soup cans ‘because I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for twenty years, I guess, the same thing over and over again. ’(Harrison and Wood, 2001, P. 732) Painting usually reflects the painter’s mind, which is happening around them. And the Soup cans totally reflect what Warhol’s life had and what he concerned.Daily objects are used again as the theme of art work which is reminding viewers about very common objects, which Warhol is placing a new value and thought into them through his work. Another series of painting, the death series (fig. 3), and the reason to start this series is because there was lots of disaster news from the mass media. Warhol realized that everything he was doing must have been Death. That started it. But he believed when one see a horrible picture over and over again would lose the effect (Harrison and Wood, 2001, P. 732).He even wants to repeat the images like what a machine does. In the 60s, most of the American similar to Warhol repeating their life likes a machine. No one would like to be a machine, but Warhol does. Warhol said that ‘I want to be a machine, and I feel that whatever I do and do machine like is what I want to do. ’ (Harrison and Wood, 2001, P. 732) In 1963 Warhol was mass-producing the images by silkscreen technique, for the repeated images ‘makes us aware again of objects which have lost their visual recognition through constant exposure.We take a fresh look at things familiar to us, yet uprooted from their ordinary contexts, and reflect upon the meaning of contemporary existence. ’(Stangos, 1997, P. 229) War hol wants an art that will appeal to everybody, and his ‘products’ range from soup to cheesecake, Brillo to Marilyn Monroe, nose surgery to Jacqueline Kennedy, as he mention ‘everything is beautiful, Pop is everything. ’ (Stangos, 1997) Once again, his art work reflects the mundane daily life of Warhol. It becomes widespread and popular because of the objects are so attached to everyone’s common life in America, which recalls people’s memory.It is more probably that he is playful to ordinary materials, giving new look to them, mass producing them, rather to give a critical statement to the contemporary society. Roy Lichtenstein, who was a founder and foremost practitioner of pop art, he interest in the comic-strip cartoon and blown-up enlargements of things as an art theme probably began with a painting of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, ‘Look Mickey’ (fig. 4). Although he was initially dissatisfied with his technique and uncomforta ble with direct appropriation, he took great pleasure in presenting well-known comic-strip figures in a fine art format.He thinks that Pop art is commercial art which is used as subject matter in painting. (Franciz, Mark and Foster, 2005) He is interested in signs and comic strips because they are ‘usable, forceful and vital about commercial art†¦. We are using those things—- but we are not really advocating stupidity, international teenagerism and terrorism. ’ (Franciz, Mark and Foster, 2005, p. 229) The use of ‘comic strips’ itself already brings the cultural effect which everyone could digest easily, while he did not intend to give a judgment to the culture or society.Roy also said that he painted directly. To express the things in a painterly style would dilute it; the techniques he uses are not commercial, they only appear to be commercial and the ways of seeing and composing and unifying are different and have different ends. Roy believes pop art looks out into the world; it appears to accept its environment, which is not good or bad, but different-another state of mind. And the tension between apparent object-directed products and actual ground- directed processes is an important strength of pop art. Mahsun, 1989,) When the curator at the modern museum has called pop art fascistic and militaristic, ‘the 1st televised war’ (fig 5), Roy said that ‘The heroes depicted in comic books are fascist types, but I don’t take them seriously in these paintings- maybe there is a point in not taking them seriously, a political point. I use them for purely formal reason, and that’s not what those heroes were invented for†¦. Pop art has very immediate and of the moment meanings which will vanish- that kind of thing is ephemeral- and pop takes advantage of this ‘meaning’ which is not supposed to last, to divert you from its content.I think the formal statement in my work will become clearer in time. ’ (Mahsun, 1989, P. 113) It is clear that Roy does not take the heroic effect of cartoon strip itself seriously, even agrees with the fading meaning of pop art it may convey. It does not matters to him whether the effect will be long-lasting. He takes the immediate effect of cartoon images which are popular and influential in the moment. One could hardly think about he is criticizing the culture from his own statement. In 50s to 60s America societies, pop culture is the product of the Industrial Revolution, and of the series of technological revolutions that succeed it. Nikos Stangos, 1997) The impact of Mass media from radio, television or magazine advertising was fully influenced in America urban environment, who can live without this complicated mass media element. According to impact of mass media, the commonplace objects (such as comic strips, famous star and commodities) were used as subject matter in pop art. When the pop artists discovered those â₠¬Ëœinvisible’ objects, they realized that there were full of new interesting art element surround them. When the daily commodities become an art piece, the relationship between the commonplace objects and the consumer are resonating easily.That is the reason why pop art acceptance and recognition by the consumer society and become a fad quickly. (Harrison and Wood, 2001,) It is more prone that Pop art is reflecting the society and culture rather than judging it. ‘Everything about pop art was, and is, transient and provisional. By embracing these qualities, the pop artists held a mirror to society itself. ’ (Stangos, 1997, P. 238) | | | (Fig. 1) Flags, 1952| | (Fig. 2) Campbell’s Soup Can, 1962| | | | | | | (Fig. 3) five deaths, 1963| | (Fig. 4) Look mickey,1961| | | | | | | (Fig. 5) The 1st televised war,1972| | |Reference list: Francis, Mark and Foster, 2005, Hal (eds). Pop, Phaidon, New York Harrison, C and Wood, P 2001, Art in theory: 1900-2000: and ant hology of changing ideas, Oxford, Blackwell. Honnet, K 2007, Andy Warhol 1928-1987 commerce into Art, Taschen, Germany Lippard,L. R, 1966, Pop Art, Thames and Hudson, London Livingstone, M, 2000, Pop art a continuing history, Thames and Hudson, Singapore Mahsun, C. A. R, 1989, Pop Art the critical dialogue, UMI Research Press, London Stangos, N, 1997, Concepts of Modern Art, third edition, Thames and Hudson, Singapore

Identity Formation Essay

Identity formation is a universal term for young girls and boys who are trying to create themselves once they have that self awareness concept. There are many experiments that show media, peer pressure, and environmental factors contribute towards alternating a person’s identity. Natural observation and the longitudinal study can show the changes that form when a person encounters a social environmental factor that can alter their own identity which; it could be through friends, pressure to fit in, or celebrity envy. Two research methods that would prove to show that media, peer pressure, and social environmental factors do influence identity formation would be studying a participant over a long period time and studying a person in a natural setting with out them knowing. For example doing a longitudinal study on a participant will show the influences of different factors that will have on a certain participant through out their development. Doing this kind of research method will show the progress of changes in that participant’s life and will show the researcher the affect it has on her or his identity development. For example a young girl who always watches celebrities through out her childhood and into her teen years will show an affect on her identity rather then someone who is taught on real life and how people are suppose to look like or act. â€Å"Adolescents who watched music videos were more likely to recognize and relate to the socially competent behaviors demonstrated in the music videos than to the negative images or entertainment only value of the video (Te’Neil Lloyd 2000). † Using a natural setting can show researchers if participants act differently in real life after watching certain movies or shows. Without the participant knowing they are being studied they will show a natural behavior and most likely send out a false identity after being exposed to those social media factors. The downside about using these two research methods can be both participants can drop out anytime they want. Such as using the longitudinal study the young participant can drop out of the study anytime of his/her life. To make sure this study is ethical is to have a parent’s permission for their child to participate in this study over their entire development span. For the natural setting observation study the researchers cannot talk to whoever they are observing which can lead to involvement towards the study and interrupting the natural behavior. To make sure this type of research study is ethical is to not use names and make sure other people cannot find these participants in their community. Or they can tell their participants that they want to observe them, but not tell them when and do the observation randomly. Overall identity formation can be manipulated at anytime in the child’s development stages; media, magazines, and their own peer group can change how they view themselves. Using a natural setting for observation, and longitudinal study can show researchers that social factors and environmental factors can influence identity formation. Overall social media, celebrity shows, and environmental factors have a heavy impact on our lives each day. Many young girls and boys try to find their own medium with all these barriers to overcome with trying to fit in at school or watching TV shows that show unrealistic behaviors and appearances for the real world. â€Å"Teenaged adolescents watch more movies than any other segment of the population. More than 4 million adolescent girls monthly purchase magazines such as Seventeen and Sassy (Evans et aL, 1991), and three-fourths of white females aged 12-14 read at least one magazine regularly (Klein et al. , 1993). Add to this videos, books, and newspapers, and the total amounts to a significant part of the daily experience of adolescents (Jensen Arnett 1995). † This fact shows many girls and boys are exposed to a lot of media, gossip magazines and movies that many people envy for their life and identity to be like.

Housing economics (Housing Studies) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words - 1

Housing economics (Housing Studies) - Essay Example There is no government intervention in this economy (Grant & Vidler, 2000, p. 19). The free market system consists of four main categories of actors. They are â€Å"consumers, producers, owners of private property (land and capital) and government† (Economics, 1977). Each actor in the pure market economy is motivated their own self-interest and they take every decision based on their private gain. In this context we make an assumption of rationality. It is a very important assumption that considers that the market actors are rational in the sense that they are both consistent and transitive in the choices that they make. If a person chooses a basket of commodities ‘X’ over a basket of commodities ‘Y’ at a particular point of time, she would choose the same basket of commodities an instant later provided that there are not any alterations made in the baskets. Secondly, if a person chooses ‘X’ over ‘Y’ and ‘Y’ over ‘Z’, he would prefer ‘X’ over ‘Z’. It is a lso to be noted that a rational individual would want more of a normal good (increases consumption of which gives increased utility) than less of it. In the free market economy, any stability issue is resolved without external intervention and it is made possible through â€Å"consistent maximization of a well-ordered function, such as a utility or profit function† (Etzioni, 2010, p. 142) by the two main forces of the market; the consumers and the producers. According to the famous proposition by Adam Smith, an invisible hand works in the free market economy. The housing system in the United Kingdom is a large and complex system and includes a range of relationships between the owners and occupiers of the homes. The houses might e occupied by the owners or might involve various rental tenures in the private sector including the â€Å"not-for profit and local authority sectors† (Diacon, Pattison & Vine, 2009, p. 6). This market consists of millions of existing

DQ1 - Copyright Compensation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

DQ1 - Copyright Compensation - Essay Example Technological barriers would be represented by the high number of households being connected to the internet wirelessly, thus making it difficult to track down how levies should be charged, and peer to peer sharing that is not done via the Internet (e. g. sharing through portable media and memory drives) (Oksanen & Valimaki, 2005). Suggestions of putting levies on computer hardware themselves have been met with strong disapproval. This is because such an action may led to an unfair charging on people who require the computer hardware but has not intention of using such hardware for infringing copyright purposes. Thus, these consumers will actually be overcharged for something that they won’t use. It is quite clear that levies and value-added charges cannot exactly sustain their purpose in an age where people keep on thinking of ways to get things for free. Thus, rather than focusing on these alternative modes of compensation, the people concerned should be coming up with ways to somehow be lenient with the sharing of the information that they own and devise methods by which compensation will trickle in without having to label it as a â€Å"levy† or â€Å"value-added charge.† For example, the music industry may suffer from decreasing sales in records but that doesn’t mean the industry should suffer as well. Music personalities go on tours, engage in endorsement deals, and may even use the Internet to their advantage. With these efforts, the artists will be remunerated in a more appropriate level. In the literary industry, best-selling author Paulo Coelho actually publishes entire copies of his books on his blogs for free. Prior to this unorthodox move, Coelho was merely a locally known writer in his home country of Brazil. After publishing his book online and allowing consumers to read the entire book for free, sales of his books skyrocketed and a lot of his books have been best sellers ever since. Such an example illustrates that in the end, shared information will correspondingly remunerate the artist behind such products and ideas. Coelho realized that while a few people would probably endure reading an entire novel on their PC’s, a majority would still want to purchase a hard copy. And purchase they surely will as soon as they get to sample the product. As such, levies and value-added charges are not only infeasible, they are unnecessary as well. References: Liebowitz, S., & Watt, R. (2006). How to ensure best remuneration for creators in the market for music. Journal of Economic Surveys , 513-533. Oksanen, V., & Valimaki, M. (2005). Copyright levies as an alternative compensation method for recording artists and technological development. Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues , 2 (2), 25-39. DQ2- An IP case Intellectual property is the ownership of information and it comes in different forms. Some of these are copyright, which protects the rights of people behind expression of information; patents protect the rights of those who invented a new commodity; and, trademarks protect symbols that are associated with a given product or company. When the use of any of these things are violated by non-makers of the information, owners may invoke their intellectual proper