Determination of Water Hardness Essay

Introduction: In this lab a total of six titrations are to be performed. Three of them will be done using a known Ca2+ solution, (1.000 g CaCO3 /L solution) and three of them will be done using an unknown solution obtained from the stock room. The objective of this lab is to determine the hardness of water, using the data collected from each titration performed with the unknown sample. Since the hardness of water arises from the presence of metal ions, we can use disodium salt of EDTA and the indicator Eriochrome Black T to determine the concentration of M 2+ ( Mg 2+ or Ca 2+) metal ion impurities. Chemical principle or theory involved in this lab: To determine waters hardness we will use a technique called a chelometric titration. â€Å"When a neutral molecule or anion (lewis base) donates electron pairs and attaches itself to a metal ion center (a Lewis acid), the resulting cluster of atoms forms a single ion called a complex. When such complexes form the electron donating groups are called ligands. When ligands with more than one binding site form complexes with metal ions, we call this process chelation, where the ligand used is called a chelating agent. † (lab manual) In this lab the chelating agent used is Na2EDTA. Our Indictor Eriochrome Black T, is a dye, and will form a pink complex in the presence of a metal cation. As EDTA solution is added to the solution, the metal ions will complex to the EDTA solution leaving the indicator solvated. The chemical equation, with the known calcium ion solution, looks as follows: Where H2In ¯ represents the solvated indicator Erichrome Black T dye. H2In ¯ + Ca 2+ â‡Å' CaIn ¯ + 2H (blue) (pink) As EDTA is added to the solution, it grabs the Ca ions away from the Erichrome Black T dye molecules to form a more stable complex. When solvated, and alone in the solution, the Erichrome Black T dye will produce a blue color; it can be represented by the equation below: EDTA 4 ¯ + CaIn ¯ + 2H → H2In ¯ + CaEDTA 2 ¯ (pink) (blue) Procedure or Method: First prepare your disodium EDTA solution by weighing out 0.7- 0.8 grams of Na2EDTA and dissolve it in 500 mL’s of deionized water. Place in a sealed container and shake vigorously. Standardize the Na2EDTA solution using calcium ion stock solution: Add 10 mL of calcium solution to a flask, and add 30 mL’s of deionized water. Add 3 mL’s of ammonium chloride buffer under the fume hood and stir. Add 4 drops of the Eriochrome Black T indicator dye, then titrate with the disodim EDTA solution within 15 min’s. At the endpoint the color changes from pink to violet to blue within 3-5 seconds. Note the volume of Na2EDTA that was used delivered from the burret, and repeat the titration 2 more times. Obtain an unknown water stock solution from the stock room taking note of the unknown number, then titrate with the standardized disodium EDTA solution: Mix 25 mL’s of the prepared water sample with 20 mL’s of deionized water, then under the fume hood, add 3 mL’s of ammonium chloride buffer and stir. Add 4 drops of the Eriochrome Black T indicator dye, then titrate with the disodim EDTA solution within 15 minute’s Repeat the titration 2 more times, and calculate the hardness of the prepared water sample from each of the titrations. Observations and Calculations: Amount of Na2EDTA solution Amount of Na2EDTA solution   required to titrate calcium Ion solution required to titrate unknown H2O sample Trial 1 25.0 mL15.7 mL Trail 2 23.8 mL14.9 mL Trial 3 23.6 mL15.5 mL Because EDTA chelates Ca 2+ ions in a one-to-one molar ratio we can calculate the moles present of Na2EDTA using the following formula(s): Trial 1: [Na2EDTA] = 10.00 mL CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1.000 g CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1mol CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1mol Na2EDTA 25.0 mL Na2EDTA 1 L CaCO3 100.1g CaCO3 1 mol CaCO3 =.004 moles Na2EDTA Trial 2: [Na2EDTA] = 10.00 mL CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1.000 g CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1mol CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1mol Na2EDTA 23.8 mL Na2EDTA 1 L CaCO3 100.1g CaCO3 1 mol CaCO3 =.004197 moles Na2EDTA Trial 3: [Na2EDTA] = 10.00mL CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1.000 g CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1mol CaCO3 Ãâ€" 1mol Na2EDTA 23.6 mL Na2EDTA 1 L CaCO3 100.1g CaCO3 1mol CaCO3 =.004233 moles Na2EDTA Mean of all 3 trials = .004 + .004197 + .004233 / 3 = .004143 Absolute deviation: Estimated Precision(ppt): Trial 1: |[.004143] – [.004] = [1.43 x 10^-4]| .02229 X 1000 = 23.09 ppt .004143 Trial 2: |[.004143] – [.004197] = [-5.4 x 10^-5]| Trial 3: |[.004143] – [.004233] = [-9 x 10^-5]| H2O hardness Calculated: Trial 1: 15.7 mL Na2EDTA X .004143mol Na2EDTA X 1mol CaCO3 X 100.1g CaCO3 0.02500 L CaCO3 1L Na2EDTA 1mol Na2EDTA 1mol CaCO3 Trial 1 H2O hardness = 260.44 ppm Trial 2: 14.9 mL Na2EDTA X .004143mol Na2EDTA X 1mol CaCO3 X 100.1g CaCO3 0.02500 L CaCO3 1L Na2EDTA 1mol Na2EDTA 1mol CaCO3 Trial 2 H2O hardness = 247.17 ppm Trial 1: 15.5 mL Na2EDTA X .004143mol Na2EDTA X 1mol CaCO3 X 100.1g CaCO3 0.02500 L CaCO3 1L Na2EDTA 1mol Na2EDTA 1mol CaCO3 Trial 3 H2O hardness = 257.12 ppm Average H2O hardness for unknown # 127 = 254.91 ppm Conclusion: The average water hardness for unknown 127 is 254.91 ppm. City of Gilberts average water hardness in 2011 was in the range of 41- 330 ppm (http://www.3mwater.com/medi/documents/ WaterReport_GilbertAZ.pdf). This is a large range but is a range that my unknown water sample would fall within. According to Fairfax Water, a value over 180 ppm is considered â€Å"very hard†, and according to the lab manual water with more than 200 ppm is considered hard. Based on this information I would conclude that my unknown water sample has a high amount of metal ions present. References: Lab Manual City of Gilbert, â€Å"http://www.3mwater.com/medi/documents/WaterReport_GilbertAZ.pdf† FairFax Water, â€Å"http://www.fcwa.org/water/hardness.htm†

1949 and the early 1960s in Communist China: Women; Landlords and Businessmen; Peasants Essay

How far did life improve for the following groups between 1949 and the early 1960s in Communist China: Women; Landlords and Businessmen; Peasants. The years of 1949-1960 in China were indeed ‘Years of Great Change’. Who could have predicted a civil war, a Communist takeover, a complete turnaround in the land ownership system (and the economy in general) and the launch (and failure) of a near-Industrial Revolution? Mao and co heralded a headfirst launch into the twentieth century for China’s governmental system, that’s for sure. But amid all the â€Å"reforms†, how much did life actually improve for the Chinese population? This essay aims to examine what reforms were made, and how they affected the peasants, women, landlords and businessmen of China. Before China’s Communist â€Å"liberation†, it had been ruled by Chiang Kaishek and the Guomindang. Their Nationalist regime had favoured the businessmen and landlords of China. Chiang Kaishek ruled as a dictator and had his army of â€Å"blueshirts† to enforce order, just like Hitler and Mussolini. By the late 1940s, however, his rule was starting to become unstable, with massive inflation causing poverty for many people in the cities. He realised that his regime was doomed, and retreated to the island of Taiwan, leaving the Communists to rule China. Nearly everyone, even the landlords and businessmen, would have been happy about any kind of takeover at the time, as everyone’s future looked bleak under the collapsing Guomindang government. The Communists came as a breath of fresh air. But were they? The Communists were not exactly verbose in their Common Programme when they said â€Å"Women shall enjoy equal rights with men†. Likewise, Mao wasn’t when he said â€Å"Women hold up half the sky†. Yet that was the Communist attitude towards women: equal to men, no more, no less, and it was a refreshing one at the time. The traditional attitude to women was that they were strictly possessions of their husbands. Consider that women had been oppressed virtually since the start of Chinese society: it was traditional to practice such things as foot-binding and child prostitution. Under the Communists, the 1951 Marriage Law abolished both of these barbarities, as well as arranged marriages, child marriages and bigamy. Two of the most significant events equality-wise were the property and divorce law changes: husbands and wives now jointly owned property and either one could divorce the other (before only men could divorce women). Nearly all women would have been pleased about this, and the Party now had a whole gender, so to speak, on its side. However, there were downsides. For the older generation, who were fierce traditionalists, this would have been shocking and disruptive, and since they had not much time left to enjoy the newfound freedoms brought by Communism, they might be opposed to these changes. The only women not affected at all by these reforms were those living in the remote parts of China. These places refused to break with tradition, even under pressure from the Communists. Also, the Marriage Law and social reforms meant that women were now treated exactly the same as men; i.e. they were expected to work just as hard regardless of their state of fitness. A lot of the Maoist policies towards women were fuelled by the wish to turn the currently unworking half of the nation into a productive force; for example, the crà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ches organised for children were designed not really for the benefit of the women as such, but to get them out working in the fields again. Not to be unfair to them though, some policies were selfless: the law to give mothers maternity leave with full wages for two months does seem to be fully aimed towards helping women. In general, I believe that life for women definitely improved under the Communists. There was still quite a way to go, but Communist policy in this area was in many ways quite prescient. Landlords and businessmen probably came off the worst under the Communists. Under the Common Programme, they were defined as being â€Å"capitalists† and â€Å"reactionaries†. The same document stated that they would be â€Å"deprived of their political rights†, so their harsh treatment did not come entirely as a surprise. Under the Agrarian Reform Law, landlords lost an average of 93% of the land they had own. They were also subject to abuse, heavy fines and sometimes, in cases where they had been particularly cruel to their tenants, execution, at â€Å"speak bitterness† meetings. Around three million landlords were killed during these meetings. Businessmen had it nearly as bad. If you had business with the Guomindang or had ripped off the peasantry, you could be sure of at least re-education, if not complete deprivation of any form of rights (in society; no-one in Communist China really had any â€Å"political rights†). Even if you hadn’t committed any â€Å"offences†, you would face fines. Life wasn’t good if you were either a landlord or a businessman in China. It was probably worse if you were a landlord; businessmen at least weren’t executed. At least, not very often; the Communists had something nasty against anyone who had dealings with their old enemy, the Guomindang. Considering that most of Mao’s Communist policies were targeted towards peasants, they are the most important part of this essay. Under Mao, there were three types of peasants, â€Å"rich†, â€Å"middle† and â€Å"poor† peasants. Rich peasants meant those who could afford to hire other peasants to work for them. Middle peasants were those who could afford some basic equipment, while poor peasants formed the vast majority of China’s agricultural system, and were employed by landlords who paid them a pittance to work the land. Mao was very ambitious when it came to China’s work system. First he turned the land-ownership system around full circle. Then he launched the country into the industrial era of the twentieth century. He had to start somewhere, however, and that place was the Common Programme, where it was stated that â€Å"[the party] must systematically transform†¦the land ownership system into a system of peasant land ownership†¦It must steadily transform the country from an agricultural into an industrial one†. This was some goal, considering that the years of warring between the Communists and the Guomindang had lain waste to farms and peasants, causing the agricultural output to drop radically. And through all this there was massive population growths, so there were more mouths to feed with less crops. Mao and his ragtag band of Communist officials had the peasants’ support, though. Many peasants supported the Communists already; after all, they were the original worker’s party, and they had been very popular in the liberation areas, respecting the locals and trying out some reforms with regard to land and women with great success. The first step he took towards his agricultural revolution was by profiling all the peasants and teaching them how to sort themselves into the classes mentioned above. Land was then redistributed between the peasants evenly. This table illustrates how the land reform system changed: % houses % crop area owned Before After Landlords 2.6 28.7 2.1 Rich peasants 3.6 17.6 6.3 Middle peasants 35.8 30.2 44.8 Poor peasants and others 58.0 23.5 46.8 The Agrarian Reform Law turned the land ownership system on its head. Rich peasants lost land, poor peasants gained the rich peasants’ lost land and middle peasants stayed roughly the same (the increase is due to the heavy imbalance between landlords and poor peasants; there was almost too much land to go round after the landlords had been stripped of their land). The peasants had troubles, however: they found that they hadn’t enough money or equipment to cultivate the land. Mao suggested that peasants therefore organise themselves into Mutual Aid Teams, groups of peasants who would share each other’s land and equipment. So far, Mao’s plan was going extremely well; he was popular with the peasantry, having given them the land that had been their dream, and allowed them a chance to get back at their landlords (the â€Å"speak bitterness† meetings were known for becoming quite bloody). The Communist government, however, refused to leave its land reform manifesto at this stage. The Five-Year Plan to revolutionise China’s economy was underfoot, and mutual aid teams were not efficient enough to hit the high economic targets that Mao had set for China. So the co-operatives were introduced: first lower and then higher stage. The lower-stage co-operatives were simply an extension of the mutual aid teams idea, only with many families (around forty) pooling their resources. Only when the higher-stage co-operatives went into action was what Mao probably would have called true Communism in action achieved: two to three hundred families, all having surrendered land, animals and equipment to the co-operative and being paid nothing except for what they earned in the fields for it. The immense pressure and control on Chinese society (wall-posters, censorship and propaganda everywhere) was borne out by the fact that by 1956 ninety-five percent of Chinese peasants had joined higher-stage co-operatives, an idea that must have looked unattractive even then. As you can see, even for peasants Communism was not without big downsides. Perhaps one of the biggest was the onslaught of conformity and control inherent in the whole Maoist idea. â€Å"Propagandists† ensured a constant stream of pro-Communist posters. The media broadcast tutorials on how to defeat American imperialist pigs. Anyone who might be anti-Communist was either forced to leave the country or sent to a camp to be â€Å"re-educated†. And what happened when the censorship was relaxed? Mao decided to let the people say what they wanted about the Communists for a while. From 1956 people said exactly what they pleased, and many of them were rather vocal in their criticisms of the regime. In June 1957 Mao suddenly stopped the period of free discussion, known as the Hundred Flowers period, and clamped down on the more vocal opposition to his regime. Chinese society was back to its closely-controlled state, and if anything, the censorship was even harsher than before. â€Å"Perhaps†¦because of the steely control, China was more stable in 1956 than at any time this century. Foreign occupation, civil war, widespread death from starvation†¦inflation –all seemed to be things of the past. Stability, the dream of the Chinese, sustained the faith of people.† Perhaps the Chinese forgave all of the Communists’ flaws just for a little stability. They abided by their standards and conformed purely to stop any of these other tragedies occuring, and the Communists realised this, and even called meetings to remember how bad things were under the Guomindang. Overall, peasants would have been initially pleased but quite dubious in the long term about the benefits of Communism. They would have enjoyed the land – for the short period that it was available to them. By the end of the first period of land reform, the Communists would be losing their popularity. Mao liked the peasants to seem selfless, and working towards a common good, and depending on how brainwashed they truly were, this might have been the case to an extent. But I am sure that peasants secretly longed to have back the privately owned land it felt like they’d fought for. Some of them would also be unhappy about the repression and censorship, but this would have been even harder for most to see because of the controlled media’s constant presence. In 1958 a â€Å"Great Leap Forward† was announced: a plan to make China into a competent world power, both industrially and agriculturally. It was similar to the first Five-Year Plan in that it relied heavily on the organisation of society into steadily larger parts. These parts were called â€Å"communes†, and were created as groups of villages containing about 5000 families who gave up land, animals and equipment to common usage and ownership by the members of the commune. This was the ultimate unit of control in Chinese society: it was something that was everywhere you went, you ate there, you worked there, you slept there, and anything you felt was also felt by your whole commune. Or so Mao hoped. Posters, speeches, newspaper articles and all the other standard propaganda mechanisms were much more effective there because there really was no escape. The communes were a great success, producing things in record time, and the workers were well motivated. The Communist brainwashing was so total that people were working harder and were motivated because of the propaganda and censorship. However, only a year later, the honeymoon period was over, the Great Leap Forward was having serious marital issues, and the only marriage counsellor was too busy telling his workers to work harder. In short, Mao pushed too hard. Equipment fell apart. Workers fell asleep at their tasks. To add to this, lack of field workers, bad weather two years running and government lies caused a horrific famine, killing over twenty million people. Mao Zedong really should have been forced to resign after this; indeed, if Chinese society had not been so utterly brainwashed I believe he would have. Instead, he was forced to step down slightly, but was still a very prominent figure. And, crucially yet unbelievably, he retained the public’s support after all his crimes against them. The peasants were still with him. But I do not believe life got better for peasants under the Communists during the period I have described. An improved living standard cannot justify the removal of identity from an entire nation and a famine killing millions. I do not believe that the Communists did a lot of good for the vast majority of China. The only segment of Chinese society whose lives improved markedly were women, and when evaluating the importance of the reforms to end sexism, you have to take into account that most women were also peasants. So, whilst they were freed from being killed at birth and so on, they were also left to die later on in the famine, or through overwork, since women now had to work just as hard as men. The lives of landlords and businessmen could hardly be expected to get better under the Communists. However, perhaps they were unnecessarily cruel; execution hardly seems necessary. But Mao’s regime’s performance regarding peasants is unforgivable. A peasant-focused regime making thing worse for peasants is unforgivable, and life indeniably was worse for peasants by 1961.

Insanity and Diminished Responsibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Insanity and Diminished Responsibility - Essay Example abnormality of the mind ( R v Byrne ); drug personality disorder (Celebici Trial); involuntary intoxication ( R v Galbraith) ; mental weakness and low intelligence ( Lord Dea's decision ) ; minority ( R v Raven ); physical deformities such as blindness and being a deaf-mute ( R v Pritchard). In the treatise "Partial Defences To Murder" more mitigating factors are added i.e. sufficient provocation by the offended party ( R v Smith ); immediate vindication of a grave offence to himself or his relatives (Table 7); Incomplete self-defence where there is no reasonable necessity of the means employed by the culprit (R v Martin); passion or obfuscation (Case 113); disease or injury (Note 17); jealousy, mercy killing, depression, relationship of victim to the accused (Table 7). The list goes on and on. Insanity is a plea or defence by which the accused at the time of the commission of the act, "was laboring under such a defect of reason, arising from a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing or, if he did know it, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong (The M'Naghten Rules). Insanity totally exempts the culprit from criminal liability unless he does it during a lucid interval. If so, he is wholly liable for the crime unless there are mitigating factors attending the crime. Diminished Respons... 2 Diminished Responsibility is defined as a plea or defence in which the accused at the moment of the commission of the crime suffers from some "form of mental unsoundness or mental aberration or weakness of mind", so much so that his "mind is so affected that responsibility is diminished from full responsibility to partial responsibility" ( HM Advocate v Savage). Comparison and Contrast 1. Both insanity and diminished responsibility are mental states. In insanity, there is a mental disorder or a mental disease which causes the deranged person to be deprived completely of reason, discernment or freedom of the will at the time of the commission of the crime. In insanity, there is an absence in the agent of crime of any of all the conditions that would make an act voluntary. On the other hand, in diminished responsibility, there is a mental debility or aberration of the mind or a temporary mental capacity or a temporary mental impairment (Scottish Law Commission 2). Here, there is some degree of reason, discernment or freedom of the will albeit such is beclouded and weakened by the presence of any of the mitigating factors hereinabove mentioned. 2. Insanity totally exempts the offender from criminal liability because the insane person is totally deprived , at the time of the performance of the crime, of discernment or reason or intelligence and is unable to distinguish between right or wrong. In diminished responsibility, as a rule, there is no exemption from criminal liability but there is instead a mitigation or extenuation of criminal responsibility

Economics for Global Business Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economics for Global Business - Coursework Example The country’s real GDP per capita has similarly grown over the last two years. In 2011, the real GPD per capita stood at 41,500 USD while in 2012, it stood at 42,400 USD, a positive change of 900 USD per capita within the period (Index Mundi 2013, par. 2). While the unemployment rate stood at 5.7% in 2009, this rate dropped by 0.5% over a period of three years to reach 5.2% in 2012 (Index Mundi 2013, par. 2). The economy also recorded a reduction in its budget deficit in 2012 at a rate of about 0.8% of Australia’s GDP. Australia’s budget deficit is less than half that of the U.S., and its net debt is smaller than that of its gross domestic product (Stiglitz, 2013). Although the national budget deficit has been slightly increasing recently, the countries' public debt as a percentage of GDP is small compared to many European countries, France included. Australia has also benefited from a commodity boom that has seen the economy get stronger. These statistics and fa cts hint to the fact that the Australian economy is remained strong and has managed to achieve positive growth over the last couple of years. The strides made by the economy are a direct result of the Australian government’s and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s positive efforts and robust policies. One important practice maintained by the Australian government is globalization. ... tralia has continued to open up its borders to international trade and inflow of information, people, goods, and services, a factor that has seen its economy continue to grow. In this respect, the Australian government has been engaging the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks and has endeavoured to strengthen its relations with Korea, Japan and China by engaging them in free trade agreements (Index Mundi 2013, par 1). Australia's government has put in place good policies to evade the kind of international economic turbulence that has affected so many other nations in the last two years (Thirlwell, 2013). A few years ago as other nations fell into recession, Australia kept its strong economy moving. Personal efforts by Australia's leaders such as Kevin Rudd saw the implementation of stimulus packages that reduced government debt and saved thousands of jobs. Being self sufficient in energy production, the country stands to benefit a lot economically since the cost of manufacturing has been cut down. For any country to have a good economy, its central or reserve bank plays a crucial role in overseeing economic growth. The Reserve Bank of Australia has been playing a very important role in the Australian economy. Thanks to the establishment of good monetary policies by the Australian Reserve Bank, the country has managed to avoid recessions and high inflation (Onselen, 2013). Australia’s exemption from the recent global recession is proof that the government and reserve bank policies have made Australia a model of a successful economy (Onselen, 2013). One contributing factor to the notable example of good adjustment of the macro economy has been the flexibility of the exchange rate. Even though other factors such as demand for labor, and the growth of wages, were playing a

Sustainable Living and Sustainable Construction Essay

Sustainable Living and Sustainable Construction - Essay Example Consequently, the existing infrastructure, water supplies and transport systems are strained by the new housing. Therefore, there is very little difference between this housing scheme and the ones carried out in the past. For many years now, anti-road building lobbies have been arguing that governments should cease building new roads because this will just encourage more people to travel by car, resulting in increased harmful exhaust gas emission. â€Å"Governments are taking advantage of this lobbying to cut back on spending on roads leading to deterioration of the road network† (Bleischwitz, 29). Critics are also arguing that the same logic is not applied by the government to new housing because it results in the generation of new taxes. The government simply overlooks the fact that increased housing units lead to increased road traffic in the localities concerned. These practices are understandable since many authorities, institutions, and even individuals tend to focus on reducing costs while simultaneously maximizing benefits. Unfortunately, this is often undertaken at the expense of maximizing positive impact on the environment, and often leads to environmental degradation, and wastage of natural resources. Opponents of sustainable living and sustainable construction indeed have strong arguments against the suitability of this practice for conservation of the environment. However, they overlook many crucial factors regarding this issue which make their arguments irrelevant. First of all, sustainable living and construction can only achieve their aims when they are fully adopted and implemented. Partial adoption and implementation does not meet... The researcher of this essay states that despite the obvious benefits that sustainable living and sustainable construction, that was discussed in the essay and have positive impact on the lives of human beings and the environment in general, criticism has emerged from several quarters challenging the usefulness of these two practices. A number of well-known scholars in the field of sustainable development have raised concerns that sustainable growth is, in fact, an irreconcilable paradox, whose overall effects on the environment are largely harmful. Opponents of sustainable living and sustainable construction indeed have strong arguments against the suitability of this practice for conservation of the environment. The researcher also uses Stapleton neighborhood in Denver, Colorado as an example of a community built almost entirely using sustainable development. It occupies the site previously occupied by the Stapleton International Airport, and was built using recycled materials. The case of Stapleton serves as proof to critics of sustainable development that an initiative of such a large magnitude can be successfully initiated with 100% benefits, and no negative impacts. The planning stage should be given strong emphasis to ensure that all aspects of the project comply with sustainability standards. Sustainable living and construction has to be fully compliant with ‘green’ standards in order for it to achieve its aims of conserving energy, reducing waste and preventing pollution of the environment.

Corporate Computing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Corporate Computing - Essay Example The process may take ages to unfold, but the technological advancement is already taking place. Virtualization, Web services and grid computing are three advances 'which are of considerable significance', though their importance has frequently been hidden by the arcane terms used to explain them.Virtualization erases the variations involving proprietary computing platforms, hence enabling applications intended to run on one working scheme to be deployed in a different place. Web services regulate the interfaces connecting applications, whirling them into modules that can be assembled and disassembled simply.  Ã‚  Grid computing enables large information of hardware mechanism such as disk drivers or servers to successfully act as a sole device, pooling their capability and allocating it mechanically to diverse jobs. In diverse ways, the three technologies play a function parallel to that of the untimely recent converters. They make possible a vast, compactly incorporated system to b e constructed out of assorted and formerly irreconcilable components. Independently, the three technologies are remarkable; however, collective they become innovative.The need for utility services has forced some companies to connect their old hardware and software into traditional data centers. Certainly, firms frequently forgo if not striking utility services or run into difficulties with outsourcing planning since the necessary incorporation with their bequest systems is so complicated.

Performance Measurrement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Performance Measurrement - Essay Example (1997), this trend has led to the creation of new philosophies in performance assessment, such as concurrent engineering/construction, lean production/construction and many others such as JIT, TQM, TPM etc.; and the construction industry has continually saw the adoption of these new principles and techniques to better improve the quality of construction projects The major driving factor behind these new principles is the optimisation of an organisation's performance, internally and externally, to enable it compete favourably well within its market (Kagioglou et al, 2001). This is because performance measurement enables an organisation, construction organisation in this sense, to understand how decision making processes or practices led to success and failures in the past, and how that understanding can drive the organisation towards future improvements (Hatry, 1999). The purpose of this essay, therefore, is to elaborate the set of performance measures that are vital to assess the finances, customer satisfaction and product management in the construction industry, and to identify the right time and application for these performance measurements. ... defines the concept of 'performance measurement', quoting Evangelidisz (1992); he differentiated performance measurement from a similar term, 'performance management. He defined performance management as a closed loop control system which deploys policy and strategy, and obtains feedback from various levels in order to manage the performance of the system; and Performance measurement as the information system which is at the heart of the performance management process and it is of critical importance to the effective and efficient functioning of the performance management system. Thus, one can conclude that performance measurement is the processes of determining how successful organisations or individuals have been in attaining their objectives and strategies (Evangelidisz, 1992 cited in Kagioglou et al., 2001). However, to achieve this BICE (2005) contend that for a set of performance measures to be effective, it must possess the following vital components. These are: Clearly defined, actionable, and measurable goals that cascade from organisational mission to management and program levels; Cascading performance measures that can be used to measure how well mission, management, and program goals are being met; Established baselines from which progress toward the attainment of goals can be measured; Accurate, repeatable, and verifiable data; and Feedback systems to support continuous improvement of an organisation's processes, practices, and results. The importance of using the right performance measures to measure/assess the right 'things' is indisputably evident throughout the construction market today. The results of such appropriate measurement of performance would include attraction of future investment, increase in customer satisfaction, increase in share value

STD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

STD - Essay Example The spirochete Treponema pallidum (bacteria) is responsible for the said illness. This disease has the highest cases in urban populations, affecting persons with age 15-39, drug dependents, and those infected with HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Syphilis is usually acquired by humans through sexual contact. Infected mothers may transmit the infection to her fetus (prenatal syphilis). Moreover, if the disease is left untreated, it can progress into primary, secondary, latent and tertiary or late stage syphilis. Clinical signs and symptoms of syphilis depend on the stage of progression. Initially painless fluid-filled lesions or "small cancres" which may erupt on anus, genitalia, lips, tongue, fingers, nipples, eyelids or tonsils are observable then typically disappear 3 to 6 weeks after. About 8 weeks after, lesions or macules often erupt in areas of the trunk, soles, arms, palms, face and scalp. Other symptoms include anorexia, malaise, headache, nausea, weight loss, slight feve r and sore throat. Gumma, a deep or superficial nodule found in the bones, is one of the signs of late syphilis stage.

Learning Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Learning Journal - Essay Example In order to fully achieve inclusiveness, most companies have been encouraged to adopt policies that reflect affirmative action and those that are in line with anti discrimination laws and regulations. The companies should also have various practices that embody different approaches to managing diversity dimension. Various studies I came across in human resource have focused on the question of diversity management and how firms can incorporate policies to ensure a more diverse workforce and how this will benefit the organizations. A common understanding is that managing diversity in the workforce can help an organization become more innovative and adaptable to the ever changing business environment as well as helping the organizations meet their performance objectives (Verspaandonk, Holand & Horne, 2010). I found out that in some jurisdictions, the issue of workforce diversity has been backed with a legal foundation. Companies are expected to comply with set out legislations concernin g employment procedures so as to avoid discrimination. In some cases, it’s mandatory for organizations to have guidelines and policies to ensure inclusiveness in terms of gender, race and disability (Dickens, 2000). The other relevant fact I came across in my study is that in order to achieve equality in employment, organizations have to take in to account both affirmative action and anti discrimination legislation as well as other approaches to managing diversity dimension. Affirmative action refers to the various policies that are used to ensure inclusiveness in areas of business, education and employment in terms of race, religion, sex or age. Diversity in the workforce refers to the policies and practices that aim at including people with certain qualities in the workforce, which the current staff does not have. This could either be on the basis of age, disability, experience, gender or special talents. In our country Australia, the idea of workforce diversity has been we lcomed by organizations both in the public and private sector (Strachan et al, 2010). Our Department of Immigration and Citizenship has been at the forefront at ensuring diversity at all levels of the department. This has enabled the department to be among the best performers in the public sector (Strachan et al, 2010). Diversity involves a wide range of issues in an organization. These issues are both internal and external to the organization but influence to a large extent the business operations (Dickens, L. 2000). Among the issues that affect diversity dimension in an organization include the organizational culture, ethnicity, religion and political power, disability, sexual and gender issues employee representation among others (Verspaandonk, Holand & Horne, 2010). In my opinion, in order to effectively manage diversity, businesses have to employ various strategies as well as following guidelines as well as working within the various laws and regulations from the state that aim at ensuring inclusion of marginalized individuals in the workforce. I also understand that diversity management is a key issue in human resource and has been the center of focus in recent studies and research in human resources, especially the business case

Reading strategy Essay Example for Free

Reading strategy Essay The SQ3R strategy which stands for survey, question, read, recite, and review. This five step strategy can be integrated into many areas. students can learn more effectively by engaging in the pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading steps of this strategy. There are five strategy of reading to better understand the material. The strategy contain survey, question, read,recite and review. In survey, it contains chapter titles, introductory paragraphs, bold face, italicized headings and summary paragraphs. Question includes turn section headings into questions; have questions for which answers are expected to be found in the passage. In read purpose is to answer the questions. In recite also allow to answer question without referring to the text or notes. In review includes reviewing the material by reading parts of the text or notes to verify answers.The SQ3R is great way to actively read difficult material. It does not promise to make it student love or even like the subject but it facilitate the student to reading and ultimately, teach learning. with time and practice find this approach great study skill to develop.These students can benefit from using the SQ3R because it requires them to activate their thinking and review their understanding throughout their reading. It also helps students from waiting and then cramming for tests since the five steps requires them to review information and create notes during their initial reading. Their notes from the initial reading become their study guides. The SQ3R strategy which stands for survey, question, read, recite, and review. This five step strategy can be integrated into many areas. students can learn more effectively by engaging in the pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading steps of this strategy. There are five strategy of reading to better understand the material. The strategy contain survey, question, read,recite and review. In survey, it contains chapter titles, introductory paragraphs, bold face, italicized headings and summary paragraphs. Question includes turn section headings into questions; have questions for which answers are expected to be found in the passage. In read purpose is to answer the questions. In recite also allow to answer question without referring to the text or notes. In review includes reviewing the material by reading parts of the text or notes to verify answers.The SQ3R is great way to actively read difficult material. It does not promise to make it student love or even like the subject but it facilitate the student to reading and ultimately, teach  learning. with time and practice find this approach great study skill to develop.These students can benefit from using the SQ3R because it requires them to activate their thinking and review their understanding throughout their reading. It also helps students from waiting and then cramming for tests since the five steps requires them to review information and create notes during their initial reading. Their notes from the initial reading become their study guides.

Egon Schiele: Influences on and Impact in Art

Egon Schiele: Influences on and Impact in Art Was Egon Schiele ahead of his time or just in touch with it? A master of expressionism or practising pornographer and paedophile? What was the driving force behind his most memorable images; those being his nudes and self portraits? Looking at economic, social, personal influences, was he milking the times and environment for self gain or was he a hormone raging self absorbed youngster finding himself? Introduction Expressionism is described in typically polemic terms in the preface for the 1912 exhibition in Cologne, featuring new artists of this genre. In it, it says: â€Å"the exhibition is intended to offer a general view of the newest movement in painting, which has succeeded atmospheric naturalism and the impressionist rendering of motion, and which strives to offer a simplification and intensification in the mode of expression, after new rhythms and new uses of colour and a decorative or monumental configuration – a general view of that movement which has been described as expressionism.† Schiele certainly fulfilled the loose terminologies expressed above, as a great deal of the subject matter he explored, primarily his nudes and his self-portraits, were concerned with the constant need to redefine and explore different ways of expressing these themes; a simplification and intensification in the mode of expression. At times, Schiele reduces the broad sentiments of Impressionism to a single streak; he cuts out all that is unnecessary, reducing his backgrounds to a simple wash of colour, and thus focuses on his primary interest, that of the human subject. Schiele was also extremely concerned with the notion of self in his work; he is frequently cited in critical work as a narcissist and, with over 100 self portraits to his name, each of which appear to be concerned with showing himself in various, often contradictory ways, this would appear to be true. But, beyond simple glorification of the self, Schiele seems to be doing something else in his self-portraiture. By picturing himself in such a varied and at times contradictory way, Schiele in turn questions his own authenticity, and attempts to align himself with that great canon of artist in society, as a contemporary Promethean or Christ-like figure. â€Å"Allegory, unmasking, the presentation of a personable image, and close scrutiny of body language as influenced by the psyche, all met most palpably where Schieles eye looked most searchingly – in his self-portraits, his odyssey through the vast lands of the self. His reflections on and of himself filled a great hall of mirrors where he performed a pantomime of the self unparalleled in twentieth century art.† Indeed, the ambiguity of Schiele as regards himself is a dense and complex subject, which regards both â€Å"truth†, and a more subjective appraisal of art in Viennese society during the time in which Schiele was painting. Schiele was also concerned with breaking down and fundamentally opposing the traditions of Viennese culture and art which, at the time, were largely very conservative in opinion. In his art, Schiele would strike out at the culture that celebrated Biedermeier art and the slavish reproduction of classical works that he was taught at Viennas Academie der Bildunden Kunste (Viennas Academy of Fine Art), which he was admitted to on the grounds of his exceptional talent as a draughtsman. Most prominently, he would break these rules, and was thus ahead of his times with his extremely controversial oeuvre, which broke from these schools almost completely, both stylistically and in terms of the subject matter that they conveyed. But it is extremely difficult, if not impossible when considering any artist to extricate him / her from the times in which he / she was born. An artist is inevitably bound to the world around him / her, and thus, it is important to consider the economic, social and cultural trends that were prevalent at the time. Schiele was part of the expressionist movement – which immediately set itself up against the heralded principals of art in Vienna, by setting up its own artist-led business entities, using the work and the life of Klimt as an example. I will expand upon the layered history that led up to Viennese expressionism, and hope to extrapolate the extent to which Schiele was paving the way for a new generation of artists. Schieles art was especially controversial in its subject matter. In his early work especially, unflinching portraits were painted that not only showed Schiele in uncompromising positions, but also subjects such as proletariat children, who were invariably portrayed naked, and painted with a grotesque and sickly eroticism that draws you unerringly into these taboo areas. Whether Schiele was deliberately trying to shock and provoke the modesties of the Viennese public, or whether he was trying to uncover a more universal, spiritual or sexual truth is subject to debate. Overall, in this essay, I will discuss how the history of Vienna impacted upon the work of Schiele, looking at the cultural, social and economic impact of Schiele. I will also look at how Schiele uses the self-portrait, especially how he chooses to either promote, or at least define the prevalent role of expressionist artist in his work. Then I will look at how the abundance of these controversial self-portraits, along with innumerable photographs of Schiele posing, in turn makes Schieles identity in his work more ambiguous. Then I will look at the more pornographic side of Schiele, and question how Schiele, deeply embedded in the cultural and moral codes of the time, reacted entirely against them and established his own, art of â€Å"ugliness†. History Of Viennese Expressionism Fredrick Raphael, in his preface to Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler, suggests something about the Viennese psyche; he says that: â€Å"In 1866, Bismarcks Prussia destroyed Austro-Hungarys bravely incompetent army at Sadowa. The effect of that defeat on the Viennese psyche cannot be exactly assessed. Austria had already suffered preliminary humiliation by the French, under Louis-Napoleon, but Sadowa confirmed that she would never again be a major player in the worlds game. Yet conscious acceptance of Austrias vanished supremacy was repressed by the brilliance and brio of its social and artistic life. Who can be surprised that Adlers discovery of the inferiority complex, and of compensating assertiveness, was made in a society traumatized by dazzling decline? It was as if the city which spawned Arthur Schinitzler and Sigmund Freud feared to awake from its tuneful dreams to prosaic reality.† Indeed, the times in which Egon Schiele was making his mark on the Viennese establishment was a time where the Viennese art community were at their most conservative, or most susceptible to lapsing into these â€Å"tuneful dreams†. Schieles self-imposed mission, it seemed, was to violently shake these people into a state of consciousness. But that isnt to say that Schiele existed entirely in a vacuum, living entirely by his own rules. Comini stresses that: â€Å"The content of Schieles Expressionism then was a heightened sense of pathos and impending doom, and an acute awareness of the self. Schieles Expressionist form drew from the great European reservoir of Symbolist evocativeness.† So, from a veritable melange of varying influences, Schiele managed to get his form, which combined that of exceptional draughtsman, with an inescapable desire for portraying the artistry of â€Å"ugliness†, something of which Schiele was something of a pioneer. In 1897, Schiele joined the painting class of Christian Griepenkerl; who was a deeply conservative artist devoted to neoclassicism, or the slavish devotion and replication of classic works of art. This involved long hours copying the works of the Old Masters at Viennas Academy of Fine Art. Schiele was enrolled for his superior draughtsmanship, but he was eventually alienated from it because he didnt see the relevance or the importance in neoclassicism. Thus, he became something of a troublemaker to the establishment, and was eventually forced out. This was echoed 100 years hence by the Romantics; an art group who pursued a loose programme intended to reinvest art with emotional impact. The Romantics, however, proved too unpalatable to the Viennese citizenry, who instead preferred the work of Biedermeier artists. Kallir says: â€Å"On the whole, Germans proved more receptive to Romanticism than Austrians who shied away from such intense expressions of feeling and took refuge in the mundane cheer of the Biedermeier.† She goes on to say: â€Å"Biedermeier [†¦] was geared more to the applied than to the fine arts, though in all its myriad incarnations it promoted the personal comforts of the middle class Burger. Biedermeier painting revolved around idealized renditions of everyday life, scenes of domestic bliss, genre pictures portraying ruddy-cheeked peasants, and picturesque views of the native countryside.† Being born into this highly stringent, conservative environment must have shaped Schieles defiance somewhat, as Schiele not only seems to break with what was established in Vienna as profitable art, but he almost seems to occupy exactly the opposite role. Even in works by Klimt, who was deemed controversial at the time, there are still elements of decorative palatability that makes his work visually and aesthetically appealing. Schiele seems to be deliberately working against this formula; which was brave considering that art, at the time, depended on patronage and buyers to actually sustain a profit. Schiele didnt seem concerned in the slightest that his work wouldnt get a buyer. In fact, the market is abandoned almost completely. In Schieles early work, art becomes â€Å"ugly†; his figures are pallid and atrophied; the composition of the pieces are unconventional and thus attack the sensibilities of the audience. Upon his break from Viennas Academy, and much akin to Klimt, whom he admired and painted on a number of occasions, Schiele set up his own group, entitled simply, â€Å"The New Art Group.† This was similar to Klimts route, as he set up the Viennese Secession, of which Schiele would play a part, which came from and used the tried and tested formula of the Genossenschaft betdender Kunster Wiens (Vienna Society of Visual Artists), a project financed by Emperor Franz Josef as a means of promoting art in the city. However, this system was not without its drawbacks. â€Å"Its progressive potential was [†¦] undermined by a policy of majority rule, which generally granted victory to the conservative faction. Within this context, the societys role as dealer was particularly disturbing to the younger, more forward-thinking minority, from whom exclusion from major exhibitions could have adverse financial consequences.† Similarly, the capitalist nature of art, coupled with the conservatism of the market made for a very difficult time for the progressive artist, and perhaps was a reason behind why Schiele opposed the artistic community with such fervency and vitriol, and often resorted to shock tactics and self-publicity to get himself heard. Klimts Secession operated on similar principles to the Vienna society: â€Å"†¦the Secession [†¦] was principally a marketing agent for its members work.† Thus, again it proved difficult for the younger, more radical artists to break through, despite Klimts support. Later, funds from patronage dwindled, so it was necessary for artists to seek out new markets. â€Å"The withdrawal of official patronage pre-empted the Secessionists to seek new ways of generating the sales and commissions necessary to keep them in business.† Ultimately, this meant that socialist, and personal art became more prominent a theme. The monumental, allegorical themes that Klimt and Schiele tended to attack (although Schieles work was deeply personal, it was also very monumental and took a number of influences from Klimt and symbolist art), no longer had a substantial market. Klimts decorative style, coupled with his established name, could still sell work to his established clients. Schiele, however, had no such luck, and it was only in 1918, the last year of his life, that Schiele managed to break even with his work. Although Schiele did not seem overly concerned with the economic potential of his works; in fact, he even seemed to equate poverty and suffering to the role of an artist in general, and Schiele was probably one of the most uncompromising artists of the twentieth century in terms of pandering to a particular audience; it is nevertheless important to consider economics, social and cultural conditions because, Schiele, by setting himself and his role as an artist in direct opposition to the establishment, also put himself in the long-standing tradition of artist in opposition to mainstream society. Kallir points out that: â€Å"The Secession, the Galerie Muethke, and the Wiener Werkstatte [, the latter two being establishments set up in the wake of the gradual reduction of patronage funds and a need to find and establish new markets for art], in the formative first decade of this century were peculiar products of their times that shared common aspirations and limitations. It was important to all concerned that these entities, although ostensibly committed to marketing art, were artist-run.† So, although economics were a concern in art, they were not necessarily, as dictated previously with the majority run Vienna Society of Visual Artists, primarily about making money and transforming the Viennese art scene into a profitable industry. Economics was an incidental concern, only foisted upon the establishment by chronic necessity: â€Å"The artists evinced a tacitly accepted loathing for art-as-business (Schiele could be particularly eloquent on this point) and a determination to place aesthetic considerations above economic ones.† So, as is fairly obvious from the art that he made, Schiele was against the motive of making money from art. But this reveals an interesting contradiction that plagued expressionist and other, later artists seeking to make a living from art at the same time as challenging the social and economic processes that ultimately fund its creation: â€Å"[I]f the primary goal [of these entities] was to serve the artistic community, these organisations could not entirely ignore their secondary purpose: to sell art.† So, Schiele, like many other artists, was cut between a requirement for money (which was especially apparent now that the former staple of patronage monies had all but dried up), and a requirement to express uncompromisingly his artistic expression. Schiele would not settle for the former, and instead pursued the latter with a vigour and an intensity that, at the time, was quite extraordinary. Schiele and Self-Portraiture. Of all the artists in the 20th century, or indeed any century, Egon Schiele was probably one of the most self-conscious. But, in Schiele, the self is a very problematic subject. Schoeder suggests: â€Å"In his self-portraits, Schiele shows himself as wrathful, with a look of spiritual vacancy, or as if racked by a severe spasm of hysteria; or arrogantly looking down his nose, with head tossed back; or apprehensively or naively peering out of the picture. Which Schiele is the real Schiele?† Schiele seems to instinctively divide himself into differing components, but also, he uses art to singularly pursue his own political views of the role of artist, in many ways using self-portraiture to assert, rather than fragment his own personality. The ambiguity with which Schiele regards himself can be looked at in a number of ways. 1. The Artist-as-Martyr It could be argued that Schiele was simply posing, or playing the varying roles of artist to gratify his ego. This is interesting because Schiele was definitely working toward a specific identity as artist. In 1912, Schiele was arrested for three days for publishing obscene works where they could be displayed to children. An item of his work was subsequently burned in the courtroom. In prison, he creates a number of interesting works of art, that are especially interesting because their titles read like manifestoes. Titles such as Hindering the Artist is a Crime, It Is Murdering Life in the Bud! (1912), For Art and for My Loved Ones I Will Gladly Endure to the End! (1912), and Art Cannot Be Modern: Art Is Primordially Eternal (1912). Certainly, judging from these titles, Schiele definitely has a number of ideas regarding the artist, his specific role, and what separates a true artist from a charlatan. Schiele, in his highly polemical, hyperbolic painting titles, equates the artist with suffering and martyrdom, suggesting that he will â€Å"endure†, and immediately glorifying the artist as a giver of life and eternal well being to the masses. Schroeder goes on to say: â€Å"Behind these works lies the idealization of suffering in the Romantic cull of genius, as updated in the last years of the nineteenth century through the writing of Friedrich Nietzsche and through the posthumous response to Arthur Schopenhauer. [†¦] The turn of the century saw the apogee of the Artist-as-Martyr legend, in which the relationship between suffering and greatness draws so close that the pose of suffering may in itself constitute a claim to the higher grades of artistic initiation.† So, the implication here is that Schiele was indeed acting a specific role of artist, that he was assuming a specific â€Å"pose of suffering† that was in many ways an act of fulfilling his societal role as an artist. Certainly these roles of suffering were explicit in his work. In Self-Portrait Standing (1910), Schiele portrays himself as contorted and thin; his face is twisted into an ugly grimace, and the colours used are mottled, pale and rotten. His arms are deformed and his positioning is unnatural and forced. His eyes are hollow and there is no context to the portrait; the background is a simple cream colouring. To exaggerate his alienation yet further, Schiele highlights his body with a shock of white. This has the effect of drawing the subject even further out of his environmental world, and, along with the forced hand gestures, serves to make us see the subject as an exhibit, rather than as part of a natural world. As Schroeder points out: â€Å"On the white expanse of paper, they do not exist: they are exhibited.† In his principal work, Hermits (1912), he paints himself with Gustav Klimt, whose own break with neoclassicism and ornate style of expressionism was a major influence on Schieles early work. Klimt is seen as asleep, or else resting on the shoulders of Schiele, who stands in front of him in a large black cloak. Mitsch suggests that in Hermits, â€Å"[s]eldom has the human body been visualised so exclusively as a materialization of spiritual forces [†¦].† But the painting is called Hermits, which suggests something about the role of artist that Schiele observed, although the painting certainly displays elements of the spiritual; as Steiner suggests, â€Å"he presents the master and himself in a picture where two male figures in monklike garb and with aureoles about their heads are seen on a monumental plinth.† In Hermits, Schiele and Klimt both look glum; Schiele stares defiantly back through the painting. The vast black cloak serves to homogenize the body of Klimt and Schiele, and thus portrays the role of the artist in general as one of blackness, of a biblical darkness. But, the title is more secular: Steiner goes on to say that: â€Å"We see Hermits (as the painting is called) and not saints, and the tone is no longer mystical and remote but one of delicate equilibrium between the two men – the elder, Klimt, deathlike, and the younger, Schiele, looking grim, doubtless because the artist leads a solitary life, condemned by society to suffer.† So, Schiele, in a very modernist way, is simultaneously divorcing himself from the establishment of the religious school of Neoclassicism, but is also contemporising it. In similar ways that Freud brought scientific rigour, and secular practice into studies of the human psyche, Schiele was in turn taking religion out of mystical, allegorical artwork, and instead putting himself into it. This artistic position, as forerunner to Klimt, in a sense, emerging from the body of Klimt, but staring out defiantly and uniquely, epitomizes Schieles position. Steiner suggests that: â€Å"At the time that he painted Hermits, Schiele was already seeing himself as a kind of priest of art, more the visionary than the academician, seeing and revealing things that remain concealed from normal people.† 2. The Artist-As-Protean The ambiguity with which Schiele forges his own identity can also be seen in a different way. The variance between different forms of self-portrait merely represent different sides of the Schiele character. This would certainly fit into the Freudian notion of self – as a stigmatized, fragmentary and anarchic collection of different preconceived notions. For instance; Freuds basic notions of Id, Ego and Super-Ego serve to fragment the self – psychoanalysis in general serves to this effect, and, in a number of Schiele self-portraits, he uses the quite unusual system of the double portrait to encapsulate this fragmentation. Fischer makes the point that â€Å"[t]he familiar repertoire of Freudian psychology with its ego and super-ego, conscious and unconscious realms, might equally be applied to these dual self-portraits.† A great deal of photography of Egon Schiele (of which a great deal exists) utilizes the effect of double exposure, thus, a doubling of the self. In one untitled photograph of Egon Schiele , he is seen firstly staring into the distance, while another image of himself looks back, observing himself intently. Steiner says that: â€Å"Schiele countered the sensory fragmentation of the self by means of a multiple self which came little by little to form a visual concept which reconstituted his unity with the world in a visionary way.† Indeed, during the time when expressionism was most active, a serious redefinition was underway, on the secular, theoretical grounds of Nietzsche and Freud, and also due to the cataclysmic human and social catastrophe of the Great War. In Hermann Bahrs 1916 book, simply entitled Expressionism, he says: â€Å"Never was there a time so shaken with so much terror, such a fear of death. Never was the world so deathly silent. Never was man so small. Never had he been so alarmed. Never was joy so far away and liberty so dead.† But he rallies against this bleakness, which is encapsulated in other modernist and expressionist works; works such as Eliots Wasteland and the paintings of Munsch and the German school of expressionism: â€Å"Now necessity cries out. Man cries after his soul, and the whole age becomes a single cry of need. Art, too, cries with it, into the depths of darkness; it cries for help; it cries after the spiritual: that is expressionism.† So, by ploughing the ambiguities of the self, this reading would assume that Schiele was, in many respects, crying â€Å"after his soul†, so to speak; searching among the myriad of different identities available to him, a concrete or at least a compatible sense of self that had eluded him, along with an entire generation of artists dispossessed by the Viennese establishment. The various parts of Schieles meticulous, and almost surgical self-analysis falls into a number of distinct camps, but also seems to, in a more generalised sense, work against the pattern of self-portrait or nudity established by other artists. Up until that time, generally speaking, the nude was seen in a grandiose sense: the painted nude women, such as those in Degas, were painted as Goddesses, resplendently beautiful, radiant, often placed in scenarios that depicted frolicking jollity or natural equilibrium; and the men, who were much rarer in contemporary art, were generally seen as heroic, muscular and noble. Schiele breaks entirely with this long-established tradition. Firstly, the school of nude self-portraiture at the time only comprised of a single person; Richard Gerstl, whose painting Self-Portrait, Naked stood on its own at the time as the only painting to be done of the nude artist. Schroeder points out: â€Å"Just how uncommon is was to depict oneself naked is revealed by the fact that before 1910 only one precedent existed in the whole of Austrian art.† Thus, Schiele was already putting himself in the position of pioneer of a particularly exhibitionist genre. But, in unsheathing the artist of the attire that would previously assign to him his identity, Schiele places a whole new dynamic in the art: the dynamic of the self itself. One of Schieles most important works Seated Male Nude (1910), Schiele portrays himself covering up his own face. Indeed, in most of his self-portraits, especially his early ones, his posture is contorted and manufactured; he is posing and the background again is simply a plain, unembellished white. In Seated Male Nude, Schiele is grossly emaciated, his feet have been cut off, and his nipples and eyes glow red, suggesting that there is a deep demonism within him. He is seen as grotesquely, disturbingly ectomorphic; â€Å"the figure looks as though it has been taken down from a gothic crucifix: it is angular, and looks carved: Schiele was seeing himself as Christ without a loin-cloth. The red highlights of his eyes, nipples, navel and genitals make the body look as if it were glowing from within.† But, also, the red â€Å"glowing from within† also exposes another central tenet of Schieles work – namely, that it gives the appearance that he is hollow inside. Schiele preserved his more allegorical, symbolic works for the medium of oil; paintings such as Hermits discussed earlier, and thus, this hollowness cannot be overlooked as having greater metaphorical meaning, and would suggest the reasons behind why Schieles self-portraiture varied to such a large degree; namely, that the inner self which Schiele was desperate to uncover, was absent, or simply defined as a mad, glowing redness. â€Å"[S]pastic and hunch-backed, or with a rachitic deformation of the ribcage: this was the artist as an image of abject misery – a cripple [†¦] the dirty colouring, with its shrill accents, makes the flesh tones ugly and aberrant. In Seated Male Nude, a self-portrait, the artist mutates into an insect. The absence of feet [†¦] [is] an amputation. This is a mangled soul in a mangled body. We see through the body into the soul.† Indeed, the mangled soul is non-existent, the inside is hollow and empty. So, insomuch as this is similarly affected by social and cultural developments at the time, Schiele is moreover offering a more detailed and theoretically astute reading of the self and warring and dissolute factions. Schroeder says that: â€Å"If all of these self-dramatizations reveal the true nucleus of the painters psyche, then he must have been a fragmented personality, unlikely to escape the diagnostic attentions of the genius Sigmund Freud. The question is just how much of his psyche is conveyed by his self-portraits, either those with grimaces or those that express a frozen resignation? What and whom does Egon Schiele really see in his studio mirror? [†¦] It makes all the difference in the world whether he is observing his own body as an act of direct, emotional self-knowledge or whether in his imagination he is slipping into someone elses role and experiencing his own self as that of another person.† So, that Schiele depicts himself as a variety of different people doesnt necessarily mean that he is living up to a certain artistic function; in a sense, glamorizing the role of the artist as a suffering person. Art As Pornography Schiele has been regarded by many critics as a pornographer. Looking at his paintings, which often draw attention to the genitals, to eroticized regions of the human body, as well as the contorted and mechanistic quality to the nude portraits, which appear twisted and exploited. Schiele was eventually put in prison for his indecency, although this was due to his eccentric practice of showing his work to the friends of the children who were painted, often nude. Schroder suggests that â€Å"[i]n Schieles early pictures of children the objective embarrassment of the models lowly social origins is reinforced by the embarrassment of their obscene nakedness.† This would suggest that the portraits themselves are designed to be as exploitative and as pornographic as possible. The children portrayed are certainly seen in an especially lurid light; and their embarrassment is portrayed by their forced poses, the absence of environment, etc. However, it is often difficult, at the time and later, to extrapolate eroticism from pornography, and in Schiele, this is particularly difficult. Schiele himself denied accusations of pornography, and certainly, the nudes have greater substance and meaning in terms of formulating an Expressionist identity of the self. Mitsch suggests that Schiele â€Å"expresses [in his eroticism] human bondage and is to be understood as a burden that is painful to bear. Aimed, from the beginning, at outspokenness and truthfulness, it assumes almost inevitably a daring form.† So, here difficulty with regarding Schieles output is highlighted. The work is about expressing human bondage, but it is also exaggerated and mutilated and â€Å"outspoken†. So Schiele acts as both pornographer and eroticist, and also strikes out more clearly at exposing the truth behind the body. Schiele himself commented on accusations that his work is pornographic made by his Uncle, by replying in a letter, saying that â€Å"the erotic work of art is scared too.† The painting Reclining Girl In A Blue Dress (1910), establishes this difficulty. In it, a girl is portrayed, leaning back and revealing her genitals. Her genitals are high-lighted in white, and draw the eye to the girls genitals using both composition and colour. The brush-strokes are strikingly crude, almost sketchy. Fischer says that â€Å"[i]t is impossible to defend this picture against the charge of pornography. Even so, Schieles radicalism of form places him beyond too simplistic a categorisation.† He goes on to say: â€Å"He was not merely out to satisfy a shallow voyeuristic impulse. Pubescent lust and delight in discovery, the naà ¯ve symbolism of distinguishing sexual features, and boyish stratagems for looking up girls skirts are combined in the twenty-year-old artists way of viewing the world with the invention of ingenious new forms, which took the Schiele of 1910 a step forward, out of the world of teachers and uncles and into the radical world view of the Expressionist avant-garde. In the years ahead, Schiele pursued this distinctive combination obsessively.† So, according to Fischer, even though his work was pornographic, the forms in which this pornography took and the means by which Schiele painted these pornographic images, allowed us to question the nature of the images and thus elevate them to something beyond pornography. Schiele was certainly obsessed with portraying the self: his images, despite being, at times, shamelessly provocative and deliberately controversial to the conservative Viennese public (the pre-conceived role of an artist to challenge the perception of the ordinary people would stress this, and was a certain depiction of the artist that Schiele would live by), would also put stress on the techniques and the principles applied to the painting in order to elevate it beyond mere titillation or voyeurism. In his nudes, Schiele was definitely looking to get closer to his, and societies view of the human condition in the confusing wake of secularism, the transmogrification of belief toward the self (in Freud and Nietzsche, for instance), and the selfs role in society. Naturally his view is not a particularly optimistic one, and he is frequently out to establish the pain in the heart of the self – his cut-off, mutilated and distorted figures serve to expose the more desultory aspects of the self, and thus his images appear less as pornographic, and more as pieces that actually challenge and oppose the traditionally porno

Analyzing Love in Ovids Metamorphoses :: Ovid Metamorphoses Essays

Analyzing Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses There are many differences in the behavior of the lover and the rapist characters of the Metamorphoses. " The standard markers of a love relationship include the initial 'love at first sight' scene, often followed by a personal elegy of the loved one's heightened qualities." (Chen) When one falls in love, everything about that person is wonderful and beautiful, including their inner being as well. The admirer uses frequent and excessive metaphors and compliments to describe the favorite: " He looks at Daphne's hair as,unadorned, it hangs down her fair neck, and says: "Just think,if she should comb her locks!" He sees her lips and never tries of them; her fingers' hands' and wrists are unsurpassed; her arms-more than half-bare- cannot be matched; whatever he can't see he can imagine." (Ovid p.900) Daphnes 'unadorned' hair already enchants Apollo, and dreaming it all made up would simply be breathtaking. " Certainly, the next detail, that Daphne's eyes sparkle like stars,clues us into the fact that Apollo is in love. The difference between love and lust, however, is that to the one in love, that person is truly beautiful both physically and on the inside, but the to the one that is lustful, that person is just a mere sex object. For example, in the myth of Io and Jove, Jupiter never comments about Io's beauty, but only that she would make some lucky male happy in bed. " Another defining attribute among many of Ovid's love-struck protagonists is their loss of rational control,as believably characteristic of a person in the heights of love." (Chen) For example, while Dapne is fleeing from him, Apollo asks her to slow down before she hurts herself. He even suggest that he will slow down too, so that she doesn't need to go so fast. But when she doesn't, all he does is speed up. In trying to talked to the loved one, the shunned lover uses any rhetoric available, whether rational or irrational, because often the lover is so overtaked by love that reason fails him. "Such irrationalities in thought lead to special pleading, inconsistency in bargaining, and ultimately failure to convince the adored one. Analyzing Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses :: Ovid Metamorphoses Essays Analyzing Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses There are many differences in the behavior of the lover and the rapist characters of the Metamorphoses. " The standard markers of a love relationship include the initial 'love at first sight' scene, often followed by a personal elegy of the loved one's heightened qualities." (Chen) When one falls in love, everything about that person is wonderful and beautiful, including their inner being as well. The admirer uses frequent and excessive metaphors and compliments to describe the favorite: " He looks at Daphne's hair as,unadorned, it hangs down her fair neck, and says: "Just think,if she should comb her locks!" He sees her lips and never tries of them; her fingers' hands' and wrists are unsurpassed; her arms-more than half-bare- cannot be matched; whatever he can't see he can imagine." (Ovid p.900) Daphnes 'unadorned' hair already enchants Apollo, and dreaming it all made up would simply be breathtaking. " Certainly, the next detail, that Daphne's eyes sparkle like stars,clues us into the fact that Apollo is in love. The difference between love and lust, however, is that to the one in love, that person is truly beautiful both physically and on the inside, but the to the one that is lustful, that person is just a mere sex object. For example, in the myth of Io and Jove, Jupiter never comments about Io's beauty, but only that she would make some lucky male happy in bed. " Another defining attribute among many of Ovid's love-struck protagonists is their loss of rational control,as believably characteristic of a person in the heights of love." (Chen) For example, while Dapne is fleeing from him, Apollo asks her to slow down before she hurts herself. He even suggest that he will slow down too, so that she doesn't need to go so fast. But when she doesn't, all he does is speed up. In trying to talked to the loved one, the shunned lover uses any rhetoric available, whether rational or irrational, because often the lover is so overtaked by love that reason fails him. "Such irrationalities in thought lead to special pleading, inconsistency in bargaining, and ultimately failure to convince the adored one.

Sympathy for Jane Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Essay -- Jane Eyre Char

Sympathy for Jane Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre In the first two chapters of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte creates sympathy for Jane from the settings she uses like the red room, which comes up later in chapter two. Also with all the metaphors of Janes true feelings under the surface and the ways that the chapters are structured. Charlotte Bronte starts off the book straight to the point as if we just enter Janes mind at this moment in time, it is meant to draw the reader in and at once create the atmosphere of this time when we have joined her. With the 'clouds so sombre' and the 'rain so penetrating' we get a glimpse inside Jane knowing that she must be so 'cold' inside like the 'winter'. While there is a fire inside the house where she could get warmth to fill her up she is not allowed, and with a 'saddened' 'heart' she's not even told why she can't sit with the family around their 'mamma' by the fire but instead 'dispensed from joining the group' and not told why. This helps create sympathy for Jane by trying to show the reader that she is a 'deprived' child, and the only escape she gets is when she goes to the 'window - seat' and shuts the 'folds of scarlet drapery'. But still she now feels protected, but not yet separated until she reads her books. The weather once again bears it face to show us that Jane still is not happy with 'a pale blank mist and cloud' and 'ceaseless rain' which could be the tears of frustration which we must feel she has to hold back to never show any signs of weakness or hurt to Mrs Reed or her children especially John who steps into the book in a while. The book begins to resemble a gothic genre with its 'stormy' atmosphere and the 'phantoms' around 'the quite solit... ...k and locked' her 'in without further parley.' And then 'unconsciousness closed the scene.' Which is another dramatic ending leaving the reader feeling angry with Mrs Reed and sympathizing greatly with Jane. I think Charlotte Bronte has done a good job of getting the reader to sympathize with Jane otherwise I wouldn't be writing an essay on it. She constantly brings in Jane's place in society, a woman's place but to make it worse a poor woman's place. The first two chapters let us know that this is the beginning of a journey for Jane to find her place to find out why she was put there to fight against the waves that try to bring her down. Charlotte Bronte was a critic of her time and has done a very good job of opening closed minds to the things that an ordinary plain girl like Jane which is inside every woman has to fight against to find their place.

We Must Put an End to Gender-related Stereotypes and Stereotyping Essay

We Must Put an End to Gender-related Stereotypes I have heard it said many times and by many women, "I wish that I were a man. Men have it so easy. . ." It is a statement which stems from the fear and anger that comes from so many years of oppression and abuse; a statement which stems from the pressure to meet the present impossible standards of beauty and bodily perfection. At times it seems to be an understandable statement to make. Admittedly, I have found myself wishing that very absurdity when the pressures of being a woman have seemed to be too much. But as I get older, and hopefully wiser, I am happy to say, and even very proud, that yes! I am a woman. It is a very exciting time for me as a young woman to watch the changes that our world is undergoing at the present moment. So much is going on around us that it seems like anything could happen and that all things are possible. It is all very scary and exciting at the same time. I am not exactly sure how or when the Women's Rights movement began, but I do believe that we have come a long way, and that we also have a long way to go before we are free of those gender-related stereotypes and immense pressures to be "The Perfect Woman." I know that many skeptics will question whether or not that freedom is attainable, but I truly do believe that at this point in time all things are possible. I believe in the equality of the sexes. I believe in the equality of all people whether they be black, white, female, or male. Perhaps it is easy for me to be so positive and hopeful amidst these skeptics because of the family that I have. I don't think that I was aware of the "roles" that men and women adopt because in my family there seemed to be no roles. Both of my parents have... ...he worth of the true beauty within us that so often goes unseen. I believe that every woman in America experiences this. There is so little self-acceptance as we end up living our lives for the fantastic expectations of men. Both Alice Walker and Nora Ephron were finally able to transcend their hang-ups but it took them so many years and an awful lot of tears to be able to finally throw up their hands and give up trying to meet all of the expectations of the world. It is sad that a woman must reach her mid-life, when the pure beauty of youth is lost forever, before she is finally able to shed all of those insecurities that are forced upon her throughout her life. It is hard, and I believe that an equal amount of effort is required from both of the sexes if we are ever going to be able to move beyond this. It is time to look within or we will continue to go without.

The Booker Prize

The Booker Prize award is considered to be one of the most prestigious recognition of the literary world and it represents one of the most important international rewards for any writer, ne it a famous or a little known one. As any award of its king, it stands as a full acknowledgement of the efforts and endeavors of writers from different periods of time. Despite the fact that it does not have the same international impact as the Nobel Prize for literature, it is viewed as a major asset in the writing career of its winners.However, it can be argued that the contribution of the award is two folded, as there are both advantages and disadvantages for winning the prize. Still, it is rather hard to determine the extent to which one of these two elements prevails. It may be that in the career of an already famous writer the role such a prize plays be rather limited as most often this award is solely a different acknowledgement of the literary merits in a series of awards. On the other han d, for emerging new literary talents or for little known fiction authors, it plays a significant role.This is why, in order to have a better comprehension of the influence the Booker Prize has and the power of the award in itself, first and foremost it is important to take into account the history of the Prize and the tendencies it followed. Secondly, the actual advantages and disadvantages of the prize cannot be determined in general terms, but must be focused on particular examples. In this sense, the present paper aims at discussing â€Å"Vernon God Little† and â€Å"The Inheritance of Loss†, two of the novels which captured this award in 2003 and 2006 respectively.In this context, a coherent analysis can be made in relation to their state prior to winning the award and afterwards. Finally, some conclusions can be drawn which may shed some light on the possible advantages and disadvantages of awarding little known authors the Prize, through the experience of the two writers. History and tendencies of the Booker Prize The Booker Prize or the Man Booker Prize at it is known since 2002 was fist established in 1968 and â€Å"aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland† (The Booker Prize Foundation, 2008).Through a process of astute selection, authors in the English speaking world are rewarded for their literary efforts in the area of fictional work and are given the possibility to claim worldwide recognition. The Prize was established by the Booker Company â€Å"but administered since 1971 by the charitable concern the Book Trust (formerly the National Book League), the Prize, first awarded to P. H. Newby (Something to Answer For) in 1969, soon grew into one of Britain's most recognizable cultural institutions† (Huggan, 2001, 107).From this point of view, the prize in itself is therefore viewed as one of the most important literary acclaims of the world. The early star t of the award was directly related to the historical evolutions taking place especially in the Commonwealth but also throughout the world. The end of the 1960s represented not only a time of an increased literary activity but also a time of great political turmoil. In this sense, the decolonization proves was an important factor in outlining not only the national relations inside the former colonies, but also in determining the future contacts with the former colonial powers.The issue of colonialism was raised quite often throughout the history of the Prize, taking into account the fact that the company which organizes and sponsors the yearly event was well known for its sugar plantations in areas such as the West Indies. In this sense, there were certain controversies which arose throughout the years in relation to this matter. In one occasion, in 1972 the winner of the Prize, John Berger, declared that he would support the black extremist movement, the â€Å"Black Panther† in defiance of what he labeled as being a colonial rule on the territory (The Book Prize Foundation, 2007).Therefore, it was important especially for Great Britain to undergo all sorts of programs that would allow it to maintain a good and strong relation with its former colonies. In this sense, the Prize represented a connection between the artistic environments of different countries from the Commonwealth, Ireland, or South Africa. It was yet another element that placed these countries together and defined their common cultural heritage from the past.Therefore, it can be argued that, aside from its literary value, the Prize played a particular role in forging and rewarding the essence of culture and literature in particular from the Commonwealth countries. Despite constant controversy and discussions over the merits and awards given along the years, there have been some important names which have claimed the award, and at the same time, there were impressive newcomers which burst on the literary scene after winning the award. The first winner of the prize was in 1969 P H Newby for â€Å"Something to answer for†.Taking into account the fact that it was the first edition of the awards, it raised without a doubt certain controversies. This was largely due to the fact that the winner was known beforehand and it was considered that a free competition and fairness had not yet been set in place. Still, the author remains in the annals of the Booker Prize as the first winner of the award. There are resounding names which have claimed this literary recognition. Among them, William Golding in 1980 for Rites of Passage, in 1982 Thomas Keneally for Schindler’s Ark, or 1989’s Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day.All these authors and many more considered the prize as being an important asset in their literary careers and remain to this day reference points of the English speaking literature. However, there are little known writers who claimed the pri ze and soon after, emerged as rising stars of the literary world. Some of the names include 1985 winner Keri Hulme with The Bone People. The winner was on his first novel which, following the prize, came to experience incredible success (The Booker Foundation, 2007).Throughout the history of the prize, there has been a lot of controversy regarding the system of awarding the prize, and even the ceremony in itself. However, as the years went by, the format of the prizes, including the actual event in which the prize was given would adapt to the rigors of an emerging global entertainment society. More precisely, if in the beginning the event did not enjoy the spotlight in the literary and television society, in 1976, â€Å"Melvyn Bragg presented the first ever TV broadcast of the Booker Prize, live on BBC2† (The Booker Foundation, 2007).This came to be an acknowledgement of the importance the prize came to have in the literary world and in the English society as well. At the sam e time however, due to the fact that the artistic part of the awarding ceremony became more and more important for the audience and the media coverage the event started to receive, the controversies surrounding the event took an ascending trend. In this sense, â€Å"many have accused the prize committee of catering to either the needs of otherwise unknown authors in the right place at the right time or to the same few authors each year.Political agendas and profit motives have also received much attention in recent years, further fuelling the controversy surrounding the prize† (Jacobson, 1997). From this point of view, one can argue that the controversies surrounding the prize have in most occasions shifted the focus from the literary event it was meant to be in the beginning to a marketing occasion it is now considered to be. The tendency nowadays is rather hard to determine due to the different points of view shared by analysts.In this sense, while the organizers and part o f the media considers it to be â€Å"the world's most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and even publishers† (The Booker Prize Foundation, 2007), others view it as â€Å"an enormously successful marketing vehicle for nominated authors and their publishers alike† (Jacobson, 1997). Yet, for some of the winners, these two perspectives can find a worthy combination which can acknowledge the quality of their work and promote the sale of their books at the same time. The Booker Prize: young writers and first time novelistsOne of the most important aspects of the Booker Prize is given by the possible impact it has on the actual winners. While there is little discussion on the advantages well known authors draw from winning the prestigious prize, a more relevant discussion would be on the effects it has on first time novelists who are awarded the prize. In this context, the effects can be seen more in the careers of first time nove lists due to the fact that it represents the first recognition of their work and therefore its impact can be better assessed. Indeed, the biggest impact the prize has is on the author who actually wins the award.In this sense, D B C Pierre won the award in 2003 with â€Å"Vernon God Little†. His won of the prize is considered to be one of the most interesting surprises of the event. According to the most reviews at the time, the writer was considered to be an underdog in comparison to his rivals, as â€Å"It beat a shortlist including the first novel by Monica Ali, Brick Lane, which was the bookmakers' favorite and has been the biggest seller in the shops, and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, the only established author to make it to the final round of judging† (Jury, 2003).From this first perspective, it can be seen the fact that in the judging process the focus of the jury tried to be on first time novelists as well as on established ones. This approach tends to gi ve certain equilibrium to the awarding process and to take into account a wide variety of literary submissions. The choice of the jury at the time was unanimous; therefore there was little doubt on the potential winner. The unity of the choice was considered to be justified due to the important message the text tried to convey.The story of a young teenager from Texas whose life evolves as he tries to face up the challenges of poverty, violence, and family misery was impressive for the panel of the judges who claimed that the book is a â€Å"coruscating black comedy reflecting our alarm but also our fascination with modern America† (Jury, 2003). Indeed the emotional touch on the novel came from the author’s own personal experience as a drug addict in search for his own identity and individual recognition of the self.There are certain objective elements which drew the attention on the novel itself. Firstly, there was indeed the personal affection of the author which tran sformed the book into an impressionable work. Secondly, there was the subject which dealt with a serious issue affecting America at the time. High school shootings and violence among teenagers were considered, and still are viewed as being an essential challenge facing the society due to the questions it actually raises on the values driving the society forward.In this sense, critics considered that â€Å"†the storyline for this book is one that you would as much see played out today on the six o'clock news as read in a novel and has for this reason struck a chord with book lovers† (Jury, 2003). Therefore, the actuality of the story combined with the drama of the personal history of the author made the novel receive the most acclaimed British literary award. The reviews were however split following the award ceremony as not everybody considered such a literary work to be worthy of the prestige of this prize.In this sense, â€Å"picking up on Finlay's notorious past, Th e Daily Telegraph described his win as â€Å"highly embarrassing† for the prize's organizers and sponsor, the Man group. The Guardian called him the â€Å"oddest and most controversial character† to have won the award, while The Independent's literary editor, Boyd Tonkin, said he was a â€Å"novelist whose background makes the antics of most young writers look tame in the extreme† (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2003). Therefore, the cutting edge of the novel was not fully appreciated by traditional literary reviews who considered it to be a choice too daring for the conservatory nature of the award.However, despite the criticism that surfaced after the award ceremony, another element was introduced in the justification for rewarding Finlay’s artistic effort with the prize. Therefore, it was considered that taking into account such a novel and the fact that the winner was in fact a debutant on the literary scene, the focus of the Booker Prize may have shifted from the well acclaimed authors to the ones that have not been top of the selling lists. In this way, the Booker Prize Foundation would engage itself in an endeavor meant at promoting the new talents and at reintroducing young literature to the public.Another important presence on the list of the winners of the Booker Prize is the 2006 jury’s choice in the person of Kiran Desai and her novel â€Å"The Inheritance of Loss†. At 35, she was the youngest female writer to receive the award and this element, along with the quality of her work, attracted the attention of both the jury and the public worldwide. She contested the prize with other five writers, including her mother who had been nominated before for the award, yet never won it (BBC, 2006).Among the other writers from the short list, there were authors with more experience and with more public consideration such as Sarah Waters or Kate Greenville. Still, she became the youngest winner of the award. This was due i n part to the new attempt of the Booker Prize Foundation to try to promote new talents and in part to the emotional story Desai’s novel portrayed, a story of â€Å"globalisation, multiculturalism, inequality and the different forms of love† (Pryor, 2006).From the perspective of Finlay’s experience with the Booker Prize as well as Kiran Desai’s, it can be said that there are both advantages and disadvantages in winning the award. Firstly, one of the most important advantages of the award is the financial aspect. On being awarded the prize, the winner receives ? 50,000 and the tacit commitment of the Foundation to continuously promote the novel. In the case of Finlay’s personal history, in the conditions in which he lived a life of poverty following the loss of his family fortune, the financial aspect can be seen as being of considerable importance (Greer, 2003).Secondly, another advantage of young or debutant writers receiving this prestigious award is the wide recognitions they receive following the ceremony. Before the award, Finlay was far from being an award winning character. His life of drugs, alcohol, and misery would not have presented himself as a possible valuable mind for the literary world. Even more, his past has often been invoked as being unworthy of a Booker Prize winner. Yet, after the recognition he received from the Booker Foundation, many of his critics turned to admit his literary merits in presenting a new face of everyday life in America.In this way, aside from the fact that he managed to draw the attention on the misery and distress affecting local societies in America, he also succeeded in underlining the effects of an abuse led life. Similarly, in Desai’s situation, the award represented both a personal recognition of her young talent, as well as a proof of the the attention the issues addressed by her book received following the award. In this sense, â€Å"the judges hailed â€Å"The Inherit ance of Loss† as a magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness† (BBC, 2006).Thus, another advantage of the award received by a young talent is the fact that by recognizing the value of the book, the jury also acknowledges both the new perspective given to certain elements such as cross culture issues and, at the same time, underlines the importance of the issues under discussion for the contemporary society. Probably one of the most important advantages young winners and first time novelists benefit from is the increase in sales of their books. Most winners received not only wide acclaim from the critics, but also from the public.For instance, â€Å"the 1978 winner, Iris Murdoch's ‘The Sea, The Sea’ (†¦) has a rate of continuing popularity which almost all of today's authors would give their eye teeth to equal† (Ezard, 2004). Therefore, most authors du find fame and fortune following the award winner status. Kiran Desai ensured the Penguin fiction division a rise in sales of two percent immediately after winning the Booker Prize award. Thus, the success of her book was also viewed in the choice of the readers. Still, one of the most important elements which drew the attention of the public was precisely the label of Booker Prize winner.Similarly, Fanley’s story was proposed for a film adaptation as a result of the critics’ acclaim (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2004). Hence, each in his or hers own way managed to reach success as a result of the Booker Prize. Aside from the various, especially financial advantages, there are also considerable disadvantages of the Prize being given to young or first time novelists. One of the most important however is the eventual commercialization of the literary content in an attempt to win the prestigious prize.In this sense, â€Å"because of the marketing potential and the industry-renowned judges, the Booker Prize now is a very high stakes award. Authors, in turn, have more reason to tailor their work to the expectations of the Booker arbiters† (Jacobson, 1997). As a result, the quality of the works may decrease in the attempt to write attractive novels for the judges in the panel rather for the public. Hence, the prize has come to be a goal in itself, rather than an actual recognition. Young artists and first time novelists tend to fall in this trap most often due to the lack of experience and a limited identification of their own personal style.Moreover, due to the increased media attention on the prize, the entire process becomes more focused on the financial aspect, rather than on the artistic value of the recognition in itself. It is considered thus that â€Å"all in all, there can be little doubt that the Booker, more than any other literary prize in recent history, has blazed a trail in the commercialization of English-language literature† (Huggan, 2001). Overall, it can be said that the Booker Prize has had an important influence on its winners, but also on the new tendencies it rewards through the acknowledgement of certain artists.However, another true element is the fact that the commercialization of the entire process has led to the dilution of the value of such a prize. This is why it is important that the Booker Prize award new talents or even little known artists, without regard to their personal or ethnical background because it would prove that the most important element the Booker Prize takes into account is talent and literary achievement, rather than fame and public notoriety. Bibliography BBC. â€Å"Kiran Desai claims Booker title†. BBC News. 2006. 6 January 2008 Desai,Kiran.The Inheritance of Loss. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. Ezard, John. â€Å"Booker prize's long-term fame lottery†. The Guardian. 2004. 6 January 2008 Greer, W. R. Book Review – Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. 2003. 6 January 2008 Huggan, G raham. The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins. Routledge. : New York, 2001. Jacobson, Warren. The Booker Prize. 1997. 6 January 2008 Jury, Louise. â€Å"Debut novelist defies odds to win Booker prize†.The Independent. 2003. 6 January 2008 Pierre, D. B. C. Vernon God Little. London: Faber and Faber, 2005. Pryor, Fiona. â€Å"Review: The Inheritance of Loss†. BBC News. 2006. 6 January 2008 The Booker Prize Foundation. About the prize. 2007. 6 January 2008 The Booker Prize Foundation. Hitting the headlines. 2007. 6 January 2008 The Booker Prize Foundation. The Booker Prize. 2008. 6 January 2008