Arthur Millers Death of a Salesman as Epic Tragedy Essay -- Death Sal

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman as Epic Tragedy   Ã‚  Ã‚   Aristotle's Poetics defines the making of a dramatic or epic tragedy and presents the general principles of the construction of this genre. Surprisingly, over the centuries authors have remained remarkably close to Aristotle's guidelines. Arthur Miller's twentieth century tragedy Death of a Salesman is an example of this adherence to Aristotle's prescription for tragedy. It is significant to test Aristotle's definition and requirements of tragedy by comparison and contrast, against a contemporary tragedy and to make observations with regard to what influence society and culture may have on the genre. This discussion however, will be confined to the realm of plot and the more notable aspects of the construction of the incidents in tragedy because of the complexity of this element. Aristotle's attention throughout much of Poetics is directed towards the requirements and expectations of plot.   Plot, 'the soul of tragedy', Aristotle says, must be an imitation of a noble and complete action. In Death of a Salesman, Miller does provide a complete action, that is it has what Aristotle identifies as a beginning, a middle, and an end. These divisible sections must, and do in the case of Death of a Salesman, meet the criterion of their respective placement. Whether Miller provides a nobel action, however, is an issue of culture. Willy Loman ultimately takes his own life so that his son Biff may benefit from the insurance money that he will receive. The question then, is according to our culture is his suicide noble? Since Willy's suicide is perpetrated for Biff's benefit, one could view this act as sacrifice. Sacrifice is in our culture, a pious and admirable quality, one of... ...ath of a Salesman' Twentieth Century Literature.   January, 1972. 19-24.   Rpt. in World Literary Criticism.   Ed. Frank Magill.   'Arthur Miller' Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.   2366-2368. Hayman, Ronald.   Arthur Miller.   New York: Frederick Ungar, 1972. Hoeveler, D. J.   'Ben's Influence.'   Arthur Miller?s Death of a Salesman: Modern Critical Interpretations.   Ed. Harold Blum.   Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1988. 72-81. Magill, Frank.   'Death of a Salesman.'   Master Plots.   Englewood Cliffs: Salem, 1976.   1365-1368. Miller, Arthur.   Death of a Salesman.   New York: Penguin, 1949. ---.   Conversations With Arthur Miller.   Jackson: Mississippi UP, 1987. Parker, Brian.   'Point of View in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.'   Arthur Miller: A Collection of Critical Essays.   Ed. Robert Corrigan.   Englewood Cliffs:   Prentice Hall, 1969.   98-107.

Sex and Gender in Sally Potter’s Orlando

Critically assess Judith Butler’s notion that gender is not a primary category, but an attribute, a set of secondary narrative effects. Your answer should make reference to Sally Potter’s film Orlando. Though Judith Butler asserts that gender is not of any importance, her writings on this notion, understandably, must put a lot of emphasis on the subject of sex. How else could she prove her theory, if not through a discussion of the unimportance of gender? In any case, her hypothesis is one that practically defines Sally Potter’s Orlando. Based on the novelette of the same name by Virginia Woolf, the film depicts an androgynous young man’s curiously long and forever-youthful life, and his slow transformation from man to woman. It is surely a tale that represents Butler’s concern of the eventual unimportance of gender throughout history. Orlando opens with the assertion by the narrator (voiced by the eponymous character) that â€Å"there can be no doubt about his sex, despite the feminine appearance that every young man of the time aspires to. The young nobleman Orlando acts as messenger for Queen Elizabeth, who, captivated by the young man’s beauty, offers him a castle, land and an inheritance for him and his heirs. These possessions will only be his on the condition that he does not â€Å"fade†, â€Å"wither† or â€Å"grow old†. We see the young Orlando fall deeply in love with a young woman, Princess Sasha, whom he loses to another man. Heartbroken, he decides to travel the world throughout the early stages of his long life. Orlando, having experienced war, violence and other such male endeavours, becomes disenchanted with the way men think and behave. He returns home to his estate as a woman. Here, she is told that as the estate belongs to Lord Orlando, or to his heirs, she must leave, as neither title applies to her. Rejected by society, Orlando finds acceptance and solace in the arms of the handsome Captain Shelmardine, the first man with whom she is sexually intimate. It is Shelmardine who makes Orlando realise what identity she truly wants – that of a mother. After all, she â€Å"came into this world searching for companionship. † Centuries later, we see Orlando, still a woman â€Å"for there can be no doubt about her sex†¦ even] with the slightly androgynous appearance that many females of the time aspire to†. She is visiting her old home with a happy young girl – her daughter. Orlando has finally found an identity she is comfortable with. In further commentary on the nature of gender as a secondary narrative, Butler once claimed that â€Å"gender is in no way a stable identity†. This, for all intents and purposes, could be the tagline for Orlando. The titular character is an androgynous being, with no strong convictions about which sex they would rather be. On her transformation into a woman, Orlando commented mildly; â€Å"Same person. No difference at all. Just a different sex†. Butler also commented that sex is an identity obtained, not through physical attributes, but through a performance. A perception of gender is imitated, â€Å"instituted through bodily styles†. However, the critic does not mention appearance; she is merely referring to the understanding of each gender being conveyed through certain physical gestures, movements or actions. Therefore, one’s gender is only as real as our performance of it. The same is true of Orlando, behaves in a comically awkward manner while getting used to her first dress. Being unfamiliar with the heavy frame and netting of her skirt, she walks down her hallway, bumping into furniture and awkwardly swinging her dress to the left to side-step a maid who passes by. In her first social situation, she stomps self-consciously into the drawing room, and then plonks herself down on a couch, rather ungracefully. She hasn’t taken on the grace of a woman, so she still seems to be a man, masquerading as a woman. Butler goes on to describe the gender performance as â€Å"one with clearly punitive consequences†. In short, failing at sufficiently portraying your gender through â€Å"bodily styles† will result in punishment, which is often in the form of alienation. The Lady Orlando confuses her society with her transformation. In a way, her failure to be Lord Orlando, a man, sees her cast out of her rightful home, and, in turn, alienated by society. In Orlando’s climatic scene, the Lady Orlando and her lover, Shelmardine, discuss the common perception regarding gender. â€Å"If I were a man,† Muses the newly-female Orlando, â€Å"might choose not to risk my life for an uncertain cause. I might think that freedom won by death is not worth having. † Shelmardine argues that, in the eyes of society, this would be to â€Å"choose not to be a real man at all†. He, in turn, mocks the stereotype observations regarding women; â€Å"Say if I were a woman; I might choose not to sacrifice my life caring for my children. Or my children’s children. Or to drown anonymously in the milk of female kindness. But instead choose to go abroad. Would I then be –†, (here Orlando interrupts him), â€Å"A real woman? † Yet it is this conversation, the embodiment of Butler’s theories on gender performance, which bring Orlando to the ealisation that she longs for a child. Not to earn back her home through her heir, and not to better portray the behaviour of a woman, but simply to have the companionship and love she always longed for. Orlando’s eponymous character is a human, if fictional, personification of Judith Butler’s many the ses regarding gender. Orlando’s gender does not change her character in any way, she is the â€Å"same person. No difference at all. † She does not understand that, to be accepted, she must perform the role of ‘woman’ to avoid confusing her peers. This is something she simply can’t do; she is who she is. Yet she is punished for her failure to be a man, or to behave like a woman. In the end, she ceases to care or worry about her gender identity. She is a mother, happy with the companion she always craved. Her identity is simply: Orlando. Bibliography * Butler, J. (1988) Performative Acts and Gender Constitutions. In Rivkin, J & Ryan, M ‘Literary Theory: An Anthology, Second Edition’ (pp. 900 – 911). United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing. * Butler, J. (2004) Undoing Gender. United States: Routledge. * Potter, S. (Director). 1992. Orlando. [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom.

Global warming †a serious warning Essay

I have a dream, that in a near future, the people of this world will come together as one. We could all come together as one and leave all our differences of color, religion, and political views behind us, to stand together to face what Bill McKibben calls the greatest challenge and threat mankind has ever faced: global warming. In 2007 Bill McKibben, an author, educator, and environmentalist, wrote the article, â€Å"Global Warning: Get Up! Stand Up!† to persuade people that we, the people on earth, have caused, and are still causing, the climate changes that have been taking place over the past decades. More than that, however, McKibben explains that something still needs to be done about it. McKibben uses extreme, yet reasonable, examples and methods to convey this message effectively. Global warming is the result of the greenhouse effect, which has increased since the human race started to burn fossil fuels in order to extract energy. When fossil fuels are being burnt, greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, set free into the atmosphere. The accumulative pollution causes the atmosphere to reflect heat radiation back towards the earth, instead of letting the gasses disappear into space, because the ozone layer gets thicker. However, without the greenhouse effect, our planet â€Å"would be 33 degrees Celsius coolerâ€Å" (â€Å"McKibben† 4). Since the carbon dioxide has already increased by one third in the atmosphere since the nineteenth century, the effect will be stronger and therefore more heat will be kept inside the atmosphere than before. This phenomenon, called global warming, leads to a hotter climate; as a matter of fact, the earth is today hotter than it has been in over 2000 years (â€Å"McKibben† 5-9). Warming – that word almost sounds inviting, like we all might live in a world twenty years from, that could be a tropical paradise where the extent of our problems would be pondering what Spf sunscreen to use. That is not the case, though. Thousands and thousands of climate scientists agree that  global warming is not only the most threatening environmental problem, but one of the greatest challenges facing all of humanity throughout humanity’s entire history (McKibben 595). To maintain the average temperature we need here on earth, the glaciers and the North Pole ice are a big factor because when the exact amount of ice melts, it evens out the ocean’s temperature and therefore stabilizes all the different ecosystems. All ecosystems are dependent on whether the temperature is just where it should be or not. In addition, some experts and people argue that it is not us, the people who have caused the climate changes; they claim global warming is a natural occurring phenomenon which has nothing to do with the actions of humans. They say there is not enough of proof to say that the human race is 100% responsible for the changes now taking place. They claim that events like these have been taking place regularly throughout the long history of earth, and there is nothing we can do about this (â€Å"The Galileo† 591-593). â€Å"A 54-year-old oceanographer [†¦] discovered that temperatures a thousand years ago, during the so-called medieval climate optimum, were two degrees Celsius warmer than today’s [average] and that the average temperature over the last three millennia was slightly warmer than today’s† (â€Å"The Galileo† 591-592). As a pretty active environmental activist from Brazil, a country advocating a change of living to reduce global warming, I can relate to many of McKibben’s attacks and aspects expressed in his article. According to McKibben, the most urgent thing right now is to recognize that there is a mix of solutions that can be implemented worldwide and instead of focusing on arguing about what is needed to be done, we need to take action. In other words, the most important thing is not what we do about it, but that we do something about it. All the people in the world have to start living under the â€Å"same roof†; we need to do what it is good for the world. To me, stopping global warming is so much more than just â€Å"saving electricity† or â€Å"walking instead use a car’’. Stopping global warming is about taking responsibility, not just for ourselves and our own actions, but for our friends and family, as well as our nation and the world that we live in — Earth. Stopping global warming is about the most honorable thing a man can  do — saving lives. Works Cited â€Å"About Bill McKibben.†Bill McKibben. N.p., 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. â€Å"The Galileo of Global Warming.† Perspectives on Contemporary Issues. Ed. Katherine McKibben, Bill. â€Å"Global Warning: Get Up! Stand Up!† Perspectives on Contemporary

Religious and Thnic Groups Paper Essay

I picked Buddhism as my religious group. I am a Christian so this is interesting to me because if would have stayed in Thailand, Buddhism would be the religion that I would have learned and believed in. Buddhism is a very unique religion and it differs from all other religion out there. They do not believe in a God. Tak stated, â€Å"We don’t believe in a god because we believe in man. We believe that each human being is precious and important, that all have the potential to develop into a Buddha – a perfected human being. We believe that human beings can outgrow ignorance and irrationality and see things as they really are. We believe that hatred, anger, spite and jealousy can be replaced by love, patience, generosity and kindness. We believe that all this is within the grasp of each person if they make the effort, guided and supported by fellow Buddhists and inspired by the example of the Buddha. As the Buddha says: No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path, But Buddhas clearly show the way† (2011) The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism teach that life is a suffering, there is a cause of this suffering, it is possible to put an end to this suffering and the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to end this suffering. Refuge in Three Jewels is the three components of Buddhism which protect a person from the unstable world as he progresses on the path to become a Buddhist. The Five Precepts lay down the moral conduct to make human world a better place to live. These precepts prevent Buddhists from indulging in deeds that restrict spiritual growth and cause harm to others. The Three Marks of Conditioned Existence explain that everything in this world is impermanent, without substance and full of suffering. They do not have a ten commandments, no judgment day, no creation myth, no prayers for help or intervention, and let’s people find their own path though life. There are no rewards or punishments on judgment day like others. Buddhism is strictly not a religion in the context of being a faith and worship owing allegiance to a supernatural being. Buddhism has been looked upon as opposite teaching from other and this makes Buddhism have a negative experience even though they feel that it is okay and that hateful things can not cut through their skin. This is what my brother had to say about his experience with others in different religion, a member on Yahoo commented â€Å"I have experienced hate form other who don’t believe in what I believe in. And for the simple fact that I don’t worship their god. People have been afraid and confused and it’s sad that people are this way. Well people telling me that I’m going to burn in hell is just one example. Mostly I get people coming up to talk to me and I get the whole, â€Å"so are you a good Christian girl thing,† which makes me want to puke, and I say no I’m Pagan. And most people don’t even know what that means, but typically they stop talking and walk away. †( Philosoraptor, 2012) Buddhism has contributed little at a time and over time. Today we use meditation as a relaxation and even as a type of medicine. It is like yoga, has the same affect on the mind, body, and soul. The growth with Buddhism is even reaching different races, like for example Whites. Amanda Rivera said, â€Å"I think the appeal comes from the fact that the Lotus Sutra emphasizes the absolute equality of all people to be able to attain buddhahood, to attain their enlightenment. The sources of prejudice and discrimination with any religious group is that people do not know and understand the group and which fear and hate starts to set in. It is the people’s ignorance that causes the negative feelings and actions. When we talk about prejudice and discrimination a fine example would be two years ago in Kansas. The Lao-Buddhist Association [Wat Lao Buddhasampham] is trying to move its Olathe temple to a location along 119th Street in Olathe. But the Johnson County Board of Commissioners has so far denied the group a conditional use permit. Neighbors say that the area the Buddhists have chosen is zoned residential, but Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime Buddhist Center says that discrimination is the real reason behind the opposition. â€Å"This is clearly just ugliness of ethnic and religious prejudice,† said Stanford. [†¦] Standord notes that Christian churches are common in residential areas, and that comments made by residents during a January zoning board meeting indicate fear and ignorance. At the meeting, people raised concerns about traffic, water pollution and â€Å"animal sacrifices,† along with noise from gongs, which Stanford says are no louder than church bells. Another example On Sept. 13, 2011 the U. S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the city of Walnut in Southern California because the city did not allow Chung Tai Buddhist Group, originally from Taiwan, to build a worship and meditation center. The Department of Justice accused the city government of violating federal law, which states that religious groups have the same rights to use land as other building applicants, and of discriminating against the Buddhist group. The sources of prejudice and discrimination with any religious group is that people do not know and understand the group and which fear and hate starts to set in. It is the people’s ignorance that causes the negative feelings and actions in which then problems and issues occur instead of accepting that people are different and unique. I have been neutral with Buddhism but my brother believes in it. I do not judge him and I try to think critically if I speak but after doing the research I have a new understanding of my ethic religion of my biological parents. The main important thing I have learned is not asking which religion is better but what is different from what I believe in and what they believe in because that is when you can see how others think and view beliefs. Taking a look at ethnic group of Pacific Islander are different from others in the aspect that the Pacific Islanders live a very social lifestyle, in which family members, both immediate and extended, work together in a solidified community. Pacific Islanders often have difficulty balancing their traditional â€Å"laid-back† attitudes with the high pressure competitive demands of American pedagogy and marketplace economy. Pacific Islanders’ cultures follow customs and traditions based on ancient principles that promote living an honorable and noble lifestyle. Embedded deeply into the Polynesian culture are music, dance, and food. Traditional storytelling, music, and dance are ancient ways of passing down history from one generation to another. Thus teachers with students who are Pacific Islanders may want to use both written and oral instruction, particularly in areas of literacy. Pacific Islanders are in fact highly developed peoples. Our ancestors survived for centuries in remote and isolated communities having devised their own means of dealing with the elements and of maintaining social order. In the process of what is known as ‘development’, however, Islanders wrestle daily with individual demands in a market-driven world, while our consciousness continues to be haunted by a pervasive sense of our collective identity (Wickham). The main thing with interaction with other groups is that Pacific Islander are more laid back and they tend to not be up to par with the other social groups. This makes them to be â€Å"dumb† and â€Å"no gas in the think tank. † Pacific Islander has been a huge contribution to American culture in fields as varied as the arts, health care, business and military service, Asian Pacific Americans are central to our quality of life. Month of May has been declared Asian Pacific American Heritage Month which celebrates all of those that have entered into the United States and help to develop where we are today as one. Prejudice and discrimination is part of history with Pacific Islander in the past. Taiwanese-American Wen Ho Lee, for example, was targeted by the U. S. government and suspected of espionage because of his ethnicity, according to many in the Asian/Pacific Islander community. In May, U. S. Rep. David Wu, an Oregon Democrat, was detained entering the Department of Energy building in Washington, D. C. , and repeatedly asked if he was an American citizen. July, 2009 in Seattle, a group of Asian-American youths, stopped by police for jaywalking, claimed they were harassed by an officer who repeatedly asked if they spoke English and allegedly remarked, â€Å"I’ve been to your country before, when I was in the Army. † These types of prejudice and discrimination are all appearance wise and nothing more. The pure ignorance is the source for all these actions. The research was harder to do on Pacific Islander due to the fact of less records and information like other groups. The more I read the same information was being presented. I started to research other groups and I was able to find so much more information. So yes it did help me to understand them better but not to the point of really understanding them because of lack of information and data on them. Prejudice and discrimination on the two groups were similar because both of them were looked upon as physical appearance and judge by looks instead of getting to know the two and understand the two. They both been looked at as different and odd. In the beginning of the two in America they both been push around and forced into doing things that were not right at all. Harassment and anger seems to fill hate towards the two. They are different in ways of the one is being discriminated because of a practice and the other is a human being. There is not much to be different other than that. Discrimination and prejudice looks the same, acts the same, and smells the same. Not much difference because it is all out of uneducated assumptions, anger, hatred, and intolerance. References Philosoraptor, M. (2012). Yahoo! Answers. Retrieved from http://answers. yahoo. com/question/index? qid=20120229093706AAHWC2Q Swee, T. (2013). Buddhism-Major Differences. Retrieved from http://www. buddhanet. net/e-learning/snapshot01. htm Tak, Y. (2011). Comparing Buddhism With Other Religions. Retrieved from http://wfcs. buddhistdoor. com/OldWeb/passissue/9612/sources/comp. htm Rivera, A. (2011). Why Is American Buddhism So White. Retrieved from http://www. thebuddhadharma. com/web-archive/2011/11/9/forum-why-is-american-buddhism-so-white. html Wickham, A. WACC. Retrieved from http://www. waccglobal. org/en/19973-indigenous-communications/929-Hidden-perspectives-on-Communication–Culture-in-the-Pacific-Islands-. html.

Integrations and reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Integrations and reflection - Essay Example My skills and abilities has increased through this session as I am now able to analyze situations well and also at the same time I am able to critically evaluate different situations.. My knowledge in terms of business and its supporting factors has increased and now I am able to understand well the business cases and even solve cases on my own. This session has been able to make me more confident and now I feel I can talk more openly and express myself well in comparison to what I was before this session. During the session I was appointed as the team leader of my class and I did not manage a team of 30 students in order to design a realistic business plan which can be implemented in the real world. I tried my best and was able to deliver the required conditions for the plan as stated by my teacher with the support of team members. However I feel as a leader I could have performed well through effectively managing my team in order to reduce the conflicts that took place within my team. I personally did not understand well the topics related to business finance. This was because of the factor that financial management that was taught in the class was very subjective in nature and there were less of practical life examples that would have helped me to analyze financial situations of a company (Dlabay and Burrow, 2007). The course can be modified by incorporating more of companies as examples so that we can analyze its financial situations and also at the same time think of probable solutions. I feel that this course would prove to very beneficial for long run as it encompasses all the subjects that are very essential for handling situations in the business environment. The ways through which I can measure the effect of this course is through my ranks and marks in this particular field and the recognitions I achieve in the future. I have been able to achieve the outcomes of the course as now I think that my analytical skills have improved and I am being able

Brain eating amoeba Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Brain eating amoeba - Essay Example On rare occasions, individuals contract the brain-eating amoeba because of contaminated water in swimming pools or from taps. It has the ability to cause Primary Amebic Meningoencephalitis, which is a devastating and rare brain infection. The brain-eating amoeba enters the body through the nose. The amoeba then gradually moves to the brain. While in the brain, the amoeba actively destroys tissues. However, drinking water that has Naegleria cannot lead to the infection of a person. Naegleria fowleri exists everywhere in the world, as long as the environmental conditions are suitable for its existence and survival. Aside from existing in fresh warm water bodies, brain-eating amoeba exists in geothermal water, warm water that manufacturing and processing plants discharge, soil, poorly maintained swimming pools and water heaters. Both non-chlorinated and poorly chlorinated swimming pools provide suitable breeding places for Naegleria fowleri (Cajigal, 9). In addition to that, the Naegleria fowleri exist in aquariums and mud puddles. The Naegleria fowleri thrives at higher temperatures rising to 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit). This amoeba can survive for a shorter while in temperatures beyond the above mentioned. The brain-eating amoeba is absent in salt water. In the United States, the amoeba mostly affects people living in Southwestern and southern states (Animal Planet, n.p). Naegleria fowleri enters the human body through the nose during activities such as water-skiing, diving or other water sports that increase the probability of water getting into the nose (Pond, 171). Other instances recorded to have caused infections include people dipping their heads in geothermal water, commonly known as hot springs, or people cleaning their nostrils using untreated water flowing from the taps. Once the Naegleria fowleri enters the body through the nostrils, chemicals used in communication by nerve cells pull

Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Proposal - Essay Example With increase service activities, it is but vital for this four Ps to be addressed within the service sector. For the greatest communication impact, Kotler, (2003) argued that the entire marketing mix must be carefully coordinated for greatest success. Against this background, this research seeks to answer the following questions With previous work experience and knowledge in the hotel industry, I have nested an interest in the sector, especially within the marketing department. The main objective of this paper will be to find out and evaluate the various marketing and promotional techniques adopted by four stars hotels in the London municipality. Other objectives will include As the fight of market shares and quest for product success continue, marketers are employing all the necessary tactics, and methods to give their product a break through, or remain competitive (Brennan, Baines, and Garneau, 2003, Rowley 2004). According Kortler (2002), the marketing communication mix or promotional mix involves specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and public relations a company uses to achieve it advertising and marketing objectives. The five major types of promotion are:- Previous research has shown that consumers often use their existing perceptions of a brand to evaluate new offerings such as product or line extensions (Aaker and Keller 1990). Because it appears similar to the original brand, consumers will then transfer attributes of the original brand to the brand imitator, thereby affecting evaluations and purchase decisions. These attributions include, but are not limited to, product quality, performance, reliability, and origin (d Astrous and Gargouri 1999). Francesca Sterlacci, a fashion designer, who heads the fashion design department at New Yorks Fashion Institute of Technology, says that copying is simply a way of life (Karr 2003). In a recent website interview Sterlacci admits that it is â€Å"expensive and