Saturday, August 17, 2019

Martin Delaney Essay

Martin Delany was born in West Virginia a free man, the son of Pati and Samuel Delany. He was considered free because his Mother Pati was a free women. In his growing years he and his siblings were taught to read using the New York primer to learn to read. To keep from being arrested his mother moved the children to Pennsylvania a free state. He did have to leave school occasionally to help on the family farm but eventually he did migrate to Pittsburgh where he became a barber and laboroer to support himself.- In 1834 Delany met and married Catherine Richard with whom he married Catherine Richards and they had 11 children that all survived to adulthood. During the national choldera epidemic in 1833, Delany became apprenticed to Dr. AndrewN. McDowell, where he learned contemporary techniques of fire cupping and leeching then condidered the primary techniques to treat. He continued to study under the mentorship of Dr. McDowell and other abolisionist doctors, such as Dr F. Julius LeMoyn e and Dr. Joseph P. Gazzam of Pittsburgh. Delany became more active in political matters. In 1835 he attended his first National men of color convention, held in Philadelphia since 1831. He was inspired to conceive a plan to set up a ‘Black Israel’ on the east coast of Africa. He also became involved in the temperance movement and organizations caring for fugitive slaves who had escaped to Pennsylvania, a free state. While Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison were in Pittsburgh in 1847 on an anti-slavery tour, they met with Delany. Together the men conceived the newspaper that became the North Star. It was first published later that year in Rochester, New York. The business was handled by Douglass, while Delany traveled to lecture, report, and obtain subscriptions. During these travels, he was frequently confronted by mobs opposing his views, sometimes violently. While living in Pittsburgh, Delany studied the basics of medicine under doctors and maintained his own cupping and leeching practice. In 1849 he began to study more seriously to prepare to apply to medical school. In 1850 he failed to be accepted to several institutions before being accepted at Harvard Medical school, after presenting letters of support from seventeen physicians. He was one of the first three black men to be admitted there. Following the war, Delany continued to be politically active. He worked to help black cotton farmers improve their business and negotiating skills to get a better price for their product. He also argued against blacks, when he saw fit, however. He opposed the vice presidential candidate of J. J. Wright because he was too inexperienced, and also opposed the candidacy of a black man for the mayor of Charlston, SC. In the later 1870s, the gains of the Reconstruction period began to be pushed back by more conservative elements. White Democrats replaced Delany in office. Parlimentary groups such as the Red Shirts suppressed black voting in South Carolina, especially in the upland counties. In reaction to whites’ regaining power and the suppression of black voting, Charleston -based blacks started planning again for emigration to Africa. In 1877, they formed ‘Liberia Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company’, with Delany as chairman of the finance committee. A year later, the company purchased a ship – the Azor – for the voyage. Delany worked as president of the board to organize the voyage. In 1880, he withdrew from the project to serve his family. Two of his children were students at Wilberforce College and required money for tuition fees. His wife had been working as a seamstress to make ends meet. Delany began practicing medicine again in Charleston. On 24 January 1885, he died of tuberculosis in Wilberforce, Ohio.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Cisneros’ House on the Mango Street: Beauty Comes from Within

Sometimes it is difficult to live through the travails of what life has to offer for all of us. For some who are unlucky, they have to go through numerous trials and tribulations in order to survive the rigors of poverty, dysfunctional families and societal problems. However, when we learn to see the bright side of everything, we will realize that all these bitter and difficult experiences in life can be beautiful and meaningful for us. Without these, we would not attain success or learn about our mistakes that make all of us better and stronger people. As a quote from Sandra Cisneros’ The House on the Mango Street (1989) goes — â€Å"Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most things that are beautiful. Still, we take what we can get and make the best of it†, this means that we can all live through seeing things as beautiful and essential. What is important is that we value the things that we have and it is up to us to make our lives better than what we deserve. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on the Mango Street weaves a thought-provoking, coming-of-age tale of a young girl. She is not only struggling to grow up to become a fine lady like usual American girls, but she is faced with shame, guilt and disappointment as her family is embarking on to acquire a new home in America. As the story comes to a full circle, the readers would inevitably commiserate with how the girl dealt with the scenarios she had faced. She did not only have to go through the complicated journey with her family to their new home, but she has to deal with the big disappointment that their new house is not what she hoped for. These difficulties definitely fanned some fire inside her – to become more determined and strive harder in the future. In the end, readers could predict her utter frustration why things are always tough for immigrant people like them in America. In the story, Esperanza’s family has to undergo an awkward transition of looking for a permanent place to live. Readers will immediately infer that the young girl’s family has Chicano roots because the girl enumerated the members of the family in beginning her story — Papa, Mama, Carlos, Kiki and Nenny. What’s admirable about Cisnero’s conversational style of story-writing is that everyone can relate to their experiences. At one point in anyone’s life, we all can identify with the travails of going through a house transfer. Anyone’s initial reaction will be to feel excited of how our new house will look like or who our new neighbors will be. Unfortunately, for the young girl, she is bound to be betrayed by her own expectations. When Esperanza’s father announced that they are getting a new house in Mango Street, she expected that it will be in the usual American neighborhood with homes that have freshly-mown lawns and white picket fences. For the Esperanza, Mango Street is more than street sign — it is her marker that circumscribes the dream that she and her family had brought with them. This new house will simply be one aspect of attaining their dream — to have a more comfortable life in this new place, in this new country. However, when she saw the house in Mango Street, she was disappointed. She becomes aware of her own subjective perceptions as she begins to differentiate her family’s wonderful dreams and society’s ugly realities. Thus, she becomes conscious of her parents’ inability to fulfill their promises of the perfect house. She thought that â€Å"They always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house† (p. 223). However, the â€Å"real house† the narrator expected would be â€Å"like the houses on TV† Apparently, when the narrator saw the house on Mango Street, it transformed from being a symbol of hope to become a symbol of poverty. The narrator associates this realization with the humiliation she has felt in the past, when her family lived in similar places. However, Esperanza realized that she can go beyond her expectations and she could make herself a better person, despite her roots and the community she’s living in. Esperanza began seeing all the positive things around her to make her a stronger person. You can be poor but you still can do good in your studies and excel to become a successful lawyer. You can be a Latina and not get pregnant to become a young mother, but you can strive to achieve your dreams of becoming a great artist someday. Thus, in the story, we can learn that there is beauty in everything that we have. It is just up to us to use these things wisely to make the best out of it. Works Cited Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, Inc. 1989.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

The Roman town

The Roman Town was laid out with straight roads and it was in a grid pattern. The shape was a sort of square aswell. It was enclosed with a wall, which had four gates and eighteen towers including the two, which were at the sides of each gate. In the town there would have been an amphitheatre, a theatre, the main temple, the forum, a little temple, a bathhouse, a games room and some shops (small shops not like the NAAFI or Tesco). In the town centre the theatre, forum, a temple and the amphitheatre. The town was defended with a wall, which went all the way around the town. The armies, which guarded the wall and gates, defended the town. Shops, market and forum. Butchers, bakers, pieshops, wine shops, pottery shops, clothes shops, and fruit shops, coal shops, drink shops and food shops were the roman shops. The goods were made at the villa and workshops at the back of the shops. The things only few people could afford were glass vases, nice and well-decorated pots, vases, silk and jewellery. Shoes, woollen cloth, normal pots, food and drink were the things many people could afford. On the streets there would have been beggars begging, soldiers marching, guarding things and arresting people, shop keepers shouting out what they're selling, people buying things, people weighing things and children and people running about. It would have been very busy with all the selling, buying and running about going on. I really like to live during the roman times in those busy streets. The forum was important aswell as lots of other things. It was important because it had the basilica (town hall and law courts), the curia (where the town council meets), the treasury (where all the towns' money is) and the tabularium (all the official documents were kept there). Temples. People believed temples were important God or Goddess' homes. The things that went on at the temples were praying, killing of animals and then examining of the dead animals to see if the gods were pleased or angry. Vesta was the Goddess of purity, fire and hearth. A sacred flame burns in her temple in Rome. Juno was Jupiter's wife and sister. She was Goddess of women and children. Mars was god of war and was always dressed as a Roman soldier. He is the son of Juno. Jupiter was the chief god. The god of the sky and thunder, he carries thunderbolts around to throw. The temple had 27 decorated pillars holding it up and a tiled roof lying on top. At the front of the temple there would have been a gold statue of the god or goddess whose temple it was. Inside the floor was made of marble and stone blocks with fire in the middle would have lit the temple. The walls both inside and outside would have been nicely decorated. The Amphitheatre. An amphitheatre was an oval arena where gladiators fought each other or wild animals. The word amphitheatre means â€Å"theatre in the round†. The Coliseum is Rome's most famous amphitheatre. The amphitheatre had seats like steps but bigger going up all around the sides of it. There are 3 types of gladiator, they are Retiar, Throcian and Mirmillo MY TIMETABLE OF THE AMPHITHEATRE. 09:00-10:03 The Circus 1 10:08-10:55 Warm Up Fight 11:00-12:00 The Death Fight 12:05-13:00 The Circus 2 13:05-14:05 No-man Fight1 14:10-14:30 Executions 14:35-15:55 Lunch Break 16:00-17:00 Wild Beast Hunt 17:05-18:20 Animal Or Human DEATH 18:25-18:45 Executions 18:50-19:50 No-man Fight2 Homes And Houses. The Slums In Rome flats were about 7 storeys high. They were usually dirty. As the storeys went up they got smaller. The poorest people lived on the top floors (the smallest apartments). People hanged their washing on lines which went from one window to another. The very top was open (no-roof) and it was used to store things on like chickens, crops and other things. In a flat the kind of furniture you would find was beds, tables, chairs, draws, shelves and cupboards The disadvantages of living in a flat are flats aren't very big and you have to trust everyone not to go and take or eat your food or steel any of your things and plus there was a lot of noise. The Merchant's House The two biggest areas in the merchant's house were the impluvium and the atruim. The floors were mosaic and that made them well decorated. The walls were also decorated, but they were decorated with stucco. The Villa. The villas were on the outskirts of the town. Although they were luxurious houses they were usually at the heart of a working farm they were well furnished and had mosaic floors.

Mr. Jim Wormold, the Unlikely Optimist in “Our Man in Havana”

According to the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, â€Å"faith is the allegiance to duty or a person: loyalty (1): fidelity to one's promises (2): sincerity of intentions. †# The concept of faith can cleverly be disguised as a purely religious byproduct; possessed primarily by the followers of a religious belief system or spiritual path. However, faith simply means a strong trust in something or someone. Faith is to commit oneself to act based on life experience to warrant rationalization, but without sufficient proof.To have a faith in someone or something also involves an act of will to persevere when the odds are at great length. Even though the protagonist, Jim Wormold doesn’t have religious faith and his actions motivated entirely by desperation to have the approval of an absent wife and spoiled daughter, he is the only character that doesn’t exhibit blind faith. Faith is closely related to loyalty, as evidenced by the ideal of †fidelit y to one’s promises† or an inherent â€Å"faithfulness†. Faith is not an uniquely religious principle, but it is a byproduct of entrusting loyalty.And both loyalty and faithfulness have connections to trustworthiness. Loyalty cannot exist without faith. Wormold’s faith is engrossed to the loyalty of his daughter. As stated in Chapter 2, â€Å"Unlike Wormold, who believed in nothing, Milly was a Catholic: he had been made to promise her mother, he supposed, was of no faith at all, but she had left a Catholic on his hands. It brought Milly closer to Cuba than he could come himself† (Greene, 15). When marrying, Wormold promised his wife they would raise their children as Catholics. Even when his wife leaves he continues to raise Milly as a Catholic.Although it appears that he himself is absent of a religious faith, his actions to ensure she is Catholic are very significant. Wormold failed in his marriage, but doesn’t want to fail in raising his daughter with the right upbringing. Wormold is wholly dedicated and governed by the main woman in his life, his daughter Milly. She is the entire reason for him becoming involved in the Secret Service. By all accounts he should have rejected Hawthorne's offer. He has no background or training of any kind that would qualify him to be a spy. However, he sees a chance to make some money and he exploits it.He not only takes the basic pay of $300 offered him, but goes out of his way to make as much money as possible by creating phantom agents and missions all requiring more money, which of course he uses on his daughter. The following quote presents the reasoning why Wormold accepts Hawthorne’s offer. Milly wants a horse and a country club membership for her seventeenth birthday although she knows Wormold cannot afford the extra expenses of such a gift. †¦,‘Oh, I knew you’d take it like this,’ Milly said. ‘I knew it in my heart of hearts. I said two novenas to make it right, but they haven’t worked.I was so careful too. I was in a state of grace all the time I said them. I’ll never believe in a novena again. Never. Never. ’ (†¦) He had no faith himself, but he never wanted by any action of his own to weaken hers. Now he felt a fearful responsibility; at any moment she would be denying the existence of God. Ancient promises he had made came up out of the past to weaken him. (18) In the given quote, Milly begins to doubt whether her prayers will be answered. It is obvious she takes advantage of her father and asks for anything even if she knows her father cannot afford it.In fear of Milly becoming skeptical of her Catholic faith, Wormold keeps the horse as he had made â€Å"ancient promises to his wife† to â€Å"raise a good Catholic†. Wormold’s fear of his daughter, or at least the fear of her disapproval is brought to realization. Wormold has a great love for his daughter and wants to give her everything she wants so that he can succeed as a single parent and remedy faults he committed to his wife. He sees direct parallels to his daughter with his wife. Wormold failed at his marriage, but he intends to succeed in rearing their child.Several times throughout the novel, Milly manipulates and controls her father with a similarity to her mother. He feels distant and detached from her world and often gives into her requests. â€Å"He was glad that she [Milly] could still accept fairy stories: a virgin who bore a child, pictures that wept or spoke words of love in the dark. Hawthorne and his kind were equally credulous, but what they swallowed were nightmares, grotesque stories out of science fiction† (75). Wormold compares the significance of Milly's Catholic faith to that of a childhood fairytale as it ensures she maintains her innocence and faith in something without skepticism.This critique of Catholicism is similar to the Santa Claus myth. Parents lie t o their children about the existence of an imaginary entity in hopes to instill principles of goodness and morality in their children. Wormolds’ lack of religious faith is a result of a moral discrepancy. His wife was apparently a devote Catholic but still managed to overlook her marriage and run off with another man. Religion for the protagonist, Wormold is irrelevant. On the other hand, to have a faith that things will continue being advantageous isn’t considered far-fetched.Our Man In Havana takes place against the background of the Cold War. The British Secret Service is operated by heresy and the fear of expansion of the Communist regime. The novel’s setting in Havana Cuba is important because the story is written and takes place just before the revolution led by Fidel Castro. At the time of the story, Cuba is a largely poor country. There are many European and American tourists and businesspeople on the island who have their personal agendas and respective loyalties. Wormold remarks about this in Part 5 of Chapter 4: â€Å"You are loyal. † â€Å"Who to? † â€Å"To Milly.I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations†¦ I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries? † (195) The paranoia surrounding the Cold War is what drives the Secret Service to recruit agents so quickly without giving them proper training. Loyalty is a recurring theme throughout Greene’s novel and questions the validity of the ability to have a loyalty to a country when residing in another.Espionage is rampant because the fear of a Communist threat appears imminent. Consequently, they are so desperate for any information that they are very excited when they get Wormold's fake reports. Their desire to outmaneuver the Communists oversh adows their common sense. The British Secret Service engages in a prime example of blind faith with enlisting Jim Wormold. Hawthorne, the British secret agent who recruits Wormold, is not revered as an outstanding agent and isn’t trusted by his superiors. This may be a result in his questionable judgment for selecting new recruits.Although the British secret Service prides itself to â€Å"employ agents who were men of good social standing,† Hawthorne lies about Wormold’s true occupation and social standing by embellishing it: â€Å" ‘Oh, he imports, you know, Machinery, that sort of thing. ’ It was always important to one’s own career to employ agents who were men of good social standing. The petty details on the secret file dealing with the store in Lamparilla Street would never, in ordinary circumstances, reach this basement-room† (52). Later, Hawthorne suspects Wormold's reports may be falsified, but does nothing about it.In Part 4 of Chapter 2 Dr. Hasselbacher states, â€Å"At first they promised me they were planning nothing. You have been very useful to them. They knew about you from the very beginning, Mr. Wormold, but they didn't take you seriously. They even thought you might be inventing your reports. But then you changed your codes and your staff increased. The British Secret Service would not be so easily deceived as all that, would it? † (146) Faith is a suspension of disbelief. This is vital for believing in things that can't be proven, and as such is a personal decision for the individual.The function of the British Secret Service is to rely heavily on sources that cannot be easily confirmed. They have to put much trust in people like Wormold. While it is likely that most of them are reliable and diligent intelligence gatherers, there are few checks and balances in place to confirm they are not. The information they provide is obviously secret and not easily verifiable. This is dangerous bec ause decision makers have to much of their faith on these sources when making serious decisions.When wrong information gets through the system, whether it is intentionally wrong or not, it resulted in disastrous consequences as several people do in fact die indirectly because of Wormold's fake reports. The Secret Service is supposed to be a highly competent organization, but in reality they are unwittingly relying on Wormold who is neither qualified nor a loyal patriot of the British Crown. â€Å"If you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another mask? # The idea of faith being either religious or not is purely semantics. For Wormold it is not a matter if he has faith, but who or what he places his faith in. Throughout the novel, Wormold exhibits optimism that he will be able to preserve a decent livelihood for himself and his daughter through playing up the insecurities and paranoia of the British secret service. Through the depiction of Wormold, Greene's Our Man In Havana suggests that true faith is not blinded by fear of attack of an unknown enemy or mythology of an ominous being, but loyalty to one’s individual morals and loved ones.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

A Freedom Writer Toast For Change English Literature Essay

A Freedom Writer Toast For Change English Literature Essay A Freedom Writer named Maria entered class during the Toast for Change and was the first person to declare what she wanted to change in her life. Maria didn’t want to end up pregnant at fifteen like her mother, end up in prison like her father, or wind up dead at the age of eighteen like her cousin. She wanted a clean slate, and a bright future, but she didn’t want to start by reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Maria felt she couldn’t relate to Anne Frank, and on top of that she hated reading. Ms. Gruwell believed Maria would find herself within the pages of the book, and Maria wanted to prove her wrong. So one night as she read about Anne and the hardships she endured while living in the attic she realized Ms. Gruwell had been right! Anne and Maria have a lot of things in common. Even though Anne wasn’t Latina, and didn’t grow up in the same neighborhood as Maria, these two girls faced both discrimination based on the way they looked. After Maria finished the book Ms. Gruwell began to notice changes within her student. She had a better attitude in class, more focused on her studies, and became more interested in class material. # 2 In the fall of 1995, a freedom writer was sent on a mission by her family. Her goal is to defend her own against and testify against a rival gang member. This young woman was a witness to a murder committed by her friend Paco. A rival gang member sat on the opposite side of the court room falsely accused of the murder. She was always taught to protect her family no matter the circumstances. Her mind should have been made up, lie and go home, but as she sat on the witness stand two natures were at war inside of her, good and evil. The good nature told her to do what is right and tell the truth, the evil nature kept chanting protect your own and send an innocent man to prison. The decision had not been so easy anymore and someone made what Paco thought would be a smooth trial into someth ing her family and friends never thought could happen. On the opposite side of the court room, sat the rival gang members family. Her eyes gazed over their faces, almost all were filled with anger except one. A woman the author described as being strong with tears in her eyes. Out of all the faces in the court room this one was familiar. The strong woman with tears in her eyes resembled all the author and her mother went through when her father was on trial. She saw her mother and herself in the woman’s shoes, and a flashback of the day her father was sent to prison. At that moment she knew what she had to do. It frightened her because this was not part of the plan, if she did what was right the mission would not be accomplished and the one principal that held her family together would be shattered. The image of her mother gave her the power to end the fight between right and wrong. In this court room she realized the power she possessed. She could give this woman what was de nied to her mother so long ago, the truth and her family.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Ford Motor Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Ford Motor Company - Essay Example This report will give a comprehensive analysis of the external and internal factors and aspects that has lead the company to crisis. The first part of the analysis demonstrates a summary about the company and its problems in general. From the analysis in the second part it is found that poor management and decision making is the biggest problem of Ford. Ford is also loosing the market edge on Hybrid and Small cars segment. A fish bone diagram is used to represent the various challenges that have lead to the loss of profitability for Ford. The analysis helped to arrive at the issues which are management, competition, recession and quality. Excessive family control and poor decision making are the major management issues. Similarly, competition from Japanese car makers and other small and hybrid car makers are the major competition lead issues. Low demand and rippling effects of the recession are the recessionary issues. Finally product defects and recalls following that are the qualit y issues that affected ford. The analysis had also put forward various other solutions that will help the company to come back to profitability. Huge reduction of the family’s stake in the business is among the primary solution for Ford. The later part of the report describes a detailed cost benefit analysis for arriving at the right decision for the company. Some of the alternatives solutions available for Ford are as follows: invest huge in R&D, expand the market, develop more small cars, gradually exit the stake from other auto companies, invest in strategic alliances, gradually increase the marketing expenses, emphasize the message of quality. ... Ever since its inception Ford has acquired and sold many of the big brands in the industry. Jaguar & Land Rover and Volvo are the leading ones among them. Following the crisis that hit the company and which almost lead to their failure, it has to restructure itself thoroughly. As a part of it, Ford even discontinued its Mercury brand. Ford was one of the pioneers of ‘Mass Production’ concept. Ford introduced the assembly line system in the automobile production that enabled the roll-over of large number of cars within limited time. The Model T was the first Ford model to undergo assembly line production. â€Å"When the United States became involved in World War I (April 1917), the Ford Motor Company placed its resources at the disposal of the government.† (Funding Universe, 2011) Following the retirement of Henry Ford in 1918, the company’s operations were looked after by his son Edsel Ford. Ford faced the first financial problems in 1921 when the company h ad $58 million in debt and the company had only $20 million with them to meet this. But the various strategic moves that involved sales of maximum automobile and only through cash, reduction of inventories by one third, and various other cost reduction techniques helped them to increase cash inflow. Within no time Ford raised around $87 million which gave them a surplus amount even after meeting all its debt obligations. â€Å"The vision of Ford Motors is to become the world’s leading consumer company for automotive products and services. The mission statement of Ford is to that they are a global family with a proud heritage passionately committed to providing personal mobility for people around the world.  We anticipate consumer need and deliver outstanding products and services that improve people's

Monday, August 12, 2019

Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 17

Case study - Essay Example Globalization in the film industry can be approached from four main categories as discussed by Lorenzen (2008). He enumerates these approaches as being globalization of involvement in film-making, film consumption, film production and organization of film making. Globalization involvement in film-making is characterized by a rapid growth in the number of feature films that hit the market, either for TV, cinema or exhibition. For instance, Lorenzen observes that India and China have considerably experienced steady growth in the film industry, a situation backed by their respective growth in purchasing power and investment in the industry. The rise of global consumer taste the world over characterizes globalization in consumption. Lorenzen notes that apart from continuous expansion of the global market, the ease with which producers can reach the prospective market has also improved. The advantage that comes with this phenomenon is that products can be released simultaneously to global audiences on a good number of national markets. This consumption globalization is immensely boosted by such quick distribution and exhibition platforms as internet, Satellite TV and DVDs. India and Japan have been noted to be more aggressive in adopting new technological distribution means compared to Hollywood. Cross-border co-production of films is what marks production globalization. Even though this practice has been around for some time, it has recently witnessed a great surge, with most films from US, Canada, Asia, and Europe involving cross-border production. India, due to is conservative nature, is yet adopt cross-border co-production, hence the relatively low external market share for its films. The final aspect of globalization is global organization, characterized by the advent of global corporations. With the onset of internalization, Lorenzen observes that most Hollywood