Intercultural Communication Essay

Intercultural communication is a study of cultural difference through communication. It is a form of global communication throughout the country all over the world. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds or other acceptable factors. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with cross-cultural communication which in instance also brings up the same meaning and discussing the same issues. In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act towards each other’s, communicate and perceive the world around them. Many people in intercultural communication such like in business management argue that culture determines how individuals encode and preserve messages, what mediums they choose for transmitting and broadcast them, and the way messages are interpreted and understood. It all depends on the characteristics and the component on the culture itself. It is also affected by the communication skill from the group of people and how they interact with each other. Intercultural communication occur when in minimum two person with different culture come in contact with each other and exchange ideas in verbal and also nonverbal communication. Before understanding intercultural communication as whole, first we need to know what culture is. What are the definition, and how these words correlate with communication skills? Cultures have certain components and elements that build its character. These components are symbol, language, value, norm and belief. Culture define as a complex system of knowledge, beliefs, values, customs, behavior and artifacts that are acquired, used and shared by the member of the group of people in their daily lives. In identifying how the complex system work we must know the important component in culture. Symbol is anything that meaningfully presents something that recognize by a culture. An example of a symbol is just like bald eagle that represents United States of America, or Kris represents Malaysia, Elephant represents Thailand folks. Language is symbol system that used for people to communicate with each other in their country. But also certain language can be interpret by others which define whom that value and try to achieve a perfect concept of intercultural communication itself. Values are culture defined standards that people use as guideline in social interpretation, such as what to do is right and what they believe to be right in their daily practice. Norm is any establishment of rule and expectations that guides the behavior which means anything that a group of people usually do to maintain their behavior. Beliefs are special thoughts or idea that people hold on trusting that it is true and never been wrong, and beliefs also clarify religion also make a culture different from he others. Culture also has the characteristics. There are seven characteristics of the culture and the first are culture is created and learned by group of people. In this group of people culture is shared between them. Culture can be transmitted from past and to the future means that culture can be passing down to generations. Culture is something dynamic and always changing by time following concept of how the world changes. Culture prescribes behavior and attitude which means culture define and shape the behavior of the people in that group according to their prescriptions. Communication is a dynamic, systemic process in which meanings are created and reflected in human interaction with symbols. The process is ongoing and ever changing. It is contextual, always taking place in a specific location. Communication never takes place in a vacuum situation. When we do communicate with another human being, we can only infer what she or he is experiencing because no two human beings have the same experiences leading up to that specific communication event. We are all born as white cloth. It is the culture we are born into that gives meaning to our experiences and helps us to define our world or how it is going to be. The meanings we give to events shape our world and fulfill our expectation. Our brain functions as an open system and we learn from each encounter and add to our system of knowledge from past and present events. Most of our culture is transmitted through unconscious communication acts and behaviors. These ideas are received by imitating, observing, and interacting with others, and we are not even aware we are receiving these messages. We receive them first from our parents, then from siblings and others as the scope of our world broadens and as we meet more and more people each day. These events happened unconsciously and as we realized we already have it and learn it by heart. As a separate notion, it interprets situations where people from different cultural backgrounds interact to each other. Aside from language, intercultural communication focuses on social attributes, thought patterns, and the cultures of different groups of people. It also involves understanding the different cultures, languages and customs of people from other countries. Intercultural communication plays a role in social sciences such as anthropology that, cultural studies, linguistics, psychology and communication studies. Intercultural communication maybe narrow its scope into cultural anthropology that is the comparative study of the manifold ways in which people make sense of the world around them, while social anthropology is the study of the relationships among persons and groups. While cultural anthropology is more akin towards philosophy and arts, social anthropology leads towards sociology and history. Cultural anthropology itself presents intercultural definition by learning the culture in many obvious ways. As discussed before the culture is shared and through this sociocultural anthropology an example of sharing is by myth and legends. These stories have been told in narrative process by the elder people and spread towards the generation. Myth is something that is more sacred and the actors were sometimes gods or demigods that were popular in western countries. Legend is something, someone or an event that believed by the narrator and believed by the people to be true such in Malaysia, there is a tales of Mahsuri or Hang Tuah. Everybody knows that they were exist but the legends was written in the form that it is embedded by culture of Malay people and transmitting some important values that need to be understood until today whether it is accepted or no longer remembered. Linguistics in other hand is a study of human language and sometimes an ancient language and those that are no longer can be read. Linguistics additionally draws on and informs work from such diverse fields as acoustics, anthropology, biology, computer science, human anatomy, informatics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology that also a branches of courses that play a very important role in intercultural communication. These all component merely remarking that all subjects need to have communication skills as the core and intercultural quality to strengthen it’s as language is the component of the intercultural communication itself, the study of linguistics ultimately helps to understand culture that embedded in language and also allow us to communicate freely within this border. Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviors. Psychology has the immediate goal of understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases, and by many accounts it ultimately aims to benefit society and a group of people. In this last point the group of people specifically referring to different culture. Usually psychology component merge with social factors to narrow down the understanding and to apply the intercultural knowledge firmly. These merge area known as psychosocial factors. Psychosocial factor comprises the social being of culture and how the psychological issues affect the exchange cultural idea throughout and ideal interactive communication. Psychologist explore concepts such as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, behavior and interpersonal relationships. Some of this concept are important and needed to unlock an intercultural communication successfully. It is not about health only because the more you understand other culture social behavior with interpersonal skills and with added linguistics expertise, a complete form of intercultural communication is achieved. Intercultural communication is also referred to as the base for international businesses. There are several cross-cultural service providers around who can assist with the development of intercultural communication skills. Research is a major part of the development of intercultural communication skills such as research needed to understand all the component of the culture itself. The course to assess this communication skills have been mention earlier and the most relevant part is the intercultural competency. Intercultural competence is the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately with people of other cultures. With a perfect asset of component understanding and deep knowledge of all courses within behavioral science people must comprehend the intercultural competence whether appropriately valued norm, and expectations within a culture or effectively by accomplishing goals and then you will achieved cross cultural competence with a immaculate communication skills. As a conclusion, Intercultural communication is a field of study that become important as world expand. Living in the world without border actually tests your surviving skills with this valued asset. The major perspective that was developed is traditional, interpretive and critical. 20th century shows that technology imperative cause people more frequently come to contact with each other that differ. The mobility around the world has become easier and changing demographic also increases the need of cross cultural understanding. By understanding this asset, a person might gain certain beneficence such as personal empowerment, a freedom from ignorance and also a productive relationship. This three benefits of intercultural apprehension not only bring success individually but also to an industry or the country itself.

Critique

Arundhati Roy has dedicated her writing career to politics and social causes and is a vehement critic of neo-imperialism and globalization. Her essay, â€Å"How Deep Shall We Dig? † was published in a national Indian newspaper ‘The Hindu’ on 25 April, 2004 against the backdrop of the 14th General Lok Sabha Elections in India. In her essay she attempts to portray the harsh conditions prevalent in the entire India due to unjust laws and an increasingly fascist approach towards governance by the ruling parties and stresses upon the need to bring about a revolutionary change in the country.Roy presents her argument effectively with the use of sarcasm, irony and rhetorical questions complimented by a well supported and organized progression of ideas. However, her occasional arrogant tone and fallacious reasoning make the reader question the credibility of her case. Roy links the violent situation of Kashmir to the entire Indian state by highlighting unjust laws, advers e impacts of privatization, violence in various states and insensitivity of the ruling parties.She presents strategies of resistance and civil disobedience as the only way forward to a radical change in the country. Roy’s mastery over sarcasm and irony helps to depict the true picture of India’s stability and politics in the current era. Her use of sarcasm at various instances in the essay plays a pivotal role in helping the reader to identify the reality juxtaposed against the false picture of India presented by the government.For example, â€Å"Of course there is a difference between an overtly communal party with fascist leanings and an opportunistically communal party† (5) captivates the reader’s interest and helps to emphasize her point that there is no difference between the mandates of the two current ruling parties of India and neither will be successful in bringing a change to the country. Similarly in the line, â€Å"There'll be no more crimina ls then. Only terrorists. It's kind of neat. (2), the writer effectively conveys her disapproval of the POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) through sarcasm and enlightens the reader with the devastating consequences that could take place by the integration of this Act into criminal law. Along with sarcasm, the author makes effective use of irony and refers to the oppressed as â€Å"gangsters† (1) and their killing by the police as â€Å"eliminated on orders† (1) in order to illuminate the reader about the reality of violence and ruthless killings taking place across the country.The use of words in quotation marks such as â€Å"free press† (3) and â€Å"Creating a Good Investment Climate† (3) highlight the various instances of irony used by Roy to criticize the misleading image presented by the ruling parties of democracy and privatization in the country. Efficient use of sarcasm and irony throughout the essay allow the reader to critically analyze the imag e of the ‘Shinning India’ presented in the international community and agree to the author’s point of view in this context.Along with irony, the strategic placement of rhetorical questions through the course of the essay plays an essential role in the effective communication of the writer’s ideas and arguments. The topic ‘How deep shall we dig? ’ itself is a manifestation of a rhetorical question put forward by the writer to make the reader reflect upon the stance taken by many Hindus over the Muslim invasion of the subcontinent, more than a millennium ago. With this single question the writer conveys the importance of the Muslim community to India and makes the reader analyze the oppressions faced by them in states like Kashmir and Gujarat.The clever placement of questions such as â€Å"So how can ordinary people counter the assault of an increasingly violent state? † (5) make the reader stop and reflect upon the arguments presented by the writer and unconsciously agree to them. Similarly the use of repetitive questions and epiphora during the discussion of fascism in the essay lay emphasis on an important point of the argument and convince the reader to agree to the author’s claim. On a similar note, Roy has strengthened her argument with ingenious organization of ideas and effective support of facts and statistics from credible sources.She first establishes the problems faced by the country and then cleverly connects them to the policies of the current ruling parties and fascism. With this link and the repetition of the problems in the middle of the essay she creates an image of a violent state requiring urgent action. After setting up the stage, she proposes her solutions and effectively convinces the reader that civil disobedience in the current election scenario is the only possible way out of the volatile situation of the country. Her logical flow of ideas is complimented by statistics and allusion t o credible sources.Reference to facts such as â€Å"According to the records of the Association of Parents of Disappeared People (APDP) in Kashmir more than 3,000 people have been killed in 2003† (1) and â€Å"Utsa Patnaik, the well known agricultural economist. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. calculates that in the period between the early 1990s and 2001, food grain absorption has dropped to levels lower than during the World War-II years† (2) validate the claims made by the author and play a pivotal role in bringing the reader in agreement to the writer’s point of view.Hence, the smooth flow of ideas and strong support make the paragraphs coherent and the essay powerful. Despite presenting a well structured case, the arrogant tone used by the writer while referring to the middle class in the essay depicts bias in her argument. In paragraph 11, she mentions the middle class as the only sect of the country that accept India as a legitimate democracy despite the widespread viole nce in the country while at the end of the essay she arrogantly refers to them by saying â€Å"Not because of that middle-class squeamishness — `politics is dirty'† (6).With a sweeping generalization and a supercilious remark about a group that forms more than fifty percent of the essay’s audience, Roy has considerably damaged the credibility of her argument. Moreover, at the end of the essay she addresses to the Indian people and calls for a change in the system by massive non co-operation but by offending a class that represents thirty percent of the Indian population (Lanzeni, â€Å"The Middle Class in India†), Mrs. Roy might not be very successful in achieving her aim.Along with an arrogant tone, the presence of fallacious reasoning at certain instances in the essay deteriorates the strength of the argument. While discussing the privatization of state institutions and referring to the power these private companies hold, the author goes too far by sayi ng â€Å"in India a few of these CEOs are more powerful than the Prime Minister† (3) and thereby commits a logical fallacy called the ‘slippery slope’. It is true that the heads of private companies running state assets hold a lot of power but it is illogical to conclude that they possess more authority than the head of the state- the Prime Minister.Similarly, the writer while emphasizing on the need of enhancement of human rights in the country, illogically concludes that India’s recent abstinence from voting for a human rights resolution in the U. N. will lead to an assault of human rights in the country. The author fails to explore other possibilities that could have led to India’s abstinence and makes a hasty conclusion which compels the reader to question the reasoning of the author and weakens the overall strength and impact of the argument.Concrete examples of violation of human rights by the government at this point in the essay would have c onsolidated the argument and made the claim of the writer more viable. Despite its shortcomings, Roy’s article highlights important issues like privatization and lack of intelligence sharing with the public which are pertinent to developing countries. Privatization of national institutions is a problem prevalent even in Pakistan and has been openly criticized.The recent privatization of KESC (Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation), Pakistan Telecommunications (PTCL) and Railways in the country has sparked extensive debate since the efficiency of these institutions has depreciated tremendously and the government has lost control over crucial state machineries. This can be exemplified by the long power breakdowns faced by Karachi at the hands of the privatized KESC which is not accountable for its inefficiency to anyone in the country.The fact that the economic capital of Pakistan can be held hostage by a private electricity company supports the argument laid down by Roy that privatization leads to the deterioration of a state. Along with privatization, lack of intelligence sharing over matters affecting the public is another common aspect between Pakistan and India mentioned in Roy’s article. The details of the attack on Mehran Base in May, 2011 and the abduction of Osama bin Laden from Abbottabad are sensitive issues about which the common man knows nothing beyond the immediate videos shown on television.These incidents had a huge impact on the image of Pakistan across the globe and affected the lives of its citizens but Pakistani’s were not given any explanation regarding the events by the government or the army. As Roy states, the common man was forced to believe that lack of information sharing is â€Å"a poisonous brew which is stirred and simmered and put to the most ugly, destructive, political purpose. †(1) Therefore, the two major issues of privatization and hiding information from the public highlighted in Roy’s ess ay not only exist in India but also have strong roots in other developing countries like Pakistan.The author mentions the adverse effects of growing influence of nationalist groups like â€Å"Sangh Parivar† (6) and the extremist teachings given in their schools called â€Å"shakhas† (6) in Northern India. The situation in Pakistan is surprisingly similar where the Taliban extremist group represents the ‘Sangh Parivar’ of India and their ‘madrassas’ provide a reflection of the ‘shakhas’ mentioned by Roy. The lack of proper governance in the northern areas of Pakistan has led to a growing influence of the Taliban in the region and an unmonitored expansion of their schools called ‘madrassas. These schools instill extremism into our young generation and serve to fulfill the â€Å"deadly purpose† (6) of spreading terrorism in our country. As Roy pointed out in her argument, the government’s failure in fulfilling its responsibilities has led Pakistan into a volatile situation where like India it is battling out extremist groups and nationalist movements generated from within the country. Roy talks about the oppression of the current government in India (which is similar to the policies of the Pakistani government) throughout the essay and cleverly compares it with the British rule to arouse emotion and patriotism in the reader.The writer’s analogy of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act with Lord Linthigow’s 1942 Ordinance has a strong impact on the argument while her reference to â€Å"Dandi March† (7) and â€Å"civil disobedience† (7) (a common term for protests during the British rule) generates nationalism in the emotional readers of the subcontinent. Like the Special Powers Act, Section 144, a law in the Pakistani constitution from the colonial era (Warraich, â€Å"In Pakistan, Zardari's Crackdown Betrays Weakness†) has been repeatedly used by the current government to repress protests such as the lawyers ‘long march’, a strategy used by the British during their rule.Similarly, recent attempts of the Pakistani government to disseminate peacefully protesting crowds by teargas and stone attack provide reflections of the tyranny faced by the people of the colonial era. The ingenious link established by Roy between the current oppression faced by the people of subcontinent and the British autocracy makes us realize that there is a dire need to bring about a change in the current system, launch another ‘Dandi March’ and indulge into yet another ‘civil disobedience’.Roy successfully evokes emotion with this analogy and makes the reader agree to her argument that the limit to repression has arrived, â€Å"Enough is Enough. Ya Basta! † (5) On the whole, Roy’s effective use of literary devices, rhetorical questions and an ingeniously structured argument captivates the reader’s intere st and despite its shortcomings in terms of reasoning, it eventually persuades the audience to give in to the view presented by the writer.Articles of this genre in the past have influenced Indian history and it is their growing popularity and recent impact on politics that has led to an immense support by the common people to revolutionary movements like the anti-corruption campaign by Anna Hazare. Therefore, Arundhati Roy’s â€Å"How Deep Shall We Dig? † not only serves as a critique on the current political system of India but has far reaching consequences in terms of awakening a nation from ignorance and directing it to a path of revolution.

Beauty is not so easily measured

It is a story about beauty and this man’s relationship to beauty, and the psychological relationship he has to the idea of beauty and what is behind the idea of beauty. Yasunari wrote â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† as a first-person account from the film writer’s standpoint.   The man is on location for a film he has written about patients in a mental hospital, and is in the process of discovering a final scene for his film.   He finds it one morning while â€Å"gazing out on the Kamo River,† (Yasunari, 1929/1990, p. 128) upon waking, finding himself amid the memories of a previous day and recalling a mask that he had seen in a display window.   It is that image that gives him the idea for his final scene of the movie, â€Å"a daydream† (p. 129) filled with masks of smiling faces. The search for the masks to be used in the film becomes the central drama of the story—and the protagonist’s relationship to those masks once he takes them to his wife and children after the filming of the movie is complete.   The masks are delicate and the actors must handle them carefully.   Yet, there is some power within those masks.   The film writer decides to buy them so they can be handled without fear of them being destroyed, and it is in the power of those masks that the protagonist realizes his own relationship with beauty. â€Å"Well then, I’ll buy them.   I did actually want them.   I daydreamed as if awaiting the future when the world would be in harmony and people would all wear the same gentle face as these masks.   (p. 131) His children love the masks, but he refuses to wear them.   His wife agrees to put one on, and it is in that moment that he discovers his true relationship to his wife’s beauty.   â€Å"The moment she removed the mask, my wife’s face somehow appeared ugly† (p. 131).   It is as though he is seeing her face for the first time—and his own idea of her beauty, or, in this case, the â€Å"ugliness of her own countenance† (p. 131).   As his wife lay in the hospital bed, he is faced not only with a new idea of beauty, but his own sense of self—one that might appear as â€Å"an ugly demon† (p. 132) to his wife.   He would be exposed to his real self, his true nature. Psychologist C. G. Jung writes that the mask can be seen as the outer persona we show to the world, the way we want to be seen (Jung, 1929/1983, p. 96).   â€Å"The mask is the ad hoc adopted attitude, I have called the persona, which was the name for the masks worn by actors in antiquity† (Jung, 1921/1983, p. 98).   The narrator is forced to confront not only what lies behind his wife’s beauty/ugliness, but also his idea of his own beauty/ugliness.   The â€Å"beautiful mask† (p. 132) reveals another question, too:   whether or not the face he sees on his wife could be artificial, too, â€Å"just like the mask† (p. 132).   It’s a perplexing question, but one that reveals, like the mask, much about the filmmaker’s relationship to himself and his world. While the idea of beauty colors Yasunari’s 1963 â€Å"palm-of-the-hand† story â€Å"Immortality,† the concept of eternal love is the central theme.   In this short story, two lovers have reunited after being apart for at least five decades—but their reunion comes in the afterlife, as they are now each dead.   Yasunari presents a portrait of an eighteen-year-old girl and a man sixty years her senior walking through some woods in a land they’d both known together while alive.   The scene is haunting as the girl is not aware the man has passed on into the afterlife until the end, when, upon that realization, the two â€Å"go into the tree and stay† (Yasunari, 1963/2005, p. 326). The love between the two has been eternal, in a sense—the girl killed herself because of her love for the man when they had to separate, and he wound up spending much of his life on the land overlooking that spot in the ocean where she died. The man has returned to the land where she died to reclaim her.   He wants to be with her forever.   However, he doesn’t know he is dead, and neither does she. Once she realizes he, too, is dead, they are able to reunite into eternity in nature, merging themselves into an old tree where they will live forever. Like â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile,† Yasunari uses the idea of beauty and the mask that we wear—Jung’s â€Å"persona†Ã¢â‚¬â€as an aspect of â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   The girl tells the old man, Shintaro, that she has lived in the afterlife with the image of him as a young man.   â€Å"You are eternally young to me,† (p. 325) she says, even though the man is now old. If I hadn’t drowned myself and you came to the village now to see me, I’d be an old woman. How disgusting.   I wouldn’t want you to see me like that.   (p. 325) For the girl, memories are important.   Her spirit carries them as she lives in the afterlife.   Scholar James Hillman says that memories are important for the soul, carrying with them energy that thrives for the departed person.   The girl realizes this, too, in a way:   â€Å"If you were to die, there wouldn’t be anyone on earth who would remember me,† she says (p. 325). The soul, they say, needs models for its mimesis in order to recollect eternal verities and primordial images.   If in its life on earth it does not meet these as mirrors of the soul’s core, mirrors in which the soul can recognize its truths, then its flame will die and its genius wither.   (p. 159) The girl imagines ugliness representing old age—that ancient mask we all wear once we have passed from the prime years of our life.   Even though the old man is wearing that mask, she doesn’t see it:   she has only her memories carried with her at the time of her death, so she sees him as an eighteen-year-old, also.   For the man, he never experienced his lover as an old woman; thus, her youth is indeed eternal for him. Yasunari uses few characters in both stories, keeping each â€Å"palm-of-the-hand† short and simple.   The narrator in â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† is joined by the mask buyer, his wife, and his children in the tale, while it is only Shintaro and his young lover in â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   We do not see deeply driven characterization in either story, as Yasunari essentially paints portraits of each actor through their thoughts and actions.   Like a beautiful painting of a sunset or sunrise, we must use our imagination amidst the texture and colors of the painting to grasp its deeper meaning. Indeed, Yasunari’s beautiful use of words shines in both stories in his colorful imagery.   It is simple:   â€Å"An old man and a young girl were walking together,† he writes to begin â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   He ends that story almost the same way he begins â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile†Ã¢â‚¬â€with the picture of the sky. The color at evening began to drift onto the small saplings behind the great trees.   The sky beyond turned a faint red where the ocean sounded.   (p. 326). â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile,† on the other hand, begins with the image of the sky as well.   â€Å"The sky had turned a deep shade; it looked like the surface of a beautiful celadon porcelain piece† (p. 128).   It is a daydream of sorts, a beautiful portrait into which Yasunari takes the reader as he moves through the inner world of the film writer. Both stories are magical.   It is the â€Å"magic of those trees† (p. 325) that captures the imagination of Shintaro and his young lover.   Those trees are part of land his family owned, and he later sold to the men who turned the land into a golfer’s driving range.   The trees are on land overseeing the ocean where the girl jumped to her death.   Trees are sacred and magical in many mythologies.   Buddha gained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, and many myths use trees as the focus for rebirth (Anderson, 1990, p. 25).   In the same regard, the ocean, too, is a mythical place:   from where gods and goddess reside and in the Greek legend Odysseus sailed before being reuniting with his lover (Anderson, p. 25). The magic of â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† comes in the healing properties of the masks.   It is through the image of the mask that the film writer is able to create an ending for his story—a â€Å"beautiful daydream† (p. 128) to conclude the â€Å"dark story† (p. 129).   The masks represent his own distrust of himself and the world around him, covering with an artificial beauty the truth that lies behind them.   The masks magically hide what is true and meant to be revealed—whether it is an â€Å"ugly demon† (p. 132) or an â€Å"ever-smiling gentle face† (p. 132). What is also interesting about â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† is in how the film writer’s screenplay is based on a scene inside a mental hospital.   We learn later that his wife is in a hospital of sorts—and we never learn the exact nature of her illness.   Could it be a mental hospital?   And might her hospitalization also be a reflection of his â€Å"gloomy† personality (p. 129)?   He’s afraid of what is hiding behind the masks—so much that his initial reaction to putting on the mask himself is fear.   â€Å"The mask is no good.   Art is no good† (p. 132).   Masks and art each reveal the hidden dimensions.   The film writer himself uses his films to balance his own â€Å"gloomy† personality.   Yet the shadows of life are revealed through film and art, and are experienced in hospitals.   Each is an aspect of â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile.† Yasunari gives much to think about regarding our relationship to each other and ourselves in â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile,† and to our relationship with the magic of eternal love in â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   Both reveal the hidden aspects of our existence on earth, offering us a short look at the feeling of living in a world of melancholy and loneliness amid what we call beauty.   Our own mortality rises from the depths of eternity through these stories, and it is in the hidden beauty of our daily lives that Yasunari’s works can be realized. Bibliography Anderson, William.   (1990).   Green man:   The archetype of our oneness with the earth. London:   HarperCollins. Hillman, James.   (1996).   The soul’s code.   New York:   Warner Books. Jung, C. G.   (1983). Definitions.   (R. F. C. Hull,Trans.). In   A. Storr (Ed.). The essential Jung:   Selected writings.   (V. S. de Laszlo, Ed.) (Pp. 97-105).   Princeton:   Princeton University Press.   (Original work published 1921). Jung, C. G.   (1983). The relations between the ego and the unconscious.   (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In   A. Storr (Ed.). The essential Jung:   Selected writings.   (V. S. de Laszlo, Ed.) (Pp. 94-97).   Princeton:   Princeton University Press.   (Original work published 1929). Ljukkonen, Petri.   (2005).   Yasunari Yasunari.   Retrieved November 19, 2005 from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/Yasunari.htm. Yasunari, Yasunari.   (1990).   The man who did not smile.   (L. Dunlop, Trans.).   In Palm-of-the-hand Stories.   (J. Martin Holman, Trans.).   (Pp. 128-132).   San Francisco:   North Point Press.   (Original work published 1929). Yasunari, Yasunari.   (2005).   Immortality.   In (G. Dasgupta, J. Mei, Ed).   Stories about us.   (Pp. 323-325).   Nashville:   Thomas Nelson Publishers.   (Original work published 1963). Beauty is not so easily measured It is a story about beauty and this man’s relationship to beauty, and the psychological relationship he has to the idea of beauty and what is behind the idea of beauty. Yasunari wrote â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† as a first-person account from the film writer’s standpoint.   The man is on location for a film he has written about patients in a mental hospital, and is in the process of discovering a final scene for his film.   He finds it one morning while â€Å"gazing out on the Kamo River,† (Yasunari, 1929/1990, p. 128) upon waking, finding himself amid the memories of a previous day and recalling a mask that he had seen in a display window.   It is that image that gives him the idea for his final scene of the movie, â€Å"a daydream† (p. 129) filled with masks of smiling faces. The search for the masks to be used in the film becomes the central drama of the story—and the protagonist’s relationship to those masks once he takes them to his wife and children after the filming of the movie is complete.   The masks are delicate and the actors must handle them carefully.   Yet, there is some power within those masks.   The film writer decides to buy them so they can be handled without fear of them being destroyed, and it is in the power of those masks that the protagonist realizes his own relationship with beauty. â€Å"Well then, I’ll buy them.   I did actually want them.   I daydreamed as if awaiting the future when the world would be in harmony and people would all wear the same gentle face as these masks.   (p. 131) His children love the masks, but he refuses to wear them.   His wife agrees to put one on, and it is in that moment that he discovers his true relationship to his wife’s beauty.   â€Å"The moment she removed the mask, my wife’s face somehow appeared ugly† (p. 131).   It is as though he is seeing her face for the first time—and his own idea of her beauty, or, in this case, the â€Å"ugliness of her own countenance† (p. 131).   As his wife lay in the hospital bed, he is faced not only with a new idea of beauty, but his own sense of self—one that might appear as â€Å"an ugly demon† (p. 132) to his wife.   He would be exposed to his real self, his true nature. Psychologist C. G. Jung writes that the mask can be seen as the outer persona we show to the world, the way we want to be seen (Jung, 1929/1983, p. 96).   â€Å"The mask is the ad hoc adopted attitude, I have called the persona, which was the name for the masks worn by actors in antiquity† (Jung, 1921/1983, p. 98).   The narrator is forced to confront not only what lies behind his wife’s beauty/ugliness, but also his idea of his own beauty/ugliness.   The â€Å"beautiful mask† (p. 132) reveals another question, too:   whether or not the face he sees on his wife could be artificial, too, â€Å"just like the mask† (p. 132).   It’s a perplexing question, but one that reveals, like the mask, much about the filmmaker’s relationship to himself and his world. While the idea of beauty colors Yasunari’s 1963 â€Å"palm-of-the-hand† story â€Å"Immortality,† the concept of eternal love is the central theme.   In this short story, two lovers have reunited after being apart for at least five decades—but their reunion comes in the afterlife, as they are now each dead.   Yasunari presents a portrait of an eighteen-year-old girl and a man sixty years her senior walking through some woods in a land they’d both known together while alive.   The scene is haunting as the girl is not aware the man has passed on into the afterlife until the end, when, upon that realization, the two â€Å"go into the tree and stay† (Yasunari, 1963/2005, p. 326). The love between the two has been eternal, in a sense—the girl killed herself because of her love for the man when they had to separate, and he wound up spending much of his life on the land overlooking that spot in the ocean where she died. The man has returned to the land where she died to reclaim her.   He wants to be with her forever.   However, he doesn’t know he is dead, and neither does she. Once she realizes he, too, is dead, they are able to reunite into eternity in nature, merging themselves into an old tree where they will live forever. Like â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile,† Yasunari uses the idea of beauty and the mask that we wear—Jung’s â€Å"persona†Ã¢â‚¬â€as an aspect of â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   The girl tells the old man, Shintaro, that she has lived in the afterlife with the image of him as a young man.   â€Å"You are eternally young to me,† (p. 325) she says, even though the man is now old. If I hadn’t drowned myself and you came to the village now to see me, I’d be an old woman. How disgusting.   I wouldn’t want you to see me like that.   (p. 325) For the girl, memories are important.   Her spirit carries them as she lives in the afterlife.   Scholar James Hillman says that memories are important for the soul, carrying with them energy that thrives for the departed person.   The girl realizes this, too, in a way:   â€Å"If you were to die, there wouldn’t be anyone on earth who would remember me,† she says (p. 325). The soul, they say, needs models for its mimesis in order to recollect eternal verities and primordial images.   If in its life on earth it does not meet these as mirrors of the soul’s core, mirrors in which the soul can recognize its truths, then its flame will die and its genius wither.   (p. 159) The girl imagines ugliness representing old age—that ancient mask we all wear once we have passed from the prime years of our life.   Even though the old man is wearing that mask, she doesn’t see it:   she has only her memories carried with her at the time of her death, so she sees him as an eighteen-year-old, also.   For the man, he never experienced his lover as an old woman; thus, her youth is indeed eternal for him. Yasunari uses few characters in both stories, keeping each â€Å"palm-of-the-hand† short and simple.   The narrator in â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† is joined by the mask buyer, his wife, and his children in the tale, while it is only Shintaro and his young lover in â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   We do not see deeply driven characterization in either story, as Yasunari essentially paints portraits of each actor through their thoughts and actions.   Like a beautiful painting of a sunset or sunrise, we must use our imagination amidst the texture and colors of the painting to grasp its deeper meaning. Indeed, Yasunari’s beautiful use of words shines in both stories in his colorful imagery.   It is simple:   â€Å"An old man and a young girl were walking together,† he writes to begin â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   He ends that story almost the same way he begins â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile†Ã¢â‚¬â€with the picture of the sky. The color at evening began to drift onto the small saplings behind the great trees.   The sky beyond turned a faint red where the ocean sounded.   (p. 326). â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile,† on the other hand, begins with the image of the sky as well.   â€Å"The sky had turned a deep shade; it looked like the surface of a beautiful celadon porcelain piece† (p. 128).   It is a daydream of sorts, a beautiful portrait into which Yasunari takes the reader as he moves through the inner world of the film writer. Both stories are magical.   It is the â€Å"magic of those trees† (p. 325) that captures the imagination of Shintaro and his young lover.   Those trees are part of land his family owned, and he later sold to the men who turned the land into a golfer’s driving range.   The trees are on land overseeing the ocean where the girl jumped to her death.   Trees are sacred and magical in many mythologies.   Buddha gained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, and many myths use trees as the focus for rebirth (Anderson, 1990, p. 25).   In the same regard, the ocean, too, is a mythical place:   from where gods and goddess reside and in the Greek legend Odysseus sailed before being reuniting with his lover (Anderson, p. 25). The magic of â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† comes in the healing properties of the masks.   It is through the image of the mask that the film writer is able to create an ending for his story—a â€Å"beautiful daydream† (p. 128) to conclude the â€Å"dark story† (p. 129).   The masks represent his own distrust of himself and the world around him, covering with an artificial beauty the truth that lies behind them.   The masks magically hide what is true and meant to be revealed—whether it is an â€Å"ugly demon† (p. 132) or an â€Å"ever-smiling gentle face† (p. 132). What is also interesting about â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile† is in how the film writer’s screenplay is based on a scene inside a mental hospital.   We learn later that his wife is in a hospital of sorts—and we never learn the exact nature of her illness.   Could it be a mental hospital?   And might her hospitalization also be a reflection of his â€Å"gloomy† personality (p. 129)?   He’s afraid of what is hiding behind the masks—so much that his initial reaction to putting on the mask himself is fear.   â€Å"The mask is no good.   Art is no good† (p. 132).   Masks and art each reveal the hidden dimensions.   The film writer himself uses his films to balance his own â€Å"gloomy† personality.   Yet the shadows of life are revealed through film and art, and are experienced in hospitals.   Each is an aspect of â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile.† Yasunari gives much to think about regarding our relationship to each other and ourselves in â€Å"The Man Who Did Not Smile,† and to our relationship with the magic of eternal love in â€Å"Immortality.†Ã‚   Both reveal the hidden aspects of our existence on earth, offering us a short look at the feeling of living in a world of melancholy and loneliness amid what we call beauty.   Our own mortality rises from the depths of eternity through these stories, and it is in the hidden beauty of our daily lives that Yasunari’s works can be realized. Bibliography Anderson, William.   (1990).   Green man:   The archetype of our oneness with the earth. London:   HarperCollins. Hillman, James.   (1996).   The soul’s code.   New York:   Warner Books. Jung, C. G.   (1983). Definitions.   (R. F. C. Hull,Trans.). In   A. Storr (Ed.). The essential Jung:   Selected writings.   (V. S. de Laszlo, Ed.) (Pp. 97-105).   Princeton:   Princeton University Press.   (Original work published 1921). Jung, C. G.   (1983). The relations between the ego and the unconscious.   (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In   A. Storr (Ed.). The essential Jung:   Selected writings.   (V. S. de Laszlo, Ed.) (Pp. 94-97).   Princeton:   Princeton University Press.   (Original work published 1929). Ljukkonen, Petri.   (2005).   Yasunari Yasunari.   Retrieved November 19, 2005 from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/Yasunari.htm. Yasunari, Yasunari.   (1990).   The man who did not smile.   (L. Dunlop, Trans.).   In Palm-of-the-hand Stories.   (J. Martin Holman, Trans.).   (Pp. 128-132).   San Francisco:   North Point Press.   (Original work published 1929). Yasunari, Yasunari.   (2005).   Immortality.   In (G. Dasgupta, J. Mei, Ed).   Stories about us.   (Pp. 323-325).   Nashville:   Thomas Nelson Publishers.   (Original work published 1963).

PUBLIC ADMIN police foundations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

PUBLIC ADMIN police foundations - Essay Example The very fact that Canada is one of the most competitive societies compared to that of the dominating countries, along time the US has proved its ability to spread its dominion in almost any form of government. No matter how hard Canada shall deny the fact that they will outlive the power of America, they will not be able to do so, without learning the American verity. Further, the US is globally recognized to be the biggest fish in the ocean of commerce that those who intend to fish for a greater catch will need to go along with the flow of the ocean. Hence, it is evident that Canada is thriving hard to sustain its social ego to combat in the realm of trade and commerce against America. Statistical repots have shown that there exist an immense issue with regard to the status of the US-Europe, being the next big star in the limelight-and that Canada is looking for means to beat the mark which has long boggled their economical egos. However, Canadians become unaware that the more they try to fit in the world of lights and glory, they are already becoming Americans in that certain field. The maple is blooming with fine fruits but its roots are being blown by the hurricanes of Americanization-little do we know, the trunk could no longer hold its origin and the bigger tree will overrate Canada's empire. Which level of law enforcement is most effective Unexpected circumstances come in the most unanticipated manner in any form of state. Due to the immense rise of globalization, competition and the never-ending debate on worldwide dominion, terrorism has prudently become the top rated problems in any country. However, in the age of the 21st Century, several critics and environmentalists struck the humankind with the shocking discovery on the condition of the earth's ozone layer. Global warming, the most controversial environmental dilemma has now been marked as a truth in the society's lists of dreadfulchaos. With this, the Canadians-like all the other members of the United Nations are building a campaign in saving the environment for the sake of the future's generation. As a matter of fact, the pressure has been given to every resident in the country wherein the levelof enforcing the laws, which adheres to the campaign, has brought several individuals to a sudden dismay. Not only that, long term plans for development in infrastructures and other sort of governmental plans also shifted in an enormous diversion of financial allocations. It may then be argued that the enforcement on environmental awareness has moved even the large companies in the area of jurisdiction and the famous political icons (Parson). In a logical point of the argument, it shows that the law has been treated in flying colors-a very rare scenario in the context of liberalism. Moreover, the fact that the policies in environmental control have already started a milestone with explicit results in success, collaboration is considerably at its peak. Health along with resources is undeniably the most well

House for Rent Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

House for Rent - Research Paper Example The aim will be to identify models that will work on the differences and create room where a smooth negotiation will take palace. The final decision making process remains an integral part in any negotiation. Identifying nagging issues between the two parties and working towards a mutual agreement. An agreement is essential in any negotiation. Alfredson and Cungu’ (2008) identify goals as essential in any negotiation as they play part in agenda setting. Agenda setting remains the major objective while negotiating. In our case, the goals will be set based on the lease agreement. Information from a third party indicates that the prospective client has the same agenda. This means he is willing to lease the house for two years which is the anticipated expiry period. The client’s goals will be to minimize the overall cost of the house. His aim will base on ensuring the cost matches his valuation. The leaser in this case will be aiming at ensuring the terms match his valuation and that he maximizes on the benefits that accompany leasing of the property. The cost should be enough to ensure he affords a new property in his new location. The initial stage would be to ensure common elements are utilized while initiating any negotiation. The common elements between the two parties initiate a process which will be aimed at working on differences and concern in an effort to reach an agreeable solution. The motivating factor will be the two agree on the time period in which the lease should last. This hence triggers a meeting that will design a model that would be agreeable to both parties. The two parties depend on each other in that each has different objectives from the property. The interdependent nature of the two parties is what triggers a negotiation (Moore, 2005). The two parties should acknowledge that without the other party any process will not be achieved. This will motivate the two parties

Masks Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Masks - Term Paper Example I imagined meeting new friends and acquiring all the freedom in the world. I believe this is what many people still imagine before joining high school. Ask anybody if you ever get the chance and you will most probably prove me right. The long awaited day soon came and I was accompanied to my new school by my father. I always believed that I was his favorite child because I more often than not accompanied him to all places, and unlike my sisters and my other brother, he accompanied me to my new school singly. He must have been the tallest man in the Yorkshire area because I never saw anyone greet him without having to bend low, nor did I ever see him enter any house without bending his head, however slightly. The principal of my new school was a short bald-headed man. He looked so mean and I hated him at once. He was seated at the middle of a large room, a laptop on the table in front of him, and several forms on his right hand side. He had a large belly that touched the hedge of the table. After a thirty-minute talk and other formalities, I was officially admitted to the school and my father left. I felt my body shrivel and a fear ran down my spine. I controlled tears from running down my face. A week later, I was accustomed to the life of the place. Though it was not as I expected, I learned to love it altogether. Little did I know that I was to be chosen as the school’s spy. Whatever, criteria was used to have me chosen has been beyond my knowledge to date. As a spy, I would be an obvious target and would be baited if the other students came to learn of it. I, therefore, tried all I could to ensure that no one, even my closest friends, came to learn of it. However, to my disappointment, some students knew about it and spread the news to the rest of the students. This was so upsetting and perplexing. I would have wished to quit, but there were several privileges that I enjoyed that held me firmly to the task. Secretly, and theoretically of course, I wou ld inform the head teacher of any evil plans within the school, or even of any crimes already committed or due. I hated, and shall forever hate the role I played more than any words can explain. I was hated by almost all students within the school. Most students sneered at me whenever I passed and made mocking sounds towards me. I was stuck in the midst of the office I served, and my anger against the students who tried to make my role impossible. As much as I was hated by most students, I still had faithful and close friends I would rely on. However, it was difficult for me to trust them wholly because they could well have evil plans. Nevertheless, I tried the much I could to save them whenever there was trouble. This, I felt compelled to do to secure a place in their friendship. I knew it was not right, but I had to do it anyway. One day, something I least expected happened. It was an incident that gave me a better understanding of the real scenery of hatred. It was late at night when all students were expected to be in their beds. I had come to learn that most of the evil plans within the school were planned and carried out at this time of the night. There had been peace and everything had been smooth for the past few weeks. I therefore, did not expect any trouble that night or the rest of the week. I therefore, retired to my bed. Before I could fall asleep, my cell phone (one of the privileges I enjoyed) rang. â€Å"

Private and Public Schools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Private and Public Schools - Essay Example Private and Public Schools: The differences and Ultimate Goal According to general definition, a public school is funded, maintained, and conducted by a private group other than government while public schools are maintained at public expenses or in other word from the tax money. The opponents vow that private schools detract students from their main objectives - education, and create social segregation for the future society. The proponents of private schools also refer to various benefits: (1) students build strong, personal relationship with their lecturers and instructors, as there is a special program planned to increase interaction and dialogue between the two, (2) both private high schools and private colleges have small class sizes, (3) private colleges have a significant amount of extra-curricular programs and activities that develop a strong sense about the community. The proponent of public schools explains that there are more competitions in public schools, and these schools are more innovative. The children of these schools know th at they will have to face competitions in lives; family background will not help in achieving success in their future lives. The proponents also point to the following benefits: (1) Students have more variety in selecting geographical areas of the nation, (2) Fees are cheaper than that of private schools, (3) Public colleges are much bigger and more equipped than the average private university, and students will be more comfortable with high student population.

Case Study Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Case Study Analysis - Essay Example Babcock conducted wide level strategic changes specifically in areas of process re-engineering, management restructuring as well as people’s management. Efforts were successful and within first year of performance Babcock managed to generate efficiencies in excess to targets across the board without compromising any security risks and services. Babcock over years developed successful relationship with all stakeholders resulting Faslane to become home base for the entire UK submarine fleet. The case assessment herein provides the review of the strategic measures exercised by Babcock for the purpose in relevance to academic management literature. CASE STUDY ANALYSIS The strategic changes undertaken by Babcock from 2002 to 2010 changed the strategic model of Faslane. Broadly, the change has been taken in the areas of process re-engineering, people’s management with flattening management structure etc. The section provides the assessment of the referred changed from three a spect as discussed as follows: Describe the Strategic Change Context In 2002 The change undertaken at Babcock has can be defined as the transformational change among options set out below: (Balogun, J. (2001) Transformational change requires changing in believes and the culture in all (Johnson, Whittington, & Scholes, 2011). As noted in the description people at Faslane were more towards Inwards River fencing than actually intending to serve the Navy. John Howie the managing director of Babcock then also declared that efficiencies in the project are to be explored by changing the mindset of the people serving at Faslane to delivering services with minimum possible cost. Babcock adopted the strategic path for change with intense consideration adhered to factors that are sensitive to firm. These considerations were given to underlying situation of the firm within outer, middle and internal context as follows: (Balogun, J. (2001) Changes undertaken were strictly aligned to maintain wit h the organisational context as focus. Therefore, focus was made changing attitudes and processes than organisation. Low level changes were timed on first place with managerial transformation in later phase. Scope was maintained to change the attitudes towards jobs than changing jobs or people. Such as processes were engineered to ensure value addition to the processes ensuring critical steps preserved while eliminating wastes and redundancies. Almost entire staff was moved towards change with exploring change and efficiency possibilities and capabilities across the board. Small level readiness of employees for changed were enhanced with consistent communication and increased sharing of power. Restructuring, top-down path and participative approach, management leveraging support to understand the value addition paradigm of serving with least possible expense, leadership and involvement of change action team formed the defining characteristics of the strategic change design implement ed by Babcock at Faslane. For such change implementation Babcock undertook measures that consistently increased the strength of factors that appreciated and supported change (Milicevic & Ilic, 2010). In line with Lewin’s Force field analysis (Thompson & Martin, 2010), John undertook measures that also weakened the forces resisting change. Change drivers originally strengthened from the Babcok gaining contract for the job. Further, consistent contact with stakeholder ensuring the enhanced quality of service while reducing bureaucratic pressures from employees also

Financial analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Financial analysis - Case Study Example However, the fall in sales is attributed to operation expenses such as administration, general and sales expenditures. The scale of operations needed to execute the services and product manufacturing of the new venture is larger than when the company had not acquired Exterran Holdings (Haunschild, 570). The Gross Profit in 2013 was $963,006. However, the forecasts in 2014 indicate that there is a fall in gross profit. Despite the fact that this value is lower than 2013 reports, the figure gradually increases in 2015 and 2016 financial years. By 2016, the gross profit, after the acquisition of the new business, will be $195,865; a reflection of 19.6% increase from 2014. Forecasts in the growth of gross profit in 2015 record an increase by 9.4% from the values reported in 2014. From the percentage growth in gross profits, it is evident that in every financial year, the business’s gross profits, after acquiring Exterran Holdings Inc., doubles. Total operating expenses before the company acquired the new business decreased from 2010 ($888,015), 2012 ($864,909), and 2013($714,315). The decrease in the values of total operating expenses means that the company had acclimatized to the business conditions after establishing its niche in the new market. Consequently, the significant rise in operating expenses from the forecasts in 2014 ($121,434), through 2015 ($132,825) to 2016 ($145,284) indicate the business has not adapted to the new market conditions and challenges because of its wide operational needs. Acquiring the new business will also realize a significant growth in earnings before taxes and interests. The year 2011 and 2011 reported losses of $193,818 and $80,133 respectively. Because the business had just began, the challenges in the market and operating environments contributed to the loses in earnings. The forecasts in 2014 financial year records a fall in earnings before taxes and

American history Essay Example for Free

American history Essay In the course of American history, the American people have been confronted with different threats to its politics, economy and way of life. At present, the continuing threat of international terrorism and the unceasing wave of Anti-Americanism are constantly putting the lives of simple Americans towards fear and uncertainty, notwithstanding all the different social issues they face each passing day, such as gay marriage, abortion, and stem-cell research, among many others. These threats had their own counterparts in previous years, and it is worthy to note that different side of the American political fence all had their own positions on various matters of serious concern then, and seemingly, those old issues remain as hotly debated up until this moment. The paper will examine the actual threats and pre-conceived threats by Americans through the different decades such as racism, immigration, government regulation, evolutionism, and many other issues and social questions that have made the United States the brimming democracy of ideas it continues to be until today. Evolution and the Origin of Man and the Earth In the twenties, a most important concern has been the continuing discourse on evolution vis-a-vis fundamental Christian preaching on the ancestry of human beings. In Reverend Dixon’s Sermon on the Evils of Darwinism and Evolution, he is clearly mistaken for lumping the theory of evolution per se, with the racist theory of social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer. He is clearly mistaken in doing so, because never had the theory of evolution posited that evolution is merely a matter of survival of the fittest, thus, the weak may necessarily be oppressed, thus, may be destroyed in the conduct of human evolution. (165) Such a position is clearly misinformed, because what the theory of evolution merely suggests is that humans, as per the evidence culled in the development and evolution of other species, may have descended, not from the biblical Adam, as many fundamental Christians believe, but from apes and monkeys. The trouble with Reverend Dixon, and all other purveyors of the biblical interpretation on the origin of man is that their answers to the scientific question on evolution was never based on a scientific reply itself, but merely on a reassertion of Bible verses that never could man have descended from apes, precisely because he descended from God himself. Then and now, the reason why creationism remains absolutely discredited among scientific circles is the basic fact that no scientific reply has ever been posited to the Darwinian challenge on the origin of man. The evolutionary scientists are no less Christian by continuously asserting their Darwinian position. Defense Attorney Darrow’s interrogation of Prosecutor Bryan during the Monkey Trial is helpful in better understanding the fundamentalist Christian views of the day, which permeates much in the evolution debate of today. Darrow’s line of questioning clearly seeks to debunk the literal biblical interpretation of fundamentalist Christians, which in this case might be Prosecutor Bryan. While Bryan asserts that the creation of the world occurred six-thousand years ago, Darrow insists that the Chinese civilization had been in existence thousands of years more than that, and rightly so, but Bryan remains unfazed with such statements, firmly believing, in mocking fashion, that the truth is on his side. (167) In the discourse of the origin of man, and the creation of the world, fundamental Christians have remained unfazed, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, especially on the age of the earth, that the truth as stated in the Bible is the only truth that needs to be believed by any God-fearing person. Such a position is dangerous, because it creates a faith that is blind and dogmatic, and obscures believers from the well-intentioned truth provided by science in determining previously unknown facts about humans and the natural world in which they exist. Unfortunately, this position remains the subject of intense debate until today, with creationism advocates appealing School Boards and lobbying Capitol Hill to cut funding for the instruction of evolution, and/or to provide equal educational exposure to creationism and its corollary theory, Intelligent Design. White Supremacy and Racism Another threat during the twenties was the rise of white supremacy in the face of a nascent anti-racism and black civil rights movement as represented in the literary works of Langston Hughes and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Klan treatise on Americanism is nothing but empty rhetoric on the need to assert white supremacy in all corners of America, through patriotism, Protestantism and the glorification of the white race. (171) The trouble with their position on Americanism is that much of their assertions are based on their normative conception of the world and its history, without due regard to other history narratives on the founding of America, the role of Protestantism in exposing the excesses of Roman Catholicism, and the absolute poverty of a discourse based on the mere historic successes and failures of races. It is clear, however, the Klan remains stuck on their unrepentant Southern position on the continuing subjugation and slavery of African-Americans to be treated like chattel, and the relegation of other colored races as mere secondary citizens to American whites, precisely because the conflicts and contradictions that occur in this world is race-based, instead of class-based. It is a successful racist position though, because rich whites American obfuscate the apparent class contradictions between peasants and landowners, regardless of race, in order to completely gain the trust of poor white Americans against the hapless African-American who remains to exist as chattel in the racist eyes of the white supremacist. On the other hand, the Klan’s position on Protestantism is without any causal connection to their white supremacist cause, except for the assertion that without Protestantism, there would have been no America. (171) Sadly, it is based on this simplistic formulation on Protestantism vis-a-vis Americanism that the Klan discriminates against whites who do not share their same belief system, in much the same manner that, precisely because other races are non-white, they deserve to be discriminated, ipso facto. Nonetheless, such simplistic and flawed logic is also the reason by which the Klan has only remained and self-degenerated in the poorer, uneducated sections of the American South, and never really expanded into the large coastal cities where racial prejudice is much less because of continuous racial intermingling and higher levels of educational attainment. It must be stated, however, that despite the apparent rise of white supremacy in the American South, the seeds of the black civil rights movement of the fifties and the sixties had been planted as early as the twenties, through the prose and poetry of Langston Hughes. In his poetry, One-Way Ticket, it laments about the situation in the American South, and the persona would rather be in the cosmopolitan cities where African-American are better respected and given their fair share of human dignity, in comparison to the lynching and ridicule of the South. (173) It is a good thing, nonetheless, that the struggle between white supremacy and black civil rights had been quite successful for the latter, not only from Brown v. Board of Education and desegregation, but until today, with the election of Barack Obama, African-American, and 44th President of the United States of America.

Differentiation Of The Self

Differentiation Of The Self Murray Bowen laid a foundation for family systems theory and established an effective way of carrying out family therapy. Among his concepts is that of differentiation of the self, which will be explored in this paper. The paper begins with my own connection with the idea. Next, I explore the theory, describing key players in its development, those related to differentiation, and how it can be used to treat family therapy issues. Keywords: Bowen, differentiation of self, family therapy I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. (Lennon and McCartney, 1967.) In the above lyrics from the song I am The Walrus, the singer sees himself and others as just another version of each other. Any differentiation between self and other is erased. The ability to self-differentiate, however, is critical for personal development, especially with respect to family members. Consequently, the differentiation of the self is not merely a theoretical idea but also a life task for all individuals, including family therapists. As I listen to this Beatles song, I reflect upon how I both might find my place in the world and how I might relate to my family of origin. I find Bowens theory of differentiation of the self compelling because it offers me a means of reviewing past family relationships and dealing with present dynamics in a positive manner, rather than simply cutting off family members entirely and disowning them. Personal Connection To The Theme My interest in Murray Bowens idea of differentiation of the self arose as I reread family therapy literature. Bowens theories spurred me to reevaluate my life, most recently my marriage of June 2010 and my first move outside my parents home in September of the same year. I had moved into this house with my family in August 9, 1974, the day that Richard Nixon resigned from office. This move from our previous home took place to live in a better school district as well as help care for my elderly maternal grandparents. Those grandparents died in 1975. On February 13, 1976, just three days after my ninth birthday and when my brother was not yet eight, my father died of a heart attack. The changes to our family dynamics were profound. At a very young age, I was forced into a position in which I had adult responsibilities as the man of the house, and as my mothers confidante, which included not only hearing adult topics, but being triangulated when my brother acted out. Other new alignments included us brothers acting against our mother and my brother and mother aligning against me. These dynamics have continued and remain the dominant modes of interactions between us three. At times, over the last nineteen years, our emotional interactions became particularly intense, including my departure to attend college, my brothers moving in and out of the house several times, and my mothers repeated illnesses. From 1991 to 2010 I served as my mothers caregiver, with extensive duties including her transportation, errands, house-cleaning, unofficial psychotherapy, and some medical care. During this period, I sacrificed career advancement and earning potential by refusing to consider jobs that would lessen my availability to her if needed. At the same time, I also pursued avenues such as computer training to keep me busy and out of the house. It was very difficult to resolve these competing goals. The dynamics began to change when I met my wife in April, 2009. We bonded over a period of six months, became engaged, and were wed on June 27, 2010. My mother was opposed to our relationship from the start, insisting that a relationship would get in the way of my schoolwork. My brother also was hostile to my wife, saying snide things. Clearly, both preferred the status quo of my enslavement. After the wedding, my wife moved into the house and helped me take care of my mother for two months. This situation soon became intolerable for all three of us. We moved out on September 1, 2010, angering my brother because he had not been consulted about our mothers care arrangements. Since then, I have provided my mother with community resources for her various needs, leaving it up to her to decide if she wishes to use them, as I do not have the time to take care of her any more. Meanwhile, I am currently addressing my self-differentiation process in both individual and couples therapy. As I reflect again upon the Beatles song, I apply it to my own situation, seeing how critical it is to differentiate on the one hand from the he (referring to a deceased father) and the he (referring to a brother), not to mention a she (referring to a mother). I know firsthand how it is a major challenge to become oneself yet at the same time retaining healthy and loving ties with ones family of origin. It is with this difficult enterprise in mind that Murray Bowen developed his highly influential theory. This paper will discuss this theory and its relation to differentiation of the self, beginning with a history of the theory, its key-players and successors. Early History and Successors According to Nichols and Schwartz (2009), Murray Bowen was a psychiatrist at the Menninger Clinic in the late 1940s. He was interested in the relationship between schizophrenics and their mothers, which he understood not as a symbiosis of two equal partners, but as an amplified version of a tendency to emotionally react in relationships. Then, while working at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which he became a part of in 1954, he initiated the hospitalization of entire families with a schizophrenic member. Among his significant findings was the realization that the entire family was involved in the bond between the mother and the disturbed child. From these observations he formulated the idea of anxious attachment, a phenomenon in which closeness in troubled families is driven by anxiety to the point that family, members were stuck together or fused to the point that they lacked personal autonomy. When the NIMH project ended in 1959, Bowen moved to Georgetown Universit y, where he worked for 31 years. In 1990, he died after a long illness, but not before imparting his wisdom to several students and successors. Nichols and Schwartz (2009) note that Bowens students Philip Guerin and Thomas Fogarty formed the Center For Family Learning in New Rochelle, New York in 1973. Guerin was interested in measuring the severity of the conflict and then singling out specific issues to work on. This therapy model had several components. Guerin stressed the multigenerational context of families, carefully defined familial relationship patterns, and paid close attention to addressing the intense emotions of the family member. Bowen also passed the mantle to Betty Carter and Monica McGoldrick, who are best known for elucidating the family life cycle and promoting feminist perspectives within the field. Perhaps Michael Kerr is Bowens most faithful student and colleague. He has been the director of the Georgetown Family Center since 1977. He wrote the book Family Evaluation with Bowen in 1988. Theoretical Constructs Bowens theory is multifaceted. According to Winek (2010), his first main idea is that of chronic anxiety, which holds them together. Bowen found that although chronic anxiety is found across the animal kingdom and it is less a cognitive response than an automatic one. When the anxiety experienced by individuals is low, those persons have a greater capacity to contemplate either a specific situation or their overall existence. When the level of anxiety increases, the ability to think about a situation calmly declines and affected individuals become far more emotionally reactive. Over time, an emotionally reactive person becomes conflicted, distant or emotionally cutoff. These cutoffs will be discussed later. As noted by Winek (2010), the contrasting ideas of differentiation and emotional fusion are important to Bowen in the attempt to relieve a patient of that anxiety. Differentiation refers to how a person functions in response to his or her level of anxiety. This is an individual reaction in that differentiated persons can deal with their anxiety on their own and allow emotional issues to be addressed without being fused with others emotions. Bowen worked with Michael Kerr to develop a differentiation scale, and stressed that the more differentiated a person was, the less likely they would be ill or irrational because of stress. In contrast, emotional fusion is in many ways an unhealthy extension of a natural process. When infants are born, they are emotionally fused with their primary caregiver, usually the mother. They have the developmental task of developing their own personality, and should be able to grow into adolescence and adulthood, move out and start their own family. If a f amily is said to be fused, family members share common emotional responses. If a single family member experience anxiety, the entire family does so as well. If one member attempts to become more autonomous, the other members collectively experience these actions as abandonment. Emotionally fused persons are disempowered in several ways. They can cope with anxiety-producing situations either emotionally or intellectually, but not both at the same time. They also have an all or nothing approach in dealing with relationships, to the point that when these relationships become too intense, they tend to cut off emotionally and physically. These acts of cutting off do not ultimately reduce anxiety, but instead increases it (Winek, 2010). Other ideas important to Bowen include the pseudo-self, which he developed with Michael Kerr. When people sense they lack positive attributes such as strength and wisdom, within themselves, they attempt to put on a false front that exhibit those traits to seek validation from others, the false self they present is the pseudo-self. Another important idea Bowen presented is that of borrowed functioning, which refers to an individual who ostensibly functions at a higher level than his or her partner. For example, in a couple in which there is a health problem, the ill partner may be functioning at a lower level in part because the other partner is invested in perpetuating a dynamic in which he or she is a caretaker. Both pseudo-self and borrowed functioning operate at an unconscious level (Winek, 2010). Winek (2010) states that the remaining constructs developed by Bowen further help to elucidate differentiation of self. Other theorists refer to a family system but Bowen calls it the emotional system. Bowen refers to a naturally occurring multigenerational transmission process, in which current generations are connected to past generations. Thus, current symptoms in a given family emotional system may derive from an earlier generation. These longstanding symptoms may persist until individual family members are able to differentiate further. One can think of differentiation, fusion and the pseudo-self all as attempts to relieve anxiety in an emotional system. According to Winek (2010), this is particularly apparent in Bowens idea of the emotional triangle. When two family members experience anxiety, they achieve balance by incorporating a third member into their relationship, thus creating the triangle. Triangles occur in what Bowen called nuclear family emotional system. Viewed in this way, any constant anxiety within a family unit over time would show up as a dysfunction within the whole family. An example of a triangle is when parents experience marital difficulties, but rather then address the problems together, they focus their attention together upon one or more children. Bowen also was able to conclude that birth order will affect a childs relationships including involvement in triangles by drawing upon Walter Tomans work concerning ten distinct personality subtypes of siblings based on birth order. Lastly, Bowen extended his work with the family to apply to society as a whole, which he believed also operates like a family, with its own multigenerational transmission, chronic anxiety, and struggles of differentiation. Within both a family and society, there are ebbs and flows in anxiety, with social problems occurring when high anxiety is present. Bowen even applied his idea of societal regression to the family therapy profession, and was concerned that it might have rapid growth, but also fade quickly like a fad. He was afraid that it might quickly ebb and flow (Winek, 2010). Fortunately for mental health professionals and society, family therapy has not faded. More Perspective On Differentiation Becvar and Becvar (2009) provide further detail regarding differentiation, noting that Bowen was concerned with two kinds of differentiation, both the external differentiation of the self from others and also the internal differentiation of feeling processes from intellectual processes. People who are undifferentiated from others are likely to marry or make permanent commitments to each other. Instead, a couple composed of two undifferentiated persons will experience one or more of the following: emotional distance between themselves, dysfunction in at least one of the spouses, open conflict, or projection of problems onto children. Children indeed are significantly affected in such a family. Bowens believed that because a child resonates the mothers instability, the mother, thinking the child is the one with the problem, becomes overprotective, thus further impairing the child. According to Bowen, simply because individuals live physically apart from their family of origin, it does not mean that they are differentiated. As noted above, even a complete emotional cut off is not a successful form of differentiation. Until emotional attachments and cutoffs are successfully negotiated, fusion will increase and the multigenerational transmission will persist. Amidst these attachment issues, a highly differentiated person will recover from stress because they have more coping mechanisms in contrast to a person who is less differentiated. Finally, Becvar and Becvar stress that though Bowen valued a high degree of differentiation, he nevertheless acknowledged that it was a theoretical ideal in which each person could be self-reliant, and not make others responsible for their emotions (Becvar and Becvar, 2009). Assessment and Treatment Issues Walsh and McGraw (2002) discuss the practical applications of Bowens theory for the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of family issues. Therapists following Bowens theory do not pathologize a single family member, but instead address the problem in the context of the family system. The first sessions consist of taking a history of the presenting problem, the nuclear family as a whole, as well as a history of both spouses extended family systems. Thus might include the initial documentation of births, divorces, and deaths on a genogram. Particular attention would be given to any triangles and emotional cutoffs that affect the nuclear family. The most important issue for Bowenians in the practical applications of his theory is to foster differentiation of the self. The reason is that if individuals increase differentiation, they can better cope with anxiety intellectually and will hopefully lessen their emotional reactivity as they improve their intellectual functioning. A related go al with family therapy is to take care of unfinished business in the family of origin. Bowenian therapists will seek to reduce anxiety and lessen symptoms. While symptom and anxiety reduction can occur between a few sessions or months of treatment, improving differentiation can take years. Along with assessment, Walsh and McGraw (2002) delineate six steps in treatment. First, the presenting problem is explored, Second the therapist works with the family to develop their genogram. Third, systemic questions are used to understand family relationships. Fourth, the focus is broadened to larger family systems. Fifth, feedback is provided to families. Finally, techniques are used to promote change. In contrast to other family therapy models, Bowenian family therapy does not employ many techniques. Those that are used are designed to decrease anxiety and emotional reactivity in the family. The use of genograms remains the most important component in this model, because genograms both organize family information and capture family dynamics. Also central to success in family therapy are other techniques. This includes the therapists commitment to a stance of emotional neutrality, thus ensuring that he or she does not being triangulated into the system. To this end, Bowenian therapists employ factual questioning to focus with the family upon their dynamics as opposed to the tense emotionality and reactivity. They make use of didactic teaching by directly teaching family members about emotional systems so that family members can think more objectively. Other helpful techniques a therapist can suggest for family members include role-playing, talking to an empty chair to represent absent members, journaling, and writing letters to each other about family situations and their feelings about them. In multiple family therapy, families work as a group, with Bowen addressing one family at a time while the other families observed (Walsh and McGraw, 2002). Discussion In preparing for this paper, I learned how much of Bowens theory made sense for my own life. My development as an adult including my familys response to my recent marriage have provided unique educational models. I have learned how to enforce boundaries with my mother and brother, while my wife does the same with her family. I started preparing this paper shortly after we started couples work to deal with our families of origin. While I have not finished my differentiation work, I see myself in the midst of the process with my wife. We want to have healthy emotional lives, and are concerned about passing on dynamics to our children. I have also realized that there are common treatment issues in all families. For example, many families like my own face anxiety in how members relate. There are degrees of fusion and separation in families. Mine has been obviously fused, probably for some generations back. I also realized that physically cutting myself off from my family or my wife doing so would not help anyone. I choose to acknowledge my own family experience with those clients I meet, and will seek to remain objective. My own preference for using Bowens model is to be more engaged than observational. I am particularly interested in using the aforementioned techniques of genograms, role-playing, letter-writing and the empty chair. As a future counselor, I also know that differentiation does not mean isolation and abandonment of ones family, and I will take that knowledge into my practice. In returning to the song lyrics, I hope that I can apply Bowens theories to my life and my work. My goal is to separate being me from he or you or she. Then, I can truly say that we are altogether as individuals, not in a fused mass.

Chatting, Online Communities, and Cyber-Rape :: Personal Response Chat Message Essays

Chatting, Online Communities, and Cyber-Rape What is an online community? An online community is a computer location where people can go to access information or to get an answer to a question that they might have. Examples of online communities are chat rooms and discussion boards. Chatting, posting, and responding to different things on the internet are some of my favorite activities. With just a click of a button, I am able to access any topic, from the weather forecast to the score of yesterday’s football game. Online communities are fun and interesting. However, some people find them addictive and harmful. My membership in an online community showed me the necessity for self-discipline so that I could enjoy the benefits of this experience without risking psychological damage. On Thursday, October 3, 2002, through Monday October 7, 2002, I performed a 5-day project that enabled me to search for an online community, become a member, observe what was going on, and respond to the community. I searched everywhere looking for a community that satisfied my interests, but I could not find one. I finally logged on to http://www.mtv.com/community/message_boards/ . This is a website that gives people all kinds of information, whether it is about news or music issues. While surfing this site, I found out that it had discussion boards and chat rooms. I logged on as a guest, and then I looked around the site to see if this was the community for me. I browsed through many of the discussion boards offered, but I did not post any messages because I was just observing what was going on. While observing, I read different responses people had posted on particular topics. The language that they were using was plains and simple often consisting of incomplete sentences. The messages that I read were mainly about music. Since listening to music is another one of my favorite hobbies, I felt that joining a message board pertaining to music would give me better insights into favorite choices of music. The people who logged onto this website seemed cool and easy to talk to. They were of all ages, ranging from teens to adults. They also were from varied ethnic backgrounds and lived in places all over the country.

An Introduction to Windows 2000 Professional Essay -- Essays Papers

An Introduction to Windows 2000 Professional Reliability Windows 2000 Professional is up to 30 percent faster and, according to National Software Testing Labs (NSTL) tests, 13 times more reliable than Windows 98. The operating system is the most reliable version of Windows ever produced. Memory conflicts and missing or altered system files caused many of the system crashes prior to Windows 2000. To put an end to these problems, Microsoft changed Windows 2000 memory management to reduce the chance that software applications will interfere with one another. In addition, Windows 2000 includes a built-in safeguard called Windows File Protection. This feature helps prevent critical operating system files from being deleted or altered by users or applications. Industry studies show that as much as 80 percent of system failures can be traced to human errors or flawed processes. If a system file should be changed or deleted, Windows File Protection can detect the change, retrieve a correct version of the file from a cache, and restore it to the system file folder. The end user never knows the repairs have been made because Windows 2000 just keeps running ( (1)Windows). The following is a list of improvements in Windows 2000. It should be noted that this covers the entire Windows 2000 family (Server, Advanced Server, and Professional). †¢ Improved Internal Architecture: Windows 2000 includes new features designed to protect your system, such as preventing new software installations from replacing essential system files or stopping applications from writing into the kernel of the OS. This greatly reduces many sources of operating system corruption and failure. †¢ Fast Recovery from System Failure: If your system does fail, Windows 2000 includes an integrated set of features that speed recovery. †¢ Improved Code with Developer Tools: Microsoft provided third-party developers with tools and programs to improve the quality of their drivers, system level programs, and application software. These enhancements make it easier for independent software vendors to write dependable code for Windows 2000. †¢ Reduced Reboot Scenarios: Microsoft has greatly reduced the number of operations requiring a system reboot in almost every category of OS fun... ...ss/relavail Asp, Accessed 9 September 2001. 3. Mobile Computing and Windows 2000 Professional, www.mightywords.com, Accessed 15 September 2001. 4. (2) Windows 2000 Professional and Server Score an ‘A’ for Performance and Reliability, http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evoluation/ news/external/gigaa.asp, Accessed 9 September 2001. 5. (3) Windows 2000 Professional: Built for Mobile Users, http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/business/overview/ mobile/default.asp, Accessed 16 September 2001. 6. (1) Windows 2000 Professional: Most Reliable Windows Ever, http:// www.microsoft .com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/business overview/reliable/muchmore, Accessed 9 September 2001. 7. (4) Windows 2000 Professional: Easy to Use and Maintain, http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/professional/evaluation/business/overview/ manage/default.asp, Accessed 21 September 2001. 8. (5) Windows 2000 Professional: Internet Ready, http://www.microsoft.com/ windows2000/professional/evaluation/business/overview/internet/default.asp, Accessed 22 September 2001.

Jose Saramagos Blindness Essay -- Jose Saramago Essays Blindness

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When defining the word blindness, it can be interpreted in various ways. Either it can be explained as sightless, or it can be carefully deciphered as having a more complex in-depth analysis. In the novel Blindness, Jose Saramago depicts and demonstrates how in an instant your right to see can be taken in an instant. However, in this novel, blindness is metaphorically related to ‘seeing’ the truth beyond our own bias opinions. Saramago’s novel clearly illustrates themes that describe the importance of the awareness of others, in terms of feeling oppressed by fear, lack of trust, dehumanization, and segregation. He describes in full detail the importance of the government’s involvement in the lives of the blind victims, which allows the reader to understand and recognize our own societal misfortunes in health care, as well as other world problems. For example, our government allows Hispanic women to be eligible for â€Å"Medicaid or state-sponsored child health insurance programs, yet many Hispanic American families fear that enrolling family members in such plans could be used against them when they apply for citizenship† (Minority Women’s Health). Not only are Hispanic Americans afraid of getting ill while without health care, but they also fear that having health insurance could devastate their chances of acquiring a citizenship. Moreover, the government is obviously not seein g the pain and suffering through the eyes of the less fortunate, and in turn robs them of their freedom and vulnerability for being in a lower class.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Saramago’s novel, the government’s commands, instant decisions, and fears about the blind epidemic is what the blind infected, vulnerable characters are terrified about the most. â€Å"Look here, blind man, let me tell you something, either the two of you get back to where you came from, or you’ll be shot [†¦] they’re terrified and are only obeying orders† (63). With a large number of people going blind quickly and with no apparent cause, public health officials’ panic and the blind internees are not only afraid for their lives in terms of their sickness, but they are also terrified of the government’s command to shoot and kill the infected internees. The most important things in life is not power and the ability to instill fear on others, it is compassion, love, and understanding. Without these three qualities, we become blind t... ...and can be set aside, has an absurd psychological way of thinking. People should not devalue others’ because they are â€Å"weaker,† or â€Å"different† from him/her. â€Å"Fear can cause blindness, said the girl with the dark glasses, Never a truer word, that could not be truer, we were already blind the moment we turned blind, fear struck us blind, fear will keep us blind† (Saramago 129). In today’s society, people are more concerned with their own â€Å"little world,† rather than looking at the extensive perspective of life. One reason why people can sometimes be classified as being â€Å"blind† is because people fear the unknown, and rejects the unfamiliar. Many people are not comfortable with stepping out of their shell and exploring their surroundings, let alone trying to look through the eyes of the segregated minority. In the novel Blindness, Jose Saramago metaphorically uses the word â€Å"blindness† as a term meaning, the truth that we cannot bear to see. To avoid the outside world, many people tend to shelter themselves from the obvious reality, and tend to focus of their â€Å"own† meaning of r eality. However, when our vision is stripped from our secluded selves, reality is all you can truly â€Å"see.† Jose Saramago's Blindness Essay -- Jose Saramago Essays Blindness   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When defining the word blindness, it can be interpreted in various ways. Either it can be explained as sightless, or it can be carefully deciphered as having a more complex in-depth analysis. In the novel Blindness, Jose Saramago depicts and demonstrates how in an instant your right to see can be taken in an instant. However, in this novel, blindness is metaphorically related to ‘seeing’ the truth beyond our own bias opinions. Saramago’s novel clearly illustrates themes that describe the importance of the awareness of others, in terms of feeling oppressed by fear, lack of trust, dehumanization, and segregation. He describes in full detail the importance of the government’s involvement in the lives of the blind victims, which allows the reader to understand and recognize our own societal misfortunes in health care, as well as other world problems. For example, our government allows Hispanic women to be eligible for â€Å"Medicaid or state-sponsored child health insurance programs, yet many Hispanic American families fear that enrolling family members in such plans could be used against them when they apply for citizenship† (Minority Women’s Health). Not only are Hispanic Americans afraid of getting ill while without health care, but they also fear that having health insurance could devastate their chances of acquiring a citizenship. Moreover, the government is obviously not seein g the pain and suffering through the eyes of the less fortunate, and in turn robs them of their freedom and vulnerability for being in a lower class.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Saramago’s novel, the government’s commands, instant decisions, and fears about the blind epidemic is what the blind infected, vulnerable characters are terrified about the most. â€Å"Look here, blind man, let me tell you something, either the two of you get back to where you came from, or you’ll be shot [†¦] they’re terrified and are only obeying orders† (63). With a large number of people going blind quickly and with no apparent cause, public health officials’ panic and the blind internees are not only afraid for their lives in terms of their sickness, but they are also terrified of the government’s command to shoot and kill the infected internees. The most important things in life is not power and the ability to instill fear on others, it is compassion, love, and understanding. Without these three qualities, we become blind t... ...and can be set aside, has an absurd psychological way of thinking. People should not devalue others’ because they are â€Å"weaker,† or â€Å"different† from him/her. â€Å"Fear can cause blindness, said the girl with the dark glasses, Never a truer word, that could not be truer, we were already blind the moment we turned blind, fear struck us blind, fear will keep us blind† (Saramago 129). In today’s society, people are more concerned with their own â€Å"little world,† rather than looking at the extensive perspective of life. One reason why people can sometimes be classified as being â€Å"blind† is because people fear the unknown, and rejects the unfamiliar. Many people are not comfortable with stepping out of their shell and exploring their surroundings, let alone trying to look through the eyes of the segregated minority. In the novel Blindness, Jose Saramago metaphorically uses the word â€Å"blindness† as a term meaning, the truth that we cannot bear to see. To avoid the outside world, many people tend to shelter themselves from the obvious reality, and tend to focus of their â€Å"own† meaning of r eality. However, when our vision is stripped from our secluded selves, reality is all you can truly â€Å"see.†