The Purpose and Power of Language Essay -- Research Essays Term Papers

The Purpose and Power of Language If you are fluent in a language, you probably don't give much thought to your ability to interact with others, to understand and be understood in your world. But what would happen if you lost your voice? Or if suddenly the language skills you have, that is your ability to read, write, and speak, were no longer sufficient to allow you to understand television and newspapers or to tell a waitress what you wanted to eat or a doctor what was wrong with you? What if your language actually caused others to discriminate against you? I suspect your perception of the importance of language would undergo a pronounced change. Recently, I had an experience with language deprivation when I had laryngitis. The three days I was without my voice were frustrating, interminable, and evidence of the power and purpose of language. Early in her essay, "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan discusses this power of language. She writes, "it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth" (26). Though at times, I could whisper, people had difficulty hearing and understanding me, and I couldn't write my thoughts down quickly enough to meaningfully converse with others. In short, my lack of voice impaired my ability to express myself and to communicate and indeed participate in my world. Moreover, language, the combination of specific words in a particular order, not only empowers individuals to participate as members of a designated community, it is also a fundamental key in enabling individuals to establish and define the dimensions of their identity. Language is the impetus that empowers individuals to forge ties that bind into a community, thus giving them personal, social, or cultural identificat... ... Language is many things: the arrangement of words in a particular order, uttered in a certain way, denoting certain meaning, a political instrument which evokes images and emotion. Certainly, all of this is a description of the purpose and function of language. But at its most fundamental, language is quite simply the expression of self and the ability to share that expression with others. Baldwin and Tan both highlight the importance of language: to be without language is to be voiceless, and to be voiceless is to silence the song of the self. Works Cited Baldwin, James. "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?" Across Cultures. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Singleton. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999. 128-131. Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Across Cultures. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Singleton. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999. 26-31.

The Nature of Terrorism :: Terrorism

Given the growing global threats of terrorism, it is significant that an understanding of the history, nature and mechanism-premises under which terror operates is obtained. This is significant as it would shape the perspective of policy makers when addressing issues of this nature. Terrorism, as it is understood is the action of none-state weak actors, individual or groups, who for some reasons feels suppressed, marginalized and, or denied what they may view as the basic human right. All terrorism has political objectives, even though the perpetrators may use religious relics to appeal to a wider existing audience, and invoke a response through violent act to prove or propagate their point. Yoram Schweitzer in "Suicide Terrorism Development & Characteristics," Mark Sedgwick in "Al-Qaeda and the "Nature of Religious Terrorism," and Dr. James Armstrong, all demonstrates that suicide terror attacks are politically motivated even though the perpetrator may use religious symbolism to jus tifies their acts. Observing areas in the world where terrorism is frequent, especially in the Middle East, it can be argued that groups that engaged in terrorists' activities are those that feel suppressed and taken advantage of by a much greater power. Thus, terrorism, particularly suicide terror is prevalent in areas where systems of gross injustice seem to exist. Therefore, the actual use of terrorism by non-state actors is a tactic aimed at polarizing the population in their favor. By killing people in mass number, they are attempting to take away the view that only the state can legitimately kill – thus undermining the state authority. As Armstrong, Sedgwick and Schweitzer exemplify, suicide terrorism is not a new happening, but an old historical phenomenon. And that just as modern day terror organizations, particularly Al-Qaeda, uses religious concepts to motivate its actions (though their immediate goal is political), various old terrorist groups have used similar approached to achieve t heir political end. To understand the history of suicide terrorism and how terrorist groups in the past have used religious tone to propagate their political course, Armstrong pointed out the Zealots-an extremist Jewish sect that opposed Jesus. The Zealots engaged in political assassinations of their political foe, knowing that they would be killed in the process. Even though their ultimate goal might have been religious, the Zealots immediate aim was political. In the same way, during the third century, the Assassins- a notorious terrorist wing (similar in nature to Al-Qaeda) in modern day Syria, assassinated many of their political opponents in order to establish their own form of Islam.

The IMF and Emerging Markets Essay -- Investment Banking, Foreign Debt

In a staff paper published by the International Monetary Fund (Baig & Goldfajn, 1999), the vital question ‘was it [Asian Contagion] fundamentals driven, or was it a case of irrational, herd mentality displayed by panic-stricken investors?’ was posed. The answer to which concerned the correlation between the involved countries fundamental figures, such as its current deficit account, and investor’s reactions and how the relationship evolved over time after the initial causes of the crisis became apparent. Both the IMF report and Krugman indentified numerous cures and preventative measures highlighting exchange rate policy, financial regulation, hot money and investor expectations as key areas for consideration. (Baig & Goldfajn, 1999) Inter-temporal trade, current account deficit, original sin and exchange rate Krugman (2011) identifies developing countries as prime investment targets due to their high development potential. For Thailand and Brazil this presented the opportunity of inter-temporal trade advantages, where the developing countries offer high return on investment but lack the finance available to expand due to low national savings, and developed countries have the capital but lack the domestic opportunity, making it quite natural for such countries to run current account deficits and borrow from richer countries. A staff paper from the IMF stated this is what made Thailand & Brazil ‘victims of their own success’. (Aghevli, 1999) Unfortunately, due to the high risk of emerging countries currencies being devalued or inflated lenders stipulate repayment to be in their own currency shifting the risk onto the weaker economy. This presented them with the problem of original sin and made it difficult to honour repaymen... ...s: New York. Yagci, Fahettin. (2001) ‘choice of exchange rate regimes for developing countries’. [pdf] The World Bank: Working paper series No. 16. Available at: [Accessed 26/01/2012] BIBLIOGRAPHY Craig Burnside, Martin Eichenbaum, and Sergio Rebelo (2008), 'Currency crisis models', New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition. Crocket, A. (1994) â€Å"Monetary Implications of Increased Capital Flows†. In Changing Capital Markets: Implications for Policy, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas Krugman, P. & Maurice O. (2004) ‘International Economics Theory and Policy’. 6th edition. Delhi, India: Pearson Education Stiglitz, J. (1996). ‘Some Lessons from the East Asian Miracle’. The World Bank Research Observer. Tiwari, R. (2003). ‘Post-crisis Exchange Rate Regimes in Southeast Asia’. Seminar Paper, University of Hamburg.

Racial Discrimination Essay

Racism and Discrimination are represented in the short story â€Å"Country Lovers† and the poem â€Å"What It’s like to be a Black Girl†. Both the short story and this poem have a main character which is protagonist black female. Both of the women deal with discrimination because of their race. Racism is something that we see, hear and experience in our everyday lives. Racism is something that people don’t speak about or address the issue, for example in the short story â€Å"Country Lovers†. The short story â€Å"Country Lovers† was written by Nadine Gordimer in 1975(Clugston, 2010). This short story is about a love between a black girl named Thebedi and white boy named Paulus Eysendyek taken place in Africa. The two of them played together much of their childhood days. Eventually time passed and they began growing up and distance themselves from one another. Paulus was the son of the farm owner and Thebedi’s father worked for Paulus’s father. They both knew that their friendship wasn’t accepted in the public. Throughout this short story there are examples of dramatic effects. The first examples is when the narrator talks about Paulus going away to school† This usefully coincides with the age of twelve or thirteen; so that by time early adolescence, is reached, the black children are making along with the bodily changes common to all, an easy transition to adult forms of address, beginning to call their old playmates missus and baasie little = master† (Clugston, 2010). The friendship created between them during their childhood still remains. Paulus’ and Thebedi’s parents never told them, they couldn’t see each other but yet, there was always this unspoken knowledge that Paulus and Thebedi couldn’t be friends publicly. An example of the unspoken racism Paulus came home from school and brought Thebedi a gift. She told her father the missus had given them her reward for some works she had done at the farmhouse. She  told the girls in the kraal that she had a sweetheart nobody knew about tat away, away on another farm, they giggled, teased, and admire her. (Clugston,2010). The loss of innocence and love that shouldn’t be was described when Paulus watches Thebedi play in the water. â€Å" The school girls he went swimming in the dams or pools on neighboring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now when the girl came up the bank and sat beside him, the drops of water beading off her dark legs the only points of light in the earth-smelling deep shade. They were not afraid of one another, they had known one another always, and he did with her what he had done that time in the store room at the wedding, and this time it was so lovely, so lovely, he was surprised and she was surprised by it, he could see in her dark face that was part of the shade, with her big dark eyes, shiny as soft water, watching him attentively: as she had when they used to huddle over their teams of mud oxen, as she had when he told her about detention weekends at school.† (Clugston 201 0) At the end of this short story when Paulus arrived home from veterinary college for the holidays. The racism is very real throughout the city. Paulos finds out that the young black girl Thebedi had given birth to a baby. He goes to Thebedi’s hut to see for himself. When her reaches the hut and see’s the baby. He struggled for a moment with tears, anger and self-pity. He asked,† You haven’t been near the house with it?† (Clugston, 2010) His reaction showed that he knew their relationship could never be public knowledge. He was ashamed of her and the baby. As the story comes to an end Paulus returned to the hut where Thebedi and the baby lived: â€Å"She thought she heard small grunts from the hut, the kind of infant grunt that indicates a full stomach, a deep sleep. After a time short or long she didn’t know that he came out and walked away plodding stride (his father’s gait) out of sight, towards his father’s house† (Clugston, 2010). The realization that Paulus killed the infant child that day when returned to Thebedi’s hut. â€Å"The baby was not fed during the night and although she kept telling Najabulo it was sleeping, he saw for himself in the morning that the baby was dead. He comforted her with words and caresses. She did not cry but simply sat, staring at the door (Clugston, 2010). Reading this story showed racial discrimination in the community. It showed a community divided because of race. And because of racism, it cause a sad tragedy between two people that was madly in love. The poem â€Å"What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl† (For those of you who aren’t)† (Clugston, 2010), which was written by Patricia Smith in 1991. An explanation in its purest form of â€Å"What It’s like to be a Black Girl (for those of you who aren’t) by Patricia Smith, the explanation from the first three syllables† First of all,† the author gives a sense of a story being told. She uses sentence structure and language to show the reader the seriousness of her topic Smith’s poem. Smith’s poem gives reader’s an insider’s view into a young black girl’s transition to a woman at a time when being black was hard for society to deal with color of black people. Puberty is defined by biological changes a young girl’s body experiences starting around age 9 to age 15. â€Å"It’s being 9 year old and feeling like your edges are wild, like there’s something, everything, wrong.† (Smith, 4). The puberty transformation for a young girl has to be difficult. The poem† What’s it’s like to be a Black Girl†, is a look into the mind of a black girl growing in a society that promotes racism and discrimination, both of race and gender. Not knowing where you fit into society being a young black girl and also trying to accept your body going through puberty changes. As a black girl, taught to be ashamed of who you are, how you look and where you come from. This black girl wanted society to accept her or she would rather be white in order to be accepted in society. Nadine Gordimer was born in 1923,† She has lived in South Africa since birth except for a year she spent in college has devoted all her adult life to  writing-13 novels and 10 short stories collections, her work have been published in 40 different languages. The socioeconomic system is a dominant theme in her writing, later her works reflect challenges accompanying the changing attitudes in the country toward racism. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991† (Clugston, 2010). Patricia Smith who was born in 1955, was an African American poet and performance artist has won the National Poetry slam four times. The hardship that black women suffered in the poem and the short story is still being suffered by black women and black men growing up being discriminating against created a dramatic story. While reading this poem, I could understand being a black man and raise by a black woman in Tuskegee, Alabama the discrimination she was feeling even though it was a different time and place. At times, the story and poem showed emotions of happiness and sadness. In conclusion, I feel both authors was feeling the same way about racism and discrimination. The views of racism and discrimination was demonstrated in Nadine Gordimer’s†Country Lovers† and Patricia Smith’s† What It’s like to be a Black Girl† (For those of you who aren’t). In both readings, as a reader you could see the hardship that each character faced because of racism and discrimination of black people especially black women. References Clugston, R.W.(2010). Country Lovers, Nadine Gordimer. In Journey into Literature (chapter3) Clugston, R.W. (2010). Poems For Reflection, In Journey into Literature( chapter 2 section 2)

The Misfit Toy

Michael Nunno Ms. Piscopo English Pd.4 23 April 2018 The Misfit Toy In Flannery O'Connor's short story, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find,† a twisted criminal known only as â€Å"The Misfit† captures a family of four and a grandmother that he runs into during his escape. As he proceeds to execute each family member, he breaks down the grandmother's weak moral code. Why does O'Connor use such a violent character? O'Connor uses The Misfit's twisted but unbreakable moral code to expose the grandmother's moral weakness and hypocrisy.One of the first instances we see of the Grandmother's moral weakness is when she refrains from admitting fault for giving false information about the location of a plantation house. As the text states: â€Å"The horrible thought she had had before the accident was that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee.† After this quote the grandmother says nothing about how she was wrong, but instead, after her false information and her crazy cat causing a car crash, she curls up under the dashboard and hopes that she is hurt so that she can avoid conflict with her son. Clearly here she is showing cowardice and a refusal of self introspection. The grandmother does not want to admit that she is wrong, and in fact even hopes she is injured so she will receive pity from her family.After the car crashes, the stranded family is met by three unknown men. The grandmother eventually notices that the group of men is led by the notorious criminal, the Misfit. The grandmother, out of fear begins to call the Misfit â€Å"a good man,† after he says he would hate to shoot a lady, and praises his parents, showing her moral weakness as she calls a wanted criminal â€Å"good.† â€Å"‘You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?†¦I know you're a good man†¦I know you must come from nice people†¦you shouldn't call yourself the misfit because I know you're a good man at heart.† In this quote, the grandmother is siding with an evil man out of fear. Before this situation the grandmother says: â€Å"I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did.† In a difficult situation, the grandmother is seen breaking away from her moral ideals and siding with whatever is convenient to protect herself essentially. This then would show the Grandmother's moral shortcomings, if she is willing to twist her beliefs or throw them out altogether just to get out of a bad situation.Unlike the grandmother who seems to be allergic to introspection, the Misfit finds personal definition by what he has done wrong. As the Misfit says, â€Å"‘Nome, I ain't a good man†¦but I ain't the worst in the world neither†¦I found out the crime don't matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car†¦I call myself the Misfit, because I can't make what all I done wrong fit with all I gone through in punishment.'† The Misfit is saying that he knows he is not the best man in the world, but he is not the worst either. Therefore, even though he is a bad man, he is not averse to goodness; you can see this in his polite gesture to the Grandmother in which he apologizes for being in inappropriate attire: â€Å"I'm sorry I don't have on a shirt before you ladies†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He then goes on in the quote to define himself by the seemingly unjust punishment he received for something he does not remember doing and because of that, he goes on to commit crimes that do deserve punishment. Another instance in which the Misfit's unbreakable moral code shows the weakness of the Grandmother is when he recollects why he was put in prison in which he states: â€Å"I never was a bad boy that I remember of†¦but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary†¦I forgot what I done, lady. I set there†¦trying to remember what it was I done and I ain't recalled it to this day.† He does not remember why he was put in prison, and later blatantly denies that he killed his father, recollecting perfectly that his father died in 1919 from the flu and his grave is at Hopewell Baptist churchyard. The Grandmother then tries to tell the Misfit that maybe the state made a mistake, but the Misfit will not have it, â€Å"Nome†¦They had the papers on me.† The Misfit does not question why he was put in prison, nor does he hold a grudge against it because he knows he did something, after all, â€Å"They had the papers,† on him. This kind of moral strength, to be able to accept being put in prison even though he forgot what he did is a complete foil to the Grandmother whose weakness is shown in her sympathizing for the Misfit, trying to say that the Misfit was falsely imprisoned even though in the beginning of the story she saw him as an escaped convict.By the end, it becomes apparent that the Grandmother is morally weak. She tries time and time again to get on the Misfit's good side to stay alive instead of trying to save her family. The Misfit operates under his self-proclaimed moral code of â€Å"meanness† that he never breaks away from throughout the story, killing the entire family two by two. As the Misfit says: â€Å"If [Jesus] did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do now but throw away everything and follow him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best you can – by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness.† The Grandmother then says, â€Å"Maybe he didn't raise the dead.† Clearly here, the Misfit has gotten to the Grandmother to the point that she is willing to give up her faith just to save her own life.The Misfit then says that neither of them knows if Jesus did or did not raise the dead but â€Å"†¦if I had been there I would of known and I wouldn't be like I am now.† O'Connor then describes him as if he was ready to break down crying. It is clear that the Misfit wants to be sure of the truth, that he is not happy to be on the path that he is on, but he is on it, and he does not plan to go against the beliefs that he holds. This shows extreme moral strength on the Misfit's part. He does not enjoy what he is or what he believes, but he knows who he is and he believes what he believes is true even though he does not like it. This is in stark contrast with the Grandmother who believes whatever is convenient for her. It then becomes clear here that the Misfit is a foil to the Grandmother; he sticks by a moral code that causes him suffering and brings legal trouble to him, while the Grandmother floats around and sticks to certain moral attributes that will help her avoid conflict in the short-term.To further the claim that the Grandmother is weak, the Misfit says at the end of the story that the Grandmother would have been a good woman if someone was there to â€Å"shoot her every minute of her life.† Here, the Misfit is saying that the Grandmother's entire belief system changed when a gun was held up to her. She was morally weak and the world she lived in allowed her to be so. If the Grandmother had to deal with true hardship in her life, maybe she would have been morally strong. Finally, when Bobby Lee, one of the Misfit's partners in crime declares that shooting at someone their whole life would be, â€Å"Some fun!† The Misfit's response is that, â€Å"It's no real pleasure in life.† The Misfit sticks to his moral code to the very end. It's not fun to shoot at people, it's not fun to be shot, the world is not fun, and according to the Misfit, there is no fun, there is â€Å"no real pleasure in life. â€Å"Some might say the Grandmother shows greater moral strength than the Misfit by humanizing him after all he does by calling him, â€Å"†¦one of my own children!† While it may be true she shows almost Christly love to an evil man, it does not necessarily show her moral strength, and in fact, the opposite may be the case. The grandmother in the beginning of the story sees the Misfit as a vicious criminal on the loose. However, now when she sees vulnerability in the Misfit, she tries to exploit it and show acceptance and love to one that only knows â€Å"meanness.† The Grandmother is not showing moral strength, but changing her moral beliefs and ideals once again to save herself, to no avail, as the Misfit quickly jumps back and shoots her three times before she can exploit his moment of weakness. Therefore, in conclusion, the Misfit's character serves as a foil to the grandmother to pull away the veil of faux holiness that she lives with and expose her hypocrisy and corruption. Although the Misfit is tortured by his moral code, he follows it anyway because he believes it is true, unlike the Grandmother who agrees with everything he says and tries to pander to his ideas, completely throwing her previous moral code out the window.? Works CitedO'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Faber ; Faber, 2016.

Drama Story Death Of A Salesman Essay

Death of a Salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller. Basically, Miller was not a very prolific writer and Death of a Salesman had been his most famous work. At a certain point, this particular play could be regarded as a tragedy although not in the normal sense. What I mean when I said ‘tragedy though not in the normal sense† is that usually we associate tragedy from a person with a very high status who in the end had been faced with many problems which led to his failure. However, such had not been the case with this particular play since from the beginning Willy Loman really never had anything good. The brilliance within this play lies with the fact that Miller had been able to portray a certain sense on his audience that tragedy is not for the rich or for the better-off person’s alone. Rather, tragedy is a part of our everyday life and thus it could happen to anyone of us. He had been able to portray that particular part by making the play revolve most on Willy Loman. As a matter of fact, Loman is almost the same as that of being a ‘low man’. The play made use of interplay of two time frames basically that of the past and the present. The protagonist in this story is Willy Loman whose occupation is that of a businessman. Willy had been one of the victims of the so-called American dream and he love competitions. All throughout the play phrases such as ‘well-liked’, ‘I’m going to lose weight’ and the like could be found, and they are repeated numerous time. One may wonder what those repetitions mean. Basically, the significance behind those repetitions lies on the fact that Willy believe that it is the outer appearance which would bring you success and not one’s intelligence per se. For Willy academic performance is of no significance, rather it is being admired and well-liked that really matters. This can be seen from the scenes wherein he often reiterated that Charley and Bernard are both ‘liked’ but not ‘well-liked’. All throughout the play Willy dreamed of being a very popular salesman so that when he dies people all throughout the world would come to pay their respect to him. The reason why he had not been a successful man may lie on the fact that what he tried to sell had not been his goods, rather it was his character. Dave Salesman had been Willy’s role model and he greatly idolizes the man to the point that he wanted his death to be the same as that of Singleman. Miller showed his genius by naming his characters â€Å"Singleman† and â€Å"Loman† since there is a great allegory between the two. Miller named the pleasant salesman as Singleman mainly because he wanted his audience to think of Dave as a single man who had never been committed to anyone and who had never shared his life with his family. In contrast, Loman is almost the same as that of â€Å"low man† which could possibly mean a man with a very low sense of morality and the like. Thus, since Singleman is Loman’s hero it greatly shows the contrast between the two and it also showed Willy’s weird opinion of what success is like. The death of a salesman talks not only of the literal death of Willy who as the story goes committed suicide since it is the only alternative he sees in order to secure his dreams (which re left for his sons to continue), rather the story also talked about the death of Willy’s dream. As mentioned earlier, Willy believes that success lies within being well-liked and being popular. Willy said Charley is not very much well-liked and yet as was seen on the play Charley is very much successful as compared to Willy. One of the main themes of the story is â€Å"the American dream†. Based on Willy’s understanding, what constitutes an â€Å"American Dream† is being well-liked and being attractive which in turn would result in success. However, his bizarre opinion of what success is like led to his own downfall. This blind belief led tom psychological decline which in turn made him daydream a lot. All throughout the scene there’s a constant drift from past to present which often time confuses the audience on which timeframe the casts of the story is in at the moment. However, the use of the two timeframes gave Miller an opportunity to compare and to contrast Willy’s dream and reality. The shift of one timeframe to another also allowed Miller to forbid his audience to have a permanent opinion of his characters since it allowed him to show the characters in the story in pathetic and wicked light alike. However, as Willy experienced a psychological decline the boundary between the past and the present are no longer define and thus both existed in a parallel ground. When Biff informed Willy of his interview with Bill Oliver Willy advised him to demand for a high amount of salary from Oliver claiming that if his son starts big then he would also end big. He also made it a point to impress Oliver with Biff’s personality. This particular scene showed how very unrealistic Willy is. It also contradicted the belief that everyone should start small and work little by little up the corporate ladder since Willy believes that they could all start big since they are a Loman. Thus, this particular advice of Willy to his son proved to be very contradictory. Also, Willy himself did not follow his own advice with his interview with Howard. Whereas he advised his son to ask Oliver for a large amount, he himself did not do that with his interview. Rather, he begged Howard to station him in New York since he can no longer deal with too much traveling. He even said that he is willing to accept a moderate salary. This also showed a great contradiction with Willy’s advice and his own deed. In analyzing stage directions made for Happy â€Å"Sexuality is like a visible color for him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  we could see that Americans wrote plays which show step by step how a character is supposed to act. It also spells their characters age, characteristic and the like. They are very strict in this manner in that they spell everything out down to the smallest detail. In the play, one could see that Willy is a victim of his society, particularly that of capitalism. This can clearly be shown from his interview with Howard, the son of his boss. Since he could no longer produce money, Howard fired him out of his job. All throughout the story we can see Willy’s strong hold on his American dream which served him nothing but misery in the end, and now that he is old and no longer productive he had been thrown out of his job. Another significant part on the movie is the fact that the play is set in post World War II New York City, yet Willy’s flashbacks date back to 1928. The reason behind this is that it was in year 1928 that Willy had been able to sell big time and it was also the year that he bought his Chevrolet. Thus, seeing from this point of view one could clearly justify why most of Willy’s flashbacks happened in that particular year. It was in year 1928 that Willy had been most productive and it may lead him to believe that it is the start of his great career. Biff Loman had been a kleptomaniac on the story. This particular attitude may be attributed to the fact that his father did not tell him that stealing is bad. In one particular act on the play Biff told his father that he stole a football yet Willy did not reprimand his son. Rather he said that as long as Biff is well-liked he would be very successful one day. His father’s belief flowed into him believing that people would easily forgive him for stealing things as long as he is popular. One of the reasons why Biff had been constantly stealing things is the fact that he wanted to please his family. Most of all Biff wanted to impress his father by showing him that he could get anything he wants at whatever cost. What Charley meant when he said in Willy’s requiem that Willy is a â€Å"happy man with a batch of cement† (Miller, Williams, & Paul, 1984) is the fact that Willy had not been doing the things he really want or the things that he is most good at. Willy is not really cut out to be a businessman to begin with rather he could have been better off had he been a gym owner or a sport’s coach. Willy had also been a man who enjoys doing things with his hands (he loves planting) and thus it makes the audiences wonder on whether Willy had been better off had he chosen a more appropriate career for himself. It also pointed out how Willy had never been true to himself. He did not succeed in any way because he is in constant competition and he had always been after commercial success although he is not really good with that particular thing. Commercial success overshadowed personal success and happiness which in turn led to a greater tragedy. Everything about Willy had been wrong from the start. He had the wrong beliefs as well as the wrong dream. He loves gardening and he is good with working with his hands thus if he had chosen another path (probably that of farming) then he may have had a better chance with success. The Parent/Child relationship had been present all throughout the play. Miller clearly showed how a parent’s belief and way of rearing up their children could affect their child all throughout their life. This can be seen clearly with the way Willy passed on his dreams and beliefs to his two sons. Willy’s wrong beliefs had been the primary source why his sons also failed in their lives. In one of the scenes in the play wherein Biff and Willy had been arguing Willy accused his son of ruining his life just to spite him however Biff rebutted him by saying that Willy filled him with hot air which led to his inability of getting any permanent job because he cannot bear taking orders from other people. I think Biff’s claim is more accurate as compared to his father. Of course, it is true that Biff’s disappointment with his father made him lose interest in pursuing his studies however, the main reason why Biff could not really find a good work for himself is because his father made him believe in wrong beliefs particularly that he is far superior to other people. To conclude, the play had been rather interesting because of its clear way of portraying the effects of capitalism. It also showed how wrong beliefs particularly that of beliefs regarding American Dream could lead to the distraction of people. The play also portrayed how the parent/child relationship could affect an individual thus all in all the play is exceptional save for the fact that there are times that the play is rather vague because of the constant interplay between past and present. Reference: Miller, A. , Williams, L. M. , & Paul, K. (1984). Death of a Salesman: Barron’s Educational Series.

Ignorance Does Not Discriminate

â€Å"Everything that Rises Must Converge†: Ignorance Does Not Discriminate The short story â€Å"Everything that Rises Must Converge† by Flannery O’Connor describes how ignorance has no boundaries. The story of a young man named Julian and his prejudice mother living a time following the end of segregation. Julian despises his mother’s need to feel superior and pities her ignorance. Julian is conflicted by the fact that his mother will never change and toys with different ways to teach her a lesson and end her superiority complex. The story ends tragically with both Julian and his mother learning a very difficult lesson- that ignorance does not discriminate. Julian’s mother is trapped in a time when she feels superior to Negros because of her skin color, last name and family history. Julian struggles to make her understand that times have changed and she is no better than anyone else regardless of her history. In contrast, Julian’s mother attempts to elevate his worth by reminding him of the sacrifices she has made to enable him to have privileges such as nice teeth and a college education. These things should make Julian feel superior as well. The irony of this story is that despite the constant struggle to teach each other a lesson about equality, a stranger showed both Julian and his mother that they were both equally ignorant. When Julian’s mother is physically assaulted by a negro woman for a simple gesture, the lesson begins. Though meant to be kindness to a child, Julian’s mother was completely ignorant about how offensive the gesture was to the child’s mother. As Julian watched the event with satisfaction that his mother was finally being taught her lesson in equality, Julian unknowingly allowed a stranger’s ignorance to take his own mother in return for a lifetime of regret and guilt. The negro woman loses her temper and Julian’s mother loses her life. Because all three characters refuse to be patient and open minded with each other, no one wins. Julian and his mother lose the most. The negro woman and her child lose also. She lost the opportunity to show her child a better way to deal with ignorance. She also walked away with a bit more hate in her heart. Thus the ignorance will likely continue to be paid forward.