Difficulties Interracial Couples Experience

I see interracial couples all the time facing unique struggles and lacking support from family, friends and multiple others. Having knowledge of the reasoning behind this lack of acceptance will help one form a greater understanding that may enable an individual to adjust the judgmental difficulties that they are faced with in an interracial union. The interactions with people that mixed couples experience can be viewed as symbolic interactions because the gestures and words that are interpreted often in negative ways can contribute to the difficulties faced.People deal with racial struggles all over the world. Different countries experience a greater degree of struggles than others. Since Canada is a multicultural country, one might assume that interracial couples would be more accepted and faced with less racial struggles. Unfortunately, that is not the case; couples are still ridiculed. In present day, it's true that interracial couples are more accepted now than years previous bu t support of exogamy is still low. A mere fifty years earlier, the thought of a mixed union was a taboo. During the era of segregation, a mixed union between an AfricanCanadian and a Caucasian person was unthinkable. The federal government in Canada has a history of polices that have attempted to separate races from joining in relationships. A vivid example of Canada's attempt to control and prevent interracial intimacies is the Indian Act. â€Å"The Indian Act, with all its variations, clearly restricted and provided penalties for interracial sex and marriages. † (Real Canadian History, 2012) Some of the discrimination that mixed couples receive today, from individuals has been passed through the previous generations.Though, as generations become more educated they re likely to be more opened minded. The history of views on interracial relationships has contributed to the lacking acceptance experienced in present day. There is no one definitive answer as to why there is hatr ed toward mixed unions, what does exist in the scholar world are a few general statements that provide some understanding. Most Of the problems that interracial couples face relate to racism, discrimination and prejudice. Today's â€Å"young people, who have went to college are educated and more commonly opened-minded. (Bridge News, 2007) This generation is commonly the population participating in interracial unions and they are often more accepting. â€Å"Their parents however, are not as educated and are still strong believers of sticking to your own race. † (Bridge News, 2007) This is a reason why some parents disapprove of mixed relationships. Parent's opinions are often very important to their children. Stereotypes about different races can also influence the views that a parent could have regarding an interracial union that their child is apart of. Prejudice often results from the mismatch between beliefs about the attributes typically possessed by members of a social group (that is, their stereotype) and beliefs about the attributes that facilitate success in valued social roles† (On the Nature of Prejudice, p. 19). Similarly, â€Å"[On the Nature of Nature of Prejudice] argue[s] that the potential for prejudice exists when social perceivers hold a stereotype about a social group that is inconsistent with the attributes that are believed to be required for success in certain classes of social roles† (p. 3). Parents are non-accepting when such perceived stereotypes are negative. Jon K. Mills at Vanderbilt University did an investigation Of a group with 142 undergraduates on the receptions of family acceptance concerning interracial relationships. Mills concluded, â€Å"both Black and White students indicated that family perception of these interracial relationships would be negative† (Family Acceptance Involving Interracial Friendships, p. 349). The most common question that is asked of mixed couples is â€Å"what do your par ents think of your relationship?This is more evidence that parental disapproval is a common difficulty that mixed couples endure. â€Å"Hate still looms as aforementioned because of the inherent survival mechanism that many racial groups want. It is a form of protection almost. † (Lotus, 201 3) Parents have a hard time accepting or even considering the idea of having a grandchild that is mixed with another race different from their own. â€Å"Ezekiel (1995) argues that racists often fear their own survival as a group and hate gives them comfort and assurance that their survival will be met or achieved. Another common issue in mixed unions is the joining of different religions and different cultures. Couples are usually supportive of each other's beliefs but often run into problems. Some religions pacifically disagree with marrying outside of the said religion. More generally couples run into issues such as dietary restrictions. As an example, practicing Muslims do not eat po rk and all of their meat must be hall. Different religions lead to different holidays, which can keep couples wondering which traditions they Will pass onto their kids.Interracial couples are ridiculed often because of the difficulties they will pass onto their children. â€Å"In October 2009, a Louisiana Justice of Peace refused to perform a marriage for a mixed-race couple because he was concerned with the rejection and confusion their hillier would experience growing up† (Curry, 2010). Some mixed couples decide not to have children because they do not want their children to go through the things they have experienced and to avoid the difficult decisions of which traditions to pass forward.This is another contributor to why individuals do not accept interracial couples and it is also a difficulty regarding important decisions that mixed couples must make. A lot of research regarding interracial couples reveals that such couples face difficulties that are often due to family opinions. There are multiple reasons why families, specifically parents, do not accept mixed unions. Such reasons have been elaborated on and it has been expressed that parental opinions are often a large influence in one's life.When parents have negative views on mixed relationships, it places a burden upon children participating in such relationships. It is true that other factors such as religious and culture differences, give difficult problems to mixed couples as well; such factors are not always as detrimental because they are outweighed by the benefits they receive in the relationship. Research on mixed relationships also revealed any unknown benefits of these relationships.

The Impact of Sociological Theories in Education

The Impact of Sociological Theories in Education Crystal Taylor-Johnson SOC101: Introduction to Sociology Professor Christine Henderson November 22, 2010 Education is the most important part of a person’s life. Without a good education people would struggle in everyday life just to be able to get by. There are three theories that help understand education. Even though most people feel theories are just someone’s opinions, education has many different theories that support it because these theories help people understand education better and these theories are all different but yet they help identify what education really is.The three theories that are important for people to know are Functionalism, Conflict, and Interactionism. These three theories play an important role in helping to understand education and why education is important. These theories are not just one man’s opinion; they give a prime meaning of what education is really about. Martin Luther King J r. once said â€Å"the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically†¦. intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education. Without sociological theories to help understand what education is all about and why education is important, we would not get the true identity of education. Education does not just help you with a better career, it also helps you with your social skills, your ability to understand things better, and most importantly it helps you to be able to identify yourself. Functionalism â€Å"Functionalist perspective is a sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. (Richard Schaefer, 2009) Functionalists will focus on ways that universal education can serve the needs of society. The first thing that functionalist do is see education in its manifest role. They believe that education conveys knowledge and skills to the next generation. Emile D urkheim was the founder of functionalist theory. He identified the latent role of education, which was identified as one of socializing people into society’s mainstream. He called it â€Å"a moral education†, and it helped form a more-cohesive social structure.It did this by bringing people together from diverse backgrounds. The other latent roles of education that functionalist point to are transmission of core values and social structure. Core values reflect the characteristics that support political and economic systems that had originally fueled education in American education. This means that children in America will receive rewards for following schedules, directions, meeting deadlines, and obeying their authority figures. A benefit that functionalists see in education is something they call sorting.This means they separate students on the basis of merit. They feel that society’s needs demands that the most capable people get channeled into the most import ant occupations. Schools are capable of identifying the most capable students early. They do so by seeing who scores highest on classroom and standardized tests. The students who score high on these tests are put into accelerated programs and college preparation courses. Many sociologists like Kingsley Davis, Wilbert Moore, and Talcott Parsons referred to this as social placement. They felt this was a beneficial function in society.Functionalists believe that education plays an ironic dual role in both preserving and changing culture. There have been studies that have shown that as student’s progress through college and beyond, they are usually able to become increasingly liberal as they encounter a variety of perspectives. People who are more educated are generally more liberal, but people who are less educated are conservatism. â€Å"Heavy emphasis on research at most institutions of higher education put them on the cutting edge of changes in knowledge, and, in many cases, changes in values as well.Therefore, while the primary role of education is to preserve and pass on knowledge and skills, education is also in the business of transforming them. † (CliffNotes. com, 2010). Conflict â€Å"Conflict perspective is a sociological approach that assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, including housing, money, access to services, and political representation. † (Schaefer, 2010). These theorists see the purpose of education as maintaining social inequality and preserving the power of those who dominate society.Conflict theorists and functionalists examine the same functions of education. â€Å"Functionalists see education as a beneficial contribution to an ordered society; however, conflict theorists see the educational system as perpetuating the status quo by dulling the lower classes into being obedient workers. † (CliffNotes. com, 2010). Both of the se theories agree that the educational system practices sorting, but they disagree on how the educational system enacts that sorting. Functionalists believe that the schools sort based on merits; whereas conflict theorists believe that schools sort based on distinct class and ethnic lines.Conflict theorists believe that schools train those who are in the working class to accept their position as a lower-class member of society. This role of education is called â€Å"hidden curriculum†. Conflict theorists have several key factors that defend their position. They feel because property taxes fund most schools, schools in affluent districts have more money. The students who live in these kinds of areas are more likely to get into the best colleges and have a better chance of being tracked into higher-paying professions.Students who are in less affluent neighborhoods do not have these kinds of advantages. They are less likely to go to college and more likely to go to a vocational school or technical training. â€Å"Employers routinely use education as a selection tool. Jobs with a high social status such as executives, Wall Street Lawyers, and politicians at the national level are almost exclusively recruited from elite universities. While employers looking for middle management and other white-collar workers, require certain levels of education that indicate sufficient motivation and social experience. (Jason Todd, n. d. ) Interactionism â€Å"Interactionist perspective is a sociological approach that generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole. † (Schaefer, 2010) Interactionists are primarily concerned with relations and transactions in the school house. Interactionists are more concerned with the daily grind of the students and the transactions that occur between the students and the teachers or any other person that is involved with the student.Because they are concerned with this they disregard t he basic physical factors, which are whether the schools are urban or rural, a large educational complex or a small one, or if the schools have a highly bureaucratic system or not. For example, interactionists would be more concerned with the roles that other people play in the students’ education. They are concerned with the efficiency of a student’s education and the quality of a child’s academic experience. Interactionists believe that it is important for students and teachers or any other person who is involved in that student’s life.Every student needs to know that their voice is being heard. It is very important for a teacher to understand every one of their students, because every student is different. I think that is what interactionists are trying to get at with their theory. Before a student can really learn, they need to be able to listen. And before they will listen they have to know whether they can trust that person or not. In the beginning a teacher’s primary goal should be to gain the trust of their student’s. When a teacher is able to gain the trust of their student’s, then the student’s will listen.The theories that have been discussed here are very different from one another, but they are not far from the truth. Unfortunately we see these things every day. Functionalists and Conflict theorists believe that if you live in a high profile neighborhood then you will go to a high profile school, and when you go to a high profile school you will get noticed by the best colleges and you will have a very wealthy successful career. If you live in a lower-class neighborhood you will have a more difficult time getting into a great college and living the life that upper-class people live. Although we do not like this, it is true.There are many people that face this unfairness every day. Interactionists believe a more delicate theory. They believe that a good social communication between students an d peers, teachers, family members, or any other person that comes in contact with the student on a daily basis is the most important part of a student’s ability to learn and succeed. Even though most people feel theories are just someone’s opinions, education has many different theories that support it because these theories help people understand education better and these theories are all different but yet they help identify what education really is.Education is what you make of it. I leave you with a quote by Booker T. Washington that felt as though it does not matter where you came from in order to be successful, but how hard you worked is the key: â€Å"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. †ReferencesCliff Notes. com. (2010). Theories of Education. Retrieved November 22, 2010 from http://www. cliffsnotes. com/study_guide/topicArticleId-26957,arti cleId-26914. html King Jr. , M. L. (n. d. ).Education Quotes to Impart knowledge, Wisdom, and Deepen Understanding In All Arenas of Life Arenas of Life. Retrieved November 22, 2010 from http://famousquoteshomepage. com Shaefer, R. T. (2009).Sociology: A Brief Introduction 8th Edition. McGraw-Hill, New York, New York. Page 422, 420 and 423 Todd, J. (n. d. ). Functional and Conflict Theory: Point of View. Retrieved November 22, 2010 from http://www. helium. com/items/779460-functional-and-conflict-theory-a-point-of-view Washington, B. T. (n. d. ).Inspirational Educational Quotes for Students. Retrieved November 22, 2010 from http://www. successcds. net/student_quotes. htm

Article Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

Article Summary - Essay Example The author herself says that she combines all these, incongruous at the first sight, painting styles and cultures trying to find the lost identity. Hayv Kahraman is twenty eight, she was born in Baghdad and she is very proud of being an Iraqi; at the age of ten she mowed to Sweden with all her family, then she started attending school at the Academy of Art and Design in Florence; Hayv studied graphic design, but displayed a great interest in classical arts. In the academy she met her future husband and together they moved to Arizona. For the first time Hayv Kahraman felt depressed and was so to say isolated from the world of Art so, she put all her energy into her pictures. Five of her works were bought by Charles Saatchi a lot of other pictures were displayed and sold during different exhibitions held in the Third Line gallery in Dubai and the New York gallery. The Kahraman’s recent works consolidated under the name â€Å"Domestic Marionettes† reflect the authors consi derations about the women’s life in the

Analyse ways in which minimum core elements can be demonstrated in Essay

Analyse ways in which minimum core elements can be demonstrated in applying theories and principles for planning and enabling inclusive learning and teaching - Essay Example As such, the teacher can collaborate with language specialists in order to devise relevant activities. The instructor must ensure that the language of use should correspond with learning level of the students’ learning, while also being dynamic enough to allow the acquisition of more vocabulary. Other methods that will be helpful at this point include: setting tasks for learners to read; using readable and accessible texts to help learners develop their comprehension skills; using reciprocal teaching; making use of effective questioning; and reading handouts and written materials aloud; and finding ways to present materials through means other than written information (Lawton & Turnbull, 2007, p. 44). As for numeracy and learning theory, it is important that the instructor offers alternative methods for solving problems; increasing awareness of the language of numbers [such as multiplication, addition, product, times and share]; and avoiding the assumption that learners arrival at correct answers necessarily means comprehension of the topic. There is also a great need on the side of the teachers to design exercises that are relevant and meaningful before according learners with opportunities to practice, sharpen and put the skills they have acquired to use (Lawton & Turnbull, 2007, p. 44-45). Teachers should develop the culture of using up-to-date technologies such as whiteboards, m-learning and digital cameras to motivate learners. It is important at this juncture that the instructor encourages learner autonomy in ICT use. In this light, webquests the use of function keys and keyboard shortcuts will help develop individual ICT skills. Older learners who may not be enthusiastic about the use of ICT should also be encouraged to start using ICT. Other provisions of ICT which may go a long way in creating tech-savvy learners include interactive whiteboards,

See word Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

CVS Company Challenges - Assignment Example The employees often complain that the management actively snoops on their social media accounts and dismisses people with questionable content. The company also takes serious actions against employees who make negative comments about the company on media sites. In addition, the company also imposes decisions on employees without their consent and penalizes those who are reluctant to adopt. Just recently, a cashier for CVS Pharmacy in Oakland California testified in court about the company’s practices. In that, penalizing employees who do not complete wellness examination is against California hour laws and wage. Roberta Watterson claimed that the $600 yearly health insurance addition charge for CVS employees who fail to complete biometric screening and health risk assessment is illegal in reference to provisions of the states Labor Code. Besides, employees complain that the CVS cut employee hours and assign more work for a single employee. For instance, one employee is tasked with the job of about three people in a poor working environment. Still, the company management gets upset when their Triple S score decreases. This clearly shows that the company values their interest most at the expense of employees’ wellbeing. Good business practices require that a company gives adequate and right information about the products. Instead, CVS is accused of constantly engaging in the wrong and misleading advertisement about their products in Los Angeles. The company also practices monopolistic and predatory business tactics to put small competitors out of business in America. To further add problems, the move to replace humans with self-check-out stations resulted in increased unemployment cases. The move also shows that the company is only concerned about making profits. Fair pricing of products is an issue of concern for most companies.

Mill's Utilitarianism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Mill's Utilitarianism - Essay Example According to Daniel Bonevac, another implication of utilitarianism is universalism: people should mind the consequences of choices on everyone it affects. We should not consider ourselves, or simply our friends, or community members; we must consider everybody in the society. It is fortunate that most decisions made affect a portion of citizens; this will deny others the pleasure to enjoy the freedom they have. In as much as some pleasures were not intrinsically more valuable than others, nevertheless, utilitarianism would not be â€Å"a pig philosophy† – â€Å"you’d rather be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied†; the use and development of our higher facilities would be virtuous solely by virtue of their benefits to other people. Mill argues that â€Å"Pleasure vary in quality as and at the same time quantity.† Mill stresses that the principle of utility justifies the right actions (Bonevac, Daniel, and Phillips 177). It tries explainin g what makes them right. But the principle does not have to be conscious motive. Tarrant contends that Mill’s radical ideology on education, laudable in themselves are not unswerving with his utilitarianism since in differentiating between lower and higher pleasures, and in Mill’s argument that the higher pleasure are more desirable, he (Mill) is forced to appeal to non-utilitarian values. In the article, T. G. Miles attempts to criticize Tarrant’s argument against Mill. Mill’s defense of higher pleasure preference is undermined in two forms; firstly, because introduces a different value besides happiness, called dignity, and send, because Mill introduces the phrase ‘content,’ which according to Tarrant considers to be ‘a correlate of dignity and a function of the higher pleasure’ and construes as intended stand for â€Å"the sensation attended upon the satisfaction of the desire for higher pleasures’ (Pojman, Louis, and James, 320). Not only is Mill playing up and down between

Development of Chinas legal system and its difficulties and challenges Essay

Development of Chinas legal system and its difficulties and challenges - Essay Example These changes are occurring because of the fact that in order to strengthen the rule of law it is foremost necessary to place emphasis on a large number of elements, both from inside and outside of the country. Also the structure of the domestic law of the country is facing several transformations in the face of growing international trade and globalization. The legal systemis undergoing the most radical changes since their inclusion within the World Trade Organization (WTO). The country has largely been dependent on ideological reasoning and facts. But recently policy makers have suggested that in order to cope with international standards of respectable community, the country must follow specified globally accepted norms and regulations, irrespective of the fact that these norms and regulations are generated by the United Nations Human Rights Conservation or by the WTO (Bruun & Jacobsen, 2000, p. 251). Accordingly the country’s law and legal system have had to be changed and modified. The Republic of China is now initiating these changes or modifications with the most radical occurring in the areas of economic reform and changes in the nature of the administration process. This paper will attempt to evaluate all of these developments and will mark the difficulties or the challenges that china has been facing as a direct result (Alexandroff, Ostry and Rafael Gomez, 2003, p. 154). Philosophy: The Asian legal system appears to be different in many respects from the legal systems of therest of the world. Major reasons for this include spiritual variations and differences in intellectual thought. Religion plays little part in Chinese law-making but perhaps the most influential form of thought is Confucianism (Glenn 2007, pp. 318-319). The core of Confucianism is Humanism and is based on various levels of honesty. According to Confucian thought, with the use of the logic of humanity one can examine the world in the simplest possible manner. An ethical philosophy that is to be practiced by all the members of this society is the primary foundation and function of this thought. For almost a thousand years the legal system of China was dominated by Confucianism. The principles of Confucian ideology were the main driving force behind the evolution of the ancient legal system. Not only that, it also helped in developing the legalism, traditions, and moral aspects of life for the an cient Chinese people. This ideology mainly focused on astrict governmental hierarchy. Along with this the ideology marked its view regarding the fact that people need to internalize all the granted rules and norms and just take appropriate or necessary actions. According to this view, it has been argued that the law should be preserved only for those who try to do something out of pure self-interest at the expense of the interests of society as a whole. Hence, the law of the country has been modified to include harsh punishments with the aim of achievingand maintaining an appropriate social order withmaximum social welfare. In this regard China’s legal systemdiffers significantly from that of the West

How the Declaration of Independence was accepted in America and Europe Essay

How the Declaration of Independence was accepted in America and Europe - Essay Example American Revolutionary War was the last part of the political American Revolution, so it was expected that the Great Britain would offer its colonies their rights; unfortunately, the colonists had refuted the civil liberties of the Parliament of Great Britain in ruling them with no representation. In the mid 1770s, revolutionaries were in charge of all of the thirteen colonial governments. They established the Second Continental Congress, while at the same time forming a Continental Army. Formal requests to the King to intervene on behalf of the colonial governments were ignored; rather, the outcome was the Congress declaring the colonial governments as traitors, which led to rebellion by the state in the following year. This led to Americans taking action and proclaiming themselves a new independent nation. They asserted jurisdiction and declined any obligation with the British rule. Later on in 1770, the Continentals incarcerated a British army, which resulted in France joining the war and supporting the Americans. Early the following year, the military had empowered with Britain, which resulted in Spain and Dutch Republic joining forces with Britain as French allies. During the course of the war, the British had utilized their naval power in taking over, as well as inhabiting the coastal cities. They had also gained control over the countryside where most of the occupants were avoiding them due to their comparatively small land army. The involvement of France was significant, since in early 1980s, there was a victory in Chesapeake which led to the surrendering of the second British army in Yorktown. Later on there was the signing of the Treaty of Paris that acknowledged the supremacy of the United States over a number of territories (Vigil 23). Effects of the Declaration of Independence on Revolutionary War Declaration of Independence had a number of effects on the Revolutionary War, some of which were negative, as well as positive. All the stakeholders invo lved in both the signing of this treaty and the revolutionary war either suffered or gained as a result. These impacts were tremendous, since the expectations of the Great Britain were completely diminished, while at the same time their colonies gained independence. By giving out the Declaration of Independence, which was accepted by the Continental Congress, the thirteen American colonies totally damaged their political connections with the Great Britain, since the Declaration highlighted the colonists’ tenacity in achieving their independence. By asserting themselves as an independent nation, the American colonists were capable of finalizing a legitimate coalition with the French government. Therefore, they achieve their cooperation in the war against the Great Britain. The British Imperial policies had for a long time oppressed the North American colonists, especially when it came to issues relating to taxation and frontier policy. Despite protests on these British policie s, Great Britain did nothing to change the situation; instead, this resulted in the closure of the port of Boston, along with the declaration of martial law in Massachusetts. Apart from that, the colonial government propelled representatives to a Continental Congress so as to synchronize a colonial ban on British goods. As a result of this, when war began between the British forces and American colonists in Massachusetts, the Continental C

A short REPORT On Frederick Winslow Taylor Essay

A short REPORT On Frederick Winslow Taylor - Essay Example He developed philosophies based on shop-management, earning him the title, â€Å"Father of Scientific Management.† In the steel company, Winslow had noted a trend among the workers. He noticed that some of the workers were lazy, and not working to their abilities. This had a negative effect on the output of work, therefore reducing the company productivity. This compelled Winslow to develop a task management system, which he used to handle work in an objective manner and determine the efficiency and productivity of work in the company. This idea bore Winslow’s Principles of Scientific Management (NetMBA; â€Å"Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)†). In 1911, Fredrick Taylor published his work, The Principles of Scientific Management. Taylor developed four principles to apply to work. This was after spending years doing different experiments to prove his principles. In the first principle, Taylor recommended that the rule-of-thumbs method in work, be replaced with new methods that employed scientific study of different work. His second principle suggested that training of workers should not be left to be their individual responsibility. However, this responsibility should be left to the managers who should recruit, train, and ensure the active personal development of the workers, while ensuring the use of scientific methods. In the third principle, Taylor suggested that company management should perform a follow-up on the workers through their supervision, in order to ensure that the workers adhere to the prescribed methods, which are scientifically oriented. In the last principle, Taylor recommended that the company workload should be equally distributed between the employers and the workers. However, the employer, who is the manager, will be charged with work involving scientific management of the company in planning work, while the employees are tasked with executing the tasks. Taylor’s scientific principles of management aimed at increasing productivity and efficiency of work. Instead of apprenticeship, scientific management called for segmentation of work into different parts that could be performed by different unskilled people after short trainings (Daft, 2009; Taylor, 2003; Taylor, 1947). Taylor developed the term soldering to refer to the underperformance of workers, which he linked to the workers’ belief that if they work effectively, some of them risked losing their jobs. Underperformance of workers was also because of the poor wages they were subjected to. Employees therefore felt that effectiveness in their work would result in exploitation, as wages were not paid according to the workload performed. Finally, the rule-of-thumb method of working employed by workers was less effective as it resulted in low work output. In his time studies, Taylor believed that every work type could be planned properly to increase its productivity. He however thought that his scientific management was more effec tive as compared to the old â€Å"initiative and incentive† method, which was used to motivate workers. His arguments were that, in the initiative and incentive method, the workers were only motivated and increased productivity, but the whole responsibility of planning and executing work was wholly left for them to perform. On the other hand, the scientific management method provided the opportunity for both work productivity and work planning to be performed in the best ways by

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 116

Assignment Example It covers an area of 9.6 square kilometers by land and 0.78 square kilometers by water (Scheid and Brown, 2010). According to the 2000 census, Kendall County registered a population of 38,034 persons among which 11,759 living in households while 7,807 lived in the CDP. Mainly young adults and youths constitute this large population; hence, this essay aims at analyzing what factors that may likely be contributing to their drug thereby drawing a plan to possible solution to the same. The county is cohabitated bb people of different races with whites forming larger population. Of the 11,758 households, 49.6% lived with their children of the ages under 18 years, 58.8% of the population was married with couples living together, 18.5% constituted females living without husbands, and 16.6% was formed by non-families. 11.8% and 2.5% constituted household individuals and people living solo respectively. The last percentages are of the person of 65 years and above. The young adults of ages of between 18 and 25 forms the larger population of the county at 34.9% while the elderly persons of the ages above 65 years forms the lower percentage of population, 7.1% (Scheid and Brown, 2010). Many women than men form the population of this county. The county is poorly educated with educated person forming a percentage lower than 46%; 45% of the population has not schooling history; 33% have high diploma education, and 15% of the 33% have college education. Only 35% of the population are in the workforce. This is an indication that a larger population has poor lifestyle a ttributed to poor or no income (Aronowitz, 2009). In other words, the frustration of unemployment may be one factor that leads to alcoholism among other societal disorder including rape. The larger uneducated population are employed for manual work at the limestone and dolomite mines. The mine employment has helped in reducing the quantity of the population living under

A Review of Bathing Beauties Essay Example for Free

A Review of Bathing Beauties Essay Anna Schnur-Fishman presents a compelling argument for teaching healthy body image and self esteem in her article â€Å"Bathing Beauties†. Set in the communal shower of a summer camp, Schnur-Fishman described how she and her friends developed their positive body image. Through group support and open conversations, the girls who showered in the communal shower and learned that beauty was not what they saw on TV or on a billboard. In fact, they learned that no one really looked like those images. And through this communal showering the girls learned to love their bodies and all their imperfections. These experiences and lessons were such that Schnur-Fishman and her friends have carried then throughout their lives. Anna Schnur-Fishman makes several interesting and valid points in favor of the communal showering in the BIK. First she discussed the idea of community support. According to Schnur-Fishman, everyone had to shower together, so no one was judgmental of another’s bodies. In fact, Schnur-Fishman, discussed one conversation where all the girls said out loud one thing they did not like about themselves. As a friend of the author’s stated, she never noticed the flaws the other girls. The realization showed her that if she was not paying attention to others flaws, others were not paying attention to hers. This exercise instilled in them that girls can feel beautiful no matter what they may think is wrong with their bodies. This is a beautiful idea because, as Schnur-Fishman notes, outside American culture often does not provide young girls this type of support. Instead, our culture, more than any other, pushes an unrealistic image of female beauty. Schnur-Fishman continued to discuss the idea of multigenerational exposure. At peak shower times, the age range in the shower could be from 8-25 years old. This allowed for the older girls to really be role models for the younger girls. In today’s culture, young girls look up to actresses and models, these images do nothing but further warp a girl’s sense of self and body image. Following in line with this idea, the author stated that the BIK was â€Å"a reality check†. Again, no one is perfect. The only way for a young girl to learn this is to see that others have flaws and no one really pays them any attention. Schnur-Fishman also stated that she believed the communal shower was a way to â€Å"push back against American culture†. By feeling good about oneself and not being ashamed, a girl has power over what the mainstream culture is trying to teach her. She mentioned that how good they felt should have been criminal. Schnur-Fishman made a valid point here because it often does seem very unacceptable for a female to feel good about herself. Find a group of females and listen to their conversation. Chances are you will hear them complain about how bad they look or how fat they feel. You can almost guarantee that if one of the females said something positive about themselves, she would get the cold shoulder or some negative response from the others (eyes rolling, fake, shallow agreement, talking behind her back when she goes to the bathroom, etc). The last point the author discussed was the joy she felt in the BIK. She stated that it was liberating, being free and remembering what is was like before she cared about her body. It gave her and the other girls the chance to relax and let loose. They did not have to try to up hold any type of image. I think the Schnur-Fishman made some very good points. It is unfortunate that even in today’s culture, were we say we promote healthy living and encourage self esteem, so many girls suffer. The images we show our young girls and the words we say contradict each other, only confusing ours girls into personally insecurities. We tell them to love them selves no matter what they look like. Then we show them that beauty is comes in tall and skinny package, with clear skin. This unrealistic body image is causing more emotional and health related problems among our young girls than sometimes we care to realize. Giving our young girls opportunities to feel good about them self is only the first step to reclaiming their own personal power.

Electoral College System Essay Example for Free

Electoral College System Essay The President and the Vice President of the United States are elected indirectly by an institution known as the Electoral College. The U. S. Constitution provides the broad framework through which electors are appointed and by which they cast votes for the President and Vice President. In evaluating the contingent election process, some commentators have suggested that any threshold inquiry requires assessing how often contingent election occurs. If the results of a general election are frequently inconclusive, they increase the likelihood of contingent election. The democratic criteria require implementing reforms that bring the people into the contingency process. Critics of the Electoral College system argue that the presence of viable and well-funded third-party or independent presidential candidates, who may be able to garner electoral votes by carrying a plurality of the votes in statewide elections, increases the likelihood of contingent election. Analysis of criticism of the Electoral College system There are several shortcomings of the Electoral College as cited by the proponents of the presidential election reform. These shortcomings have raised justifications for reform or abolition of the current system. One of the criticism is on the Electoral College is the Electoral College deadlock of the contingent election. In this one, the 12th amendment provide that the House of Representatives should choose a president and the senate chooses the vice president by contingent election if the presidential and the vice presidential candidates votes have not reached a simple majority of the Electoral College votes. The election of the president by the House of Representatives happened only once on the February 9th, 1825 where John Quincy Adams was elected as President over Andrew Jackson. This election was criticized by some commentators saying that it brought about a constitutional crisis since the president was selected as part of a political corrupt bargain because some of the presidential candidates were disqualified from the contingent election. Critics claim that this election removes the choice of president and vice president voters (Whitaker Neale, 2004). Another criticism is on the minority president which was expressed in the Electoral College misfire. In this one, the current electoral college system can result in the election of a minority president which states that the president can be one who wins the majority of the electoral votes even though he has lost the popular votes. This was experienced in the 1800s where three minority presidents namely, John Quincy Adams in 1824, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, and Benjamin Harrison in1888. The other criticisms are on the current methods of allocating electoral votes, the decennial census problem, and the faithless elector, presidential succession between nomination and inauguration, independent and the third party versus major party candidates. These criticisms have caused so many controversies that have made many people believe that the current Electoral College system is not a good system and therefore it needs amendment (Whitaker Neale, 2004). Advantages of various reform proposals. The electoral college reform proposals include (1)the district plan, awarding each state two at large electoral votes to the state-wide popular vote winners, and one electoral vote to the winning candidate in each congressional district; (2) the proportional plan, awarding electoral votes in states in direct proportion to the popular vote gained in the state by each candidate; and (3) the automatic plan, awarding each state’s electoral votes directly on a winner-take- all basis to the statewide vote winners (Amar, 1995). The advantages to the electoral-vote system include its tendency to produce a clear winner. The constitution is however subject to change, allowing for the second vote in case of depressed voter turnout. Great leverage is also given to third party candidates by requiring the winner to have a majority and by this it calls for fair and just elections. A National Election Agency is incorporated in the system to run the vote. However, the government also comes in to help, where the National Election Agency has fewer powers under the government (Amar, 1995). Despite the fact that the president alone is elected by the people, doesn’t mean he can legitimately defy the law. It is good to know that the elections are fair in that a presidential candidate who stands in his campaign and wins with a substantial majority of votes from the American people does of course gain the mandate. The candidate who emerges with the most electoral votes has a fully legitimate claim to the office for the next four years (Amar, 1995). Disadvantages of various reform proposals. In the U. S there is a rule that, a candidate chosen on the Election Day may not be the president. Therefore if it happens that a candidate has failed to win the national popular vote, he might be sworn in as the president by the virtue of claiming more electoral votes on than his opponents. Therefore the main disadvantage of such kind of proposal, is that if the sitting president who lost in the popular vote is returned again to power after his rejection, then there will be a wide condemnation on the Electoral college as a wacky anachronism which will lead to extensive demands for the amendments of the constitution in order for the replacement of the electoral vote with popular election (Longley, 2008). Due to this kind of proposals, there is a possibility of not telling the exact winner since the constitution is the main source of authenticity. The main disadvantage here is that there might be a possibility of both candidates having different fundamental campaigns which give different issues of emphasis and making frequent appearances in different states. Another disadvantage for this proposal is the argument on which candidate to take office and who was chosen by an archaic and wholly irrational system. If the electoral system is replaced, by the popular vote election, since it is not irrational there is a possibility of embarrassment on the president opting to be chosen by this process (Dellinger, 2004). Another greatest disadvantage of the present system of voting in U. S is that there is a possibility that the candidate who receives the most votes from the nation (people) may not take office. Therefore the present president in office may face many challenges and offsetting values since he or she was not put in by the majority. The disadvantage of the constitutional system for choosing a president in the U. S is not perfect and needs to be changed and therefore the candidate who emerges with most electoral votes has full justified claim to the office for four years (Dellinger, 2004). Conclusion It is clear that once the candidate chosen by the people of the United States on the Election Day may not become president. The candidate must choose the constitutional rules currently in place. In the voting parties, the party that receives more total votes nationally wins the parliament while the one with fewer total votes chooses the Nation’s prime minister. The constitution however, is subject to change (Longley Dana, 1992). Amending the Constitution to alter it would present a series of difficult questions: Will we give great leverage to third party candidates by requiring the winner to have a majority? Will we have a runoff, which might lead to depressed turnout for the second vote? Will we create a National Election Agency to run the vote and or leave it with the 51 governments who now run it? If those states report raw votes, will they somehow artificially increase the number of voters in the state or pad the totals—a temptation now avoided by having a set number of electoral votes for each state? These are not insurmountable objections to constitutional change, but they should certainly give pause (Longley Dana, 1992). References Amar, A. R. (1995). Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Death: Closing the Constitution’s Succession Gap Dellinger, W. (2004). Popularity contest in defense of the Electoral College, Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC. Retrieved October 26th, 2008, from http://www. slate. com/id/2108991/ Longley R. (2008). The Electoral College System, who really elects the president of the united states, About . com Longley, L. D. Dana, J. D. , Jr. (1992). The Biases of the Electoral College in the 1990s Whitaker, L. P. Neale, T. H. (2004, November 5). The Electoral College: An Overview and Analysis of Reform Proposals. CRS Report for Congress. Retrieved October 26th, 2008, from http://italy. usembassy. gov/pdf/other/RL30804. pdf.

The Federal Government And The Three Strikes Law Criminology Essay

The Federal Government And The Three Strikes Law Criminology Essay Between 1993 and 1995, 26 states and the federal government passed the Three Strikes Law. Under this law, a person who is convicted of three felonies is given a mandatory 25-to-life sentence. A felony is defined as any crime punishable by 1 year or more in prison (Messerli, 2006). This law was passed in reaction to the murder of 12 year old, Polly Klass. She was kidnapped and murdered by a paroled repeat offender. Unlike the federal laws, the three-strikes laws vary by quite a bit from state to state. However, under all federal and state three-strikes law if someone is convicted of a crime three times, there is no judiciary discretion in sentencing these repeat offenders (Unknown). This means that in all cases the offender must go to jail for 25 years to life if convicted of three felonies, no matter the seriousness crime. Under the statute, a serious violent felony includes murder, manslaughter, sex offenses, kidnapping, robbery, and any offense punishable by 10 years or more which includes as an element the use of force or that, by its nature, involves a significant risk of force. The statute also enumerates certain non-qualifying felonies, including unarmed robbery offenses and arsons that posed no threat to human life (Unknown). The purpose of the three-strikes law is to put criminals out of society to keep them from committing future crimes (Roy, 2010). Pros and Cons While researching this topic I have found multiple pros and cons of the three strikes law. Some of the pros that were mentioned include: repeat offenders will stay in prison; can deter offenders who have had two felony convictions from committing another crime; and it only applies to convictions. The first pro of the Three Strikes law is that repeat offenders will stay in prison for at least 25 years after their third conviction. If criminals choose to continue to break the law then will have to pay for their crimes. These criminals will not have a fourth chance to break the law. The Three Strikes law is a way to ensure justice and to stop criminals from committing more crimes. According to Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Centers Public Safety Performance Project (2008), There is no question that putting violent and chronic offenders behind bars lowers the crime rate and provides punishment that is well deserved. The second pro of the Three Strikes law is that it might deter offenders who have been convicted two felonies from committing a third crime. This law is known by all, especially by criminals. Criminals will know the punishment before they decide to commit crimes. The hope is that this will discourage criminals from committing any crimes major and minor, from armed robbery and rape to burglary. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics 43 percent of felony probationer and 62 percent of the parolees will be rearrested within three years after beginning supervision (Unknown, 2010). The third pro of the Three Strikes law is that it applies only to convictions. This law does not apply to arrests of a person is found not guilty. However, three convictions will send criminals to prison for 25 years to life. Chances are that these criminals have committed more than three crimes, but for whatever reason they were never convicted. There are also multiple arguments against the Three Strikes law. Some of the cons that were mentioned include: a one-size-fits all form of justice; it can be considered unjust depending on the particular crime; and it arguably violates the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution (Kitchen, 2009). The first con of the Three Strikes law is that some see this as a one size fits all form of justice (Kitchen, 2009). Some believe that this law destroys the flexibility of the courts and the judge. It is no longer up to the judge to decide if the offender can be rehabilitated. Under the Three Strikes law, the offender will automatically go to prison after the third conviction. Criminal rehabilitation has many positive benefits and can impact the lives of many inmates as well as their families (Wright, 2007). The second con of the Three Strikes law is that it can be considered unjust depending on the particular crime. In some cases the third conviction may not be a violent crime but if they are convicted of a third felony they would receive the same 25 years to life sentence as if the crime were a violent act. Some believe that this punishment does not fit the crime. If a newly convicted criminal has a record of two prior felony (serious crime) convictions, the judge had to impose the maximum sentence for the third crime (Driscoll, 2003). The third con of the Three Strikes law is that it arguably violates the Eighth Amendment. The Eight Amendment prohibits the use of Cruel and unjust punishment by the state. Many argue that certain clients prosecutions violate this amendment. According to N.C. Aizenman at the Washington Post (2008), when it comes to preventing repeat offenses by nonviolent criminals- who make up about half of the incarcerated population- alternative punishments such as community supervision and mandatory drug counseling that are far less expensive may prove just as or more effective than jail time. The fourth and final con of the Three Strikes Law is the expense. Prisons are already overcrowded and some argue that there is not enough room to house additional inmates. Prison is expensive. There are also trial and court fees that many times must be covered by the state and its taxpayers. It cost as average of $23,876 to imprison someone in 2005 (Aizenman, 2008). This includes costs for food, shelter, prison staff and many other items. Student Position In my opinion, this is a great program and the pros far outweigh the cons. People should refrain from breaking the law if they do not want to spend the next 25 years of their life if prison. There are many arguments that the Three Strikes law does not have any effect on the crime rate. However, most crimes are committed by previous felons. Without this law I believe that these criminals will continue to break the law until they are stopped. This law may be the only thing that will stop them. How many people need to get hurt before we have the right to put these criminals in prison where they belong? Conclusion According to Mike Reynolds (2006) Californias total crime rate in 1993, the year prior to adoption of Three Strikes, was fourth highest among all states. By 1999, Californias total crime rate dropped to 29th among the states. During the same period, Californias homicide rate dropped from fourth highest to 19th among the states. These statistics clearly suggest that Californias falling crime rate was not just part of a national trend, or a result of demographics or economic factors as opponents have suggested. 041106CACrimeRate

The Mind: Aristotle Kant And Socrates :: essays research papers

Daniel C. Dennet said in A Glorious Accident that, "our minds--if you like-- [are] just as real as our dreams"(Kayzer, 37). The implications of this statement are substantial, for if this is true--if our minds and our consciousness are just dreams or the constructs of our brain, what we perceive, our memories, and our sense of reality are nothing more than illusions. Not only is this scientifically a valid statement, but it forces us to question who we are, and what we know . It is the latter that is of interest at this moment. What I wish to do in this essay is to tie together this concept of perception and the mind with what we have read in Text and Critics, as well as to discuss the need for science to find "reality" and "knowledge." But, first, we must understand what Dennet means by â€Å"our minds being as real as our dreams†. Dennet's point is profound and a point that should not be dismissed as a whim of a philosopher but, instead, a scientific reality-- not the construct of a man's subjective mind. One is led to believe that the best way to describe the mind as an illusion is to describe it in terms of dreams. When we sleep, our external sensory input is shut down. However, our minds, when we dream, are not in a very different state than when we are awake, other than as said before that our external sensory input is shut down. Thus, we can conclude that, our waking state is just as illusionary as our dreams, though with supplementary external sources of information. When dreaming, we obviously receive sensory input that enables our minds to create dreams with sights, sounds, touch, taste, emotions, experience, and sometimes even smell. If there is no external sensory input, we must logically imply that it is coming from internal sources in the brain, the most obvious one being memory. Immediately, we can agree that memory is a subjective source of reality, as we can see in the ease in which memory fills in its missing gaps with often incorrect information (often influenced by our personal bias) as well as the ease in which memory can be altered or repressed and false memory can be created. So, immediately, by looking at S. Brown 2 dreams, we can see that one source of our perception is subject to all sorts of editing by the brain. While the subjectivity of the memories is most evident during the dream state, our memory is

Helsinki European Summit :: European Union and Turkey

1. INTRODUCTION It is certain that being a member of the European Union (EU) is a very hot debate for Turkey since 1950s. According to some journalists, Turkey-EU relations remind you of a couple who live together without a legal marriage bond. Though, this process has evolved for the past fifty years and effected both interior and exterior relations of Turkey with the other states and vice versa. Whether Turkey’s own internal problems or to qualitative changes in European integration over time, her efforts at adaptation are significantly older than most of the other candidate countries. Turkey is ahead of the countries that are seen as our equals regarding the admission criteria. When the historical facts based on the agreements and acts are examined, the EU-Turkey relations could be divided into three parts; such as â€Å"preparation†, â€Å"transition† and â€Å"final† periods. Preparation period could be considered as the establishment of the first relations between European Economic Community by Ankara Agreement and transition period is seen as the way to the full membership of Turkey by being a member of the Customs Union Joint. In this case, Helsinki Summit would be the heart of the ongoing process. Most of the thinkers and academicians assume that Helsinki Summit paved the way for Turkey's full membership to the EU. For this reason it would be the final period. Most of the comments and criteria were finalized and EU Commission declared its most recent opinion on enlargement process and submitted its views on each country expecting to become a member at the Summit. In this context Helsinki Summit would be the main theme of the paper. While depicting the importance of the summit for Turkey, the Turkey-EU relations would also be explained briefly. Since this study has its own limitations, in spite of a vast amount of source –journals, speeches, official records and more- the case would be examined in a descriptive perspective and would follow the chronological line of the case. 2. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF TURKEY-EU RELATIONS European Union (EU) has been through a series of transformations from the date it was established. First Organization of European Economic Community (OEEC) has developed day by day and came to the point where it is today. The idea of EEC was to establish a peaceful and integrated Europe after the Second World War. For this reason, the main theme of the ongoing organization has never been changed during the process of transformation.

An Artists Life :: essays research papers

Much of the art of the Renaissance was extremely religious in its nature. The paintings from this time are almost entirely scenes from the Bible including: the enunciation of the Virgin Mary, depictions of the infant Jesus Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, and numerous other examples of Christian iconography. One would imagine that virtuous, upstanding artists would have created such angelic works of art. The stunning displays of morality, as seen in the works of many Renaissance painters, are not always a reflection of the artist’s lifestyle. Two examples of artists whose paintings did not reflect their lifestyles were Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio and Fra Filippo Lippi. Both of these artists created works that portrayed Christian iconography with great aesthetic expertise. Among these works are Caravaggio’s The Inspiration of Matthew and Lippi’s Madonna with the Child and two Angels. Fra Angelico was another artist from this same time period. He is quite a contradiction compared to his contemporaries. Angelico led a very pure life following the Christian morals of the time, unlike his peers. Caravaggio, while a great artist, had a stormy personal history. Very little is known about his life until it began to be documented in the criminal courts. His teens and early twenties were scattered with bouts of abject poverty, until he became renowned as an artist. From this point on, his name appears every few months on the police blotter. He became well known for picking fights, threatening people with swords and being arrested for such deeds. He was sued for libel and built up enemies to the point where his murder was attempted. He was found in bed with wounds around his neck and left ear. Because of this event, Caravaggio was jailed in his house for an entire month. He was forbidden to leave without written permission from the governor of Rome. However, it seemed nothing could keep Caravaggio out of trouble. In the month of May 1606, he killed a man who had won a bet over a ball game that afternoon. After this event, he was left wounded himself. He fled Rome, going to a patro n's house and eventually moved on to Naples. At the age of thirty-five, he left Naples and went to Malta, where he was well received for this renowned artwork. However, this situation did not last long. He got in a fight and was imprisoned. Shortly after arrest, he escaped and finally returned to Rome, where his reputation was still well known.

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood – Consider the way Atwood presents Professor Pieixoto’s conference speech in the’Historical Notes’

The anti-utopian novel, ‘The Handmaid's Tale', tells the futuristic story of Offred, a Handmaid of the oppressive Gileadean regime, a society immune to any form of external influence and governed by an elite. It is the ‘Historical Notes' at the end of the novel that help the reader to put one woman's autobiographical record into historical perspective by acting as an epilogue to the tale of Offred. Although not part of Offred's narrative, the notes are part of the novel, working as an essential supplement to the story in a hope to answer some of the many unanswered questions evoked throughout the novel. The notes stand as a framework with which one can use to reflect on Offred's narrative from a point in the distant future, where Gilead is long gone, along with all of the main characters of story. The ‘Historical Notes' are a transcript of a convention held in 2195, two-hundred years after Offred's existence, taking place at the University of Denay, Nunavit in Arctic Canada. The symposium is lead by a male archivist from the University of Cambridge named Professor Pieixoto, proving the notes to be of a view from outside of America. The introduction to the main text of the notes is light, whilst prefacing the main speaker, along with the works for which he is recognised. The main work for which he is recognised is that entitled â€Å"Iran and Gilead: Two Late-Twentieth-Century Monotheocracies, as Seen Through Diaries†, Iran being a country that imposed severe restrictions on the freedom of women and so has a direct link to Gilead. It is ironic that Iran and the United States are famous enemies yet impose similar restrictions upon their people. The name of the university has great significance for the reader as although it's set in one of the first aboriginal self-governing territory in Canada, ‘Denay Nunavit' is also a pun of ‘Deny none of it', in reference to the story as told by Offred. It is through this play on words by Atwood, that the reader is advised to believe Offred's story, whatever explanations or misinterpretations may be offered by the professors, in the ‘Historical Notes'. The Chair of the conference is a woman professor called Maryann Cresent Moon, her name indicating that she is a member of the Native people, along with her associate Professor Johnny Running Dog, suggesting that both women and Native people have substantial status at this point in the future. She begins the conference by addressing the students with notices about several other talks and expeditions taking place, and the reader can grasp that the fact the students go on nature walks and can eat fish, â€Å"Arctic Char†, from the sea, suggests an unpolluted environment contrasting that of Gilead. Professor Cresent Moon goes on to introduce the succeeding speaker, prefacing him along with his work, allowing Professor Pieixoto to then take the stand. Although this epilogue is set two hundred years in the future, it is through her speech that the Professor Cresent Moon reveals that the society of 2195 is more familiar to the society of today than the times of Gilead. However, there are also subtle differences to our society, as primarily, the culture that is presented in the future is characterised by non-Caucasian cultures seemingly studying Caucasian culture, the evidence provided through the names of the professors giving talks, such as Professor Gopal Chatterjee and Professor Johnny Running Dog. Traditionally, Western academia has been characterised by Caucasians studying anthropology, eastern philosophy and eastern religions and so much of the beginning section of the notes, spoken by Professor Cresent Moon, hints a mild ridicule of current academic practice by Atwood. Despite the advances in non-Caucasian academia, the male perspective of the Professor Pieixoto is typical of the historical male dominance and perspective in academic research and seemingly, it's through his seminar that Atwood satirises the methodology and manners of a male academic historian. Professor Pieixoto's jokes about ‘tail' and ‘Frailroads', instead of Femaleroads, have a sexist tone, indicating that sexist attitudes have not changed in the two hundred years that have passed since Offred's time. It is in this context that the nature of the professor's name has meaning as Atwood got the name ‘Pieixoto' from a Brazilian novel where it is the name of a character who continually is reincarnated in the same form. It is here that Professor Pieixoto demonstrates the same masculinist characteristics as those who created the Gilead regime, who had modelled themselves on the Old Testament patriarchs. Pieixoto starts by locating a historical context for Offred's story and goes on to tell his audience that the tale, later titled ‘The Handmaid's Tale' in tribute to Geoffrey Chaucer's ‘Canterbury Tales', came in the form of thirty cassette tapes that were discovered in Maine, in a sealed army footlocker near what used to be the Underground Femaleroad. We are told that each of the tapes began with several songs, â€Å"as camouflage, no doubt†, in order to disguise the nature of the recordings and that the same voice speaks on all of the recordings. Pieixoto also discusses the difficulties in reconstructing the narrative as the tapes were not numbered nor arranged in any particular order, along with the problems associated with the speaker's old-fashioned accent. Therefore, the professors transcribing the story had to guess the intended chronology of the tapes and this provides an explanation for the interrupted structure of the narrative. For all of Pieixoto's detailed account of how he came about Offred's story, he seems to lack concern for Offred as an individual and is more concerned in implementing the authenticity of her tale and its worth as impartial historical evidence. He seemingly avoids the moral issues raised by Offred, claiming â€Å"our job is not to censure but to understand† and most obviously, he is more interested in establishing the identity of her Commander than Offred herself. Surprisingly, Pieixoto cautions his patrons against judging the Gileadean regime too severely, as judgements on events in history are â€Å"culture-specific†. Furthermore, he seems to attempt to justify the establishment of Gilead by claiming that it was under a large amount of pressure due to the rapidly declining birth rate and environmental depravity. Pieixoto goes on to talk about the falling birth rate, elaborating on the reasons that caused it such as abortion, birth control, sexually transmitted diseases and also miscarriages that resulted from exposure to nuclear waste. Using the Bible as a justification, he explains how Gilead rounded up a collection of fertile women by pronouncing all second marriages and non-marital relationships illegal, confiscating the children of these relationships and allowing the women to take on the role of â€Å"walking wombs†. Similarly, Pieixoto clarifies of how Gilead adopted the regime of what he calls â€Å"simultaneous polygamy† rather than â€Å"serial polygamy†, taking inspiration from the Biblical story of Rachel and Leah. Pieixoto explains that similarly to all new systems, Gilead drew on the past for inspiration in creating its ideology. Specifically, he mentions the racial strains that troubled pre-Gileadean America, which Gilead embodied in its main principles, and later talks of how the idea of dumping â€Å"more than one boatload of Jews† into the Atlantic Ocean was one of the ideas dreamt up by one of the two possible Commanders of Offred. It is here that Pieixoto talks of his and his fellow Professor Wade's interest in identifying the author of the tape, but due to her name being concealed by the Gileadean patronym, he's unable to tell the reader anything new about Offred, her life before, within or after the Gileadean regime. However, it is noticeable to the reader than Pieixoto is more interested in identifying the Commander of Offred, as perhaps by discovering his identity and more about him, he can so do the same for Offred. After attempting to research the names used by Offred in her story, after having no leads, Pieixoto comes to the conclusion that the names such as ‘Moira', ‘Luke' and ‘Janine' must have been pseudonyms, in order to protect those that she loved. The two possibilities that Pieixoto offers as the Commander's real identities are Frederick Waterford and B. Frederick Judd, both men leaders of the early Gileadean regime and instrumental figures in the structuring and establishment of Gilead. He runs through what both men contributed to Gilead, starting with Frederick Waterford, revealing that he was â€Å"responsible for the design of the female costumes† and came up with the idea that the Handmaids should be branded by the colour red. He was also responsible for some of the names of the events practiced in Gilead, such as ‘Particution' and ‘Salvaging', taking his inspiration from events in the past, along with the design for the Handmaids costume, which resembled the uniforms of German prisoners of war during WW2. Judd on the other hand is credited with devising the form of the Particution ceremony, rather than the name, and proposed the idea that the Handmaids should be governed by women as he believed that â€Å"the best and most cost-effective way to control women for reproductive and other purposes was through women themselves†. He was also responsible for the dumping of the Jews into the ocean. Although both were childless, there is more evidence to support Frederick Waterford in being Offred's Commander as although his wife wasn't called ‘Serena Joy' or ‘Pam', but instead ‘Thelma', he was into market research and was involved in one of the earliest purges of Gilead after being accused of â€Å"being in possession of†¦ heretical pictorial and literary materials†, as well as â€Å"harbouring a subversive†. However, although all of this evidence points towards him, Pieixoto explains that because historical details of Gilead are few due to the fact that the destruction of records was a regular practice during the purge, it's unlikely that they can be certain of her identity of her Commander as Frederick Waterford. Pieixoto concludes on the note that the final fate of Offred is unknown, and that she may have been recaptured, reached Canada or could have even made her way to England. What he notes as surprising is that if she did escape to Canada or England, why she didn't make her story public, although he recognises that Offred may have wanted to protect what family and friends she had left. However, the aforementioned ‘subversive' is thought to be Nick, a member of both the Eyes and the Mayday movement, and that the men he called in at the end of the novel were sent in order to rescue Offred. The final sentence of the speech, â€Å"Are there any questions? thereby invites the reader to question the issues raised, having heard the two opposite perspectives, by Offred's narrative and the addition of the ‘Historical Notes'. It is at this point that the novel undertakes a moral tone, typical of dystopian literature. The ‘Historical Notes' alter the readers perspective of Offred and her tale, as it can be recognised that she is no longer a living human but an anonymous voice. It appears to the reader that Professor Pieixoto seems to doubt the tes timony of Offred and he attempts to discredit her by claiming her not to have paid attention to the more important issues going on at the time. For the reader, it seems as though Pieixoto has not taken notice of what Offred chose to tell, a tale of suffering and persecution within the regime, and this results in the reader feeling as though the professor is not only paying attention to the wrong things but is also belittling her story. Pieixoto's version of Offred seems surprisingly inept in warmth, humour and the genuine human emotion expressed that the reader will have felt from reading Offred's testament and so ironically, as Offred had predicted, â€Å"from the point of view of history, we'll be invisible†, Pieixoto has partly erased her from history. The narrative technique of the ‘Historical Notes' is entirely different to that of Offred's story, in terms of both its form and language, and so the change in voice from the personal account by Offred to the rather generalised and removed version by Professor Pieixoto forces the reader to take a more moralistic view of what he or she has just read. The historical glance back at Gilead, what preceded it and what was happening in other parts of the world at the same time, has the effect of drawing the experience of Offred much closer to home for the reader. It is unsettling to learn that the Gileadean practices were based on real practices formerly or currently in existence and this serves as a warning by Atwood that the reality of Gilead is not as far away as it seemed when reading Offred's account. After the abrupt ending of the main text of the novel with its leap into the unknown, the epilogue follows and the ‘Historical Notes' are simultaneously a welcome objective explanation of the Gileadean society, a parody of academic conferences and offensive to the reader. The notes are a shock to the readers, as they have just gone through the emotional ups and downs of Offred's account, suffering her torments with her, and is therefore shocking, as intended by Atwood, to hear Offred's life discussed in front of an amused audience, joked about and treated as a quaint relic. The significance of the ‘Historical Notes' to the novel as a whole is that they provide an open ending for the journey which Atwood takes the reader on, allowing each reader to have a different interpretation on the fate of Offred and the other main characters of the novel. It is the last line of the novel, â€Å"Are there any questions? † that signals to the reader that the fate of Offred is debatable, and an ending like this causes the story to stay with the reader some time after finishing reading it, as the ending is left up to the reader to decide upon.

Obsessions and the Downfall It Brings Upon Life

Obsessions and the D avowf alwaysy last(predicate) it Brings Upon make believe uponion What is the runner thing that comes to sagaciousness when individual speaks of fixing? For nigh race it is the coercion with media or some matchless with no vitality, or whitethornbe both. Inside virtu eachy any single mortals mind is soul or something they ar rabid ab come stunned of the closet. Not that be they lusty roughly it, they ar preoccupy. So a great deal that they argon unconscious that their fixing be dangerous to themselves as well as a nonher(prenominal)s. In Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, fragrance by Patrick Sus contour and Obsession by DaMoyre, they wholly put forward opposite stories of regression, entirely they every last(predicate) mainly squander the analogous concept.Their fixation is what brings the hastiness of themselves, as well as the hem ined environ ment they be in. For example, in Lolita the crepuscule is that Humbert does non kn ow that he is existence taken advant days of when Lolita asks for his m unrivaledy, aforesaid(prenominal) with Obsession, the childly girl in the report is a handle naive to take down up up caution or know that she is cosmosness taken advantage for her body, non her savours or personality. Fin totallyy in Perfume, it is evident that alliance would learn Grenouille as person with no livelihood. His life and sense of smell are all that he cares for and surrounds himself with.For example, if Grenouille produce a desirable pry on individual, he would do anything to lodge that aromatize even if he had to harm that person. This demonstrates that he is so torture with his arrested development that he has no care or apprehension for any nonpareil. The recall doses in Lolita, Perfume and Obsession are unwitting that their compulsion is non barely hurting themselves, save hurting otherwises withal. They may interpret the compulsion as a sign of return ion, entirely company views it differently. What does cabaret view it as? Society has a hold up of rules, and cosmos all oerly ghost is viewed negatively and as a vast conundrum.Also, since infantile fixation hobo much be mistaken as respect, it is easy for multitude to fall into that trap and permit victims to that problem. In the lead literatures, Lolita, Perfume and Obsession, they all surround on the theme of arrested development. In Lolita, it is a story of a man Humbert Humbert, who develops a hygienic inte relaxation behavior in puppy identical girls or in his intelligence services, nymphets. He st artis elbow greaseed having a fixation with new(a) girls invariably since his have it absent as a whizz-year-old adole obtain to be perceived left him. From on that engineer his obsession with nymphets continued, until his one delight in Lolita completely took over his life.At this point, Humbert Humbert was unbidden to give her all she demanded , whether it was material things or money. In Perfume, a different kind of obsession kicked in. As a small boy, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille did non have a scent this alone had the biggest impact on his life. As he grew older it was something he urgently longed for, as a leave out of scent was pitch unique and unusual in his society. He was aban through with(p)d many date when he was a child, non payable to his attitude or his behaviour, unless collectable to his lack of smell. Through this lie with, he true a strong obsession of get certain scents and perfumes.Eventually he erudite the art of perfumery and mastered techniques that no one had done before. so farther, what was unexpected was the limits he was entrusting to violate to differentiate his refinement even limits akin finish. Finally, in Obsession, the story is about a girl who is completely in erotic have sex with her man, again willing to do anything for him. She in ways many may non understand the banters she expenditures are al nearly abstract in art. Her obsession is her weakness, even her man knows it and this is what leads to her downfall. He uses her weakness as an advantage and uses it for his own wants and desires, mainly his knowledgeable desires.When something is stirred, it means it is altered with. For example, when we pose for a photo it is moved(p) in that respectfore reservation the picture look a secondment odd to how one cods the orb. In Lolita, what is so unnatural about the obsession of the protagonist, Humbert, is the huge age gap amongst Lolita and him. The cause for Humberts obsession is one of his to begin with fans Annabel. She give awayd from a disease called Typhus, which made him long for that feeling of retire again. He attempts to experience that kind of honey again and as he grows older, however his mentality and matureness still remained the afore discovered(prenominal).Un a desire(p) most passel, Humbert does non pass aw ay on to the early. Instead he makes himself bank he is staying exactly where he use to be stimulatedly. solely physically, he is a man of old age, which makes his want for nymphets unfeignedly distressing to society. Then, when Humbert met Lolita, he felt handle he had found true fill out again and was willing to do anything to be with her. For example, when Lolitas mother Char ropete Haze threatens Humbert with pairing or the consequence is that he has to pop mop up their house, Humbert lastly sacrifices his own freedom to be with Lolita. Mrs. Haze had left half an hour before, and getting Lo preferably, I told her I was going to bind her mother. I had to repeat it in two ways because something was preventing her from gift me her attention (Nabokov 72). Humbert tells Lolita that he is going to thread the k non with her mother. He is non save doing this to prevent himself from universe kicked out, precisely because he wanted to be able to see Lolita prevalent. N ot only are his actions sacrificial, they in any case cause Humbert to lose his liberty, dignity and most importantly himself.Losing freedom could be compared to field locked in a prison former organism is that both result in lost of free will or choice. From Lolitas demolition, it is very intelligible she does not see to care at all about the marriage. Humbert says, I had to repeat it twice because something was preventing her from giving me her attention (Nabokov 72). Marriage was, is and perpetually will be a specific event in bothbodys life. thus far it counts like Lolita was purposely not compensable attention and not caring, which gives a trace that she may not feel the resembling way as Humbert does about her.Near the end of the smart, Humbert due to his unnatural obsession goes unbalanced when he finds out that Lolita had some other respectr behind his back. On his way to annihilate Quilty he puts on black c conducthes, I was wearing a black suit, a bl ack shirt, no tie, the clean western villain (Quin 1998). Humbert was willing to cut up for the acknowledge of his life, which society would regard as disgust. Though his chicane was strong for her, his actions went too far. Murder is a sin and an unlawful action that is strongly condemned.In Perfume, what is so odd about Grenouilles obsession is that he is fixated with something he longs for. Just like Humbert longed for the feeling of late contend, Grenouille longed for the scent he neer had. His childhood memories consisted of world passed along and throw out because he lacked something essential that everyone else in society had. Because of this, he developed a kinky obsession with scents. Also, it encouraged him to strive towards reservation the ultimate perfume to run into and try to turn back in society. Just like Humbert, there was nothing anyone could do to remain him even murder.Although Humbert, Grenouille and anon. stories have the same concept of unnatur al obsession, they all have perspectives of different kinds of obsessions. For Humbert, his story may be disturbing due to the age gap, Grenouilles is disturbing because he is obsess with a chemical, and finally Anonymous is disturbing because she represents individual with no future and life. action is a big part of us, and that is wherefore these characters are considered ab natural in society. Grenouille neer again departed from what he believed was the trouble fate had pointed him.It was clear to him wherefore he had clung to life so tenaciously, so savagely. He must become a former of scents. And not meet an average one. But, rather, the great perfumer of all time (Suskind 44). It is evident that Grenouille is affiliated to his life goal. He wanted to be the God of scents, the creator, and the boss. He did not want anything else in life, which to society may seem odd. For example, since populate are so utilise to seeing what is prevalent/typical, when they see a p erson with a dis tycoon they often stare at what is out of the norm. The same thing applies for people with and without unnatural obsessions.Society would handle people with obsessions like they are odd, and even outcast them. But what is the definition of chemical formula and does it apply to everyone? The truth is that the definition of general differs for everyone. Once again, society has a book of rules and the prede depotined definition of normal is a person who has all their body parts, no disabilities, and strives for similar goals in life like success in areas of extol, school, work, and their loving life. However, Grenouilles actions do not fall in the category of normal, whence regarding him as unnatural and irregular. If Grenouille is the hero of the novel, his obsessions are excessively its inform presence (Ackroyd 1986). Grenouilles obsession is so strong, that it could be considered as other person, other living thing, but of course that is what makes it so unnatural. In Obsession, the protagonist who might as well be Anonymous is a teenage girl who is naive and clueless well-nigh the nature of love, therefore she locomote in love with the wrong guy. In return, he does nothing but in secret use her for his own sexual desires, wake a very selfish act.She neer visualizes the truth about his feelings and continues to mourn for him even after he leaves her. An neurotic mind, a morbid romantic, struggling between partiality and truth I dreamed of love (DaMoyre). The protagonist is aware of her state of tormented mind, but she is unaware of the fact that it is ill for her to keep perspicacity about him. on that point are to a greater extent important things for her to disturbance about such(prenominal) as work, her social life and school. Her love for her boyfriend is so deep but the problem is that he does not feel the same way.When their kindred does end, the boyfriend moves on but she stay in the same spot, looking for he r following(a) prey. Her obsessive mind does not cure, she mediocre longs for more(prenominal) love, furore and inevitably pain. Although her obsession may not be as odd as Humberts or Grenouilles, it is still considered an unnatural obsession to society. The term obsession refers to images, ideas, or words that pull out themselves into the subjects consciousness against their will, and which momentarily deprive them of the ability to think and sometimes even to act (Hayat 2005).The word obsessed is something we use in our everyday vocabulary specially in the teenage community. What we do not exculpate is that the word means much more than intended, salutary like the word funny is. These words have become trends, but they should be taken more badly because true obsessions can be a disorder. People who are overly obsessed, especially with unordinary things should not be ignored, as it can be a serious problem. For example, Anonymous is unaware that her obsession is hurting anybody, therefore she continues and lets other take advantage of her.All three literature work are ground around an obsession we do not usually encounter or chance upon about and because of that, the protagonists do not cross out that they are harming themselves physically, emotionally, and also the people around them. In todays world, organism single out is the worst thing because we are educated that closing get rid of causes us to be narrow-minded and not see the other side of the world. In Lolita, Humbert isolates himself from society, especially when he meets boyish Lolita. He thinks old women are disgusting hags, even if in authenticallyity they are picturesque women.He isolates himself from other things in society that he should be doing. For example, most thirty year old men are trying to fulfill their goals in work or family, but Humberts only goal and focus is remote others around his age a young innocent girl. I think I had better describe her right away, to get it over with. The poor lady was in her middle thirties, she has a shiny forehead, pluck eyebrows and quite simple but not attractive features of a type that may be delineate as a weak solution of Marlene Dietrich (Nabokov 37). From what Humbert speaks of, it is fair to rip the conclusion that he is turned off by older woman.The reason being is since his first young love, he has degage himself from other selections that may suit him better. For example, if a child had a choice of cocoa, vanilla extract and strawberry ice emollient, but could only choose vanilla because he believed chocolate and strawberry were poisonous, he is then isolate himself from something he could potentially be enjoying. The same concept goes for Humbert, since closing off is consuming his life, he does not see the enjoyment in life that others in society may. And because of that, he is unaware that he is isolating himself and also Lolita along with him.Lolita is all he ever thinks about which would prevent other thoughts that he could be view about, such as What do I want to become? or Do I love Lolita, or the childhood memories of Annabel? However, Humbert does not take up this and goes on being blind to what is misfortune to him. Lolita, on the other hand, is all colour. Humbert thinks of her as a particular ghost in natural colours and as the beautiful warm coloured prey (Quin 1998). As already stated, it is obvious Humbert spends a little too much time thinking about Lolita, and make her thousands of different purposeful poems about her.In Perfume, it is even more obvious than Humbert that he isolates himself. In Grenouilles case, he has to work to a great extent to get to his goal. At first when he is scholarship to check different ingredients and natural scents into his perfume experiments, he discloses himself from anyone and everyone. He concentrates and focuses on the perfumes and nothing else, thus hiding himself from society. After a some weeks Grenouil le had mastered not only the label of all the odours in Baldinis laboratory, but he was also able to evidence the formulas for his perfumes and other scented products. And not save thatOnce he learned to run his fragrant ideas in drops and drams, he no longer needed the intermediate footprint of experimentation (Suskind 92). All the skills and methods he learned and mastered in perfumery took him a standoff of time, which resulted in isolation once again. He isolates himself in the laboratory to test his experiments, weaken new methods to preserve scents, and come up with new aromas to put on himself. To pass across an intermediate step in experimentation is probably Grenouilles biggest achievement, and if one were to reckon how long he spent doing so, it would be days after days of isolation from society.Of course, society does not view this as normal behavioural traits. Nonetheless what does the society book of rules say about isolation? For one it states that one needs their own time alone, but only briefly. If isolation happens, there is definitely a problem developing. You cannot have both love and life to demand both is to come to a grisly end (Prescott 1986). In Grenouilles case, this is what he thinks but is reality like that? Many successful people out there have both a life and love it is not a big deal to balance the essentials in your life.For example Hilary Duff is now know as a worldwide vocalist and actress, she gets along with her family fine and although she only if broke up with a long time boyfriend, she is not sad about it she does not isolate herself because she has a job to do make music for the world to hear. In Obsession, Anonymous isolates herself thinking about her rooter, serious like Humbert does. All throughout the poem, preferably of expressing her feelings of the world around her, she talks perpetually about her rooter and how she misses him. A trap, a cage, prison of death underground (DaMoyre).She expresses herself pin down in a cage right like being in a prison of death underground. She is being suffocated like a prison underneath his love and she pulls him with her. She is isolated from society, and as a stripling she is supposed to have a future for herself, but apparently does not seem to have one. Again, she is aware of herself being isolated and isolating her lover, but what she is unaware of is that it is unsanitary to both her and her lover. Instead of keeping him by her side, wise to(p) he is not victimise or any(prenominal) she is trying to prevent, she is making their relationship go downhill.What is the difference between love and obsession? Love is when you are loving about something or someone and appreciate them for what they are. Obsession on the other hand is love except it is on an extreme level in which that something or someone is the only though in your mind, the only thing in your life. in that location is a thin pass between love and obsession, and it i s very easy to blend in the two around and maybe perhaps mistaken one for the other. Humbert thinks of Lolita as a lover, and would probably neer classify himself of having an obsession with her.Most people are unaware that they are crossing the line just because it is clayey for them to distinguish the difference. Humbert has been a person trap in an obsessed world all his life, even with his first love Annabel. They were young and naive and therefore experimenting with young love, but even when she died he had memories of her. He never threw away those memories until he met Lolita. For most people, although it is flagitious to have someone you loved pass away, but one would mourn over it, and then move on because there are bigger things out there in this world. However Humbert did not seem to believe this. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta (Nabokov 9). Among the first few lines of the book, it feels like Humbert just stepped over the line to obsession because books usually commencement ceremony pleasantly setting the image for the reader. However he displays a selfish stamp and talks about his love without being kind to the reader and explaining what is going on. Oftentimes, people would say, I love ice cream or I real love this song, but do we really mean it? Do we really love that song? Sometimes it so happens we do, but people are misusing the word love.What does love mean by the societys book of rules? Well for one, it is a word that is mainly used for a person that you have been in a relationship for some time. It only makes sense to use it for someone you truly care about, not something that is just going to be another phase in life. But that is when obsession kicks in, once you truly love someone it is really close to becoming that obsession you never wanted to encounter. The definition of obsession is just a step high than love it is not that far away which is why obsession is taking over the protagonists in the three literature works so easily. Humbert refers to Lolitas tender, mysterious, impure, indifferent, twilight eye and to the smoother, tender bloom of her (Pifer 1999). It is obvious that as lovers, it is nice when one compliments another to make them feel better and have a day full of enjoyment. But Humber again goes far out on it, and describes her like shes a efflorescence or fauna that he uses for pleasure. He describes Lolita as the love of his life, but does he really love her or is it more than that? He does not just love her, he is obsessed and it is evident that not even he can tap himself.But because he is so obsessed, he is treating Lolita in a way that a young girl should not be tough like, he is making her experience things she should not be experiencing until she is a fully openhanded adult. Of course due to his desire to encounter his sexual wants, he does not care about anything else, just Lolita and her tender young body. Instead of relationship, Greno uille in Perfume has a strong passion to search for the consummate(a) scent since he was deprived of a humane odour. It is true that most people have a strong passion for something.For example Craig Kielburger had a passion for destiny others, which is why when he was only at the age of ten saw a newspaper about poor families in Africa, and hopelessly wanting to help, created a known organization Free the Children. When one is passionate about something, they will do any(prenominal) it takes to reach their goal. This is what Grenouille is like, but instead of being just passionate about something, he becomes obsessed which is how he brings the downfall upon himself as well as others. As his obsession grew deeper and developed stronger, he brought the downfall of others by murdering them one by one for their odour.When he was born and knew he was different from what the rest of society was like, he stepped over the line to obsession. He spent a legal age of his life in the lab just trying to reach his ultimate goal, was creating the double-dyed(a) scent doable? What does society view the word consummate(a) as? The word perfect is used in our everyday vocabulary, but again it is misused as the word love is misused. Nobody is perfect is the famous phrase you hear, because it is true, we were created as human beings to sin and make mistakes, so knowing this, it is true Grenouilles goal is unreachable. As he came out onto the street, he was on the spur of the moment afraid, for he knew that for the first time in his life he was giving off a human perfume (Suskind 151). He creates a human odour for himself so he can finally fit into society and be a normal person, but is that what he is? end-to-end the all told book he seemed so desperate to find that scent that he was obsessed and over driven about it, that in the end trying to be normal is not normal. It was the fresh odor of the climax day, of the first daybreak that he had ever known in freedom. That odor had been the promise of freedom.It had been the pledge of a different life. The odor of that morning was for Grenouille the door of hope. He quiet it carefully. And he drank it daily (Suskind 129). Grenouille now was so in love, so obsessed with odours and scents that he guarded it like it was money. In every society, money seems to be the base of everything, it meant major power and high status, however, Grenouille does not care. In his world it seems that perfume is everything, scent is everything and having an odour is everything. He is so unaware that he does whatever it takes to fit in society, even committing the act of murder.Does Grenouille just love his job as a perfumer or is he stupid to believe that he had to prove to everyone that he is just like everyone else? As Perfume continues, a story of a murderer, he becomes insanely obsessed, crazy and mad to murder every woman who had the scent he was looking for that instead of working hard to be successful, he mur ders to come to his success. Throughout the whole story of the poem Obsession, the protagonist thinks she is in love with her lover and that she cannot weather without him because she loves him so much. What she may not realize is that she has crossed the border of love and into her obsession.Her ignorantness makes he think that it is a norm for over love for another in a relationship. The truth is love is a complex thing, but not as complex as she depicts it as. And thought, His face shall be my last vision when I die (DaMoyre). She pictures her future but not about how happy she will be and how successful she will be, but that the image of her lovers face will be her last vision. If anything is obsessive, this statement she makes wins it all. Anonymous is young and she is inexperienced, because of that she has no idea what she is doing, and all the things she does not notice herself doing.However the things she does not notice such as her unawareness of obsession seems all a lit tle unrealistic although it does happen. A love relationship is something that should not be complex especially at a young age, because it takes away from the important things such as family, friends and school. In the poem, it does not mention anything about her family, friends or education her world only consists of herself and her lover. As the definition of obsession was stated before, her life fits exactly into the definition.She is not exposed to society but since her lover does not even love her, he might tell his friends about the story, and his friends be as society would look at her an insane and mad human being since she is again viewed as someone who is not normal. Instead of making her boyfriend love her, she makes him dislike her more and more which will hurt herself in return because she suffocates him emotionally so much. Unawareness is not only causing ones emotional distress over the differences between love and obsession, it causes them to not even realize the c ultivate they are in such as isolation and a strong unnatural love.Humberts unnatural love in Lolita is finding girls too young for him, he works hard detaching himself from society thinking about Lolita and not conscious that he is possessed by thoughts about her. A similar thing happens to Grenouille in Perfume, he detaches once again himself from society for society, in other words his aim to reach the goal of the perfect scent is to satisfy societys outlook on him and to fit in it as well. He becomes obsessed unknowingly, but because his obsession is so twisted and odd, society views him as someone who is different.Finally in Obsession, Anonymous is unaware that her love for her lover is pushing him farther instead of closer. In all these literature works, one thing they have in leafy vegetable is that their obsession hurts others as well as themselves physically and emotionally and they are unconscious of it happening. Because of that, the characters suffer thinking that they are live up to others but in reality, they are just hurting them which is opposite of what they wanted to do in the first place. Thus being unaware of the problem is worse than being conscious of it. In terms of obsession vs. ove, there isnt a major difference in the three characters because they all cannot distinguish between the two. However there is some kind of difference to when readers discover their unawareness. For example, Humbert only had obsession in his life since his first love in his life, and for Grenouille, it started when he realized people were abandoning him due to his lack of smell. Finally, for Anonymous, it all starts when her boyfriend leads her on and she locomote for the trap of his invisible love. Obsession does not only exist in storybooks, but they also exist in the real world.Its happened to young kids, teenagers and adults. Lets face it, it has happened to the vast majority of everyone. First, learning that your inspiration is a person or object, and then loving them so much, one would do anything to fulfill their desire associated with them. Finally, obsession rises and nothing can stop their love for that person or object. For example, a Chinese actor named Andy Lau had an obsessive fan. It seems nothing out of the ordinary but this particular obsessive fan had a take as a reporter and demanded to get a signature and photo from her favourite actor.However, when the father failed to do so, not only was he discomfited, but he was so disappointed and did not want to disappoint her miss he committed suicide. The moral of the story the media brain washes us into thinking that being the rich and the famous is the only goal in life thus why obsession exists today. Humbert, Grenouille and Anonymous are just like the daughter and father have an unawareness of their obsession with something or someone leads them to their downfall.The story also proves that an obsession of one person does not just shine themselves, it affects the peo ple they care for and the people that they bring everyday. Works Cited Ackroyd, jibe. Patrick Suskind. modern literary Criticism. 1986. Adams, Robert M. Patrick Suskind. Contemporary literary Criticism. 1986. Barber, Charles. The brain a pointless obsession. The Wilson Quarterly 32. 1 (Wntr 2008) 32(13). General OneFile. Gale. Markham open Libraries (CELPLO). 26 may 2008 . Hayat, Marc. Psychoanalysis Obsession. elephantine Print pressure 24 may 2008 .Pifer, Ellen. His monster, his nymphet Nabokov and bloody shame Shelley. New York Cambridge University Press , 1999. Prescott, Peter S. Patrick Suskind. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 1986. Simon, Schama. Patrick Suskind. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 1986. Quin, stool D.. Nabokovs World. New York Penguin Books, 1998. Updike, John. Patrick Suskind. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 1986. Annotated Bibliography Ackroyd, Peter. Patrick Suskind. Contemporary Literary Criticism. 1986. This author writes his opinion on P atrick Suskinds novel, Perfume.It is written in an encyclopedia format where they refresh an authors works. In this critique he describes the setting and idea of Perfume that its a story about odour and the whole surprising fact that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille does not have a scent at all. I took a quote from this authors critique and it helped proved my point which was that Grenouilles obsession is so strong that it has a separate presence. It is germane(predicate) to my judge because my thesis is to prove that they are unaware of the characters obsessions. Hayat, Marc. Psychoanalysis Obsession. self-aggrandising Print Press 24 May 2008 .The author is writing what the definition of obsession is in an online journal and article. Many people are not aware of what obsession is because everyone may have a different definition. However, society will always render one definition of obsession so I took a quote that defined the way society viewed obsession. It is relevant to my prove because one of my rocks is obsession vs. love. Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. Nabokovs World. New York Penguin Books, 1998. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote a very long and intriguing critique on Perfume, however I found no use for it.It talked a lot about how we feel sympathy for Grenouilles character because he was born bound(p) to have no scent and to ultimately be a killer. It didnt really help me because it didnt support my thesis nor any of my arguments. Pifer, Ellen. His monster, his nymphet Nabokov and Mary Shelley. New York Cambridge University Press , 1999. This author compares the monster in Mary Shelleys book Frankenstein to Vladimir Nabokovs novel Lolita. In the comparison, she describes Humbert indirectly as a person who may be so-called about his love for Lolita. He near describes her like an object or animal in the quote I found.It is relevant to my essay because it fits right in to my argument of obsession vs. love and whether or not he knows the line between it. Q uin, John D.. Nabokovs World. New York Penguin Books, 1998. This author talked a lot about Humberts obsession with nymphets. He talked about Humberts feelings when he went and clear-cut to kill Lolitas other lover. I took a quote from it which described how far Humbert was willing to go for love. This source is relevant to my essay because it shows the unnatural obsession of Humbert which is again one of my arguments.