«Writers define themselves by their purposes. A novelist writes to entertain, to embrace the imagination and create a world of escape for the reader. A columnist writes to inform, to relay the facts and describe a world of current events for the...» Document abstract
$2.95
3 word format
Language : english
humanities/philosophy
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 1 times
SummaryWriters define themselves by their purposes. A novelist writes to entertain, to embrace the imagination and create a world of escape for the reader. A columnist writes to inform, to relay the facts and describe a world of current events for the reader. What, however, exists in-between? With such a large gray area between truth and untruth, surely some writers thrive upon this ambiguity, writers who can both relay the facts and create the world in which these facts exist. These writers are documentarians, individuals who have found that balance between fiction and nonfiction, who do not lie but are fastidious about the truth they tell. And in their actions and in their desires, they have formulated firsthand the definition of a documentary; for a documentary strives not to answer the questions previously conceived by society, but strives instead to devise its own questions for society to answer itself.
«Joan of Arc never lived to hear her own name; she never lived to see her own deliverance. Jeanne la Pucelle (Joan the Maid) died a heretic. Redeemed twenty-five years later at the nullification of the Rouen trial that sentenced her to the stake,...» Document abstract
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4 word format
Language : english
film studies
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
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SummaryJoan of Arc never lived to hear her own name; she never lived to see her own deliverance. Jeanne la Pucelle (Joan the Maid) died a heretic. Redeemed twenty-five years later at the nullification of the Rouen trial that sentenced her to the stake, Joan finally earned the honor behind the surname D’Arc, but not before cementing a dichotomy larger than the split between England and France. Was Joan of Arc truly a messenger of God, or merely a girl spawned by satanic delusions or personal vendettas? History fails Joan; it is not even known for sure her date of birth or her exact age at death. Régine Pernoud, in her book Joan of Arc: Her Story, paints a portrait of Jeanne left incomplete by lack of fact and verification. Even her accompanying collection of interviews and transcripts, Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses, presents a one-dimensional Joan void of any emotion beyond her devotion to God. Such reckless piousness is hard to believe. Most fictional accounts of the Maid sacrifice spirituality in the name of humanity. Even William Shakespeare in his theatrical representation of King Henry VI presents Joan as the basest of villains, weak to the point of embracing Satan to save her own life. This English propaganda, common in decades following the end of the 100 Years War, presents a strikingly human Joan in comparison to the French obsession with her as icon alone: it is easier to sympathize with Joan as a lost girl torn on the eve of her death than as a devout Christian unbreakable even by the thought of fire and damnation. In his film The Messenger, Luc Besson attempts to find understanding in the story of Jeanne la Pucelle, a kind of humanity disallowed by history and Joan herself.
«I have always been wary of psychoanalysis. In my own studies of psychology, I have preferred personality psychology to social psychology, but psychoanalysis has always rested somewhere between the two. A personal prejudice, perhaps, since...» Document abstract
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3 word format
Language : english
psychology
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 3 times
SummaryI have always been wary of psychoanalysis. In my own studies of psychology, I have preferred personality psychology to social psychology, but psychoanalysis has always rested somewhere between the two. A personal prejudice, perhaps, since psychoanalysis is concerned only with personality, but I find its pessimistic focus to be more closely related to a collectivist study.
I digress.
Psychoanalysis makes room only for the abnormal personality. From hysteria to bisexuality, the science searches for these small failures in the human psyche, the mistakes of development, the errors within that blueprint that we should all follow. But this idea of a blueprint, a right way to form, seems to me a social psychological notion. We are meant to be the same; only when we are mistakes do we earn a sense of individuality.
I digress.
Psychoanalysis makes room only for the abnormal personality. From hysteria to bisexuality, the science searches for these small failures in the human psyche, the mistakes of development, the errors within that blueprint that we should all follow. But this idea of a blueprint, a right way to form, seems to me a social psychological notion. We are meant to be the same; only when we are mistakes do we earn a sense of individuality.
«Much of the realm of psychology, especially in the disciplines of neuroscience and cognitive studies, is focused on identifying the unified characteristics of human thought and behavior. The brain is studied extensively: years upon years of...» Document abstract
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5 word format
Language : english
psychology
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 5 times
SummaryMuch of the realm of psychology, especially in the disciplines of neuroscience and cognitive studies, is focused on identifying the unified characteristics of human thought and behavior. The brain is studied extensively: years upon years of theories and experiments have yielded an accurate map as well as concrete functions for each individual structure, most recently those of the cerebral cortex. The consistency of the modern brain is helpful in determining what specific occurrences are in fact abnormalities: much like standardized criteria for mental disorders are necessary for correct diagnosis and distribution of medication. And this is what makes the lesser-known focuses on personality and social psychology all the more interesting. A common person automatically draws a line between psychology and insanity. Yet everyday psychology, the interactions between populations and the self-awareness individuals uphold as the fundamental element of being human, goes ignored in a society increasingly fixated on the negative. An individual is more than a brain and genetics, but so often the individual is forgotten in matters of the mind. There is uniqueness to each and every person, a personality that will never be expressed again, a self that is alone in its composition. Sigmund Freud’s theory of the psychodynamic personality accounts for many of these peculiarities that are, in essence, the souls of humanity. The focus of social psychology on self-consciousness formed through the eyes of others solidifies the relationship between the self and society that develops a blank personality into the true portrait of an individual.
«In all its humor, 1984 ½ would have in actuality been a very fitting title for Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. An invisible, all-powerful government, the struggle of the individual against the state, the apparent hopelessness, there is no doubting the...» Document abstract
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4 word format
Language : english
humanities/philosophy
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 1 times
SummaryIn all its humor, 1984 ½ would have in actuality been a very fitting title for Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. An invisible, all-powerful government, the struggle of the individual against the state, the apparent hopelessness, there is no doubting the similarities between George Orwell’s dystopian creation and its more recent adaptation. But at some point between the opening scene and the end credits, an important difference surfaces: the motive. 1984 is the exploration of totalitarianism, a government that controls to instill fear into its citizens. The government in Brazil controls because it itself is afraid. Both Terry Gilliam and the modern world have learned that in times of terrorism and great tragedy, there is a certain pattern of extreme security taken by the state, pattern that is an exact replica of John Mill’s theory of utilitarianism. The absence of justice, trust and personal rights in Brazil, and consequently in a modern nation plagued by the PATRIOT Act, is best explored and justified through a utilitarian perspective.
«A common trend in American writing is to highlight gender differences. Authors appear compelled to hammer home the concept of women’s suffrage, representing women as nothing but the weaker, fairer sex. In a way, it’s almost a case of reverse...» Document abstract
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5 word format
Language : english
literature
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 1 times
SummaryA common trend in American writing is to highlight gender differences. Authors appear compelled to hammer home the concept of women’s suffrage, representing women as nothing but the weaker, fairer sex. In a way, it’s almost a case of reverse sexism, proving the other side right by inversely separating the group in question from the rest. Ayn Rand focused also on the sexes. Instead of pitying her female characters, she raises them to extraordinary heights before reducing them to a level of trained obedience. In her opinion, a life full of servitude and compliance is a woman’s place in society. It is also the only happiness she should be allowed to experience in her life, as it was the only happiness she experiences in her own. Ayn Rand’s portrayal of women in her fictional works is a reflection of her own personal beliefs on gender roles.
«The image of a soldier is that of a stereotype. He barely passed high school or did not pass at all. He laughed at the idea of college, he laughed at the price. He works every weekday and drinks every weekend. Bosses and police officers have no...» Document abstract
$5.95
6 word format
Language : english
political science
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 2 times
SummaryThe image of a soldier is that of a stereotype. He barely passed high school or did not pass at all. He laughed at the idea of college, he laughed at the price. He works every weekday and drinks every weekend. Bosses and police officers have no reasons to give him a second chance. “One more screw up and you’re out,” his father threatens year in and year out, until the threats and his father blur into the background of a life he no longer wishes to live. Maybe one day while bagging groceries, or serving a hamburger at the local stand, he notices a man in a uniform. He notices how proud the man looks, how strong, how brave: he pictures how brave he would look in uniform. A few letters, a few phone calls, and he is enlisted. “It was my one-way ticket out of Hell,” he says years later, to a wife who does not know him, to children who do not miss him. And he comes back ten years later from someone else’s war with only one leg and the bravery he was never strong enough to forsake, to a Hell he was never meant to escape. He must have been desperate, for he chose the path of war. Because that is the military, right? The path to war?
«The controversy surrounding self-fulfilling prophecies, while originally centered on proving their existence, has recently settled on the probability of such phenomenon occurring in a natural environment. While not directly cited in this resource...» Document abstract
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20 word format
Language : english
humanities/philosophy
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 8 times
SummaryThe controversy surrounding self-fulfilling prophecies, while originally centered on proving their existence, has recently settled on the probability of such phenomenon occurring in a natural environment. While not directly cited in this resource guide, the original “Pygmalion Effect” experiment by Robert Rosenthal and Leonore Jacobson, while a success in its own self-absorbed goals, failed to make any connections outside of its own hypothesis. The Harvard professor and elementary school principal proved that teacher expectation can directly influence student achievement, but the experiment, conducted in a fixed environment, did not initially translate to the naturalistic world. The original teachers, the independent variables of the test, were told what to expect from their students, and although those students, a heterogeneous mixture of academic potentials, did in fact respond with positive correlation to the subsequent behaviors of their teachers, there was no guarantee that such cause and effect would occur in a literal classroom. In a series of experiments that followed in the decade after Rosenthal and Jacobson’s revolutionary yet flawed research, the naturalistic implications of the Pygmalion Effect were established, answering the question of whether or not teachers do make such drastic predictions, basing their expectations on first impressions and superficial observations and inadvertently fulfilling their own prophecies concerning their students.
«Romeo loved Juliet, Juliet loved Romeo, and in the end, they both died to prove it. Neither the Capulets nor the Montagues could understand such love, so neither could allow such love. Romeo and Juliet died to prove it. Yet centuries later,...» Document abstract
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7 word format
Language : english
literature
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
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SummaryRomeo loved Juliet, Juliet loved Romeo, and in the end, they both died to prove it. Neither the Capulets nor the Montagues could understand such love, so neither could allow such love. Romeo and Juliet died to prove it. Yet centuries later, William Shakespeare’s darker tragedy is still revered as one of the greatest love stories of all time. The politics of Elizabethan England that pitted family against family are not so prominent in the modern Western world, but the love created between Romeo and Juliet, a love that existed outside the boundaries of societal acceptance, still exists. Many homosexual youths stand on the edge of a lifelong battle for the right to love. But the only love they can ever hope for is one born of loneliness, of desperation, of suffering: the love of Romeo and Juliet; the love destined for end. The love that shatters the very sanctity that love has been expected to preserve. Léa Pool’s Lost and Delirious paints an accurate yet painful picture of a lesbian love torn apart by the predisposed expectations of a private high school. It paints the picture of two girls striving for an absolute acceptance that can never be. But the film is more than the tragic portrayal of an adolescent homosexual relationship; it is the tragic portrayal of this relationship as the embodiment of romantic love.
«One cannot discuss the concepts of gender without looking at the various frameworks in which it exists. In Paradoxes of Gender, Judith Lorber states that gender is “a process of social construction, a system of social stratification, and an...» Document abstract
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4 word format
Language : english
literature
school essay
date published
19/10/2007
review : not yet assessed
level : Advanced
requested 0 times
SummaryOne cannot discuss the concepts of gender without looking at the various frameworks in which it exists. In Paradoxes of Gender, Judith Lorber states that gender is “a process of social construction, a system of social stratification, and an institution that structures every aspect of our lives because of its embeddedness in the family, the workplace, and the state, as well as in sexuality, language, and culture” (Lorber 5). But gender is more than an institution; it is an institution governed by an institution. And this institution is globalization. Not only is economy a direct reflection of a country’s mindset and intent, but it is also alters gender roles and restructures gender hierarchies. It has the both the power to build gender relations and the power to destroy them.
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