Is gambling a moral issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is gambling a moral issue - Essay Example Although some of these arguments may be correct, gambling is more of a moral issue because it results in people’s suffering while others thrive. According to Fitzgerald there is no point in considering gambling and casinos as an economically viable industry. No doubt it adds to the pocket of a few and also contributes to the governments revenue box, yet considering the social maladies casinos and gambling are responsible for; it is more of a curse than blessing. Furthermore a healthy society can thrive amidst healthy individuals. Here health does not only refer to physical health but also the psychological one. Gambling results in erratic behavior through a complex neurochemical reaction that is far from being healthy and therefore according to Fitzgerald should be abstained from. Last but not the least the writer has also criticized gambling and casinos for spreading pollution and congestion in weekends through the rush of gamblers in peaceful localities where casinos are loc ated. Fitzgerald states at first that gambling although illegal in the state of California, in recent time permission has been extended to some Indian tribes. Might be placed in a light note but according to him since from historical times the Indians have been exploited by the other Americans the state now want to compensate them by conferring right of exploiting the others. United States of America as a uniform country must follow the same law for all and the logic that the writer has presented in legalizing gambling is no short of disgracing the goodwill of the government and the equality doctrine of the constitution. Without any grain of doubt the writer is against legalizing gambling but his arguments against such legalization are all driven on materialistic grounds. Fitzgerald has referred that gambling can never be considered as an economic boost owing to the $2 net loss it imposes on the government for each dollar earned as revenue. Another economic argument placed by the wr iter is the doubling of bankruptcy rate in countries with casinos in compare to those without them. The writer carefully states statistics to act as a psychologist while judging the compulsion of a gambler to spend more than he can afford. The statistics according to Fitzgerald in favor of such compulsion is quite high at 43%. Apart from economic and psychological reasons another aspect that Fitzgerald has referred to is the environmental aspect of gambling or casinos. The economic aspect that Fitzgerald has cited against gambling holds quite a ground. However quantifying the qualitative variables and indicators often stirs much debate. Owing to this fact it is hard to tell that whether the exact number that the writer has cited as a burden on revenue owing to gambling is appropriate. Another study amidst a different surrounding might have yielded a different result. Furthermore the modern day economics is a social science and much more beyond monetary value exists in a society that economic consideration must take into account. The psychological cost that gambling imposes on an individual in terms of erratic behavior and addiction might well receive a counter attack from those who support gambling and considers it as a means to joy. Gambling is based upon probability and neither the cost of loosing nor the profit from winning is assured. A

The Composer Benjamin Britten Essay Example for Free

The Composer Benjamin Britten Essay On November 22, 1913, the feast day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of Music, was born a child who showed a great interest and talent in music. Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft in Suffolk. Though his father was a dentist, he had great interest in music, and his mother also was an amateur singer, and so it could be said that Britten inherited his interest in music from his parents. Even as a child, he could compose creatively. Benjamin Britten was educated at Gresham’s School. In 1927, Britten started his private training with Frank Bridge, an eminent English composer. He also studied under John Ireland at the Royal College of Music and under Ralph Vaughan Williams. After his graduation, Britten was very clear about his future. He was determined to be a composer and composed music for a number of plays. His first notable compositions were the Sinfonietta and A Boy was Born, and from there his fame grew, and he was Benjamin Britten 2 popular. In 1936, Benjamin met tenor Peter Pears, which set off a great relationship. Peter Pears was his inspiration, and they eventually became partners. Peter Pears had a great influence on his life and his music, and to him, Britten had composed a number of songs. Peter had a great influence on Britten, both in his personal life as well as his professional life. He was among the greatest English composers of the 20th century. Though some critics found Benjamin’s social and sexual relationships not appropriate of a young English musician, his perfect technique and his knack of treating the traditional musical forms with originality and freshness compensated the charges. He was excused from army service and was allowed to practice his composition work provided he performed as a pianist at concerts at wartime sponsored by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts. Over the years, he had also started writing for operas. As an opera composer, Benjamin Britten gained worldwide reputation. It is indeed interesting to note that he was the first musician to be honored with the title of â€Å"Lord† by the Queen. He also was approached for writing for special occasions. Benjamin went to America for some time but later returned to England. In 1945, with his opera Peter Grimes, Benjamin became a celebrity. It was a great success. His successive operas like the Church Parables were also greatly appreciated. Benjamin’s best known orchestral music, popularly known as The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, a tribute to the great composer Henry Purcell, is very informative. His Reflections on a Theme of Dowland is also a tribute, this time to the lutenist John Dowland, which is indeed a moving Benjamin Britten 3 performance. Benjamin Britten was an outstanding English composer popular throughout the world. In 1948, he successfully planned the first Aldeburgh Music Festival which later became an annual event. Benjamin also excelled in chamber music, his notable ones being Cello Sonata and three Cello Suites. Benjamin often worked with the renowned poet W. H. Auden who offered the texts for which Britten provided music. Britten was awarded the Order of Merit in March 1965. This was his most treasured honor. Since its inception in 1902, only two people had got it prior to Britten. He also won the Robert O. Anderson Aspen Award in the Humanities. He was the first musician to be honored with the title of Baron. During the latter years of his life, Benjamin often complained of ill health. In May 1973, he had an open heart surgery which made him an invalid for life. He still attended the London premiere of Death in Venice in October 1973. He then traveled to Germany and Italy. According to Pears, Britten was not scared of death. On December 4, 1976, in his hometown in Suffolk, he died of a heart attack. He is buried in the resting place of the Aldeburgh Parish Church with his colleague Peter Pears resting in peace adjacent to his grave. Benjamin Britten 4 Works Cited 2007 Naxos Digital Services, Britten Benjamin, biography [Electronic Version] Retrieved on June 6, 2007, from www. naxos. com

Intersections Of Gender Maps For Lost Lovers English Literature Essay

Intersections Of Gender Maps For Lost Lovers English Literature Essay This article proposes a reading of Nadeem Aslams Maps for Lost Lovers as a novel of multiple critiques on the situation of Muslim immigrants in Great Britain. Using the solution of the case of the eponymous lost lovers as the starting point for the narration the novel relates how the Pakistani immigrant community deals with the loss of the couple and the challenges the honour killing poses to their religious beliefs. In the narration the two main characters, Kaukab and Shamas, represent two conflicting perspectives on life in the diasporic community and the coping with the tragedy. By focusing on the setting and the created atmosphere in the novel and connecting it to the intersections of gender and religious identities this article aims to point out the ways in which Aslams novel gives the reader insights into the Pakistani immigrant community of the novel and how it, by subversively reconfiguring the patriarchal society, exerts manifold criticism on the Muslim immigrant community a s much as on the failing multicultural British society. Das Ziel dieses Artikel ist es, verschiedene Interpretationsansà ¤tze des Romans Maps for Lost Lovers vorzustellen, die auf der Kritik an der Situation muslimischer Einwanderer in Großbritannien basieren, die Nadeem Aslam eindrucksvoll in seine Erzà ¤hlung einfliessen là ¤sst. Der Roman, der die Auflà ¶sung des Ehrenmordes an den namensgebenden à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Lost Lovers zum Ausgangspunkt der Erzà ¤hlung wà ¤hlt, erlaubt durch seine Erzà ¤hlstrategien durchaus unterschiedliche Lesarten. Durch die Fokussierung der Erzà ¤hlung auf hauptsà ¤chlich zwei Protagonisten, Kaukab und Shamas, die grundverschiedene Einstellungen zu dem Leben in der diasporischen Gemeinschaft widerspiegeln und ihre persà ¶nlichen Ansichten wiedergeben, erlaubt Aslam dem Leser die Ereignisse in der patriarchalen Gemeinschaft durch ihre Perspektiven wahrzunehmen und zu interpretieren. Die dabei aufeinanderprallenden Wertesysteme geben Einblicke in die verschiedenen teils radikalen Positionen innerha lb der Gemeinschaft, die letztendlich zu der am Anfang stehenden Katastrophe fà ¼hren. Durch eine verbindende Analyse des Handlungsorts und der vorherrschende Atmosphà ¤re des Romans mit der Intersektion von Geschlechts- und Glaubensidentità ¤ten zeigt dieser Artikel die vielfà ¤ltigen Mà ¶glichkeiten zur Interpretation und vollzieht die verschiedenen Kritiken die der Roman an der die Integration verweigernden pakistanischen Gemeinschaft und der versagenden multikulturellen britischen Gesellschaft à ¼bt. Introduction In conjunction with almost daily news-coverage on terrorist attacks by fundamental Islamist groups in the Middle East a growing suspicion against Muslim communities in Europe can be noticed. In the wake of 9/11 and 7/7 the strong foundations of European multiculturalism seem to have been unsettled. Even in Great Britain, which has a long history of immigration from the South Asian subcontinent, racism against Muslim communities is worsening, as has recently been found in the report by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance on the United Kingdom.  [1]  Stereotypes and prejudices against so-called parallel societies, as some closed immigrant communities have come to be designated, are repeatedly underscored, for example by public discussions about the right of Muslim women to wear the traditional burka or a veil.  [2]  In such a precarious socio-historical context a novel like Nadeem Aslams Maps for Lost Lovers  [3]  seems to be adding fuel to the fire. Maps for Lost Lovers, Aslams second novel and winner of the Pakistan Academy of Letters Patras Bokhari award of the Government of Pakistan, centres on a South Asian immigrant community in an unnamed British town. The narration sets in after the disappearance of the lovers Chanda and Jugnu and the ensuing arrest of Chandas brothers for the alleged murder of the couple. In the year that follows the honour killings of the lovers, who lived in sin according to Islamic law because Chandas husband could not persuaded to divorce her even though he had left her years ago, Maps for Lost Lovers dramatises how the Pakistani inhabitants of the tightly-knit community try to cope with the anguish the disappearance of the lovers and the uncertainty concerning their fate brings over them. Wavering between the unlikely hope that the couple just fled the community to enjoy a peaceful life and the almost certain knowledge of their deaths although their bodies were not found, the characters of the novel also have to deal with the challenges to their religious beliefs posed by the murders and the question how to abide to Islamic laws in exile. Although the narration portrays some of the worst aspects of life in Pakistani communities honour killings, religious obscurantism, gender inequities to name only a few it is however also a book of great humanity and compassion  [4]  . These few aspects of the Pakistani community depicted in Maps for Lost Lovers, which Kamila Shamsie pointed out in an interview with the author, will be the starting point of the following analysis. This paper sets out to examine the immigrant community, which is based on the obedience of the Islamic law, and illustrate how an atmosphere of claustrophobia is narratively created in the patriarchal society. In a second step I will point out intersections of gender and religious identity and gender inequities that are reinforced by the Islamic belief of the communities. Further, I will try to show how the characters, on the one hand, fall victim to the gender roles their belief assigns them, but, on the other hand, also use and subvert these roles to shape the community in traditional and religious ways that reinforces the patriarchal structures of the community and promotes religious obscurantism. By focussing on the atmosphere of the patriarchal society as well as the gender roles presented in the novel I aim to show the diverse levels of criticism Aslam offers for interpretation in Maps for Lost Lovers. It is my main argument that the novel offers at least three ways for reading: first, it can be read as backing up suspicious looks at Muslims in British streets and confirm the stereotypes presented by the media. Second, it can be read as inherent criticism of colonisation in that certain structures of the British Empire are being invoked, reproduced and proven to be leading to catastrophe. And last, the novel can be read as a criticism on immigrant communities in Britain and their desperate wish to avoid integration. An interweaving of these possible readings of the novel will show the potential of the novel to help fix the foundations of European multicultural societies. Dasht-e-Tanhaii, or The Desert of Loneliness The eponymous lost lovers of the novels title are Chanda and Jugnu, who disappear before the narration sets in and whose fate remains unsolved for most part of the story. In the absence of the couple the rest of the community and their reactions function as a foil for the lovers decision to forsake the laws of Islam in order to be together and their readiness to bear the consequences of their choice. In the wake of their disappearance the rest of the community is torn between mourning the loss of members of their community and a sense of righteousness that the lovers have been punished for their indecent behaviour. Especially Jugnus older brother Shamas and his wife Kaukab, who live next door to the house of Sin (MLL 59), move into the centre of the omniscient narrators attention. Through a varying focalization on the two main characters, Shamas and Kaukab, and a further complementation through isolated points of view of other, minor characters such as Shamas and Kaukabs children and Suraya, the woman Shamas has an affair with, a multifaceted narration of the year following the arrest of Chandas brothers for murdering the lovers is presented. The created open perspective structure of the novel, the various individual perspectives within the text and their relation to each other, gives insights into the norms and value systems of the characters and the perspective of the omniscient narrator and thus allows inspection into the workings of the represented society.  [5]   The unspecified English town in which the drama around the lost lover unfolds is renamed Dasht-e-Tanhaii by the diasporic South Asian community. The inhabitants of the town have come to England from all over the South Asian subcontinent, representing the manifold nationalities that had come under the rule of the British Empire. Translating as The Wilderness of Solitude or The Desert of Loneliness (cf. MLL 29), Dasht-e-Tanhaii is a telling-name for the neighbourhood. Although the characters share a similar cultural background and the experience of exile, their religious differences and the fear to have to interact with white people paralyses them. Representatively for the community Kaukab relates that she had made friends with some women in the area but she barely know what lay beyond the neighbourhood and didnt know how to deal with strangers: full of apprehension concerning the white race and uncomfortable with people of another Subcontinental religion or grouping. (MLL 32) The inability to interact with people of a different skin colour or different religious beliefs renders it impossible for the people of Dasht-e-Tanhaii not to be lonely. The neighbourhood is further described as very quite, as it hoards its secrets, unwilling to let on the pain in its breast. Shame, guilt, honour and fear are like padlocks hanging from mouths. No one makes a sound in case it draws attention. No one speaks. No one breathes. (MLL 45) The claustrophobic atmosphere created in the novel forces the characters to spend their lives in solitude, always afraid their neighbours might learn about their secrets. Another interesting aspect of the setting of the novel that further contributes to the claustrophobic atmosphere is the concealment of the name and location of the English town in contrast to the renaming through the immigrants. The appropriation of the metropolitan neighbourhood through the diasporic South Asian community and a setting of strict limits to isolate it from the rest of the town  [6]  , reverses the imperialist colonization of the immigrants home countries. The renaming of streets and landmarks within the neighbourhood further supports this argument and highlights the reverse appropriation of social space. As in Lahore, a road in this town is named after Goethe. There is a Park Street here as in Calcutta, a Malabar Hill as in Bombay, and a Naag Tolla Hill as in Dhaka. Because it was difficult to pronounce the English names, the men who arrived in this town in the 1950s had re-christened everything they saw before them. They had come from across the Subcontinent, lived together ten to a room, and the name that one of them happened to give to a street or landmark was taken up by the others, regardless of where they themselves were from. But over the decades, as more and more people came, the various nationalities of the Subcontinent have changed the names according to the specific country they themselves are from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan. Only one name has been accepted by every group, remaining unchanged. Its the name of the town itself. Dasht-e-Tanhaii. (MLL 29) As Cordula Lemke has pointed out, the process of the multiple renamings according to the various cultural backgrounds of the immigrants transforms the neighbourhood into an enormous palimpsest  [7]  . Taking up the street names the British introduced in their colonies on the Asian subcontinent, naming a road after a German writer, and transplanting them to the immigrant community in Britain can be read as a strategy of decolonization. With the originally British structure of the neighbourhood is left scarcely discernable underneath the different names, this process accentuates the transitional status of all cultures  [8]  . Analysing the map  [9]  and cartographic discourse as a demonstration of the empowering strategies of colonialist rhetoric  [10]  , Huggan argues for the palimpsest to illustrate the deficiencies of the colonialist strategies: The contradictory coherence implied by the maps systematic inscription on a supposedly uninscribed earth reveals it, moreover, as a palimpsest covering over alternative spatial configurations which, once brought to light, indicate both the plurality of possible perspectives on, and the inadequacy of any single model of, the world.  [11]   However, the process of renaming the streets in this novel also significantly resembles the developments of the different countries of the subcontinent under the British rule leading up to the partition of India in 1947. From a peaceful living together the situation of the immigrants changes to a silent coexistence without much interaction just like on the subcontinent itself where the former Indian nation splits up into India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. And exactly as on the subcontinent it is the religious beliefs that now segregate the people where they, before the partition, had belonged together.  [12]  Therefore, in occupying parts of the British town and renaming its streets the neighbourhood, on the one hand, subversively replicates the colonial situation on the subcontinent. On the other hand, however, it also relives the traumatic experience of a society being divided along religious lines.  [13]  In the doubling of post-colonial criticism the narrative in tensity of Aslams writing becomes clear and challenges the reader for an interpretation. The possible interpretations that are invited by the renaming of the British streets, namely the subversive criticism on the Empire and the imitation of the colonial situation to stabilize and promote the rigid religious division of the community, can both be argued for. What the interpretations share, however, are the sense of loss and an essential sadness, which Edward Said ascribes the exile.  [14]   At bottom, exile is a jealous state. With very little to possess, you hold on to what you have with aggressive defensiveness. What you achieve in exile is precisely what you have no wish to share, and it is in the drawing of lines around you and your compatriots that the least attractive aspects of being an exile emerge: an exaggerated sense of group solidarity as well as a passionate hostility towards outsiders, even those who may in fact be in the same predicament as you.  [15]   In this piece, written for Harpers Magazine twenty years prior to the novel, Said describes exactly the situation of the characters in Maps for Lost Lovers. In the blind defensiveness of their traditions and beliefs, the immigrants of Dasht-e-Tanhaii are passionate in their racism against the white inhabitants of the town and condemn their exile in Great Britain for all the evil that has happened to them. Kaukab knows her dissatisfaction with England is a slight to Allah because He is the creator and ruler of the entire earth as the stone carving on Islamabad airport reminds and reassures the heartbroken people who are having to leave Pakistan but she cannot contain her homesickness and constantly asks for courage to face this lonely ordeal that He has chosen for her in His wisdom. (MLL 31) The loss of their home country and the realisation that they will never go back to Pakistan fills the women with a feeling of unbearable loss. Whereas they manage to bring back the colours of their parental homes and rename the streets so that they do not sound so unfamiliar, there are too many things in exile, which they cannot replace. The constant feeling of loss, which makes the immigrants in Dasht-e-Tanhaii refrain from leaving their solitude, is the ubiquitous atmosphere of the narration and as such is already introduced in the opening of the novel by Shamas. Among the innumerable other losses, to come to England was to lose a season, because, in the part of Pakistan that he is from, there are five seasons in a year, not four, the schoolchildren learning their names and sequence through classroom chants: Mausam-e-Sarma, Bahar, Mausam-e-Garma, Barsat, Khizan. Winter, Spring, Summer, Monsoon, Autumn. (MLL 5) The loss of the season, of a structuring part of a year, a part that marks the passing of time, and is as irretrievable as the lost lovers, reflects the stasis of the society of Dasht-e-Tanhaii. In missing a part that marks the passing of time, change and development have become impossible for the inhabitants of the community. In the knowledge of missing a season, the structure of the novel, which is divided into four parts, each named after one of the four seasons in England, seems like a constant remainder that Maps for Lost Lovers is all about encompassing loss. Correspondingly, Said points out: a life of exile moves according to a different calendar, and is less seasonal and settled than life at home.  [16]   The thus created atmosphere is a fertile soil for the kind of religious fundamentalism some of the characters, especially Kaukab, the sister-in-law of the murdered Jugnu, prefer to integration. The immense fact of isolation and displacement, which produces the kind of narcissistic masochism that resists all efforts at amelioration, acculturation, and community  [17]  , which Kaukab claims for herself, leads to what Vijay Mishra has termed the diasporic imaginary  [18]  . Mishra theorizes that, in order to preserve the loss of the diasporic experience communities construct racist fictions of purity as a kind of joy and pleasure around which anti-miscegenation narratives of homelands are constructed against the reality of the homelands themselves.  [19]  The unknown British town is constantly contrasted with Pakistan and depicted as foreign territory, in which the laws of Islam have become the sole source of orientation for most of the inhabitants. Kaukab, as the rest of th e community, therefore exalts the Pakistan of her memory to an idealised nation in which Islam still figures prominently in everyday life. If her children were still living at home, or if Shamas was back from work, Kaukab would have asked the matchmaker to lower her voice to a whisper, not whishing her children to hear anything bad about Pakistan or the Pakistanis, not wishing to provide Shamas with the opportunity to make a disrespectful comment about Islam, or hint through his expression that he harboured contrary views on Allahs inherent greatness; but she is alone in the house, so she lets the woman talk. (MLL 42) This diasporic imaginary, the glorification of Pakistan, serves the immigrants as a role model for their society. As Islam prescribes they recreate the patriarchal social structures in which the women wait at home for their husbands to return and are afraid to be seen talking to men on the street, daughters are being arranged to marry their cousins in Pakistan, lovers of different religions forbidden to marry (cf. MLL 9), husbands agreeing to medical procedures on their wives for fear of immigration authorities (cf. MLL 14) and fathers renouncing their daughters for living in sin after three failed marriages to Pakistani men (cf. MLL 176). In this strict Islamic law-abiding community the gender roles of the characters seem to be as traditional as the rest of the customs the immigrants live by. However, in the following section I will argue that in the patriarchal society with the claustrophobic sentiment it is not only the male characters that drive on the strict Islamic code of beha viour but even more so the women who obstruct any kind of integration. Intersections of Gender and Religion in Maps for Lost Lovers Analysing gender identities in a novel such as Maps for Lost Lovers is, as the previous discussion of the atmosphere of the novel has shown, closely interlinked with religious identities within the community. With the discussion of gender roles and gender identities in relation to power structures has been an established field of research for literary scholars, a terminological distinction between different religious identities within Islam appears to be helpful for the further analysis.  [20]  Therefore I want to draw attention to the difference of the terms Muslim and Islamist, as spelled out by Miriam Cooke  [21]  . Cooke points out that the two terms, which might inadvertently be confused, hint at a significant distinction. To be Muslim, according to Cooke, is an ascribed identity: Those to whom a Muslim identity is ascribed participate in a Muslim culture and community without necessarily accepting all of its norms and values.  [22]  While Muslims can be secular and only occasionally observe some of the rituals, Islamists achieve their sometimes militant identity by devoting their lives to the establishment of an Islamic state.  [23]  This opposition, which arguably attracts criticism of essentialism, in this analysis, however, will serve the purpose of breaking up common stereotypes concerning the intersection of gender and religious identities. It is the aim of the following analysis to show that the intersections of gender identities and religious identities, which would be expected in patriarchal societies as the one depicted in Maps for Lost Lovers to draw the picture of male Islamists and female Muslims, are being subverted to point out the dangers of religious fundamentalism and how it c an lead to religious obscurantism. The arising question of religion and feminism has posed itself as difficult field for research, especially for postcolonial feminists. Ania Loomba has pointed out two significant developments in this field: Many postcolonial regimes have been outrightly repressive of womens rights, using religion as the basis on which to enforce their subordination.  [24]  Especially in Islamic countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran or Afghanistan national identity is based on the Islamicisation of civil society, an alliance between fundamentalism and the State, which entails severe curtailment of freedom for women.  [25]  However, she also sees a development that tries to harness womens political activity and even militancy to right-wing movements and especially to religious fundamentalism. In various parts of the world, women have been active campaigners for the Hindu, Islamic or Christian right-wing movements.  [26]  These two opposing developments, however contradictory they seem, deal with stereotypical assumptions as the figure of the immigrant woman victim  [27]  , as for example jurist Leti Volpp has analysed and debunked. Kaukab and Shamas as well as Suraya, the characters the narrator focalizes upon for the most part of the novel, through their personal perspective give a very interesting insight into their conceptions of the intersections between gender and religious identity.  [28]  They represent different positions on the spectrum between secular Muslims and Islamists and interestingly provide a one sided picture of the gender distribution amongst these religious identities. Shamas, who opens the narration, was brought up as a Muslim yet considers himself a non-believer (MLL 20) and instead of drawing on religion for moral and ethical support as the rest of the community, he turns to communism (cf. MLL 324).  [29]  His secularism makes him a mediator between the different religious groups of Dasht-e-Tanhaii. He uses his outsiders position to move about freely between the mosque and the Hindu temple of the community. Further, his general openness and willingness to interact with people of different religious and cultural backgrounds, which again renders him an outsider to the community, makes him become the only connection to the British society: The director of the Community Relations Council, Shamas is the person the neighbourhood turns to when unable to negotiate the white world on its own, visiting his office in the town centre or bringing the problem to his front door that opens directly into the blue-walled kitchen with the yellow chairs. (MLL 15) This position, as mediator between the immigrant community and the British society, on the one hand makes him a person of respect in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, his secularism arises suspicion, even in his own wife who disapproves of his criticism of Islam and even blames her father for choosing an unbelieving husband who is not even a proper Muslim in her eyes (cf. MLL 34). His worldliness and openness further, in the eyes of his wife, make him a bad father to their three children: Oh your father will be angry, oh your father will be upset: Mah-Jabin had grown up hearing these sentences, Kaukab trying to obtain legitimacy for her own decisions by invoking his name. She wanted him to be angry, she needed him to be angry. She had cast him in the role of the head of the household and he had to act accordingly  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚ . (MLL 111) Even though Kaukab, in accordance with her own upbringing, expects Shamas to fulfil his role as head of the family his performance does not seem satisfactory to Kaukab, as Mah-Jabins remembrance shows. Shamas thus disappoints the expectations on his character as believing Muslim and head of the family. When Suraya, Shamas secret love affair, comes back to England from Pakistan, where her husband had divorced her in a drunken stupor, her sole aim is to find a man who will marry her for a short period of time and then divorce her again so that she can return to Pakistan to her first husband to remarry him (cf. MLL 149). As the Islamic law states that she has to be married to another man before her first husband can take her back, she is desperate to quickly find somebody before her first husband changes his mind and does not want her back. When Suraya meets Shamas he is immediately drawn to her. Finding her scarf on his way back home from the town centre, where he regularly picks up the newspaper, his paper falls into the river he walks along while bending down to pick up the scarf. Hes suddenly lighter, his muscles relieved, the fingers holding nothing but that scarf which has butterfly blue lozenges along its crenulated edges. (MLL 135) Suraya takes advantage of the physicalness of this first encounter, in which Shamas seems to shift off a burden, maybe the burden Kaukab has put on him with her expectations, and starts an affair with him. While Shamas actually enjoys the tenderness of their encounters, Suraya just wants to trick him into marrying her and is not reluctant to lie about being pregnant. She thus exploits her femininity and her religious beliefs to get Shamas to commit adultery and thus fulfils her own personal needs not caring about the consequences of her actions or Shamas feelings (cf. MLL 254). Suraya just legitimises the affair with the Islamic law and her wish to remarry her first husband. In contrast to the secular Shamas and the moderate Muslim Suraya, Kaukab is a strict Islamist, justifying all her actions and her behaviour with her belief in Islam. With her religious bigotry she puts off her three children who, in the course of the narration visit the house only once. In the course of that visit her estranged children get into a heated discussion with Kaukab about the status of women in Pakistan and in which she has to defend herself against reproaches of her family (cf. MLL 323 ff.). Her misconducts, as for example poisoning her youngest son with bromide because a Muslim cleric told to do so (MLL 303 f.), or marrying her only daughter to a violent man in Pakistan and not seeing where she could have done wrong (cf. MLL 326), which stem from her religious obscurantism come to a climax when Shamas is being attacked by a group of Islamists who Kaukab had once secretly charged with finding her sons. In her blind belief in Islam she finally blames Shamas for her childre ns hatred (MLL 328) and tries to take her own life. Even when it comes to her own physical health she does not deviate from her faith:  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚  Kaukab has reached that age where her womb is slipping out of her vagina and must be either surgically removed or stitched back to the inner lining of her body  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚ .  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚  Her womb the first dress of her daughter, the first address of her sons is a constant source of pain these days and she comes down the stairs carefully. She tells herself that she must bear up patiently, that a person is like a tealeaf: drop it into boiling water if you want to see its true colour. She reads verses from the Koran when the pain looks as though it is about to increase. (MLL 260) In contrast to the imagination of the woman usually cast as mothers or wives  Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ã‚  called upon to literally and figuratively reproduce the nation  

College Admissions Essay -- essays papers

College Admissions Essay If someone asked me where I am going to be in ten years, this would be my answer. I will have a great, high-paying job, and beautiful wife and family, and a nice sports car parked in front of my lovely house. When I look into the future, I see myself being successful and happy. Even though I always pictured myself this way, I never worried too much about how I would get there. I feel the Suffolk University can lay the groundwork for making these dreams into reality. Regretfully, when I entered high school I did not realize how hard I had to work to get what I wanted. I went to my classes, did my work, but never really pushed myself to my full abilities. I thought that as long as I graduated with decent grades I would be able to get into college and really focus then. But as high school quickly came to an end I realized that I was not as well prepared for college, as I would have liked. By the time I was a senior I began concentrating more on my studies, and less on other things. Once I started applying myself, my grades improved, and so did my attitude about my education. Senior year flew by before I knew it, and I still had to take my SAT's. I was sick with bronchitis, but had to take them because it was the last available date. I struggled through them, knowing that if I had only not waited until the last minute, I could have redone them when I was healthy. It was too late though, so I was stuck with a score that I was not pleased with. Aft...

The Great Change in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Essay -- The Metamorphos

Although Gregor turned into a bug, the real Metamorphosis occurred before the change and with the whole family. Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis reflects the ideals about industrialization and existentialism during the turn of the century. In the novella, Gregor turns into a bug, and the whole family has to deal with it in different ways. Many characters go through a metamorphosis in the novella. Although the changes may not be physical the changes occurred greatly in Gregor, Mr. Samsa, and Grete. Gregor’s major transformation occurred not when he turned into a bug, but through the changes in his life. Gregor’s life before the changed into some sort of bug was like a bumble bee. He would go through life doing as others told him. In the story Gregor said, â€Å"For the time being, however, I must get up because my train leaves at five† (Kafka 4), which explains how he was just someone going through life on a schedule, just like a worker bee. But even before his time as a traveling salesman, he was someone else, â€Å"On the wall just opposite hung a photograph of Gregor from the time of his military service† (16). He was a military man, so at this point; he has already changed from someone who was in the military, to a boring worker in a modern industrial world. The greatest change that happened to Gregor was of his appreciated for music. Before, Gregor hardly noted his sister’s violin playing, but at the end of the novella, he said, â€Å"W as he a beast if music could move him so? He felt as though the path to his unknown hungers was being cleared† (49). Gregor was never so appreciative towards music in his entire life, but the changes he went through, came out with a new lenience towards it. The obvious assumption about Gregor’s metamorp... ..., she felt strongly towards her brother, and she loved him, but at the end, the greatest change in to story happened. â€Å"It has to go†¦that’s the only way†¦we have no brother†¦it obviously wants to take over the whole apartment† (53). She wanted to kill her brother, because of the work and pain he has brought the family. She even went so far as to say, â€Å"We have to get rid of it† (52). In conclusion, the greatest change in the novella was of a kind and loving sister, to a murderous human, who has no brother anymore. Although Gregor may seem like the only one who went through a metamorphosis, his whole family was along for the ride. So what if everybody looked at their own lives this way, and instead of turning into a bug, just changed in a slight way. What effect would that have on your family if you woke up a different person? Works Cited Kafka- The Metamorphosis

Stefan’s Diaries: Bloodlust Chapter 20

The next morning, I woke as someone shook my shoulder. â€Å"Go away,† I murmured. But the shaking was insistent. My eyes snapped open, and I realized I was lying curled up next to one of the tents at Gallaghers freak show. â€Å"Did you sleep here?† Callie asked, crossing her arms over her chest. I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, thinking about the previous evening. Id returned to the circus grounds, unsure of where else to go and had fallen asleep there. â€Å"Good morning, Miss Callie,† I said, ignoring her question. I stood up and brushed dirt off the back of my pants. â€Å"How can I help you?† She shrugged. She was clad in a pink cotton dress that showed her tiny waist and freckled arms. The color stood in contrast to her flowing red hair, and she reminded me of a wild rose. â€Å"Were going to take a few days off from the show. Father made so much money, he wants the next event to be even bigger.† Callie smiled. â€Å"The first rule of show business: Keep em wanting more.† â€Å"Hows Da–the vampire?† I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun. While my ring protected me from the agony of the rays, the sun made me feel exposed and clumsy. The dark cloaked more than my fangs, and in the light of day, I constantly had to check to make sure I wasnt moving at lightning speed, responding to questions I shouldnt be able to hear, or following my urge to feed. Callie tucked a loose strand of rust-colored hair behind her ear. â€Å"The vampire is okay, I suppose. Father has its handlers tending to it around the clock. They dont want it to die. Not yet, anyway.† Not yetwas a small comfort, but it was something. It meant I still had time. She frowned slightly. â€Å"Of course, I hardly think they should let it die at all. What were doing to it, and to the animals it fights, is totally barbaric,† she said softly, almost speaking to herself. I looked up swiftly at the words. Was she more sympathetic to Damons plight than Id imagined? â€Å"Can I see him?† I asked, surprised at my boldness. Callie swatted my arm. â€Å"No! Not unless you pay up, like everyone else. Besides, hes not here.† â€Å"Oh.† â€Å"Oh,† she said, mocking me. Then her eyes softened. â€Å"I still cant believe you slept here. Dont you have a home?† I met her gaze straight on. â€Å"I had a disagreement with my family.† It wasnt exactly a lie. The freak show was starting to wake up. The strong man walked, bleary-eyed, out of a tent. Abruptly, he dropped down to the ground and began doing push-ups. The fortune-teller headed to the secluded part of the lake, towel in hand, no doubt for a bath. And two of the ever-present burly security men were watching Callie and me curiously. Callie clearly noticed as well. â€Å"Would you like to go for a walk?† she asked, leading the way down a dirt-packed road to the edge of the lake, out of sight of the show. She picked up a stone and threw it into the water, where it landed with a thunk. â€Å"I never could skip stones,† she said, in such a sad voice that I couldnt help but burst out laughing. â€Å"Whats so funny?† she asked, hitting my arm again. The swat was playful, but the bracelets she wore were twisted through with vervain, and the contact sent a wave of pain up my arm. She put her hand on my shoulder, concern creasing her forehead. â€Å"Are you okay?† I winced. â€Å"Yes,† I lied. â€Å"Okay . . .† she said, throwing me a skeptical look. She leaned down to pick up another stone and raised her light brown eyebrow at me before she threw it in the water. It fell with a harmless plop. â€Å"Tragic!† I picked up my own stone and aimed it across the water. It skipped five times before falling below the surface. Callie laughed and clapped her hands. â€Å"You must teach me!† â€Å"You have to flick your wrist. And pick a flat stone.† I spotted a smooth brown rock with a white band ringing the top. â€Å"Here.† I put the rock in her hands. â€Å"Now, flick,† I said, gingerly touching her skin, making sure my fingers didnt brush against the vervain. She closed her eyes and tossed the stone, which skipped once, before falling into the water. She threw her arms up in delight. â€Å"Thank you, Stefan,† she said, her eyes twinkling. â€Å"No more ,,stranger?† I teased. â€Å"Youve taught me something. That means were friends.† â€Å"Does it, now?† I said, taking another stone and tossing it in the water. Damon and I had skipped stones in the pond near our home in Mystic Falls. Wed make wishes and pretend that they would come true if we could guess the number of skips a stone would make. I closed my eyes briefly.If it skips five times, I'll have a chance to free Damon, I thought. But this stone was heavier and sank after two skips. I shook my head, annoyed at myself for indulging in such a childish game. â€Å"So was that your biggest concern in the world? That you couldnt skip stones?† I teased, trying to reclaim the light tone of our outing. She smiled, but her eyes looked sad. â€Å"No. But dont you think pretend problems are much more manageable than real ones?† â€Å"Yes, I do,† I said quietly. The sun was steadily rising, lending the lake an orange glow. Several small skiffs were already on the water, casting their nets, and the wind whipped around our ears, a reminder that even though the sun felt warm, winter was well on its way. â€Å"Ive never talked to anyone about this. Thats rule number two of the Gallagher family business–dont trust anyone,† she said. â€Å"Your father seems tough,† I ventured, sensing her frustration. â€Å"Perhaps too tough?† â€Å"My father is fine,† Callie snapped. She scowled at me, hands on her hips. â€Å"Im sorry,† I said, raising my hands in surrender. I realized Id pushed too far too quickly. â€Å"That was out of line.† Callie let her hands fall to her sides. â€Å"No, Im sorry. Im just protective of him. Hes all I have.† â€Å"Where is your mother?† I asked. â€Å"Died when I was six,† Callie said simply. â€Å"I understand,† I said, thinking of my own mother. â€Å"Its hard, isnt it?† Callie plucked a blade of grass from the ground and shredded it between her fingernails. â€Å"I try to be strong. But after Mother died, Father threw himself into work.† â€Å"It seems that you do that as well.† â€Å"Now that Fathers got the vampire act worked out, I feel like things will change for the better. He has a short fuse that gets shorter the less money he has.† At the mention of the vampire act, I kicked the stones around the edge of the shore. A flurry of pebbles flew through the air and landed several meters into the lake with a violent splashing sound. â€Å"What was that?† Callie asked, alarm in her voice. I forced myself to smile, to look calm–human. In my anger, Id forgotten to hide my Power. â€Å"Advanced stone skipping.† Callie raised an eyebrow, as if she wanted to challenge me. But all she said was: â€Å"We should get back. Dad wants us to clean up the grounds.† I nodded. â€Å"Good idea.† Alone here with Callie, Id come so close to losing control. â€Å"Stefan,† Callie said. â€Å"I was thinking since we dont have the shows for a few nights, do you think you could show me the city?† â€Å"But I dont know the city,† I pointed out. â€Å"Youve been here longer than I have.† Callies cheeks flushed poppy red. â€Å"Father doesnt let me leave the house, unless its for work. But there are so many shows and adventures in New Orleans.† She looked up at me from beneath her long lashes. â€Å"Please? Ill feel safe if Im with you.† I nearly laughed at the irony of that statement, but the chuckle caught in my throat. Callie had it wrong: She wouldnt necessarily be safe with me, but I could use her to guarantee the safety of my brother. After all, she knew everything about Gallaghers Circus–including where her father was holding Damon. â€Å"Okay, lets do it,† I said. â€Å"Oh, well have such fun!† Callie clasped my hands and whirled me around. â€Å"Meet me at the park at the end of my street at nine oclock.† She rose onto her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. She was so close, I could practically feel her heart beating against my chest. I pulled away abruptly, my head pounding and my jaw aching. I turned my back to her as my canines extended with a click. I had to take five deep breaths before they retracted again. â€Å"Are you okay?† she asked, placing her hand on my shoulder. I plastered a smile on my face and turned back to her. â€Å"Just excited for tonight.† â€Å"Good,† Callie said, humming to herself as we walked back to the circus grounds. I ran my tongue over my teeth. It was true: I was excited for tonight. But excitement was akin to desire, and as Id been learning ever since I met Katherine, nothing good ever came from desire.

Goals: Problem Solving and Population Reference Bureau

Abstract â€Å"To prepare for solving a problem, we must first acknowledge that the problem exists. Then, we must accept it, and clearly define or identify it. Finally, we must commit to solving the problem. Without some degree of personal commitment, the problems that we acknowledge, accept, and identify might never be resolved. 1. using a current local or international newspaper, identify an important local, national, or international concern that needs to be solved.Use the Library and Information Resources Network (LIRN) link by clicking here to locate two or more credible articles that provide background information and an analysis of the problem. You can also access LIRN in your online course by clicking on Course Home tab, then the Online Resources link. Contact your Campus for your LIRN password. 3. Using the articles you found as a resource, explain the concern using the five â€Å"Problem Solving Methods† found on page 104 of your textbook. Use Microsoft Word to resp ond to your problem.Your response should consist of 1-2 pages. Cite your articles using APA guidelines. Visit the APA Guide for assistance with APA formatting. † Week Two Individual Work (1) Introduction Using the articles I found as a resource, I am going to explain the concern using the five â€Å"Problem Solving Methods†. This is a big issue and I think we should all be actively trying to solve this issue. Environmental Problems I am going to be discussing environmental problems. I will use the problem solving methods as they are outlined in our text.â€Å"Problem- Solving Method (Advanced) Step 1: What is the problem? a. What do I know about the situation? b. What results am I aiming for in this situation? c. How can I define the problem? Step 2: What are the alternatives? a. What are the boundaries of the problem situation? b. What alternatives are possible within these boundaries? Step 3: What are the advantages and/ or disadvantages of each alternative? a. What are the advantages of each alternative? b. What are the disadvantages of each alternative? c.What additional information do I need to evaluate each alternative? Step 4: What is the solution? a. Which alternative(s) will I pursue? b. What steps can I take to act on the alternative(s) chosen? Step 5: How well is the solution working? a. What is my evaluation? b. What adjustments are necessary? †(Chafee) The problem is environmental problems, such as we have been polluting our planet’s air, water, and land; depleting its resources; and accumulating a lot of waste for which we need to find places to store.I know this situation needs to be suppressed on some level; because if we continue at this rate, then our environment will not be fit to live in. We have 6. 8 billion people on Earth today (Population Reference Bureau, 2009) and all of these people need food, water, clothing, and shelter. In addition to these minimal needs to survive, millions of people in developed nation s have cars, large homes, air conditioning, heated houses, washers, dryers, heated water for bathing, refrigerators, stoves, and so on.Hence, having nearly 7 billion people on Earth, compared to 5.2 billion people just 20 years ago (Population Reference Bureau, 1990), and having many people with a high standard of living, means that we humans will pollute a lot, deplete a lot, and build up huge amounts of waste that need to be stored. A second major reason why we have a big problem of polluting, depleting, and storing of waste is that during the past 200 years, we have gone from an agricultural way of life to an industrial way of life. Instead of â€Å"living off the land,† â€Å"growing grain to eat, and tending to farm animals, we built  factories and machines and created a new status called the factory worker to produce all kinds of products to consume—as a stroll through a typical shopping mall will show.To create these products, we have used a lot of resources and polluted the air and rivers. One of the most dangerous consequences of our polluting the environment is that we add huge amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as the result of burning fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, by industries and automobiles.†The result is the warming of our planet and the possible change of Earth’s climate, which could wreak havoc for the growing seasons. What can we do about this? More and more people are coming to the realization that we must consider the long term, what is good for the global community, and what is good for future generations if we want to survive as a species. This will require us to think, plan, sacrifice, and change our ways of living. Many people in our country, and throughout the world, do not realize the seriousness of our environmental problem.Hence, part of the solution is to make Americans more aware of the problem and to educate them about the problem. We must find ways to give these Americans incentives s o that they want to address the environmental problem or at least accept the notion that we must address this problem, regardless of their vested interests. The environmental problem will not go away by denying its existence or by denying that it is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. The oceans and the air are common property that we all share.If air and water pollution stayed only in the country that produced it, the nation producing this pollution could take the initiative and responsibility to clean up the pollution it produced. But air and water pollution does not stop at state boundaries; rather it spreads throughout the world. We as citizens of this world, not just citizens of a nation, will need to work together to clean up our oceans and air. Probably, we will eventually need to agree on some worldwide goals for the planet. We have been moving in this direction by attempting to decrease carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbon emissions.We will probably need to make saving o ur environment one of the main goals of our world community. Within this goal, we will need to agree on more specific goals such as decreasing carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons; increasing the amount of rainforest; finding new, better, and safer ways of storing hazardous waste; and producing more energy without polluting more, depleting more, and creating more waste. Conclusion This is an issue we must all face together. We must realize that there is a problem and work on long term goals to correct this problem.Eventually, we may be able to turn this around. However, we must think long term, not only think about the here and now. Probably, a key factor, if not the key factor, in solving our environmental problem is time. Can we, as a world community, act soon enough to head off environmental trends that could be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse—for example, rising carbon dioxide emissions leading to rising temperatures, melting glaciers, rising s ea levels, and changing cli- mate patterns throughout the world? We must face this with a sense of urgency.