Canterbury Tales - Wife of Bath :: essays papers

Canterbury Tales - Wife of Bath â€Å"The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales† had numerous unique characters, but the Wife of Bath struck me as the most interesting personality. Through the narrator’s use of direct and indirect characterization, significant details, and motivations for actions I was able to analyze the distinct traits of â€Å"the worthy woman from beside Bath city.† The narrator was very successful in portraying the wife. The wealth of the wife was distinct. â€Å"Her hose of finest scarlet red† shows the fortune she possesses. The wife also had enough fortune to travel to the most important shrines in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. The narrator’s described her appearance well. â€Å"Bold was her face, handsome, and red in hue† allows the reader to picture the wife as an attractive woman of her time. The middle-aged woman had impressive large hips and â€Å"gap-teeth† which express lust. Her corpulent figure was a very favorable aspect of the time; it indicated wealth and beauty. â€Å"She’d had five husbands, all at the Church door† allows the reader to grasp much about the wife. Having five husbands shows that she is sociable and interested in love and marriage. Her experiences with marriage allow her to be very knowledgeable of love, which is â€Å"an art in which she knew the oldest dances.† â€Å"†¦ All at the Church door† shows her devotion to tradition and her faith. Her dedication to the Catholic Church and the forbidding Church rules of the time, allow the reader to infer she did not divorce her husbands. Therefore, all of her husbands passed away, which allows us to conclude she may have married older men. This wealthy world-traveler, on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, is not motivated by her faith as she travels on this mediocre trip.

Painting Analysis in Jane Eyre Essay

From the opening chapter of Charlotte Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Jane Eyre the reader becomes aware of the powerful role that art plays. There is something extraordinary about the pictures Jane admires from other artists, as well as the work she creates herself. Her solitary pastime often operates as an outlet of pain, either past or present, and offers her the opportunity to deal with unpleasant emotions and memories. Jane’s art transcends her isolation by bringing her into contact with others who see it; it functions as a bridge between her desire to be alone and her need for companionship. Despite her struggles with inner conflict and the people in her life, Jane’s art helps her find personal power, marking her true identity as her own woman. Whether it is her love of drawings or the creations of her own, artwork has provide Jane a means of agency to survive the harrowing conditions afforded to the orphan child, allowing her to emerge as a wealthy, independent social equal. The first glimpse of Jane’s resourcefulness and mental escape comes from one of the first activities in the novel. She escapes from her powerless place in the hostile Reed household temporarily through a book â€Å"taking care that it should be one stored with pictures† (2). She retreats to a solitary window-seat, â€Å"having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close†¦ shrined in double retirement,† and buries herself in Berwick’s A History of British Birds (2). The window offered protection, but not separation from the outside: â€Å"At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon† (2). Through the images and quotes contained therein, Jane manages to acquire the only kind of power to she access to- knowledge, â€Å"Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting† (3). Her interpretation of the illust rations provides training for the young girl, who will later produce her own images. Her quest for identity and power has begun, and the young orphan begins to discover how she can begin her journey to find her place as a social equal. Interrupting her happy retreat, looking at the pictures, is her wretched cousin John Reed. He claims that Jane, as a dependent in his household, has no right to look at books without his permission. As punishment for her transgression, he throws her favorite Berwick’s Birds at her, physically knocking Jane down with its force (3-5). A fight ensues, with Jane comparing Reed’s actions to those of murderers, slave drivers, and Roman emperors. Adults intervene; Jane is blamed for the conflict and is confined to the â€Å"red room† where she experiences terrible suffering. In this incident, Jane’s visual pleasure takes the form of looking at art objects in prints and illustrated books. Instead of being a harmless leisure activity, â€Å"this looking is regarded by the male character as a provocation, setting off various stratagems aimed to reconfirm rights of ownership by laying down restrictive or subordinating conditions of access† (Kromm 374). Confron tations between Jane and male authority would follow her from her removal from the Reed home to her schooling at Lowood. Early on in her education at Lowood, Jane finds herself in a situation similar to that of the breakfast room incident at Gateshead. Trying to escape the notice of the headmaster Mr. Brocklehurst. With no massive curtain to shield her this time, she â€Å"held [her] slate in such a manner as to conceal [her] face† (62). The â€Å"treacherous slate† slipped from her grasp and crashed to the floor. As she â€Å"rallied [her] forces for the worst. It came† (62). In a humiliating flight of indignation, Mr. Brocklehurst, placing Jane on a stool for all to see, publically admonishes her for dropping school property. He further attempts to ostracize her from the others by condemning her a liar (information he received from Mrs. Reed, Jane’s wretched benefactress). Jane serves the time, designated by her punisher, sobbing and full of shame. She realizes that this wrongdoing would eliminate Miss Temple’s promise to teach her drawing and to learn French. Jane descends from the stool in search of Miss Temple, her beloved superintendent, who often â€Å"listens to Mr. Brocklehurst’s sermonizing in ladylike silence with her mouth ‘closed as if it would have required a sculptor’s chisel to open it’† (Gilbert 784). Miss Temple kindly allows Jane to speak in her defense, such an unfamiliar concept coming from the Reed residence. Once Jane’s story is corroborated she is rewarded with beginning lessons in drawing and French. Her subsequent years at the Lowood Institution, although glossed over by Brontà «, are when Jane emerges as an artist. Her first sketch is landscape with a crooked cottage whose graphic limitations bring about a daydream that evening in which she envisions a feast of â€Å"more accomplished imagery†(72). Each imaginary scene is one she anticipates producing with her own hands: picturesque landscapes with ruins, lowing cattle that recall Dutch painters like Cuyp, butterflies hovering near roses, birds pecking at fruit. Through this elegiac, bucolic, wish-fulfilling dreamscape, she sees herself become adept at making â€Å"freely-penciled,† rather than minutely copied, renderings of the natural world intensively and expansively observed. (Kromm 377-378) Jane’s goal is clearly much higher than reproducing other’s works. She sees herself acquiring the skills of a professional artist. Jane learns at Lowood that she can create and lose herself in alternate worlds when she draws and paints. She shows the ability to envision a cheerful life different from her circumstances. However, following Miss Temple’s departure from Lowood, Jane returns to feelings of isolation. Once again she finds solace gazing out a window, realizing the promise the other side has to offer . Her â€Å"restless desire† of life outside the classroom leads Jane to seek employment elsewhere. It is through her preparations to leave Lowood that the reader learns of Jane’s growth and achievement as an artist. Her â€Å"pictorial facility is a landscape, a watercolor given to the superintendent of Lowood, who had interceded on her behalf with Brocklehurst to obtain for Jane a reference and permission to leave the school† (Kromm 379). The painting was framed, and placed prominently â€Å"over the chimney-piece,† in the parlor at Lowood. Her painting is one of several accomplishments that impress Bessie, the Gateshead servant who visits upon learning of Jane’s departure for her next job at Thornfield. Bessie thinks the painting is beautiful: â€Å"It is as fine a picture as any Miss Reed’s drawing-master could paint, let alone the young ladies themselves, who could not come near it† (90). Jane now possesses the accomplishments of a lady, and â€Å"to a degree which will ensure her economic independence as a teacher. The picture Bessie sees is not described; it has no significance for Jane other than as a social gesture†¦it functions simply as a milestone on her advance to independence† (Milligate 316). Jane’s artistic confidence and her newly acquired â€Å"social status,† follow her to her next adventure at Thornfield. During her time as a governess, Jane’s art continues to gain the attention of others. Shortly after Rochester’s first appearance at Thornfield, he summons Jane and tries to get to know Jane’s qualifications as governess for Adà ¨le. Rochester asks to view again some of her work the young girl had shown him, adding, â€Å"I don’t know whether they were entirely of your doing: probably a master aided you?† (124). Jane vehemently denies his accusation, yet Rochester remains skeptical. He orders Jane to â€Å"fetch her portfolio,† and investigates her work, promising her, â€Å"I can recognize patchwork† (124). Somewhat satisfied after his perusal, that the work is from one hand, a hand that she confirms is her own. Focusing his attention on three watercolors he asks Jane, â€Å"Where did you get your copies?† When Jane replies â€Å"Out of my head,† he continues to goad her, â€Å"That head I see now on your shoulders?† (124). Jane passes his critical judgment without becoming unsettled. She offers her own critique of her work that is occupying Rochester’s attention: â€Å"her judgment upon them was ‘nothing wonderful’ because her manual skill was not quite able to capture the vivid subjects that she had imagined with her ‘spiritual eye’† (Gates 36). The watercolor landscapes, although produced at Lowood, are far from the scene that been so admired: â€Å"A seascape, a landscape, and polarscape respectively, each fantastic natural setting has the disturbing feature of a dead, fragmented, or cropped figure† (Kromm 379). In the seascape, a wrecked ship’s mast rises above the water in â€Å"composition dominated by rough seas and clouds.† A lone cormorant sits on the mast with a sparkling bracelet in its mouth â€Å"pecked from the arm of a woman’s corpse lying almost submerged in the foreground† (Kromm 379). The second painting shows a leafy, grassy hill with a large stretch of dark blue twilight sky. â€Å"Rising into the sky† is a bust-length view of a woman: â€Å"She is an allegorical figure, her gauzy lineaments and crown justifying her description as a ‘vision of the Evening Star.’ The pleasant otherworldliness of this princess-like delineation is subverted by the account of her features, which include wild-looking eyes and hair streaming in enervated disarray† (Kromm 379). The third watercolor is a polarscape whose winter sky is â€Å"pierced† by the peak of an iceberg against which a gigantic head rests, its forehead supported by two hands. The focus â€Å"is entirely placed on the singular head whose black, bejeweled turban registers a note of orientalist exoticism. The eyes of this giant are glazed, fixed, blank, communicating only a sense of despair† (Kromm 379). Her descriptions of her work display the limitless depths of her imagination. They are, as Rochester observes, like something Jane â€Å"must have seen in a dream† (126). He asks whether she was happy when she painted them and remarks that she must surely have existed â€Å"in a kind of artist’s dreamland while [she] blent and arranged these strange tints† (126). â€Å"Here Rochester catches the essence of surrealistic art, which tends toward the kind of involuntarism best known in dreams, aiming at automatism and toward the unconscious. Jane of course was not aiming anywhere† (Gates 37). Jane says she was simply ‘absorbed† and her subjects has â€Å"risen vividly on [her] mind† (126). Jane has the visions but lacks the skill to accurately portray them: â€Å"whereas the superintendent’s picture indicated accomplishments with social and economic value, these pictures reveal Jane’s emotional status†¦she has made little progress† (Millgate 316). Jane is still maturing. The paintings may evidence a halt in her artistic promise, however, the conversation with Rochester, about her artistic promise, ignites a sense of equality between the pair. Jane views Rochester’s investigatory comments as a, â€Å"breath of life†¦ he is the only qualified critic of her art and soul† (Gilbert 352). Jane and Rochester’s shared love of art plants the seeds of their mutual affection and appreciation of one another. Besides using her art as a means to access Jane’s thoughts, Rochester offers Jane’s work to the public. Rochester becomes, â€Å"the link that enables Jane to expand her ability to share imagination† (Cassell 112). She informs her reader, â€Å"One day he had company to dinner, and had sent for my portfolio; in order, doubtless, to exhibit its contents† (129). â€Å"Jane placidly accepts Rochester’s display of her work, perhaps as an affirmation of the value of her talent, or perhaps as a means to communicate her imaginative self with a larger audience† (Cassell 112). Jane takes a risk and allows herself, through her work, to be vulnerable to society’s scrutiny. Personal scrutiny, in addition to public, accompanies Jane’s work as it transitions from the familiar natural landscapes, to the unfamiliar world of portraiture. Here Jane uses her art as a sort of punishment for not seeing reality. The way Jane’s creative imagination goes to work on its materials is quite precisely revealed in the genesis of the pictures she actually completes while at Thornfield, those contrasting portraits of ‘a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain’ and of ‘Blanche, an accomplished lady of rank’ which she intends as medicine for a mind which love of Rochester has infected with wishful thinking. (Millgate 317) Jane’s ivory miniature of Blanche Ingram is executed before Jane has laid eyes on Blanche and is based upon Mrs. Fairfax’s flattering description of her. When Jane asks Mrs. Fairfax for her opinion of Rochester, she says of the woman’s response, â€Å"There are people who seem to have no notion of sketching a character, or observing and describing salient points, either in persons or things: the good lady evidently belonged to this class† (104). However, when describing Jane’s rival for Rochester’s affection, Mrs. Fairfax’s word is bond. Studying her own face in the mirror, she finishes her a charcoal self-portrait in less than two hours, â€Å"omitting none of what she calls her defects, the harsh lines and displeasing irregularities of her face, refusing to exercise the artist’s option to use the chalk to soften or blur the sharp planes of her features† (Kromm 382). Jane paints Blanche’s portrait on smooth ivory, â€Å"taking a fortnight to finish it, and the result is a Grecian beauty whose features are called smooth, soft, sweet, round, and delicate† (Kromm 382). Looking at both portraits, she asks herself which woman Rochester would prefer: â€Å"The contrast was as great as self-control could desire† (162). The painting exercise becomes a means of self-discipline, and â€Å"a way of representing social hierarchical position through the creation of concrete images† (Azim 192). Contemplating the two works, and their disparities, she puts herself firmly in her place. She scolds herself for her romantic fantasies about Rochester that could ruin herself and her career. The contrast between the real and the ideal â€Å"is imagined and put forth, to keep in mind the distance between desire and reality†(Azim 193). Here Jane paints out of her mind’s eye, not in order to indulge her imagination, but to control it. Jane returns to Gateshead to visit her dying Aunt Reed. Bessie greats her kindly, but Jane otherwise receives a cold greeting from her aunt and cousins. Returning to such a disheartening place, coupled with missing Rochester, Jane uses her art as a means of comfort. She carries her art with her because art supplies her with â€Å"occupation or amusement† (250). â€Å"Her first sketch there shows her thoughts in line with Rochester’s as she sketches the characters that he often associated with her† (Cassell 116). She draws: â€Å"Fancy vignettes, representing any scene that happened momentarily to shape itself in the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of imagination: a glimpse of sea between two rocks; the rising moon, and a ship crossing its disk; a group of reeds and water-flags, and a naiad’s head, crowned with lotus-flowers, rising out of them; an elf sitting in a hedge-sparrow’s nest, under a wreath of hawthorn-bloom. (236-237) Her fantasies shift to real possibility, she sketches a face-Rochester’s, all in heavy black pencil and complete with flashing eyes (237). Jane describing her own work and the qualities she seeks to emphasize in the portrait – strength, determination, flexibility and spirit – reinforce what Jane finds attractive in Rochester. The portrait of Rochester is involuntarily made and, in fact, â€Å"helps to close the gap between the mind and the representational object: spontaneity, imagination, sexuality, and sexual desire combine to produce a portrait that faithfully represents the painter’s state of mind† (Azim 195). In a time of emotional need, she unconsciously conjures up â€Å"a speaking likeness† of the man she loves (237). After leaving Thornfield, following the interrupted marriage ceremony, Jane’s art provides a temporary asylum, as she grieves for Rochester. During her stay at the Moor house, her artwork earns her the admiration of Diana and Mary Rivers. They are so impressed with her talents that they give her all of their drawing supplies (360). Once again Jane attributes her talents with social status when she remarks, â€Å"My skill, greater in this one point than theirs, surprised and charmed them† (360). Their appreciation of her artistic skills, and their generosity help strengthen Jane’s weakened disposition. As Jane struggles to cope with losing everything that mattered to her, her artwork enlivens those around her-especially Rosamond Oliver. Jane’s art excites admiration, impressing Rochester with its â€Å"peculiar† power and â€Å"electrifying† Rosamond with surprise and delight. Jane’s painting and sketching quietly â€Å"satisfy an impulse toward a kind of display that is itself subordinated to pleasure in looking, as when she happily agrees to sketch a portrait of Rosamond: ‘I felt a thrill of artist-delight at the idea of copying from so perfect and radiant a model’† (Newman 157). Jane’s first description of Rosamond presents a figure seen entirely from an artist’s angle: â€Å"eyes shaped and colored as we see them in lovely pictures†¦the penciled brow†¦the livelier beauties of tint and ray†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (372). â€Å"The ease with which this terminology is manipulated shows a new detachment in Jane, as well as suggesting a certain superficiality in the figure she exams† (Millgate 319). Even though Jane can use her imaginative faculties to alleviate the pain of reality, she does not separate from reality (Cassell 116). She grieves constantly for the loss of Rochester and her identity. Her art does not offer the same gratifying rewards that it once did. Her work has continued to mature and is evident by Rosamond’s portrait. Mr. Oliver and St. John Rivers authenticate the precision of the portrait. The painting also â€Å"causes St John to admit to Jane what she already knows – that he is in love with Rosamond – and it is while he gazes at the picture that he allows himself to give way to his feelings for a set period of time – ‘a little space for delirium and delusion’, he calls it† (Losano 256). The painting also serves another function. The portrait of Rosamond Oliver brings to fruition, Jane’s aspirations for independence. St. John recognizes her as the rightful heir of a fortune. His proof of her identity consists of a signature in â€Å"the ravished margin of [a] portrait-cover,† which Jane confronts as if it belonged to another: â€Å"He got up, held it close to my eyes: and I read, traced in Indian ink, in my own handwriting, the words ‘JANE EYRE’† (392). Jane construes her signature as â€Å"the work doubtless of some moment of abstraction† and thus disowns it as the product of her own volition, even as it fulfills the conditions of he uncle’s will and her own desires to be financially independent and to belong to a family (Marcus 217). Jane Eyre’s art is mode of self-expression, revealing in rare glimpses her depth of character and aspirations for independence. As Millgate suggests, â€Å"her work is one means of charting her growth to maturity† (315). Beginning in the window-seat at Gateshead, a ten-year-old girl escapes abuse and neglect by escaping through images in her beloved books, through twenty years of creating herself through her art, Jane ends her career as an artist when she becomes Mrs. Jane Rochester. In the account of her married life in the final chapter, all her imaginative activity and visionary skill are devoted to the task of embodying in words, for the benefit of her blind husband. Her gift of words helps her to create a new artist identity-a storyteller. Works Cited Azim, Firdous. â€Å"Rereading Feminism’s Texts in Jane Eyre and Shirley.† The Colonial Rise of the Novel: From Aphra Behn to Charlotte Brontà «. London: Routledge, 1993. Brontà «, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Barnes and Noble, Inc, 2001. Cassell, Cara. The â€Å"Infernal World†: Imagination in Charlotte Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Four Novels. Diss. Georgia State University, 2001. Gates, Barbara. â€Å"Visionary Woe and Its Revision: Another Look at Jane Eyre’s Pictures.† ARIEL, Vol. 7 (1976): 36-49. Gilbert, Sandra. â€Å"Plain Jane’s Progress.† Signs, Vol.2 (1977): 779-804. Kromm, Jane. â€Å"Visual Culture and Scopic Custom in Jane Eyre and Villette.† Victorian Literature and Culture, Vol. 26 (1998): 369-394. Losano, Antonia. The Woman Painter in Victorian Literature. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2008. Marcus, Sharon. â€Å"The Profession of the Author: Abstraction, Advertising, and Jane Eyre.† PMLA, Vol.110 (1995): 206-219 Millgate, Jane. â€Å"Narrative Distance in Jane Eyre: The Relevance of the Pictures.† The Modern Language Review, Vol.63 (1968): 315-319. Newman, Beth. â€Å"Excepts from Subjects on Display.† Charlotte Brontà «Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Jane Eyre: A Case Book. Ed. Elsie Browning Michie. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2006. Starzyk, Lawrence. â€Å"The Gallery of Memory†: The Pictorial in Jane Eyre.† Papers on Language and Literature, Vol.33 (1997): 288-307.

Ka Ching Tone Assignment

In Margaret Atwood’s Ka-Ching!, the dominant tone of the passage is nostalgic and contemplative. When Atwood describes her first job, working for a small hotel coffee shop, she refers to it as being a clean, well-lighted, with booths, counters and waitresses. She is looking back on what seemed to be a poor experience.The basis of the Machiavellian characteristics was to do whatever it took to gain power and maintain that power. During the time of William Shakespeare being a ruler had nothing to do with being a good person, nor did it ever mean doing the right thing. The characteristics that Claudius possess are that he manipulates people, he is unapologetic, and extremely selfish.The dominant tone of the passage is cynical and satirical.The idea that a baby or child could be used as a snack is cynical and satirical. Swift presents his point of view on cannibalism as if it were something completely normal, ignoring the fact that it is taboo, and not socially acceptable. When re ading, we are able to understand that eating children would never happen, but due to his use of diction, a sarcastic and a cynical tone is used. With use of proper connotative diction the author allows us to understand the terrible conditions in Ireland and reveals the dominant tone. â€Å"I can think of no one objection that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it be urged that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom.† It may seem that the narrator may be serious when proposing his solution, but we are able to detect plenty of cynicism.â€Å"For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, the flesh being of too tender a consistence to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.† An awful lot of extremity is  portrayed when Jonathan Swift explains how humans could possibly be exported to other countries in order to be sold and eate n. This demonstrates plenty of sarcastic diction. The denotation of cynical is showing the belief that a person could be solely motivated by selfish concerns.In this passage Swift is able to support his points of view towards the conditions of Ireland with valid reasoning although not realistic. The denotation of sarcasm is not necessarily ironic, but rather a rude or bitter remark toward a thought or point of view. Again, Swift uses sarcastic diction in a connotative way in order to explain to the reader that eating and selling humans is a valid option to better the country and the citizens.

How to Get Good Grades

How to Get Good Grades 5 Tips for Boosting Your Grades Getting good grades in school isnt something that just happens. It takes persistence, patience and a lot of effort on your part. Going from getting mediocre grades into good grades isnt going to happen overnight. It takes time to get yourself organized and develop the skills you need to succeed. To help you boost your grades, here are a few simple tips you can start implementing today. TIPS FOR USING THE CONTROL PANEL 1. Attendance Isnt Optional You cant expect to learn anything if you arent actually in the classroom to take in the information being taught. Being present in the classroom is crucial to improving your grades. By just listening to what the teacher has to say, you stand a chance of being able to walk away with at least a C. When you take notes and study further about the subject matter at hand, you are going to boost your grade even further. The skipping class will cause you to lose points and make your grade suffer further. 2. Keep Distractions to a Minimum If there is anything around you that could be a distraction and prevent you from learning, you need to get rid of it. Dont play around with your phone, listen to music or sit so far back in the classroom that you cant see or hear what the teacher is talking about. Sit closer to the front of the room to make sure you can hear what the teacher is saying and take accurate notes. Dont allow other classmates who might not be interested in learning to distract you from bettering yourself. 3. Pay Attention to Your Note-Taking Whatever the teacher talks about in class, you can plan on it being on the exam. Because of this, you need to make sure you are taking accurate notes that you can study from before the exam. Most of the time, teachers discuss the things that they feel are the most important. With accurate notes, you should have no problem passing the test. Go over everything the teacher discussed and make sure you know the material inside and out. Make note cards, discuss the material with the teacher or a friend, do whatever it takes to come out ahead and make sure the material is embedded in your brain. 4. Read through Your Textbooks Regardless of how much your teacher might try to fit everything into their class session, it isnt going to happen. They only have so much time to go over all of the material. Because of this, you have to take it upon yourself to go through the textbook provided and do your own research and studying. For many students, the thought of reading through pages upon pages of text can be intimidating and overwhelming. This is where you need to implement techniques like scanning, skimming and spotting keywords. Skimming involves going through and reading just the most important parts of the content. Reading the first sentence of every paragraph can help you pick up what the text is about quickly. Scanning is where you look through the main parts in a book to figure out whether it relates to your given topic. By reading the preface, index, intro and conclusion, you can get a good idea whether the book is going to help you or not. Spotting keywords involve going through and picking out the important phrases or words within the text. Anything highlight in italics or bold tends to be the most significant piece of information in the text. Pay attention for this formatting when reading the text. 5. Compare Your Notes with the Textbooks The key to mastering the material at hand is reading, analyzing and memorizing the materials. Read through your notes, write down any questions you might have and ask your teacher for the answers. You can also search your textbook for answers to your questions. This will help your brain to retain all of the information being taught in class. So, what are the things we should remember in order to get good grades? By going through the tips above, you can begin improving your grades in no time at all. Before you know it, you will have the grades you want and be on your way to a new grade point average. There is also another way to get your A become our customer! Our team of professional writers and 24/7 support cant wait to help you!

Biography of Walt Whitman, American Poet

Biography of Walt Whitman, American Poet Walt Whitman  (May 31, 1819–March 26, 1892) is one of the most significant American writers of the 19th century, and many critics consider him the nations greatest poet. His book  Leaves of Grass, which he edited and expanded over the course of his life, is a masterpiece of American literature. In addition to writing poetry, Whitman worked as a journalist and volunteered in military hospitals. Fast Facts: Walt Whitman Known For: Whitman is one of the most famous American poets of the 19th century.Born: May 31, 1819 in West Hills, New YorkDied: March 26, 1892 in Camden, New JerseyPublished Works: Leaves of Grass, Drum-Taps, Democratic Vistas Early Life Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in the village of West Hills on Long Island, New York, approximately 50 miles east of New York City. He was the second of eight children. Whitman’s father was of English descent, and his mother was Dutch. In later life, he would refer to his ancestors as having been early settlers of Long Island. In 1822, when Walt was 2 years old, the Whitman family moved to Brooklyn, which was still a small town. Whitman would spend most of the next 40 years of his life in Brooklyn, which grew into a thriving city during that time. After finishing public school in Brooklyn, Whitman began working at the age of 11. He was an office boy for a law office before becoming an apprentice printer at a newspaper. In his late teens, Whitman worked for several years as a schoolteacher in rural Long Island. In 1838, he founded a weekly newspaper on Long Island. He reported and wrote stories, printed the paper, and even delivered it on horseback. By the early 1840s, he had broken into professional journalism, writing articles for magazines and newspapers in New York. Library of Congress Early Writings Early writing efforts by Whitman were fairly conventional. He wrote about popular trends and contributed sketches about city life. In 1842, he wrote the temperance novel  Franklin Evans, which depicted the horrors of alcoholism. In later life, Whitman would denounce the novel as â€Å"rot,† but at the time it was a commercial success. In the mid-1840s, Whitman became the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, but his political views, which were aligned with the upstart  Free Soil Party, eventually got him fired. He then took a job working at a newspaper in New Orleans. While he seemed to enjoy the exotic nature of the city, he was apparently homesick for Brooklyn. The job only lasted a few months. By the early  1850s  he was still writing for newspapers, but his focus had turned to poetry. He often jotted down notes for poems inspired by the busy city life around him. Leaves of Grass In 1855, Whitman published the first edition of  Leaves of Grass. The book was unusual, as the 12 poems it included were untitled and were set in type (partly by Whitman himself) that looked more like prose than poetry. Whitman had written a lengthy and remarkable preface, essentially introducing himself as an American bard. For the frontispiece, he selected an engraving of himself dressed as a common worker. The green covers of the book were embossed with the title â€Å"Leaves of Grass.† Curiously, the title page of the book, perhaps because of an oversight, did not contain the authors name. The poems in the original edition were inspired by the things Whitman found fascinating: the crowds of New York, the modern inventions the public marveled over, and the raucous politics of the 1850s. While Whitman apparently hoped to become the poet of the common man, his book went largely unnoticed. However,  Leaves of Grass  did attract one major fan. Whitman admired the writer and speaker Ralph Waldo Emerson and sent him a copy of his book. Emerson read it, was greatly impressed, and wrote a letter to Whitman: I greet you at the beginning of a great career. Whitman produced approximately 800 copies of the first edition of  Leaves of Grass, and the following year he published a second edition, which contained 20 additional poems. Evolution of Leaves of Grass Whitman saw  Leaves of Grass  as his life’s work. Rather than publishing new books of poems, he began a practice of revising the poems in the book and adding new ones in successive editions. The third edition of the book was issued by a Boston publishing house, Thayer and Eldridge. Whitman traveled to Boston to spend three months in 1860 preparing the book, which contained more than 400 pages of poetry. Some of the poems in the 1860 edition referred to homosexuality, and while the poems were not explicit, they were nonetheless controversial. Civil War Getty Images In 1861 during the beginning of the Civil War, Whitman’s brother George enlisted in a New York infantry regiment. In December 1862, Walt, believing his brother may have been wounded at the  Battle of Fredericksburg, traveled to the front in Virginia. The proximity to the war, to soldiers, and especially to the wounded had a profound effect on Whitman. He became deeply interested in helping the wounded and began volunteering in military hospitals in Washington. His visits with wounded soldiers would inspire a number of Civil War poems, which he would eventually collect in a book called  Drum-Taps. As he traveled around Washington, Whitman would often see Abraham Lincoln passing by in his carriage. He had a deep respect for Lincoln and attended the presidents second inauguration on March 4, 1865. Whitman wrote an essay about the inauguration, which was published in The New York Times on Sunday, March 12, 1865. In his dispatch, Whitman noted, as others had, that the day had been stormy up until noon, when Lincoln was scheduled to take the oath of office for the second time. But Whitman added a poetic touch, noting that a peculiar cloud had appeared over Lincoln that day: As the President came out on the Capitol portico, a curious little white cloud, the only one in that part of the sky, appeared like a hovering bird, right over him. Whitman saw significance in the odd weather and speculated that it was a profound omen of some sort. Within weeks, Lincoln would be dead, killed by an assassin (who also happened to be in the crowd at the second inauguration). Fame By the end of the Civil War, Whitman had found a comfortable job working as a clerk in a government office in Washington. That came to an end when the newly installed secretary of the interior, James Harlan, discovered that his office employed the author of  Leaves of Grass. With the intercession of friends, Whitman got another federal job, this time serving as a clerk in the Department of Justice. He remained in government work until 1874, when ill health led him to resign. Whitman’s problems with Harlan actually may have helped him in the long run, as some critics came to his defense. As later editions of  Leaves of Grass  appeared, Whitman became known as â€Å"America’s good gray poet.† Death Plagued by health problems, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, in the mid-1870s. When he died on March 26, 1892, the news of his death was widely reported. The San Francisco Call, in an obituary published on the front page of the March 27, 1892, paper, wrote: â€Å"Early in life he decided that his mission should be to preach the gospel of democracy and of the natural man, and he schooled himself for the work by passing all his available time among men and women and in the open air, absorbing into himself nature, character, art and indeed all that makes up the eternal universe.† Whitman was interred in a tomb of his own design in Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey. Legacy Whitman’s poetry was revolutionary, both in subject and style. Though considered eccentric and controversial, he eventually became known as â€Å"America’s good gray poet.† When he died in 1892 at the age of 72, his death was front-page news across America. Whitman is now celebrated as one of the countrys greatest poets, and selections from Leaves of Grass are widely taught in schools and universities. Sources Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman, a Life. Perennial Classics, 2003.Whitman, Walt. The Portable Walt Whitman. Edited by Michael Warner, Penguin, 2004.

The End of the World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The End of the World - Essay Example He said that even if a small portion of the stuff leaks out, it will start producing more and more anti- matter and quite soon they will take over the earth. My head started throbbing after talking to him. I asked my cousin Laura if she knew about LHC. She said, "The Large Hadron Collider There's an article about it in today's New York Times " When I asked her about the end of the world, she laughed and read the article aloud, ".Next summer, the Large Hadron Collider, Europe's $9 billion investment in particle physics, will take a handful of ions, hurl them through 17 miles of circular tunnel and smash them together so hard they will shatter into the finest atomic shards anyone has ever observed. And if all goes according to plan, the glints and flashes from those shards will at last reveal the mysterious Higgs boson, the one particle that endows all others with the property of mass" (Hirsch, 2009. New York Times) After reading the full text, she said that it was a great achievement for science and there was no need to imagine the end of the world. This made me decide to do a little research on my own about the end of the world. First, I interviewed some people about their opinions on "The End of The World ". Of the seven people I interviewed, three were positive the world as we know it would end in the near future; two did not believe that the world would end, and the other two were not sure. Everyone gave a different reason for their belief. Mrs.J, the librarian said that the global financial meltdown showed the moral bankruptcy of our time. In her opinion, this showed that the end was near. Mrs. R also thought the end was near. "Why do you think Katrina and Ike were sent They are the warnings of the future things to come!" she said. Mr. Pradhan, a research scholar from India said that there have been many predictions in the past and none came true. He told the story of the tribal people who live in the jungles of Orissa in India. There was a scare about the end of the world on February 13, 2001. The tribals sold all the things they possessed, gathered in a place in the jungle a week before the 'doomsday' and ate and drank and danced and had an orgy of fun. When nothing happened on the 13th February, they went back to their homes in their villages, and had a bigger thanksgiving celebration in the temple. Mr. K said that global warming would very likely cause an end of the world as we know it. Ms. A ," not sure", was a bit confused by the scriptures who predict an end of the world and the rationalists who disagree. Both the men who did not believe that there would be an end of the world said the prophecies had never come true So .I decided to read up some predictions. The most famous of all prophecies were those made by Nostradamus. , a Frenchman who published his predictions in 1555. In the book "Centuries" he has predicted many historic events that would happen in the future. His predictions are in the form of 4-line verses called quatrains, which are difficult to interpret. I believe he had predicted the world wars, the nuclear bombs , aand9/11. He has also predicted the end of the world. After twenty years of the moons reign Another monarch will take hold for 7000 years When the sun takes the remaining days Then my prophecy is finally accomplished. According to the interpreter, this means, "Armageddon: The sun will consume the earth around the year 7000" (Haley. P.114) The dictionary meaning for

NIKE Co Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

NIKE Co - Research Paper Example They gain a better work-related understanding of their own behavior and that of others hence, motivate, influence, and to succeed. Nike Company is dynamic in that it obtains raw materials from the environment and processes them into finished goods or services that are returned as outputs to the environment. From finished goods and services, Customers create a continuing demand of Nike Company products resulting to a circle known as a value chain (Nelson, Debra & James 25). How Nike Company Functions Organizational structure of Nike Company is centered in managers and their team leaders who foresee efficient running of the company. Their nature of managerial work revolves around planning, organizing, leading and controlling. They execute informational, interpersonal and decisional roles. Informational roles is whereby a manager exchanges and processes information through team leaders and also liaise with the employees in decision making for the betterment of the company. Effective man agers must integrate technical, human and conceptual skills. As well they must be sensitive to workforce dynamics while consistently adapting to their environment and understand broad applications of technology, focus on quality and customer service. In Nike Company, emphasis on managing emotions both personally and in relationships with others, is considered an important leadership competency since a manager’s emotional intelligence contributes significantly to their leadership effectiveness (Nelson et al. 30-5). Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and deal with emotions such as self-regulation, relationship management and self-awareness. Positive organizational cultures in this Company tap the talents, ideas of employees, and their potential creativity. Therefore it makes the organization a better employer and helps it to effectively compete more in the job market. Diversity programs in Nike Company includes; emphasis on recruitment, selection, and retention of potential employees who provide a basis for more effective job satisfaction and productivity. In order to accomplish the diversity management in Nike Company, all levels of management in the company must be committed across all functions of the organization in order to get the best from the company. Diversity therefore, promotes creativity and innovation, social responsibility, reduced legal noncompliance costs and appreciating differences /value of inclusion. The mission statement of Nike Company describes and helps focus on the attention on the company’s core purpose, vision and future aspiration in a way that inspires commitment, innovation, emotion, and courage (Nelson et al. 45-6). Attitudes and Job Satisfaction in Nike Company Attitudes play an important role in employees work output in Nike Company. Managers should therefore be interested in their employees’ attitudes since attitudes give warnings of potential problems and influence behavior. If managers in Nike Company can improve employee attitudes, it will likely result in heightened growth of the company’s effectiveness. The key managerial goal in Nike Company is the employee’s job satisfaction. This is assessed through managerial observation and interpretation of employee’s attitudes and behavior by use of job satisfaction interviews and administering of