Raymond Carver Cathedral Response

The story â€Å"Cathedral† by Raymond Carver is about one man's understanding and acceptance of a blind man. The narrator represents the story's dominant theme of overcoming prejudice of the blind through personal experience as well as mutual respect. The narrator, who remains nameless, holds deeply unfounded beliefs and stereotypes of what a blind person should be, yet over a relatively short period of time he develops a bond with the blind man, whom at first he privately mocked. The narrator's preconceived notions about blind people are proved false when he meets the blind man (Robert) for the first time.The narrator is not looking forward to having a blind man stay at his home. â€Å"Now this same blind man was coming to sleep in my house† (230). Yet once Robert arrives at his home he is shocked that he does not conform to his idea of the blind. â€Å"But he didn't use a cane and he didn't wear dark glasses. I'd always thought dark glasses were a must for the blindà ¢â‚¬  (232). At supper the narrator begins to see Robert as a capable human being rather than a burden and he remarks that he watched with admiration as Robert used his knife and fork on the meat. He'd cut two pieces of meat, fork the meat into his mouth, and then go all out for the scalloped potatoes, the beans next, and then he'd tear off a hunk of buttered bread and eat that† (233). Suddenly the narrator no longer has much to base his prejudices on. The narrator's understanding of Robert is enhanced when Robert agrees to smoke dope with the narrator despite never trying it before. This brings the narrator and Robert closer together as they share a moment like old friends. Now the narrator is beginning to

A & P versus The Widow of Ephesus

Women have always been playing catch up with men. Society has always portrayed women in a manner that revolves around them being shallow, materialistic, licentious, and willing to do anything to appeal to the opposite sex. In the stories of â€Å"A & P† and â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus,† it is no different. In fact the notion is accentuated in both stories. Women are portrayed as pathetic beings with explanatory yet unjustified backgrounds about their incompetence to resist attention or a handsome man. The female genre is perceived as one wit a shallow demeanor and weakness because of their inability to resist desires and lack the maturity to act sensibly. + Women continuously seek out the attention of men. In â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus†, through the character of a widow, women are portrayed as beings who cannot resist a handsome man. Her fidelity â€Å"was so famous that women came from far and near just to get a glimpse of her†(paragraph 2), and even after her husband died, she stayed by his side. However, the author's true feelings about women were revealed when a handsome soldier was brought into the picture. After bringing food down to the widow in her husband's tomb for some time, â€Å"this woman stopped resisting, and she accepted the young soldier's love just as she had accepted his food† (paragraph 11). In â€Å"A & P†, the young girl's were first portrayed as people who were somewhat questionable when it came to their innocence, which is the exact opposite depiction as in â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus†. They are looked down upon for their lack of clothing and illustrated as creatures that were only visually intriguing. The guy in the store is obviously an experienced girl-watcher because he said the â€Å"whole store was like a pinball machine and I didn't know which tunnel they'd come out of† (paragraph 12). So, he was unmistakably interested in the fact that they were wearing bating suits. In the end however, Sammy sticks up for the innocence that all girl's delineate and quits his job at the store after his boss embarrasses the girls by yelling at them for their outfits. He is depicted as heroic for his ways and will respect girls, now that he has seen what it does not to respect them. The social world's described in each story present an enlightening background for the behavior of each character. In the â€Å"Widow of Ephesus,† the woman is one of faith and loyalty to a man whom she had loved for her entire life. She was so in love with this man that she â€Å"accompanied the dead body right into the tomb, and after the coffin was placed in the vault†¦ she began a vigil†¦ weeping and wailing day and night† (paragraph 2). This gives the effect of how shallow women are to the author when, in one short period of time, this woman sleeps with another man because of his looks. When referring to â€Å"A & P†, these three girl's live by the beach, so wearing a bathing suit is perfectly normal. However, when the girls are dismissed from the store in front of strangers, they are embarrassed and made to feel inferior. A man made a woman feel like she was inferior because of how she was dressed. And, although Sammy was going to be looked down upon, he decided that him quitting his job was the necessary thing to do because when â€Å"you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it† (paragraph 31). The embarrassment that the widow and the three girl's felt after they were condemned for their behavior warrants sympathy. The Widow was a woman who spent her entire life with one man and her grieving was well known throughout many different places. She lost the one man that she had ever loved and she couldn't bear to live with that compassion and sense of security that her husband brought to her. To have such a feeling of security and safety and then lose it, is a heartache that sanctions sympathy and pity. In â€Å"A & P,† the three teenagers were looked down upon for what they are wearing and how they are presenting themselves. They are embarrassed in front of customers whom they have never even met by a man who also a complete stranger because they are displaying themselves in an inappropriate manner. They are made to feel as if they are doing something wrong, in a rude and ignorant way, which results in commiseration by the reader. Women are constantly looked down upon for their actions and outward appearances. It is obvious that the author of â€Å"The Widow of Ephesus† thinks very lowly of women through his portraying of the entire female gender as shallow, trifling people who base things only on what they see. It is also clear that the author of â€Å"A & P† is one who thinks somewhat better about women than the other author, but still characterizes them as people who use their looks to get attention and then when they get the wrong attention, girls say that guys are the pigs. It's all a matter of the battle of the sexes, and in the future, there might quite possibly never be a winner.

Review of related literature and studies Essay

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES Teenagers and Part-Time Jobs: Benefits, Drawbacks and Tips Adolescence is that difficult period of time when carefree children transition to responsible adults†¦ we hope. That is the goal, after all, for teens to develop into mature, productive, responsible members of the community. One method for assisting this transition is obtaining part-time employment. A job can help teenagers better develop their identities, obtain increased autonomy, achieve new accomplishments, develop work experience, and become more independent from their parents. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 50 percent of American teenagers hold informal jobs, such as babysitting or yard work, by age 12. Boys tend to begin their jobs at younger ages and work more hours than girls. By age 15, nearly two-thirds of American teens have had some kind of employment. By the time teens graduate from high school, 80% will have held a part-time job at some time during the school year. The average high school student works 20 hours per week, and about 10% work full time (35 hours or more). There are many obstacles to teens obtaining employment. Finding reliable transportation is critical, and that can be difficult if the job is not close by and the teen’s parent(s) work. Fighting stereotypes that employers have about adolescents, such as poor attitudes or lack of skills, can be challenging. In this particular economy, there aren’t very many job opportunities for teens. Teens want to work for a variety of reasons, but more than half report their involvement in work is motivated by the desire to buy things. Typically, teens spend their money on car expenses, recreational expenses, clothing, educational expenses, saving for college, and helping their families with living expenses (e.g., rent, groceries). Researchers have studied and debated the benefits and drawbacks of teens and part-time jobs for more than 2 decades. Many researchers, including those o n government panels like the National Commission on Youth, praise part-time work and say it contributes to the transition from youth to adulthood. Other studies have found significant negative consequences to students working over 20 hours a  week. We will take a close look at both. Benefits of Teens Holding a Part-Time Job There are many benefits to adolescents obtaining employment, including: Obtain valuable work experiences, which are excellent for a resume. Learn how to effectively manage finances. Even if the teen is simply using their earnings to pay for their own expenses, they will learn to budget between clothes, movies, and car expenses. May provide networking possibilities and set a child on a rewarding lifetime career path. Provide constructive use of free time. An after-school job can also provide adult supervision, especially if you work longer hours than those in a typical school day. Employment gives teens less time to engage in risky behaviors. Learn time management skills. Form good work habits. Gain useful, marketable skills such as improving their communication, learning how to handle people, developing interview skills and filling out job applications. Instill new confidence, sense of responsibility and independence. Drawbacks of Teens Holding a Part-Time Job There are also negative consequences of teen employment that may outweigh the positive benefits, such as: Less time for homework. Working students may not have or make the time to complete their work. Higher rates of absenteeism and less school involvement. Employment may place constraints on the student’s study and sleep time. Fatigue or lack of preparation for the day’s academic activities may discourage the working teen from going to school and a job may take the place of extracurricular activities. Lower grades in school. Students who work more than 20 hours a week have grade point averages that are lower than other students who work 10 or less hours a week. More likely to use drugs and alcohol. Research suggests that substance abuse is higher for students who work 20 or more hours per week. Development of negative views of work itself. Early entry into a negative or harsh work environment may encourage negative views of work. This would depend greatly on the maturity level of the teenager and the type of job obtained. Increased stress. Balancing work and school can prove to be too much for any  student. Research seems to suggest that students that work 10 hours or less a week gain the benefits of employment, while students that work over 20 hours a week suffer the negative consequences of work mentioned above. Other factors that affect how students handle employment and school life include the intensity and difficulty of the work done. Summer Employment Summer employment is an excellent alternative, as it does not interfere with schooling and provides teens with a constructive use of their free time. It allows adolescents to garner all the benefits of employment without overtaxing their busy school schedules. Teens should begin looking for summer employment during Spring Break. Possible jobs for teens are: landscaping, delivering newspapers, babysitting, retail stores (such as grocery stores or clothing stores), movie theaters, working at a theme park, being a camp counselor, lifeguarding at a pool, and dog walking. April 2, 2010 by middleearthnj Work careers begin after the completion of formal schooling. This is a fundamental assumption of life course research, which identifies â€Å"the school to work transition† as one of the most critical stages of the early life course. Yet the reality is that most students are also workers. A third or more of high school students are currently employed, as are the majority of college students (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005a). The paucity of research on the overlap of student and worker roles and on the occupational structure of teenage workers is almost certainly due to the assumption that most students work in part-time jobs that are unrelated to post-schooling work careers. Indeed, one of the major â€Å"problems† of the first Occupational Change in a Generation Survey (the data source for Blau and Duncan, 1967) was that the measurement of â€Å"first job† may have conflated student employment and post-student employment (Duncan, Featherman, & Duncan, 1972: 21 0–224). 1 However, the high level of labor force participation among students, and the fact that teenagers comprise four percent of the American workforce, suggest the need for more research on the prevalence of work and the structure of employment among adolescents prior to the completion of schooling. In this study, we explore patterns of social stratification of teenage workers. Prior research on teenage employment has focused almost  exclusively on the impact of work on educational outcomes, including grades and dropping out. The primary theoretical and policy issue is the hypothesis that the roles of worker and student are incompatible, or at least incompatible with educational success (Greenberger & Steinberg, 1986). Yet most studies have concluded that there is little observable harm if students work a moderate number of hours per week; indeed, students who work less than 15 h/week generally have better educational outcomes than students who do not work at all (Carr, Wright, & Brody , 1996; McNeil, 1997; Mortimer & Finch, 1986). Students who work longer hours, especially more than 20 or 25 h/week, do have lower grades and are more likely to drop out of school (D’Amico, 1984), however, it is unclear whether high intensity work is a cause, a consequence, or just a correlate of poorer educational outcomes. The hypothesized causal impact of teenage employment on educational outcomes hinges, in large part, on the selectivity of students into employment and different types of jobs. Before addressing this question, we describe the occupational structure of teenage employment and its relationship to the adult labor market. With in the teenage labor market structure, we attempt to identify the dimensions of occupational status and preferable job characteristics. Then we address the question of selectivity of students to jobs within the classic analytical framework of social stratification research. Specifically, we ask if family background and ascriptive characteristics, such as gender, and race and ethnicity, influence teenage employment and the attainment of higher status jobs. Although we refer to teenage employment in general, our empirical focus is on the employment patterns held by several cohorts of high school seniors in a West Coast metropolitan area. Although this is a limited geographical and temporal sample, the patterns reported here are likely to be representative of teenagers more broadly. We find that there is a clear structure between the social backgrounds of students and the jobs they hold. Advantages of family origins and school achievement are positively associated with paid employment, and advantaged students are especially more likely to hold â€Å"good jobs† outside of prototypical teenage concentration in the fast food sector and related service sector jobs. 2. Why do teenagers work? Although there are many reasons why people work, economic necessity ranks  near the top of the list. Most high school students, however, live as dependents in parental households, and very few teenagers have to work to provide their food and shelter. Indeed, state laws â€Å"protect† adolescents from becoming regular workers by limiting the hours and nature of paid employment. The one gray area is family employment, especially when families run small businesses. Families that run small businesses generally depend on the unpaid labor of all family members, including school age children and adolescents, as part of a strategy of economic survival. If teenagers are not working to support their families, the most plausible alternative interpretation is that most students work to support their consumption and related lifestyle activities, such as saving for clothing, a car, or other â€Å"extras† beyond their family’s economic resources or willingness to provide. Another potential explanation is that students work in order to invest in their future. Students may seek jobs that provide opportunities for achievement, exposure to possible career choices, or to develop ties with persons who could serve as mentors. These explanations are not mutually exclusive, and many teenagers may be motivated by both objectives. Regardless of the motivations of students, there must be a job market in which employers seek to, or are at least willing to, hire teenagers. Many teenagers may be working in part-time jobs in the general labor market where there is an insufficient supply of relatively cheap and flexible workers. In these jobs, teenagers can be considered as supplemental workers for adults who are the predominate workforce. For example, teenagers often work as receptionists in offices and as cashiers in grocery stores, but teenagers comprise only a small minority of workers in these positions. There may also be niches of teenage jobs where adolescents comprise a significant share of all workers in an occupation or industry. For example, teenage workers appear to be the mainstay of fast food establishments. The proportional representation of teenage workers (ages 16–19) in the major occupational categories, and their relative share of all workers (employed persons age 16 and above) in each occupation, is presented in Table 1 based on data from the 2005 Current Population Survey. These data do not differentiate teenagers by their enrollment status.

Appendix A: Barclay’s employees Essay

Barclay’s Bank Organizational Strategy and Employee Morale September 15, 2007? Contents Barclays Bank 3 Roadmap-Thesis 5 Interview Results 5 Academic Research Recommendations for Improvement 7 Conclusion 10 References 12 Appendix A: Barclay’s Employees 14 Appendix B Employee Interviews 15 Appendix C: Framework For Improvement 19 ? Barclays Bank Barclays is the third largest bank in the United Kingdom. The bank can trace its roots back to 1690 in London. The name â€Å"Barclay† first arose in 1736. Today the bank is a global financial service provider operating in the UK, Europe, United States, and Africa. The bank’s headquarters are at One Churchill Place in Canary Wharf, in London’s Docklands, having moved there in May 2005 from Lombard Street in the City of London. Barclay’s US headquarters are in Wilmington, Delaware where it acquired the former Juniper Bank (Answers Barclays Bank 2006). Barclays is a UK-based financial services group, with a very large international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. It is engaged primarily in banking, investment banking and investment management. In terms of market capitalisation, Barclays is one of the largest financial services companies in the world (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Barclays has been involved in banking for over 300 years and operates in over 60 countries with more than 113,000 permanent employees (including 33,500 at Absa). For the year ended 31st December 2005, the group achieved a pre-tax profit of ? 5,280 million, up fifteen per cent on 2004. In 2005 Barclays paid approximately ? 3 billion in taxes (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Customers are served through a variety of channels comprising: the branch network, cash machines, telephone banking, online banking and relationship managers. It is managed through two business areas, UK Retail Banking and UK Business Banking. In UK Retail Banking there are 14 million retail customers, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, and general insurance (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Local Business provides banking services to 592,000 customers; UK Premier provides banking, investment products and advice to 286,000 affluent customers (Barclays Newsroom 2006). UK Business Banking provides relationship banking to larger and medium-sized businesses. 183, 000 customers are served by a network of relationship and industry sector specialist managers (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Barclay’s strategic objective is to â€Å"To deliver top quartile total shareholder return relative to our peers, consistently over time† (Barclays p 2 2004). The company focuses directly on increasing shareholder value rather than employee retention and morale. Barclay’s does not have a directly available mission and values statement that is visible to the external environment. The internal environment at Barclay’s is one of traditional top-down management. The corporate culture at Barclay’s maintains a hierarchy of experience and education, where the management team places a large amount of focus on meeting the shareholder strategy. According to Barclay’s â€Å"In recent months, we have taken a number of steps to enhance further our corporate governance practices. We have expanded the remit of the Remuneration Committee to cover strategic human resource issues† (Barclay’s 2004 p 3). These strategic changes included: â€Å"continued and upgraded our investment in established; programs for the community, equality and diversity, and the environment; built on our reputation as a pioneer and leader in the field of financial inclusion; excellent terms and conditions for colleagues impacted by offshore outsourcing; developed a clear statement on human rights, and continued our participation in the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights; and made good progress in adapting our branches and offices to be fully accessible to customers with disabilities (Barclays p 12 2004). Barclay’s did not, however, remunerate a corporate strategy or mission to address its near 20% turnover rate which has been continuous and barely changing for the past three years, an indication that Barclay’s focus is on stakeholder value and not developing or addressing employee morale. However, Barclays does have a large focus on community service, receiving the â€Å"2004 National Business Award for Corporate Social Responsibility† (Barclays p 12 2004). (Barclays p 47 2005) ? Appendix B Employee Interviews Employee 1 What is your job and role at Barclay’s? I am a telephone operator and sales advisor, working both the phone lines and desk. Sales advisors are front-line employees performing work at the transaction level. We are dedicated to customer satisfaction and providing great service. We want to provide great service but recognize the challenges in improving the work processes. What are your beliefs about Barclay’s strategic objective? Our philosophy is client centred. I believe the clients have ultimate knowledge of themselves and that the banker’s job is to draw out this information and insight, help clients organize it, and stimulate clients to use their funds better. What are these challenges in improving the work process? Office politics at all levels, particularly where reports of motivation and such are concerned, there is sometimes when they call out the good, and embarrassingly the bad also. Sometimes leadership is motivational but not always. So, if you have a good idea and you don’t hobnob with the management, you are not going to be listened to. The same is true if you are having a problem, or a customer is being overly abrasive towards you. It can be a little insane. Can you explain the leadership strategy in motivation? They focus on certain people and not the whole department or team. Favoritism is the â€Å"coin of the realm† in my department. The â€Å"code of silence† dictates that discipline must be administered when broken and rewarded with favor when adhered to, in contrast to a system where one is encouraged to excel. My department operates more on the prison model of behavior control. What are your beliefs about Barclay’s strategic objective? Our philosophy is client centred. I believe the clients have ultimate knowledge of themselves and that the banker’s job is to draw out this information and insight, help clients organize it, and stimulate clients to use their funds better. What do Barclay’s mission and value statements mean to you? Value of an open, thoughtful and complementary approach to quality informed customers and developing customer loyalty. a planned and systematic approach to quality including ensuring that the results of monitoring and evaluation are fed back in order to effect improvement. How does Barclay’s leadership ensure proper monitoring and evaluation? Use of internal performance/service benchmarks is not enough although several recognized performance indicators are used by managers, but customer satisfaction information should be requested for each purchasing transaction. There is a lack of cooperative work processes and supporting information systems which negatively impact customer service. What kind of customer service do you try to perform? I believe in being responsive to what the customer wants as opposed to what she ought to have. With service, you also always tell the truth as you see it. I put a lot of emphasis on contracting-what can I do for her that will be of value to her in that time frame. Does leadership help you want to provide good customer service? Leadership has not helped me want to provide customer service. Not everyone is a decent human being. Not all are treated with respect. Someone seriously rude in the office and nothing is done as it is not viewed as wrong. Employee 2: What is your job and role at Barclay’s? I provide telephone customer service. What are your beliefs about Barclay’s strategic objective? There is an emphasis on customer service as a driver of business performance. What does customer service entail? I have to have an in-depth understanding of various components including stock option and restricted share award processes; eligibility requirements; and knowledge of plan design, alternative practices and business needs/issues and I use this to help the customer build their best banking services. I have to be able to track and monitor customer accounts and customer service. Does Barclays give you frequent training and all the materials you need to do your job? No. I wish I had access to more ongoing training program for customer service as what I do is quite complex and precision is very important so the customer’s bank accounts are all correct. Some managers are really willing to help you out. Others talk to you like you are an idiot for asking for help. It is a half and half shot at getting training or help with something, unless it comes from corporate management. How does corporate management get information or motivation to you? I don’t think corporate has motivated anyone. They send training videos or PowerPoint presentations explaining the importance of customer service, but what I really want is more technical training so I can give better customer service. I’m already polite and courteous. How do your direct leaders motivate you to give good customer service? Management appears to want to make this an issue and an expectation that everyone should jump on board. If someone becomes ostracized or somehow made less because they don’t buy into the hubbub, it seems we’ve just created a worse problem. It’s almost a Catch-22, I’m not engaged all the way because they don’t give me what I really need and I get treated like I’m a moron, but they expect me to always smile and be happy, even when the manager is quite literally rolling her eyes at me. It’s a terrible, rude atmosphere at least half of the time. What about the other half of the time? How do you feel about ‘engaging’ with your job? I am not sure how to respond. I talk to customers and do what they ask as quickly as possible and sometimes I make recommendations for better banking, but I don’t know how this engages the customer one way or the other. ? Appendix C: Framework For Improvement.

Compare The Barn and An Advancement of Learning Essays

Compare The Barn and An Advancement of Learning Essays Compare The Barn and An Advancement of Learning Paper Compare The Barn and An Advancement of Learning Paper Essay Topic: Poetry Seamus Heaney Poems In the two Seamus Heaney poems, The Barn, and An Advancement of Learning, there are a number of similarities and differences between them. One key similarity is the theme of rats. In, The Barn, the boy explores around and once he walks into a cobweb, he gets a fright and tries to get away into the sunlit yard. The boy has nightmares in the poem and the large, heavy corn sacks are described as, great blind rats, whereas in, An Advancement of Learning, the rats are actually real and they scuttle past in front of his eyes. They are portrayed as arrogant and disgusting. Heaney says, The rats slobbered out of the water, smudging the silence. We begin to imagine revolting beasts all wet and disgusting scurrying about the riverbanks. What is very similar about the two poems is that they are both very autobiographical and recall childhood memories. The Barn, is about Heaneys past experience of the barn and he tells us of all the feelings he felt at the time. In, An Advancement of Learning, Heaney refers to how he used to panic when his grey brothers scraped and fed behind the hencoop in his yard and on ceiling boards above his bed. Both poems link to the childhood phobia, which in this case happens to be rats. Both poems are narrated in the first person. This enhances the poems meaning because it gives a personal insight into how he is feeling at the time. This possibly helped Heaney because hes writing about past experiences. Both poems draw your attention to them in just the first stanza. The Barn, does this by using two similes in the opening sentence whereas, in, An Advancement of Learning, the tone is very calm and gives the implication that the bridge is a cause of anxiety and fear. The understatement is the use of brackets to relate this consistent habit of going the long way round only serves to heighten our curiosity by increasing the sense of ingrained attitude. Heaney is talented at grabbing the readers attention, which makes us want to read on. The poem, An Advancement of Learning, is structured as nine, four-lined stanzas. This is an appropriate structure because as the poem progresses, the attitude towards the rat changes. For example, in the third stanza, the boys attitude towards the rat is, something, then a snubbed rodent, in stanza five. However, by the eighth stanza, a grey brother, has been transformed. The turning point of the poem comes in the central stanza so the poem is, in my opinion, well structured. The poem gradually builds up the tension before the turning point and the stanzas, which fall after the turning point, show the next steps the boy takes in order to overcome his fear of rats. The turning point is, I turned to stare. It is marked by a change in the rhyme scheme. In stanza one, line two and four rhyme and then in stanza two, line one and three rhyme etc. Once the turning point (climax) occurs in stanza five, there becomes no significant rhyme scheme. By using the four-line, nine-stanza structure, the poets use of enjambment proves to be successful and this helps the poem to flow in an effective way. He says, so quickly that, on the end of line four on stanza three and, I turned down the path, on the first line of stanza four. The poem does as the poem says, it moves quickly onto the next stanza. The poem, The Barn, is structured as five, four-lined stanzas. This is an appropriate structure because each stanza progresses further through the barn. The reader gets an insight into Heaneys barn experience step-by-step, or stanza-by-stanza. This gradual build up helps you to feel the kind of atmosphere in the barn. Once again Heaney finds the use of enjambment appropriate to help the poem flow. Heaney says, Then you felt cobwebs clogging up your lungs, on line four, then, and scuttled fast into the sunlit yard, on line one. This is very effective because the poet wishes to change the scene and atmosphere suddenly, so he needed a way in which the two lines could flow together naturally without disrupting the style of the poem. He also uses the word, fast, to add emphasis on the speed or the change of scene. The movement from one place to another in this poem is the definite turning point. It goes from being quite dark in the barn, to the sunlit yard, away from the dank dustiness, to the bright and cheerful place. From there on, the nightmares begin. Although the poem is structured well, I do feel that it sounds slightly incomplete. Heaney ends the poem by saying, the two-lugged sacks moved in like great blind rats. I feel that not all questions have been answered in the poem and I would like to read a further one-line stanza perhaps, to draw the poem to a conclusion. The language in both poems is very descriptive and lots of adjectives are being used. In, An Advancement of Learning, the boy analyses the, tapered tail, raindrop eye and old snout, as though his interest in the rat is no longer imaginative but scientific. In, The Barn, the floor is described as, mouse grey, smooth, chilly concrete. Clearly, Heaneys strength is his use of descriptive language, which creates a vivid image in your mind. As Heaney is gifted with his imagination there are obviously numerous images in both poems. In, The Barn, Heaney uses two similes in the first two lines, these are, lay piled like grit of ivory, and, solid as cement in two-lugged sacks. This paints the image of the corn sacks in your mind as being heavy and old, which have perhaps been there for many years. It seems impossible for them to move. We are then surprised in the closing stanza when the poet says, the two-lugged sacks moved in like great blind rats. It doesnt seem likely that the two corn sacks would be possible to move after we read the first stanza and establish the heaviness of them. We then realise that its actually a nightmare and we can understand why they appear to have been moving. In, The Barn, the roof, gulfed in. Gulfed is an action so how could the roof have gulfed? Well its personification. Heaney gave the roof (object) human characteristics by implying that it has gulfed. The use of this poetic device makes t he poem easier to understand and makes the images Heaney is trying to draw, clearer to see. The imagery used in, An Advancement of Learning, is equally as vivid as in, The Barn. Heaney says, the swans are, dirty-keeled. This suggests that the purity and beauty of the swans are contaminated by the filth of the river. The filth is perhaps informing us that the industrial revolution has had its direct affect on nature. The rivers portrayed as being corrupted with mans waste. This filth-ridden home just happens to be the home of the rats in this poem. This suggests that the poet sees the rats in a negative way. The use of alliteration also proves to be effective. Heaney says, Something slobbered curtly, close, smudging the silence: a rat slimed out of the water. All the words beginning with S are very descriptive and disgusting. Basically these words sum up the poets attitude towards the rats. Heaney uses the word, slimed, which isnt actually a word in the English dictionary; it is the inflected form of the verb slime. The word that he used fully satisfies the situation and I think it adds to the effect of alliteration. The trochaic rhythm of the first line on stanza three heightens the tension: Something slobbered curtly, close. The voice falls forward and heavily stresses the, closeness, of the rat because of the expected, but missing final syllable. In, An Advancement of Learning, Heaney uses the word, hunched, this suggests the tenseness in response to the atmosphere of the riverbank. Heaney also says, well away from the road now, this means that the boy finds himself isolated and, therefore, more vulnerable. This is also the case in, The Barn. The boy is alone in the daunting barn with just the sheer intension or exploration to comfort him. In, An Advancement of Learning, the river is said to have, nosed past. This is linked to the rat, as the rat is described as, snubbed, and, old snout, referring to the rats nose and other disgusting features. In the early stanzas of the poem, the rat is seen as arrogant and disgusting; but later the rat clockworks, his back bunched. The transformed diction marks the inversion of roles between the boy and the rat. For example, the rat moves, curtly, in the second stanza but yet, aimlessly, in the sixth. This shows that man is dominant over nature in the end, no matter what the circumstances may be. The same situation is also shown near to the end of the poem. The speaker becomes calm and matter-of-fact like in the last stanza, then I walked on and crossed the bridge. The simple diction and movement of the rhythm into a pair of iambs, reflects the boys triumph over his fear and his return to a balanced state of mind. Both poems show rats in a negative way. This shows the poets feelings towards them. Both the rats are portrayed as being intimidating and frightening. It is obviously the childhood memories which have had an impact on the way Heaney views rats. The past encounter with rats has, therefore, left a negative imprint on the poets mind forever, or as this case may be, until the fears have been conquered by staring one out. The stare factor is common in both poems. In, The Barn, the poet says, where bright eyes stared from piles of grain in corners, fierce, unblinking. In, An Advancement of Learning, the poet says, He trained on me. I stared him out. After reading these two poems I feel that the general point theyre trying to make is that you must face up to your fears in order to overcome them.

what an anmerican is to me essays

what an anmerican is to me essays Before every baseball game they play the national anthem for a reason and everyone one thinks about it in a different way. Everyone has there own impression what makes an American and what they think about when the song plays. People have good and bad thoughts, some even think it should nt be played and some say it should, its there own opinion. According to St. John De Crevecoeur an American is a countryman, which has liberty and joy in everything his or she does. They are good farmer, is a sober, peaceable, good citizen (Crevecoeur 548). They love everyone even if they are poorer then them. An American works but not to hard and has a family that he takes care of. He thinks that ethnicity has nothing to do whether he is a german, or European as long as he has a job and supports the family and loves the land and takes care of the land he is an American. Crevecoeur says we are the most perfect society now existing in the world (542). Frederick Jackson Turner know that the Indians were the first people here and other people improved it. We followed the European frontier, and through the dense population we lots of free land. Turner believed that an American is someone that cares about his or her land, money, freedom, and work. A steady frontier settlement advanced and carried with it individualism, democracy, and nationalism, and powerfully affected ( Turner 624 ). The land that they own expands has people move in and also it shapes them as a whole. My point of view of an American is a person that puts family and religion as number one and then the money and land. I think that family is the most important because if you dont have a family you really cant go far. You also need god in your life, he is everything. You really cant do anything with out his help and all the other things will come in place if you have christ in your life. The money and land is important bu ...

Spanish Word Order in Forming Sentences

Spanish Word Order in Forming Sentences Compared with English, Spanish allows considerable latitude in the word order of sentences. Whereas in English, most simple sentences are formed in the pattern of subject, verb, then object, in Spanish any one of those sentence parts can come first. Word Order in Simple Spanish Statements As a general rule, it is almost never wrong to follow the common sentence structure of subject-verb-object (known to grammarians as SVO). Note,however, that in Spanish it also common for object pronouns to come before verbs or be attached to them if the verb is an infinitive or command. But while English allows variation primarily for questions and poetic effect, in Spanish ordinary statements can start with the subject, the verb or the object. In fact, starting a statement with the verb is very common. For example, all the following sentence constructions are possible as a translation of Diana wrote this novel: Diana escribià ³ esta novela. (Subject comes first.)Escribià ³ Diana esta novela. (Verb comes first.)Esta novela la escribià ³ Diana. (Object comes first. In this construction, an object pronoun is often added to help avoid ambiguity. This sentence order is far less common than the first two.) So do all those sentences mean the same thing? Yes and no. The difference is subtle (in fact, sometimes there is no substantive difference), but the choice of wording can be a matter of emphasis rather than something that might come across in a translation. In spoken English, such differences are often a matter of intonation (which also occurs in Spanish); in written English we sometimes use italics to indicate emphasis. In the first sentence, for example, the emphasis is on Diana: Diana wrote this novel. Perhaps the speaker is expressing surprise or pride about Dianas accomplishment. In the second sentence the emphasis is on the writing: Diana wrote this novel. (Perhaps a better example might be something like this: No pueden escribir los alumnos de su clase. The students in his class cant write.) In the final example, the emphasis is on what Diana wrote: Diana wrote this novel. Word Order in Simple Spanish Questions In Spanish questions, the subject almost always comes after the verb.  ¿Escribià ³ Diana esta novela? (Did Diana write this novel?)  ¿Quà © escribià ³ Diana? (What did Diana write?) Although it is possible in informal speech to phrase a question like a statement as can be done in English -  ¿Diana escribià ³ esta novela? Diana wrote this novel? - this is seldom done in writing. Omitting the Subject in Spanish Although in standard English the subject of a sentence can be omitted only in commands, in Spanish the subject can be omitted if it is understood from the context. See how the subject can be omitted in the second sentence here because the first subject provides the context. Diana es mi hija. Escribià ³ esta novela. (Diana is my daughter. She wrote this novel.) In other words, it is not necessary in the second sentence to provide ella, the word for she. Word Order in Sentences Including a Relative Clause A common word order that may seem unfamiliar to English speakers involves subjects include a relative clause- a sentence fragment that includes a noun and verb and typically begins with a relative pronoun such as that or which in English or que in Spanish. Spanish speakers tend to avoid placing verbs far away from the subject, forcing them to invert the subject-verb order. The tendency can best be explained with an example: English: A cellphone that I had in order to make videos disappeared. (The subject of his sentence is cellphone, which is described by that I had in order to make videos. This sentence may seem somewhat awkward in English because of so many intervening words between the subject and verb, but there is no way to avoid the problem without making an even clumsier sentence.)Spanish: Desaparecià ³ un mà ³vil que yo tenà ­a para realizar và ­deos. (By putting the verb, desparecià ³, first, it can come next to un mà ³vil. Although it would be possible to roughly follow the English word order here, doing so would seem awkward at best to a native speaker.) Here are three more examples that use similar patterns. The sentence subjects and verbs are in boldface to show how they are closer in Spanish: Ganà ³ el equipo que lo merecià ³. (The team that deserved it won.)Obtienen trabajo las personas que ya muchos aà ±os de experiencia laboral. (Persons who already have many years of work experience get jobs.)Pierden peso los que disfrutan de correr. (Those who like to run lose weight.) Key Takeaways A subject-verb-object word order is usual in both Spanish and English simple statements, but Spanish speakers are more likely to modify the word order as a way of changing emphasis.In both English and Spanish questions, the verb typically comes before the subject.Spanish speakers often place the verb of a sentence first when the subject includes a relative clause.