Generation Y and leadership Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Generation Y and leadership - Assignment Example The challenges are also due to the fact that the earlier generation, the ‘x’ers are also in the office floor making it a management conundrum. The challenge of managing this mutigenerational workforce would be considered quaint when one considers the natural progression this situation leads to be an era where millennials will be called to lead other millennials. Aliases for this generation are not in short supply. They could also be referred to as the â€Å"entitlement kids† for the strong sense of expectation they posses. â€Å"†¦If there is one overriding perception of the millennial generation, it's that these young people have great -- and sometimes outlandish – expectations† (Aslop, 2008). What would leadership look when â€Å"entitlement kids† lead â€Å"entitlement kids†? Would it be a positive development or similar to the new tribal warfare we see in the world, outside the corporate curtain wall? One of the best ways to un derstand the millennials is to contrast them with the prior generation ‘x’. Those born in the 1960’s and 1970’s up to 1982 are referred to as the generation ‘x’. They are refereed to as a generation that â€Å"†¦ has always signified a group of young people, seemingly without identity, who face an uncertain, ill-defined (and perhaps hostile) future.†(Ulrich, 2003). ... Sociologists will point to this as a definitive belief in leadership principles by believing in being led. The underlying reasons for this according to Hershatter derived from groundbreaking research done in ‘The History of America's Future 1584 to 2069’ (Strauss et al. 1992) is that â€Å"A lot of the things that people perceived as problematic outcomes as the result of how Gen ‘X’ers were raised – latch key kids, lots of autonomy, lots of freedom, not a lot of attention to their care and well being – was completely reversed with the Millennials†. They were raised with positive reinforcement. Confident in them selves it was insufficient for them to know what had to be done? Brought up with Pokemon, Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings film trilogy they needed to know why it had to be done? Cell phones, Mp3’s, and game portals were their toys making them addicted to technology. Fostered by social media and keypad savvy they have ma naged to be more connected with their parents than generations before them as they were in control of that connectivity. Trust has been inbred them. Gaining knowledge is less of a priority than knowing the sources of knowledge. They have had to learn to trust sources of knowledge. Millennials have turned the perception that generation-to-generation youth culture self degrades. They are changing corporate culture by their liking for immediate feedback, the hunger for positive reinforcement, and the sensitivity to relationships. The above-mentioned factors will cause corporate structures to be flatter to facilitate the required speed of communication and generation ‘Y’ has the

Alice walker in search of the garden Essay Example for Free

Alice walker in search of the garden Essay lice Walker’s essay, In Search of Our Mother’s Garden, talks about her search of the African American women’s suppressed talent, of the artistic skills and talents that they lost because of slavery and a forced way of life. Walker builds up her arguments from historical events as well as the collective experiences of African Americans, including her own. She uses these experiences to back up her arguments formed from recollections of various African American characters and events. Walker points out that a great part of her mother’s and grandmothers’ lives have been suppressed because of their sad, dark pasts. But all of these are not lost because somehow, these are manifested in even the smallest things that they do, and that they were also able to pass it down to the very people that they loved. Our search of our mother’s garden may end back to ourselves. Walker builds up her argument by mentioning the experiences of other people in the essay. One of them is Jean Toomer, a poet in the early 1920s. He is a man who observed that Black women are unique because they possessed intense spirituality in them, even though their bodies endure every aspect of punishment in every single day of their lives. They were in the strictest sense Saints – crazy, pitiful saints. Walker points out that without a doubt, our mothers and grandmothers belong to this type of people. By building up on the observations of Toomer, she was somehow able to show how hard it was to be a mother or a grandmother or even just a woman at that time, one reason perhaps is that they are black. The mothers and grandmothers at that time endured all of this without any hope that tomorrow will be different, be better. Because of this, they were not able to fully express themselves. They were held back by their society. Another black character that she used to build her argument is Phillis Wheatley, a Black slave girl with a precarious health. Phillis is a poet and a writer at her own right, but unfortunately, she wasn’t able to do much with it because she was a slave. She didn’t have anything for herself, worse, she didn’t even own herself. Her futile attempts for self expression would be washed up by forced labor and pregnancies. She lost her health, and eventually her life without fully expressing herself through her gift for poetry. Alice Walker used the story of Phillis to establish the understanding that indeed, African American women at that time were not allowed or didn’t have the luxury of time to exercise their gifts, to hone their talents and abilities, and use them to fully express themselves. By doing so, Walker proves that our mothers and grandmothers lived a boxed life back then, with no way to channel to them emotions and thoughts other than hard labor and forced servitude. She pointed out that we wouldn’t know if anyone of them would’ve bloomed to be poets, singers, actresses, because they never really had the chance to know what they can do. By building up her argument using these two accounts, she is also presenting very strong evidence to her claim. These accounts were personal experiences of real African American people, and these are not just isolated cases. These are shared experiences not just by these two but by all of their people. Walker can confidently say that there is a lot of Phillis Wheatley in those times, perhaps including her mother and grandmothers. This is concrete evidence because it is not fictional, it is not imaginary, or something conceived out of Walker’s creativity. Slavery, forced pregnancies, poverty, and artistic suppression were the realities during the time of our grandmothers. No one can deny this, and no one can deny the existence of Phillis or the accounts of Jean Toomer. Considering Alice Walker’s authority in her arguments, she could be considered as an expert, a reliable source of information on the topic. First off, she is an African American woman, who had her fair share of poverty in her childhood. She was born and raised by hardworking parents, who really had to work day and night to provide for their family. Also, she witnesses first hand that even though her mother may not be a poet or a novelist; she was an artist in the truest sense. Her artistic side is manifested in her gardens and the beautiful flowers that she grows. Alice Walker witnessed all of this, experienced first hand what it was like to be poor and seemingly talentless. The accounts that Alice Walker used to prove her points and back up her arguments were African American history that she was all too familiar with. It may have been shared to her by her families, or simply a collective knowledge passed down from one generation to another. She is also well-educated, a wide reader, and an artist. She often cites Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, relating a white woman’s plight to a black woman’s hardships. She emphasizes that even though she recognizes Woolf’s point about society’s unfair treatment to women of her time, Walker still believes that black women suffered the most (Walker). There is simply nothing that could compare to the artistic suppression that her mother and grandmothers experienced. In this essay, she is appealing to a general audience, with no specific race or ethnicity. I think this essay was written to highlight the African American women of her mother and grandmother’s time, who were unable to express their talents and hone it to its full potential. This essay is written to inform anyone and everyone reading it about their stories, and of her discovery of her mother’s garden. She was glad to know that it is possible for African American women to express themselves even unknowingly, that it is up to us to discover these â€Å"gardens.† She is appealing to the readers in general that even though some people like our mothers and grandmothers seem talentless or artistically inferior, it doesn’t mean that they really lack the talent. It just means that were not looking hard enough to find it. Alice Walker’s method of using personal experience and historical accounts allow her to truthfully see and say what has really happened. She doesn’t have to make up hypothetical events because she already has a basis for her arguments. Jean Toomer’s recollections and Phillis Wheatley’s experiences are enough proof of her argument. If some people would disagree with what she’s saying, she can always go back to their experiences, to how Phillis suffered without fully using her gift, or what Toomer saw in the streets in the early Twenties. But because of this, I think Walker is somehow limited to the sad and pitiful stories of the past. Well, in reality, most of the stories of African Americans were really sad and pitiful, but still, Walker failed to mention of any successful artist who rose from the ranks of slaves to write her own story. It is either this kind of story really didn’t exist at that time, or Walker just didn’t mention it, since it wasn’t the focus of her essay. Alice Walker concluded her essay by saying that Phillis Wheatley’s mother was also an artist, and that the achievements of their daughters were in some way brought about by their mothers. Her conclusion states that the mother is somehow responsible in every achievement of their daughter. Any artistic output by a person is also a product of their mother. Indeed, their children are their best creations, their very own wonderful gardens. This conclusion is related to her method because it goes back to how Phillis Wheatley’s mother was somehow responsible for her daughter’s artistic sense, and that beyond the poverty and the hardships that our mothers and grandmothers experienced during their times, they were still able to artistically express themselves through their children, their very own wonderful gardens.

The Ants and The Bees: Comparing the Social Structure of these Colonia

A queen, drones, and workers share a common place in life. They all live in a bee and ant colony striving together to accomplish their specific jobs. Living in a world where females are your workers and protectors of the queen, and drones are used to multiply the colony, and then die. When you look passed the buzzing of ants, you see a very sociable creature working like a well oiled machine. When you hear the dirt on the bees, they may look sociable, but deep down, it’s another world. A world where queens kill sibling sisters, and the drones are ejected out into the cold to starve just for the sake of their colony. Where females defend the nest and die 100% of the time after the sting. Bees and ants, both considered sociable insects, have a very different view on sociability. The colonies of ants and bees are broken down into several different categories. The top of the chain consist of the queen in both colonies. The colony depends on the queen to produce the eggs for their survival. This is the only function for the queen. She is able to choose what gender the eggs will become by fertilizing or not fertilizing them. She is capable of keeping the balance of the colony in check by choosing the gender of her eggs. Unfertile eggs become the drones of the colony, where fertile eggs becomes the female workers. The males, or drones of the colony serve only one purpose, and that is to fertilize the eggs. The drones do no maintenance work, no tending to the colony, no foraging, and they shortly die after mating with the queen. The workers of the colony are all female and mostly foragers, but some do have different task within their society (Stanger et al., 1971, p.10-11). The same can be implied to the ant colony which is made up of ... ...ned (Layton, 2008, p.1). They clamp on with there mighty jaws, rotate in a circle, and sting their victim while still clamped on. Some ants do not have a stinger. They simply drop poison unto their victims skin. Bees and ants live in a social nest setting, where there is a queen, drones, and workers. At first glance they may seem to be almost the same, one with wings and one without. Storing honey for rougher seasons and times, protecting by stinging, and having different types that are more harmful than others. At a closer look, ants are more the social creatures than bees. Living with more than one queen and sharing the neighboring colonies workers. Bees seem to live a more a closed off, mobster type. The queen killing off her sister rivalry to rule over the colony. Bees and ants may be similar in social structure, but different when you get down to the dirt.

Conformity and Censorship on Society Essay

â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†, by Ray Bradbury, is a story about a society where the government controls the thoughts, and actions of the citizens. Bradbury’s futuristic society has no past and is completely empty. The works and knowledge created in the centuries before, banished and burned. His world contains no beauty, no love, and is completely monitored and controlled by an overbearing and cruel government. Through the depiction of this society, Bradbury comments on the horrific effects of censorship on the souls of human beings. As well as the loss of humanity at the hands of a government that enforces mass conformity. In â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†, all pieces of writing are considered unnecessary and illegal because they supposedly cause unrest in the general public. Similarly, individualism is also discouraged and the mind is meant for mundane and boring acts of repetition and routine. Bradbury’s future world is emotionless and blinded to the fact that the civilization is rapidly progressing toward complete destruction. Bradbury is a skilled storyteller and intricately parallels his fictional world with modern day society. â€Å"Fahrenheit 451† is a carefully constructed warning about the potential future of the world if it continues to misuse censorship, technology, and enforce conformity. The story of â€Å"Fahrenheit 451† was based on the current events in United States during the 1950s. Jack Zipes, in Mass Degradation of Humanity and Massive Contradictions in Bradbury’s Vision of America in â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†, explains â€Å"â€Å"Fahrenheit 451† is discussed in terms of the world’s problems at large when it is essentially bound to the reality of the early 1950s in America, and it is the specificity of the crises endangering the fabric of American society which stamp the narrative concern† (182). The second world war prompted many writers to turn from fantasy fiction to works that dealt with the more serious issues of the time. This was a time when scientists had just discovered and used the atom bomb. For the first time the citizens of the world had to take seriously that idea that with a single technology the entire planet could be destroyed (56). Bradbury’s hatred for such technology can be seen in the novel. Technologies are often described as â€Å"chilling, impersonal gadgets of mechanized anti-culture† (141). In addition, the television was now a common household item used not just for entertainment but also as a means of communicating the daily news. The obsession of mindless entertainment irritated Bradbury, and the citizens of his fictionally world are equally as mindless. As the popularity of the television increased the reading of books decreased. Bradbury, in â€Å"Fahrenheit 451† shows what would happen in a world where literature ceased to exist. The United States was also suffering through misinformed McCarthyism which persecuted supposed communists who wanted to overthrow the government (McGiveron 283). The governmental actions were illegal and unconstitutional and yet they continue to destroy lives with paranoia and power (Zipes 189). Therefore, Bradbury used the forum of a science fiction novel to voice his concerns about the world. He believed that censorship in any form was wrong and the burning of books was really the destruction of knowledge, ideas, and individuality. Bradbury forewarns that if society is to become docile and submissive the government could easily manipulate minds and lives. George Slusser, in Coordinates: Placing Science Fiction and Fantasy, writes â€Å"Although librarians and teachers fought back, the pressure for censorship increased. † (Slusser, Rabkin, and Scholes 104). Oddly enough, â€Å"Fahrenheit 451† has been banned from books shelves and schools since it’s publication. In Bradbury’s futuristic world, the burning of books is normal and the citizens accept this reality without question. People have become mindless, empty beings, at the sole control of their government. Captain Betty reflects â€Å"[Fire’s] real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it† (115). He represents the typical citizens in this world that is forced into conformity so long that he is happy to comply. Conformity is seen as the solution to the world’s problems. Keith Booker, in Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide, observes â€Å"throughout â€Å"Fahrenheit 451† he emphasizes the voluntary participation of the populace in the oppressive policies of the government. â€Å"(89). If there are no differences then there is no conflict, no war, and unfortunately no variety. The unfortunate consequence is that in a world with no pain there can not be happiness. Manipulation through fear is not a fictional concept that Bradbury created. It was real in the 1950s when this novel was published and it is real today (Booker 82) . Just six years ago, the citizens of the United States were manipulated by the government. An act was created in the dark days following the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. It was created to allow the agencies of law enforcement and intelligence to have more authority in order to prevent any future attacks by terrorists on the United States. Additionally, it made available monitoring tools within the United States to aggressively address the Bush administration’s domestic war on terrorism. The draft title of the act was â€Å"Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001†. However, today it is better known as the USA Patriot Act. The Patriot Act was responsible for drastic changes in over 15 important government and constitutional statues. All which lead to the increased ability of the government and law enforcement to secretly monitor, conduct surveillance, and investigate anyone at anytime. The fictional world of Bradbury and out modern society reacted in the same way to violence – handing over our freedoms for a bit of pseudo-safety. The use of propaganda is also used by the government to control it’s citizens. Eric Rabkin, in No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction, asserts â€Å"The mass of humanity is subjected to the labor process for the purposes of those who control it rather than for any general purposes of ‘humanity’ as such† (123). The incident in the subway is an excellent example of this control. There is a commercial on the subway speaker system for ‘Denham’s Dentrifice’ and as it plays, everyone one the subway is reciting the commercial from memory and the â€Å"words was recreated on the passengers’ lips† (78-80). Censorship is central theme in â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†. Censorship leads to the hiding of the truth. Symbolic of this censorship is the flamethrower which is used to burn books and the houses that contain them ( Slusser, Rabkin, and Scholes 105). It is a way in which the government great rid of individuality and what is considered â€Å"dangerous thought. † The flamethrowers are used by the firemen who are mindless government agents who destroy people’s most valuable possessions each and everyday. It is a weapon of fear used to control individuals in this society. It is this type of technology that Bradbury is most afraid of. He describes their power by explaining â€Å"With the brass nozzle in [Montag’s] fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. † (3). Bradbury is quick to mention that the knowledge and literature that took centuries to acquire can easily be destroyed by technology in minutes (Rabkin 127). While Bradbury might have been commenting on the use of the television which seemed to dumb down the intellectual capacity of Americans, his warning is just as useful in the 21st century. The pervasive use and misuse of the Internet has created a new non-tangible world which allows users to communicate but not connect. The Internet has contributed to the lack of individual and unique thought in literature, art, and music. The World Wide Web is also place of anonymity where individuals can hide behind user names, partake in unethical acts, and accept no responsibility for their actions. Rafeeq McGiveron, in â€Å"To Build a Mirror Factory: the Mirror and Self-Examination in Ray Bradbury’s â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†,† explains â€Å"in â€Å"Fahrenheit 451† Ray Bradbury creates an unthinking society so compulsively hedonistic that it must be atom-bombed flat before it ever can be rebuilt. â€Å"(282) . In â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†, Ray Bradbury, warns the general public to the importance of uniqueness and individuality. He urges the audience to fight the government ideals of censorship and forced societal conformity. He asked readers to reflect on their own societies and make changes before it is too late. In Bradbury society written language is forbidden and forgotten about. Citizens are no longer able to think for themselves and holds only the views of the government. Citizens are controlled by fear and degradation of their humanity producing shelled human beings who have no purpose. This story of destruction and hope was created to mirror out own society and to warns modern citizens that human rights need to be fought for, held on too, and cherished. In a time of the rampant evolution of technology we must be vigilant in holding and expressing out rights to be human. If not, out fate is that of the Bradbury’s society, succumbs into to the advancements in technology and being wiped from existence. Works Cited Booker, M. Keith. Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. Bradbury, Ray. â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†. New York: The Ballentine Publishing Group, 1953. McGiveron, Rafeeq O. â€Å"To Build a Mirror Factory: the Mirror and Self-Examination in Ray Bradbury’s â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†. † Critique 39. 3 (1998): 282-287. Questia. 28 Nov. 2007 . Rabkin, Eric S. , Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander, eds. No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983. Slusser, George E., Eric S. Rabkin, and Robert Scholes, eds. Coordinates: Placing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983. Zipes, Jack. â€Å"11 Mass Degradation of Humanity and Massive Contradictions in Bradbury’s Vision of America in â€Å"Fahrenheit 451†. † No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction. Ed. Eric S. Rabkin, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983. 182-198. .

Feminism present in “The Yellow Wall Paper” & “Girl” Essay

Gender equality has been a prevalent theme writer’s use to deliver their own personal views on the female role in society. This is the case in both â€Å"Girl† by Jamaica Kincaid and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gillman. Kincaid and Gillman use their works to present a feminist approach on women’s roles and societal standings in their respective eras. Feminism can be defined as a diverse collection of social theories, moral philosophies and political movements, fundamentally motivated by/ concerning the experiences of women. These experiences have a tendency to revolve around women’s social, political and economic standings. As a social movement, feminism mainly focuses on limiting or eliminating gender inequality and promoting women’s rights, interests’ and issue in society. Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory or by the politics of feminism more broadly. Its history has been broad and varied. Kincaid and Gillman are two of many writers whose works adopt this criticism as a way in which to discuss their respected lives pertaining to the view and treatment of women by their societies. In the most common and simple terms, feminist literary criticism before the 1970s (in the first and second waves of feminism) was concerned with the politics of women’s authorship and the representation of women’s condition within literature, this includes the depiction of fictional female characters. The father or in this case the mother of feminist literary criticism, is â€Å"Jane Eyre† written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous character, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester. The novel contains elements of social criticism, with a resilient sense of morality at its core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of its time given the individ ualistic character of Jane and the novel’s exploration of classism, sexuality, religion and feminism. In its internalization of the action, the story revolves around the gradual unfolding of Jane’s moral and spiritual awareness and all events are colored by a heightened intensity that were previously confined to poetry. Bronte’s story allows her to be labeled â€Å"the first historian of the private consciousness† and the literary ancestor of Jamaica Kincaid. Jamaica Kincaid-Girl Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in 1949 in Antigua, in the British West Indies, but changed her  name when she started writing because her family disliked her career choice. Her simple change of her name and having to operate under an alias provides and insight to Kincaid’s life. Her family disliking her choice of career gives a suggestion to the societal perception of a woman’s role. Women in society in the 1970s were only beginning to find their voice and Richardson’s family’s disapproval of her career choice, proposes the idea that socie ty were still not comfortable with the newly found voice women had. Jamaica Kincaid’s â€Å"Girl† can be analyzed from a Feminist perspective like Jane Eyre as it also revolves around a young girl’s interaction with her mother. Upon closer examination, the reader sees that the text is a string of images that are the cultural practices and moral principles that a Caribbean woman is passing along to her young daughter. Jamaica Kincaid has taken common advice that daughters are constantly hearing from their mothers and tied them into a series of commands that a mother uses to prevent her daughter from turning into â€Å"the slut that she is so bent on becoming† (Kincaid 23). But they are more than commands; the phrases are a mother’s way of insuring that her daughter has the tools that she needs to survive as an adult. The fact that the mother takes the time to train the daughter in the proper ways for a lady to act in their culture is indicative of their familial love; the fact that there are so many rules and moral p rinciples that are being passed to the daughter indicates that mother and daughter spend a lot of time together. The story is written in the second person point of view, in which the reader is the girl and the speaker (perceived to be her mother) is passing on her interpretation as to what a girl should be. Jeanette Martinez, an English Literature major studying at NYE notes in a paper â€Å"Analyzing ‘Girl’ from a feminist perspective†: â€Å"the diction degrades women; the word â€Å"slut† is used to describe a girl that does not conduct herself like a â€Å"proper† lady.† This is an interesting way in which to observe the diction used by Kincaid. The term â€Å"slut† is used as a negative comparison in which the mother in the story fears her daughter will become. Kincaid using the term â€Å"slut† takes a step in the wrong direction where feminism is concerned. The inclusion of the word and the sexual connotations attached draws attention to women being seen as depraved of morals if they are promiscuous. This word takes attention away from the real message and goal of feminism; equality amongst men and women. Reducing a woman to being  debauched purely on the premise of sexual immorality, takes respect away from women as their moral fiber is not taken into consideration. Martinez then proceeds to discuss how the tone and style of the text can be seen as being â€Å"reflective of Kincaid’s own social stand point.† Martinez states, â€Å"The tone is commanding; we see a repetitive â€Å"this is how† throughout the short story. The style of the short story is in lines, which allows each line to be a command. For example: â€Å"This is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; This is how you smile at someone you don’t like at all; This is how you smile to someone you like completely’† (Kincaid 24).† The tone and short, sharp manner in which Kincaid decides to communicate the life instructions, is representative of the voice of society and the harsh ways in which it tries to control and impart wisdom/ teachings. The final paragraph is integral to understanding this story from a feminist perspective. Kincaid states; â€Å"But what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread? you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?†. This interaction is essential to understanding and indicating Kincaid’s attempts to comment on her society. This excerpt can be interpreted as the mother challenging the girl’s morals. Kincaid uses this instead, to challenge the girl’s strength as a person. It is seemingly ironic that a mother has harshly demanded the young girl to learn all the mother’s habits and methods, not giving the girl much of a word in any of her decisions. This is Kincaid’s ways to speak directly to her audience and say â€Å"how can the voices of society order women and girls alike to act a certain way without giving them the strength to make these decisions themselves?† Kincaid ultimately uses her story to tell women ‘strength is learned through experience, not instruction.’ The Yellow Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper is a feminist text, telling a story about a woman’s struggles against male-centric thinking and societal ‘norms’. The text may be unclear to the reader who is unfamiliar with Gilman’s politics and personal biography, yet, it impresses any reader with the immature treatment of the main character, who remains nameless in the text. To the casual reader, the story is one of a good-meaning, but oppressive husband who drives his wife mad in an attempt to help her, but it story illustrates how established procedures of behavior could have distressing effects on the  women o f Gilman’s time, regardless of the intentions of the source. By late 20th century standards, the behavior of John, the husband, seems unnervingly inappropriate and restrictive, but was considered quite normal in the 19th century. After learning of Gilman’s life, and by reading her commentary and other works, one can readily see that The Yellow Wallpaper has a definite agenda in its quasi-autobiographical style. As revealed in Elaine Hedges’ forward from the Heath Anthology of American Literature, Gilman had a distressed life; because of the choices she had made which disrupted common conventions—from her ‘abandonment’ of her child to her amicable divorce. Knowing that Gilman was a controversial figure for her day, and after reading her other works, it is easy to see more of her feminist suggestions in â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper.† She carefully crafted her sentences and metaphors to instill a picture of vivid and disturbing male oppression. Her descriptions of the house recall a past era; she refers to i t as an ‘ancestral hall’ (Gillman 648) and goes on to give a gothic description of the estate. She falls just short of setting the scene for a ghost story. The reference to old things and the past can be seen as a reference to out-dated practices and treatment of women, as she considers the future to hold more equality. By setting the story in this tone, Gilman alludes to practices of oppression that, in her mind, should be relegated to the past. Charlotte Gillman’s â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and Jamaica Kincaid’s â€Å"Girl† are both great examples of feminism being represented in literature. A feminist text states the author’s agenda for women in society as they relate to oppression by a male-controlled power structure and the consequent creation of social ‘standards’ and ‘protocols’. Kincaid and Gillman’s tales respectively, are outstanding examples of this and are great tales in which the writers point out deficiencies in society regarding equal opportunity. Both texts are used by the writers to discuss their respected lives pertaining to the view and treatment of women by their societies.

Geography essays

Geography essays Every community has a means of production and consumption for goods and services. The amount of goods and service in a community or town vary depending on where the town is located and what manufacturing features the particular town has, including the number of people who help to manufacture and sell the services. By surveying towns, such as Ottawa, Ontario and Aylmer, Ontario, one can discover the underlying economic base of these towns. They are two very distinct towns with very different economies, yet are both located in the province of Ontario, Canada. Ottawa a metropolitan area located in Canada lies near the Ontario and Quebec border. Its early economic staple was a result of the Ottawa River, which allowed for explorers and traders to use it to travel. Shortly after, Ottawa became the fastest growing political city in eastern Canada. However, today Ottawas economic base has drastically changed. Ottawa, being the capital of Canada has now become a tourist attraction and computer related industry. The federal government is its major employer. 17.9% of the Ottawa labour force works in public administration, which is almost 3 % of Canadas total labour force in public administration. As a result, many commercial and financial associations are located in Ottawa. In addition, Ottawas information and culture industry, as well as the science and technology industry have a high labour force. Within the province, 12.3 % of Ottawas labour force is employed in the science and technology industry. Therefore, this industry, along with pub lic administration is considered to be important in benefiting Ottawas economy. Moreover, Ottawa has a very good education system resulting from the 3 major universities that are situated there. In conclusion, Ottawa is mainly a city where business is its primary staple industry. Its physical geography did not influence its economic industry, but rather people have shaped ...

friendly sons of st. patrick essays

friendly sons of st. patrick essays In the 1800s, immigrants from all different countries flooded into the United States for various reasons. Among the different immigrants that came into America were the Irish. The Irish had various long-standing reasons for migrating to the United States. Among those reasons was the resentment of British Protestantism, British landlords, British taxes, British rule, and a long depression that gave them social hardships. Ireland was the most densely populated country in Europe and it was devastated by economic collapse. The average age of death at this time declined down to nineteen (America 523). Another reason why they fled Ireland was the potato rot epidemic in 1845. The potato rot of 1845 brought a great famine to mostly all of rural Ireland and killed almost one million peasants (Irish 463). These events were what began the flood of Irish immigrants into America. Nearly 214,000 thousand Irish emigrated to the United States and Canada in 1847 on ships that were crowded and had very unsanitary conditions. These coffin ships claimed to have great space on board and warmed steerage (America 521). The living conditions turned out to be deadly as it killed thirty percent of all immigrants on board. Among the thirty percent that died, forty thousand were Irish (America 521). The boats arrived in such cities as Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. The immigrants had very little money that could afford a place to stay, so they stayed in the back alleys of buildings and around Catholic churches in the cities were their ships had docked (America 522). The reason the Irish had very little money or no money at all was because they were mostly farmers in Ireland. The Farmers main crop was the potato, which was ravaged by the rot of 1845. The rot had left the farmers with very little or no profit at all on their main crop (America 522). With no mon ey to live off of the Irish would have to go loo...