Compare Plath and Larkin Essay Example for Free

Compare Plath and Larkin Essay Compare and contrast the ways in which death is portrayed in Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Days’ and ‘Ambulances’ and Sylvia plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Death and Co’ The poems i am going to analyse are: †¢Lady Lazarus †¢Death and Co †¢Ambulances †¢Days It is understatement to say that both Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin have immense depth and subsidiary meanings to their poems, both writers expertly structure their poems and used varied techniques to convey their themes of death and instil their messages to their readers. Plath goes about it an autobiographical manner and parades death as a theatrical show leaving the audience in shock and awe however Larkin presents death in a rather trivial manner in comparison to Plath. He juxtaposes the everyday street scene with horrific. He uses the ambulance as a momentary that death is every present and our lives ultimately lead to the journey of death. The oxymoron Lady Lazarus is significant to the poem. Lazarus, originally a man who is raised from the dead by Jesus is feminised and turned into Lady Lazarus. Plath summarises what she feels; â€Å"the terrible gift of being reborn†. The alliterative form of address â€Å"Lady Lazarus† liberates herself from the irrevocable influence of the male figure portrays her idea of feminine superiority over men and how women should excel over men in whatever they do however Larkin’s title â€Å"Ambulances† is a noun that is commonly associated with the negative imagery relating to accidents,hospitals ,blood, injuries and most importantly death. Both writers use lexical techniques to convey their outlook and opinion on the theme of death; some of which consists of rhyme, rhetorical devices and their choice of vocab. Rhyme is used in the first stanza as Plath declares â€Å"I have done it again/One year in every ten† she emphasises to the equal repartition of her near-death experiences and holds connotations of her suicide attempts, â€Å"one year in every ten† and one being premeditated at this stage. Plath speaks in hyperboles to emphasize her suicidal intention and her need to control her death and become a â€Å"walking miracle†. The pre modifier â€Å"walking† illustrates the fact that despite her many near death experiences she is still alive and ready as ever to attempt another suicide experience. The uoyant noun â€Å"miracle† that Plath describes herself as, demonstrates to the reader just how romantically Plath thinks of death to be and how her ending her own life is a seemingly phenomenal way of dying. In comparison to this, Larkin contrasts his lexical techniques in oppose to Plath, he begins with the first stanza being a dramatic, alliterative opener. The vehicles are â€Å"Closed like confessionals† and are â€Å"giving back none of the glances they absorb†; like a corpse. The alliterative statement â€Å"closed like confessionals â€Å"illustrates the Roman Catholic idea of confessing sins to a priest in a â€Å"closed† box. This also outlines the poems religious nature and demonstrates to us the religious idea of death which connotes it of being like a â€Å"closed† off box a coffin. This also depicts the closed off nature of death and how once a person dies everything, they are sealed off from the world, an end to everything. Larkin uses enjambment to emphasize the disconnection between people and death throughout the poem. In the first two lines, the lack of punctuation ironically causes the reader to stop at the end of each line. This symbolises the separation between the ambulance, and the city it is travelling through, as well as the glances the ambulance takes in. In the fourth stanza, Larkin uses enjambment in five out of the six lines, demonstrating the isolation of death throughout society. Specifically in the last three lines and into the last stanza, Larkin reveals that what unites one another across the years, at last falls apart there (in the ambulance and at the hospital), while connecting all four of those lines. Vocabulary is also an element used by Plath to depict death; her language register is bold and informal. The vocabulary and rhythms make out the conversational speeches within the poem and make them out to be colloquial and everyday spoken, the frequently end-stopped lines, the repetitions which have the effect of mockingly counteracting the violence of the meaning, all establish the deliberately dismissive note of death which Plath strives to achieve.. At times the tone is hysterically strident and demanding: â€Å"unwrap me hand and foot— The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands My knees. Iambic pentameter is also used in Lady Lazarus because it mimics the rhythm of conversational speech and makes it closer to spontaneous speech. This also highlights Lady Lazarus aural quality as it is meant to be read aloud which emphasizes it rhetorical intensity and perhaps the power that Lady Lazarus has gained throughout the poem â€Å" I am your opus I am your valuable The pure gold baby† The spontaneous structure of the poem emphasises the emotional and physcological disintegration of Lady Lazarus and how she speaks spontaneously out of pain that she is feeling form her suicidal attempts On the contrary, Larkin also used five groups of six lines of poetry (sestet) of iambic trimeter and roughlythere are some irregularities, a, with the first and last lines of each sestet rhyming, and the middle rhyming â€Å"a–b-a-b† like a ballad. The second stanza, only the first and last lines have been ended with punctuation leaving everything in the middle flowing. The women in the shops are detached from the Wild white face inside the ambulance. The third stanza all ends with punctuation, excluding the first line. This one exception is very isolated within the stanza as it is the only line left to flow. The flow emphasizes that the solving emptiness is not an obvious encounter which we face every day. The â€Å"solving emptiness†, a description of death, lies just under all we do, not exposed. Moreover, Plath employs and uses unique language features to express her emotion; â€Å"soon, soon the flesh/the grave cave † repetition is used to emphasise her point across to the audience, she also repeats â€Å"soon† twice to comfort the audience as well as herself; this also correlates to Plath’s idea of death and how it is a welcoming experience not to be terrified by, something that makes her feel â€Å"at home†. To the readers and audience itself it is something disorientating and a lonely discomforting concept, but to Plath and her persona Lazarus, it is something they embrace with open arms and are anticipating it â€Å"soon†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ However, Larkin goes about his language features differently; so much so that Larkin hardly uses devices such as repetition, exclamation , but rather settles for an indirect approach to his language, the only apparent use of language feature is the distinctive italic fronted text â€Å"poor soul† ,this highlights and emphasises the point Larkin wishes to make and also is his idea od the reaction given to the audience and the reader. This again relates to Larkin’s idea of death and his opinion being in total contrast to Plath. For Larkin, death is a dreadful thing, a cold, merciless, selfish thing and when death strikes it only can be described for the prey of death as â€Å"poor† which Larkin does, to have pity on those death has taken. †Soul† has In Lady Lazarus the audience are the spectators watching the performer show off her daring acts in order to prepare her to die. She in other words entertains the audience by producing her own death in a rather erotic manner. The audience is shown the grim reality of death through the pre-modifier ‘peanut-crunching’. This illustrates to the reader just how engrossed the audience is in watching Lady Lazarus attempt her suicide and are absorbed in the strangeness of her death and robotically carry on ‘crunching’ on their peanuts oblivious to just how dismal the death of Lady Lazarus is . Showmanship is portrayed through the use of first person â€Å"I† throughout the whole poem and the audience seems to develop a â€Å"charge† from the gothic striptease Lady Lazarus puts on for them or perhaps a charge the audience have to pay for watching. Using the metaphor â€Å"charge† gives connotations of the audience wanting a show, watching â€Å"Lady Lazarus† unwrap herself ,restored to life â€Å"The big strip tease† indicating sexual connotations of the audience being largely male and receiving some sort of sexual fulfilment from this. Plath also portrays her rather freakish desire for death by questioning the audience directly â€Å"O my enemy/ do I terrify? † The vocative â€Å"O† along with the possessive pronoun â€Å"my† directly challenges the audience as if the audience are somewhat responsible for the suicidal state that Plath is now in, intimidating them as she challenges them. The â€Å"O my† could also be taken as a form of loving address to her lover. If put next to ‘enemy’ it reflects her feelings about death as if it I something to long and lust for however death is all something that is utterly terrifying at the same time as it is a mystery to all of us. It also adds a sense of awkwardness throughout the poem as the reader begins to wonder about death and what appears in the afterlife. The audience also feels partly responsible for Plath’s terrible state and are also blamed for causing her death in such a manner. The rhetorical question â€Å"do I terrify† not only involves the audience directly, but also threatens the audience rather mockingly as if the answer to the question should be nothing but a yes. The verb â€Å"terrify† portrays Plath’s dual state, just like the Nazis she will not hesitate to inflict pain upon herself in order for her to die yet just like the Jewish race she fades beneath a strong force as she begins to doubt whether she is capable of ending her life. This again increasingly adds to awkward uncomfortable nature as audience beings to wonder what kind of miserable state she will be left in when she dies. However the audience in â€Å"Ambulances† are the people (mainly middle class) that are around where the death has taken place. They are the â€Å"children strewn on steps† and â€Å"women coming from the shops†. Here the normality of life trivialises the horror of death as ordinary people carry on living their life. They are watching horrifically as the body comes in. The audience here is rather sympathetic and empathise with the person that has just died. â€Å"Poor soul/they whisper at their own distress†. Using the verb â€Å" â€Å"whisper† Larkin wishes to portray how the audience not only whispers out of remorse, pity and respect for the person that has just died but also whisper because they feel a sense of relief and thankfulness that the person that has just expired was not themselves or their loved one. Here Larkin shows us the selfish nature of man and how man despite everything shall always care about them; in essence leaving everybody walking on their own. Through this Larkin shows us how death is, death shall leave every person unaccompanied and everyone shall be no one. Death is selfish and when the appointed time, death shall not wait and indeed â€Å"All streets in time are visited†. The visitor being death personified through the use of a vehicle, the Ambulance. The ambulance here is death. And Larkin portrays the randomness of death and how unexpected it can be by the use of the preposition â€Å"in† and the noun â€Å"time†. Here Larkin reminds the reader than death is inevitable and is always there, a god like figure. Larkin also presents the idea that the audience, the â€Å"onlookers† forgot about death yet are reminded when a death appears around their life and the â€Å"fastened doors recede†. The audience are perhaps morbidly fascinated by death as it appears strange to them but then the audience then begins to realise the â€Å"emptiness/That lies under all we do† and for a moment the audience understands that life has only one certainty; death. The title of the poem Death Co title is an etymological, lexical technique in itself and is employed by the writer to change the perception of the reader, for the reader to be open minded and to grasp the writers idea. The â€Å"co† referred to in the title refers to a business which begins to establish the ironic and mocking mood of the poem,. Death is often viewed with incongruity, something that coldly takes away life yet offers comfort to those who are in pain or believe in an afterlife. This again links to the idea of death being a business because the persona asserts that â€Å"there are two† referring to the two individuals that make up the entity called â€Å"Death and co†. To the persona it is â€Å"perfectly natural† that there are two people because a business must be compromised of at least two people. In Death Co the persona asserts that, â€Å"there are two,† personifying death the two individuals who make up the entity called Death Co. She comments that it is natural that there would be two, as most companies are made up of at least two people. The individual â€Å"exhibits // birthmarks,† and the speaker proclaims that they are â€Å"his trademark. † This claim subsumes the title of the poem, metaphorically revealing the business which is â€Å"Death Co. By doing this the ide of death is bought closer to the persona as it now becomes a threat that is visible and is standing before the narrator. † Sibilance is used to describe the trademark â€Å"the scald scar of water†. The effect of the assonance is that it creates harsh violent sound and emphasises the cruel and punitive nature of the partners in Death Co. Larkin however does not use his metaphoric objectified technique in the title but rather from within the poem itself. In the second stanza Larkin uses the â€Å"priest† and the â€Å"doctor† as symbols of different sentiments and values of â€Å"death†. The priest being a man of religion and the doctor symbolic to a man of science who both serves in â€Å"solving that question†; two people obsessed with the mystery of death appears after the question has been solved. The â€Å"priest† coat is black which represents death and he helps the person from moving from this life to the next. The â€Å"Doctor† coat is white which represents life as the doctor tries to revive the person. This again has connotations of conflict between science and religion Plath begins by using repetition of numbers â€Å"two of course there are two†. She is reasserting that death has come in two living forms before her. One of them looking grotesque, â€Å"whose eyes are lidded† and the other is attractive having â€Å"long and plausive† hair yet dangerous . She does this to juxtapose the idea of life and death, the fact that two mortal creatures are bring about her lifeless state. The two figures create a sense of fear within her as she finds it difficult to name the two. â€Å"he tells me how badly/He tells me how sweet†. The repetition of Second person pronouns and the juxtaposition of her divergent feelings towards death emphasises how at times death appears inviting and perhaps more easier alternative to life difficulties yet the sheer fact of suicide perhaps restrains her form ending her life as the fear of the unknown in the afterlife haunts her . Which perhaps emphasizes her fearful yet unrecognisable feelings towards death. She fears death and the reader can see that Plaths posseses a frightened predatory victimised outlook on death so she cannot find a specific name to address them as or perhaps there is no personal attachment to death as death is metaphorically recognised as a business, it performs it function and then leaves. On the other hand Larkin uses the same rhetorical feature of repetition but in a rather different manner. Days are repeated three times in the first stanza and this repetition forces the reader to think about the meaning of the word â€Å"days† which is the futility of existence ,the inevitable truth that all life must end in death. The reader is compelled to think about what would happen after the days has ended. Larkin gives day a spatial dimension as he describes days as â€Å"Days are where we live†. This raises about how time is measured the nature of it and its artificiality. Days are not a place,not a â€Å"where† but a when and it is in this paradox that leads to the blank response to the second question. †Where can we live but days†. From this question the answerer is now question themselves as they come to realise the inevitable truth behind days ,there is a lack of choice to the answer and the answerer realises that on the other side of dyas is the night which holds high connotations of death and the afterlife something which clearly fright and perhaps intrigues the answerer Once a person no longer has any days left to live in,the only other place that a person can occupy will be a place in his grave The use of a voice or persona is clearly present in both poem’s although again both poets use this craft differently to suit their own methods of portraying death. Larkin does not clearly portray the identity of the voice or the voices the reader perceives in â€Å"Days† however what we do know is that there is a clear distinction bewtween the voice that asks the questions and the voice that answers the questions. The questions that questioner asks are literally simple,naive and appear to be that of a child asking questions rather simple questions. Of course the underlying meaning which lies behing these unpretentious questins is the metaphor of death in the background. The second voice appears to be different and fluctuates throughout the development of the poem. This voice appears to be the answerer to the questions that are asked and answers the question in a rather straightforward manner . The answer to the first question: â€Å"Days are where we live† denotes a matter of fact, mollifying tone as the simple question is answered by an equally simple although equally worrying answer. At first the voice appears to be kindly positive reassuring the childish questioner that days â€Å"are to be happy in† which again holds connotations of death. It tells the questioner and the reader also that the inevitability of death is true so we should live our lives while we have it and enjoy and â€Å"be happy† within it. In the second stanza the answerer adopts a worldly macabre tone almost mocking and cruel as it dryly observes that the only place people can inhibit apaprt from days is death. the questioner is trying to find a simple answer and uses the filler â€Å"ah† to contemplate on what happens after days,the question become a lot of bigger then it initially seemed and the answerer realises there is no simplistic way to answer it and so the â€Å"preist† and â€Å"doctor† are suppousedly the only people that hold the answers to the question However Plath uses two male persona in her poem to portray death and reveal the double or schizophrenic nature of death. The use of male persona’s was chosen deliberately to emphasise the painful awareness of man’s seemingly innate Judas quality just as death can be cruel and snipe away happiness at the last moment.

How Osmosis Affects A Potato Chip Essay -- GCSE Biology Osmosis Course

How Osmosis Affects A Potato Aim: - To See How Osmosis Affects A Potato Preliminary work Prediction: -I predict that the weight of the potato in the sugar solution will decrease and the weight of water will increase. I predict that the weight of the potato in the sugar solution will decrease when it reaches 3:1 (salt: water). In put Variables: -Molarity -Size of potato -Mass of Water -Molarity of Sugar -Length of time in the solution -Temperature of water Out put variables: -Weight of potato Key variables: -Molarity of sugar. This is a key variable because it has the most effective outcome because osmosis only works when there are different molarities in and outside of the potato other wise the diffusion theory of osmosis wont work. We are going to keep a fair test by: - Keeping all the volume of water the same in each test tube - Keeping the starting weight of the potato the same to begin with - When removing the excess water of the potato make sure all excess water is removed but without squeezing any water out of the potato - Keeping the temperature of the water the same - Use the same type of potato (grown from the same potato) We will keep the experiment safe by making sure that all the test tube racks are in a suitable position so they wont easterly be knocked over. Preliminary results --------------------------------------------- Sugar Water Time left in 0.44g 0.44 Start 0.43g 0.44 5mins 0.42g 0.45 10mins 0.49g 0.46 15mins 0.38g 0.46 20mins --------------------------------------------- The table above shows the weight of the potato. Prediction I predict that the weight of the potato in the sugar solution will go down and the weight of the water will decrease because the water molecules in the sugar solution are small enough to diffuse through a semi-permeable membrane in the potato is the high concentration of water and water will only go through from a high concentration to a low concentration of water. Water goes into a potato sample because there is a higher concentration of water out side the potato than inside of the potato and water will go from a high concentration to a low concentration therefore the water will go into the potato and... ... to be sure to show a constant pattern. We didn't have any anomalous results maybe because we mad sure that we left each potato in the solution an equal amount of time. Also when we removed access water we were very careful not to squeeze any water out of the potato other wise it would of made it an unfair test. To improve reliability and accuracy next time in the prim nary plan I would make sure that my prediction was detailed so I would understand everything much clearer in order to get a better set of results. Also the preliminary experiment next time will be a lot more accurate in the way that we should take more care in time that the potato is left in the solution for how ever long of a time it should be left in. The main plan could be longer and in more detail so that it is more clear to read and understand. The amount of results that we got was just about enough to work out and see weather the prediction was correct. This means that next time we should do more sets of results to get a more accurate outcome. To help back up this experiment we could use more chats of graphs showing rate of osmosis in time and other ways of showing how osmosis affects a potato.

Racism Definition Essay

Racism is something something we’ve all witnessed. Many people fail to believe that race isn’t a biological category, but an artificial classification of people with no scientifically variable facts. In other words, the distinction we make between races has nothing to do with genetic characteristics. Race was created socially, primarily by how people perceive ideas and faces we are not quite used to. The definition of race all depends on where and when the word is being used. In U.S. history, the meaning of the label â€Å"white† has changed over time, eventually adding groups like the Italians, Irish and Jews. Other groups, mainly African, Latino, American Indian, Pacific Islander, and Asian descendants, have found the path for worldwide social acceptance much more difficult. The irregular border of ethnicities touch educational and economic opportunity, political representation, as well as income, health and social mobility of people of color. So where did this type of behavior begin? There are many ideas thrown around as to how racism began, though the truth lies in the history of mankind. Before people were able to travel and experience difference groups of people, we predominantly stayed in the same kind of area with the same kind of people. We feared things that were different, and were lacked the power to face those kinds of things. All this changed once we did, in fact, obtain this level of human advancement, but the fear never drifted. The truth is, racism began as soon as people faced those of different races. We’ve always the fear of change, not to mention the unknown. It seems that is racism has been around so long we would have been able to overcome it as our species developed, but contact with those of whom we are afraid of often lead to disputes, which, in time, is what caused racism to transform from people simply disliking each other, to the permanent and indestructible foundation of common racism and prejudice. Contemporary racism is said to have been derived from many places, one of the most common ideas being upbringing. As a child, you are reliant on your parents to help you become who you are. Part of that involves their own, distinct opinions, that of which children don’t have the maturity to form on their own. They need the help of their parents, and this is often where the problem starts. If you were told that all Asians were sneaky or all Whites are evil or all Blacks are criminals, you can bet that you are going to feel this way about them. â€Å"Upbringing is the largest cause of racism†-Anonymous. Even if we allow yourself to get to know some of them, this will always be in the back of your mind. Another suggestion as to how racism makes it’s way into our heads is through the almighty media. As we grow up, media becomes a factor of our lives whether or not we want it to be, and is also a major source of how racism keeps itself active. Since the 70’s the media has been giving us racial labels, one of the largest supplies coming from crime shows like â€Å"Law and Order†, and â€Å"CSI†. When dealing with crime, people of color are reflected in the demarcation of â€Å"them† and â€Å"us†. Whites are often represented as the â€Å"good guy†, or the strong, law obeying citizens. They often target people of color, sometimes without any sort of evidence. Directors and writers use racial stereotypes to make a more complex story with more suspects. In the novel, â€Å"The Power of One,† by Bryce Courtney, a young, white, African boy named Peekay lives in a world where the government, the country, and the world revolves around racism. World War II is coming to an end, and in South Africa, the whites seem to hate the blacks just as much as the blacks hate the whites. Peekay was raised by a compassionate and loving black woman he refers to as â€Å"Nanny†, due to the unsafe conditions at home with his bad, mentally ill mother. He grew up with Nanny and his best friend, who was also black. To Peekay, racism didn’t exist. The author, Bryce Courtney, didn’t intend on writing a book fully based on racism in South Africa. He grasps a trace of apartheid by Peekay’s experiences as a white boy by unhurriedly soaking it into South Africa as a toxin. â€Å"Adapt, blend†¦develop a camouflage.† This thought went through Peekay’s mind once he had been exposed to racism, having been forced to attend a boarding school full of bigger, darker students. In Chapters One and Two, as a mere five-year-old, the bright protagonist Peekay is already addressing the necessity of affecting camouflages in order to survive the system. He is often forced to act differently around people of different skin colors in order to fit in better to prevent himself from getting beaten or teased. Peekay faces his first taste of racism the very first night at the boarding school. One boy, known as â€Å"The Judge†, who was much older, stronger, and darker than Peekay, comes up with the nickname â€Å"PissKop† for Peekay, because of Peekay’s habit to wet the bed that was caused by The Judge’s, along with the help of many other older black students, tendency to beat Peekay and spit in his face. The Judge also convinces Peekay that Hitler is determined to march all Englishmen in South Africa into the ocean, and even forces Peekay to eat human feces. Upbringing is a very strong factor of what influences people to become racist, or to have even slight racial views. In Peekay’s case, he had gone from one extreme to another. At home, Nanny and his best friend were the only people he could call family, besides his mother who spent time at what Peekay called â€Å"The Mental Breakdown Place†. When sent to the boarding school, he wasn’t expecting the black students to dislike him because of his skin color. He saw the black kids as merely bullies, and before they started bullying him hadn’t anticipated them to gang up on him because they were black. This is what caused Peekay’s neutrality with the racist society in which he lived. He gave each person a chance to be a good person, because he had seen the good in different ethnicities to which many people were stubborn to open up their minds. The power of one, or the idea of how one person can make a significant difference, is an important idea in relation to challenge in the novel. Giel Piet, one of Peekay’s boxing coaches who had been sneaking tobacco to all of the prisoners, was forced to eat feces by Sergeant Ballman, a white racist who works at the prison. If Giel Piet had refused to eat the feces, the guards would have found the tobacco, resulting in the prisoners getting beaten along with Giel Piet . As Peekay witnessed this happen to his coach, he thought, â€Å"It made me angry. Angry it was done. Angry I couldn’t do anything to stop it.† But how does racism really affect society? Visibly identifiable members of racial and ethnic oppressed groups continue to struggle for equal access and opportunity, particularly during times of stringent economics. Often, the targeted race has a harder time doing things such as finding a well-paying job or house. While there have been some sizeable gains in the labor force status of racial minorities, significant gaps remains. Racism is rampant in all areas of employment. For many members of exploited racial and ethnic unit, there is always an economic depression. Studies show that people of color are the last hired and the first fired. As a result, budget cuts, downsizing, and privatization may disproportionately hurt people of color. In February 1995 the unemployment rate for African Americans was 10.1 percent as compared to 4.7 percent for white Americans (Berry, 1995). The unemployment rate for adolescents of color is approximately four times that of white adolescents. Whatâ€⠄¢s more, In America, the Majority of unemployed men are black, and compared to other races, Blacks and Latinos on average have disproportionately low income. Other than simply getting a job, getting and keeping a house is often a difficult task for those of color. The job of a landlord is to rent out houses to reliable people or families, though a racist landlord could make it difficult for a family of color to find a home. Widespread housing discrimination against Americans of color in U.S. neighborhoods is sometimes referred to as a â€Å"national† problem, something that must be fixed by new government policies. Housing segregation in the United States developed slowly and deliberately. By law, property owners may not refuse to rent or sell housing, make housing unavailable to, set different conditions or privileges for sale or rental of a property, impose different rates and terms on a loan, refuse to make a mortgage loan, or discriminate in appraising property due to a client’s ethnicity, and because racism cannot be seen, these rules are very vague. Available evidence suggests that blacks and Hispanics face higher reje ction rates and less favorable conditions in securing mortgages than do Whites with similar credit characteristics (Ross & Yinger 1999). It has been reported that blacks pay more than 0.5% higher interest rates on home mortgages than whites do and that this difference persists with income level, date of purchase, and age of buyer. During the Great Depression, people of color had a much harder time getting past the financial hardship because of the racial stereotypes that had before been thrown around. In the book, Whitewash Race: The Myth of a Colorblind Society, Michael K. Brown says â€Å"In the late 1930’s, black unemployment rates were two to four times higher than white unemployment rates.† Few Blacks had any financial savings to caution them from the full affect of the Depression. Blacks that had before has troubles getting a well paying job the faced the same challenge with a much larger margin for failure. Mrs. Roosevelt was particularly fretful about the financial difficulties encountered by racism. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor, is a story about a black family, the Logans, from the south, living frugally in order to preserve and keep their patch of farmland. Because the story takes place during the end of the Great Depression, one of the worst times in history to be a black farmer, money has become very sparse for the family and for the neighborhood. The children of the family, Cassie, Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man, live in a world where white kids rule and they know it. White kids had the freedom to do anything they wished to do, from threatening the kids they thought were inferior to hammering kids who socialized with black kids, or even walked with them to school. This was the case for T.J., a friend of the Logan kids who often walked with Cassie and her brothers to school, more often than not with a price. While walking to school on the first day, Cassie and her brothers are cascaded in red dust as a bus full of white kids skids past, though they eventually get their revenge on the kids by sabotaging the bus. This is significant not only because it shows us just how boorish white kids were to black kids, but it also shows that black kids had to walk to school, and to some black kids, according to Cassie, the walk is so long they are forced to drop out of school. Cassie, being in fourth grade, attends a school especially for black kids. On the first day back to school, she and the other students are staggered to realize that that year they would be having books in the class, something that at that time was a luxury for an all-black school. Though once Cassie sees the books, she quickly sees why the books were given to them. The books were old and dirty, and on the inside of the front cover clenching to stay on was the label â€Å"Nigras.† Infuriated, Cassie refuses to take the bo ok, and is ultimately whipped for her quarrel. It isn’t until a black man is killed by a group of white men without consequence that the Logan kids grasp the idea of how dangerous living in a racist, white community could be. Racism becomes the problem revolving around the Logan family. Cassie doesn’t understand why they are treated differently and doesn’t want to back down because of the color of her skin. Stacey, on the other and, agrees to keep a low profile in the white community as to not trigger any alarms that may cause an issue. This novel does a good job of showing how the effects racism on a specific race simply cause racism itself to stay functioning. After all they endure, at the end of the book the Logan family are a healthier family than they were at the start, mainly because of their capability to see through each other’s skin color, something the rest of the town was unable to do. The disruption of the school bus, though it was simply a small revenge, shows how close the kids had become because of everything they had been through because of the white kids. Racism brings races together, making races seem like a tighter bondage, and ultimately making it easier to target races. Racism had existed throughout human history. It is regularly defined as the detestation, or belief that someone is less than human, because of skin color, place of birth, and mores. All of these arguments are based on a false understanding of race; in fact, some contemporary scientists could argue that the classification of races used today is inadequate, and that there are more meticulous and proper ways of categorizing humans. What may seem to be considerable â€Å"racial† differences to some people, such as skin color, hair, and facial shape, are not of much scientific significance. It has been said that there have been greater biological differences between people of the same race than if we were to compare the same trait to a different race. One philosopher writes: â€Å"There are few genetic characteristics to be found in the population of England that are not found in similar proportions in Zaire or in China†¦.those differences that most deeply affect us in our de alings with each other are not to any significant degree biologically determined.† Often what causes people to act racist is the fact that they have learned to conceal fear with racism. Many individuals react with fear towards those who look or appear different than them. Fear is what makes us uncomfortable, making us need to protect ourselves and defend, mostly causing pain and discomfort to the person or object of the fear. Instead of attempting to fix and deal with the differences, the wall between the two maintains; union and agreement are never attained. So how do we put an end to this? The sad fact of the matter is that, during this age, we won’t. People were born differently, and it’s only human to retaliate negatively to things or people we aren’t used to. Scientists believe there is the tendency in all animals to selectively preserve their own kind even at the cost of a different animal type, which is in essence what caused racism, not to mention prejudice in general. As humankind progresses, our way of thinking becomes more complex, as does the world around us. The values we once had aren’t forgotten, but replaced with new values as our old ways hide in the back of our minds. Though they are present and may re-emerge if a change in life conditions calls them up, they are no longer the dominant. This genuinely is the hope for mankind in their fight to end racism. In the future, if we can surmount the silliness of racism to the point where no one senses it, we will be in fine condition. The most effective way to begin this, through the words of Morgan Freeman, is to â€Å"Stop Talking About It.†

Psychology Autobiographical Assignment On Depression

Psychology Autobiographical Assignment The first concept I am going to discuss is depression. When I was in high school I suffered from depression. When I was a freshman I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) which is also called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). This could be described as a disease that is characterized by profound fatigue, sleep abnormalities, pain, and other symptoms that only become worse with the exertion of energy. CFS is very hard to diagnose because a lot of the symptoms resemble depression. A big difference is that â€Å"People with depression usually feel very tired and aren’t interested in doing any activity, regardless of the task or the required amount of effort. Meanwhile, those with chronic fatigue syndrome usually want to engage in activities but just feel too tired to do so (Nall, 2015). For me, everything that came along with having CFS is what caused me to have depression. When I was diagnosed at the end of freshman year, my parents made the decision to homeschool me so that I could have treatment. It made sense to take me out of school because I was always sick because of my decreased immune response caused by CFS. During the time when I was homeschooled I was going to a treatment center every week to get an IV and at home was having to take twelve pills a day and give myself B-12 shots. This all took a big toll on me and not being able to socialize made it worse. I felt isolated and alone and with this combined with my parents’Show MoreRelatedDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesSelf-Disclosure 89 Through the Looking Glass 89 Diagnosing Managerial Characteristics 90 An Exercise for Identifying Aspects of Personal Culture: A Learning Plan and Autobiography 92 SKILL APPLICATION 95 Activities for Developing Self-Awareness 95 Suggested Assignments 95 Application Plan and Evaluation 95 SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 97 Self-Awareness Assessment 97 Scoring Key 97 Comparison Data 97 Emotional Intelligence Assessment 97 Scoring Key 97 Comparison Data 99 The Defining Issues Test 99 The EscapedRead MoreManagement Challenges for the 21st Century.Pdf60639 Words   |  243 Pagesperiod of PROFOUND TRANSITION—and the changes are more radical perhaps than even those that ushered in the â€Å"Second Industrial v vi Introduction Revolution† of the middle of the 19th century, or the structural changes triggered by the Great Depression and the Second World War. READING this book will upset and disturb a good many people, as WRITING it disturbed me. For in many cases—for example, in the challenges inherent in the DISAPPEARING BIRTHRATE in the developed countries, or in the challengesRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 PagesRedirections in Organization Analysis, London: Tavistock. Rorty, R. (1979) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, Princeton N.J.: Princeton University Press. Rose, M. (1978) Industrial Behaviour, Harmondswork: Penguin. Schein, E. (1970) Organizational Psychology, 2nd edn, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Silverman, D. (1970) The Theory of Organizations, London: Heinemann. Stern, R.N. and Barley S.R. (1996) ‘Organizations and social systems: Organization theory’s neglected mandate’, Administrative Science