Language in Political Speeches

Language in Political Speeches Essay investigating the language used in speeches to motivate and persuade people including speeches of Tony Blair, George Bush, John Major and Winston Churchill, for example. The language required to motivate and persuade in political speeches is a prepared mode of linguistic usage very different from others in that its imperative is inherently connected with its construction and delivery. Although recognised and frequently employed linguistic devices, such as rhetoric, are necessarily an intrinsic part of this kind of syntax, the overall purpose governs the style far more directly and bears the weighty implication of both negative and positive influence: in other words, when do ‘motivation’ and ‘persuasion’ become ‘propaganda’? In order to demonstrate the power of speech to motivate and persuade, it is therefore necessary to look closely at some speeches which have attempted to accomplish this with varying degrees of success in relation to the circumstances in which they were made. Though ‘it is often said that events, not speeches, determine the outcome of elections’ it is equally true that the language used to persuade the people addressed as to how they should view events is a determining factor in a positive or negative response. In terms of historical resonance, one might consider how Shakespeare presents the difference between Brutus’ appeal to reason and Mark Antony’s appeal to emotion when each addresses the easily manipulated mob in turn following the assassination of Julius Caesar in his play of that name written in a time of contemporary political tension, 1599. It has also been seen to be true in more recent times when, following the assassination of Ghandi in 1948, Nehru spoke to the people of India in terms designed specifically to calm what was a potentially inflammatory situation by using words of address remarkably similar to Shakespeare’s ‘Friend’s Romans, Countrymen’, Nehru chose to speak to the multitude as ‘Friends and comrades’. Both usages of familial terms encouraged feelings of empathy and solidarity, persuading those present that a feeling expressed by one man could at once unite, reflect and pacify those of a nation. Tony Blair’s famous epithet ‘the People’s Princess’ did much the same following the death of Princess Diana in 1995. In all of these cases, the right words at the right time persuaded people to believe in the speaker’s ethos and motivated them to react as the orator wished. The moving, motivational and persuasive rhetoric of Winston Churchill’s wartime speeches remains profoundly powerful and is an extremely good way of demonstrating the effectiveness of language. During the darkest days of the war, in 1940, Churchill’s ‘we will never surrender’ caused the British people to perceive hope where really there was none. His syntax, both personal and generic, like that of the emotive language earlier discussed, relies heavily upon the pronoun ‘we’ as a connective with those he is addressing: We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender [†¦] What is often forgotten is that this speech begins with a summation of the catastrophic progress of the war up to this point. Churchill’s brilliance, here, is in saying nothing of factual substance but concentrating instead on the emphasis of the nation’s unity. The personal pronoun ‘we’, which is repeated at the beginning of each sentence and echoed in ‘our’, produces the desired effect of proclaiming the collective consciousness of resistance, whilst simultaneously stressing, inferentially and by inversion, the possible negative results of disunity. That is, only by the behaviour Churchill declares to be prevalent can the Nation hope to survive. As well as repetition and rhetoric, the persuasive technique here employs alliteration, in ‘flag nor fail’, the language of the poetically picturesque in ‘seas and oceans’ and references to home in ‘fields’, ‘streets’ and ‘hills’: in oth er words, encompassing the whole country in the semantic field. The variation in structure, especially sentence length, indicates a momentum which rises and falls musically, beginning with short declarative statements, expanding with the introduction of both compound and complex sentences, until a crescendo is reached with ‘never surrender’. The speech does not end here (it ends with a broad hint to the ‘New World’ to join the war and ‘rescue [†¦] the old’) but this is its rhetorical peak, emphasised, if such is necessary, by the fact that some fifty years later it is still remembered and quoted, even in that most necessarily persuasive of media, advertising. (However, it is necessary to remember that such persuasive language and technique was equally powerful in motivating Hitler’s Nazi Party, and indeed the German people, to go to war in the first place, albeit with an offensive rather than defensive motive.) The language of political speeches made in time of war must have, then, as a prime objective, the desire both to motivate and persuade. It has been said that, ‘a [President is a] persuader by definition’ and this can be seen in the speech of US President George W. Bush at the time of the decision to go to war with Iraq in 1991: Just two hours ago, Allied air forces began an attack on military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. These attacks continue as I speak. Ground forces are not engaged. This conflict started Aug. 2, when the dictator of Iraq invaded a small and helpless neighbour. Kuwait, a member of the Arab League and a member of the United Nations, was crushed, its people brutalized. Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait; tonight, the battle has been joined.    Bush begins by emphasising the fact that the attack has already begun and that it is continuing; a fait accompli, in fact. The syntax is strikingly declarative and informative whilst the language, in the semantic field of attack and defence, relies heavily on the notion that there was no choice here and that America did not begin the conflict: it is not the aggressor. Indeed, Bush stresses the idea of the ‘dictator of Iraq’, Saddam Hussein, having ‘invaded a small and helpless neighbor’. Emotive language is heaped upon this by the use of ‘crushed’ and ‘brutalized’ in order that the goal of the orator to persuade the American people and indeed the world, that the invasion was a humanitarian act. The ‘cruel war’, Bush invites us to judge, was begun by Iraq and ‘battle has been joined’ to ‘protect and defend’ as the American ‘Oath of Allegiance’ clearly demands. The language used thro ughout is designed to persuade the listener of the validity and necessity of war. However, the notion that, ‘Presidents [and politicians] are special beings. When they talk, we listen’, has to be qualified by the listeners’ growing political awareness. This is evident when one turns to look at the language used in political speeches aimed at either the electorate or to instigate legislation where different criteria are applied which can be perceived in the structural linguistic mode. An increasingly sophisticated electorate has become more aware of ‘political spin’, however, and is less easily swayed by political rhetoric: Distrust of policy making and policy makers has become more common as politics has become positioned as more concerned with the spin of media presentation than with substance. There is, then, with this innate ‘distrust’ in mind, a discernable difference between what is presented in speeches to party members and what is intended to be persuasive and motivational to the general public. As has been observed, ‘the babble of voices has increased massively and governments have to work very hard indeed to keep anything hidden from the public gaze’. Speeches do not, of course, seek obviously to ‘hide’ being necessarily declarative and intended for public consumption. Nevertheless, political speeches are often made in the wake of political scandal where the motivation of the speaker is to persuade the listeners that despite appearances all is well. In cases such as these, the speaker has a more difficult role than usual, since the audience is likely to be hostile, especially during a Commons Debate; in circumstances such as these, combative language will be employed by both sides, rather than either passivity or ‘attack and defence’. However, the later to be impeached President Nixon, when running for the office of Vice-Presidency in 1952, used the specific dynamics of ‘honesty and integrity’ to refute claims made against him and pledge, somewhat ironically in hindsight, ‘to drive the crooks and the Communists and those that defend them out of Washington’. By connecting the criminal fraternity with a contemporary political obsession of ‘the McCarthy Era’, Nixon diverts the issue from his own challenged integrity and instead attempts to persuade the listeners that those who speak against him are the dishonest ones and: the motivation is entirely personal in its attempt to achieve an individual goal. Motivational speech can, however, be far more selfless and, indeed, more potentially powerful, if delivered in the desire to drive forward a socio-political cause. The finest example of this in the latter half of the twentieth century might well be said to be that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. to the assembled masses in Washington D.C. on August 28 1963 which proved to be a seminal moment in the Civil Rights Movement: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. Dr. King’s intention both to present a persuasive argument and motivate a damaged and blighted country to heal itself is evident in both the structure and the lexis, as he interweaves past, present and future to create a livid picture of American racial prejudice: ‘expression and persuasion were the goals, confirmation of shared values the method’.   The speech uses repetition almost as melodic punctuation to enable the essence of the speaker’s directive to appear both personal and communal. Focusing on a future built from a mutual healing of the past and presenting the image of children as the distillation of this, Martin Luther King involves the listener in a persuasive generic rhetoric. Elsewhere, the speech uses biblical imagery and references to love of country to demonstrate the inherent right of mankind to freedom and equality enshrined in the Declaration of Independence (July 4th 1776). By enforcing this in relation to the Civil Rights Movement, K ing underpins his ‘dream’ with a historical resonance to which the ‘American Dream’ is inextricably linked. Thus the structure and content combine to persuade and motivate those who are not actually present to engage with the movement to which he is truly dedicated. The speech was a ‘media event’ and remains one of the most powerful and emotionally charged speeches in history. It had tremendous success, both contemporaneously and over future decades, in persuading the American people to act positively to abolish racism, though prejudice is, unhappily, still prevalent. John Major, also speaking on the right to ‘freedom’, this time in relation to fox hunting, acknowledged by the speaker as ‘ludicrous’ in its introduction as a Government Bill before the House, attempts to persuade almost by inversion: I have never hunted a fox or a deer, nor have I attended a hunt or seen one, except at a distance, yet I oppose the Bill every bit as strongly as any one of the country dwellers who are likely to lose their livelihood should a ban be imposed by Parliament. By declaring his disinterest, Major begins to persuade by suggesting that his is the action of any right-thinking man, not just ‘the minority’ of ‘countrymen who hunt’. Major’s entire speech attempts to persuade by derision and negation, implying that the Labour Government is sacrificing the rights of the few, ‘a breath-taking illustration of political self-interest overriding natural justice’. Major’s persuasive tactic, faced with an overriding popular opposition to fox-hunting, is to cast doubt on this as a fact and also to stress the importance of hunting as part of the rural economy. He refers to ‘farmers’ and ‘country dwellers’ as well as loss of ‘livelihood’ whilst avoiding reference to ‘the image of huntsmen as red-faced toffs’, a disparaging reference to the view of the Left, until after he has delivered an argument based on opinion rather than fact and concluding with the fox-hunting term of ‘gone to earth’ and even reference to the Christmas season, when the speech was delivered, to aid its persuasiveness. Moreover, Major states that one needs an ‘open mind’ to see the truth of his argument implying that those who do not agree with him have a restricted view based on the desire to appeal to the populace rather than common sense or justice. Speaking to the ‘Fabian Society’ in 2003, Tony Blair employed a similar methodology when speaking of Public Services where he alluded to such ideologically emotive ideas as ‘the creation of the National Health Service’ to further his argument that his government was ‘deliver[ing] the progressive rights that other countries took for granted’. The speech is argued coherently, acknowledging the historical knowledge of the Socialist Party his audience possesses. In this sense, he tailors the structure very differently from a speech to a more general audience. Language is the principal tool of the politician and as such offers much in the way of linguistic analysis for the study of the power of lexis and syntax to persuade and motivate. From the specific words required for wartime, to the promotion of a political agenda or the need to expose injustice, speeches employ the many and various linguistic devices within their textual structure to argue and persuade effectively. Language is a powerful and emotive stimulant, dangerous in the hands of a skilled orator with an ambivalent or perilous personal agenda. Certainly, the way a speech is constructed and delivered has been shown over the centuries to have tremendous influence, both negative and positive, and knowledge of method and intent are important in the ability of an audience to differentiate astutely between the two and avoid being either persuaded or motivated against their better interests or those of the public at large. Thus, understanding the nature of persuasive and motivational argument is essential in order for the listener to make informed, rather than merely linguistically manipulated, choices based upon skilful speech. Bibliography: Tony Blair, ‘Speech to the Fabian Society on Public Services’, 18 June 2003, TotalPolitics, 2008, retrieved 21 October, 2008. George W. Bush, ‘Announcing the Attack on Iraq, 16 January 1991’, TotalPolitics, 2008, retrieved   21 October, 2008. Winston Churchill, ‘Speech to the House of Commons, 4 June 1940’, TotalPolitics, 2008, retrieved 21 October, 2008. Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776, retrieved 21 October 2008, Robert E. Denton Jr., Dan F. Hahn, Presidential Communication: Description and Analysis, (Praeger, New York, 1986). Richard Edwards, Katherine Nicoll, Nicky Soloman, Robin Usher, Rhetoric and Educational Discourse: Persuasive Texts, (Routledge Falmer, New York, 2004). Robert V. Friedenberg, Notable Speeches in Contemporary Presidential Campaigns, (Praeger, Westport, CT, 2002). Martin Luther King, ‘I Have a Dream’ delivered 23 August, 1963, retrieved 21 October, 2008 John Major, ‘Speech on Fox Hunting’, December 2000, TotalPolitics, 2008, retrieved 21 October, 2008.   Jawaharlal Nehru, ‘Eulogy on the Death of Ghandi’ (delivered 1948) retrieved 22 October 2008 David R. Russell, Elaine P. Maimon, Writing in the Academic Disciplines, 1870 -1990: A Curricular History, (Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL, 1991). James Thomas, Dianas Mourning: A Peoples History, (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, Wales, 2002). Carl Tighe, Writing and Responsibility, (Routledge, New York, 2005).

Summary of Vietnam War :: Vietnam War Essays

Summary of Vietnam War Ngo Vinh Long   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this reading, Long discusses the history of Vietnamese resistance to colonial and oppressive forces. Long states that American historians and statesman claim that other factors contributed to the disastrous conclusion of the Vietnam war, but that the real truth is that the American’s were not prepared to meet such a formidable foe. The Vietnamese had been resisting the Chinese for over 1,000 years and had held on; when the French arrived the same policy of resistance was practiced. Ultimately, due to the oppressive nature of the French and WWII, the French were ousted and a new communist government under Ho Chi Minh was established. Having just been under an oppressive force, and being very knowledgeable about how to deal with oppression, the American’s were caught by surprise. Ho Chi Minh   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the first set of readings, Ho Chi Minh calls upon Western powers to honor the principles of freedom they so ‘righteously’ proclaim. Speaking specifically to the French, Ho Chi Minh proclaims that the right of the Vietnamese people to be sovereign is inherent in the ideology of French ideology and he calls on them to follow through.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the second selection of reading, Ho Chi Minh recounts his eventual conversion to Marxist/Leninist ideals. He tells of his participation and final acceptance of communist ideals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the final selection of reading Ho Chi Minh calls upon all the people of Vietnam to join in the fight for full independence. In this letter Minh appeals to heroes of the past who have resisted oppression and relates these heroes to the present struggle. Johnson   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this selection of reading President Johnson is defending his Vietnam policy. This address by Johnson lays out many arguments for why the war in Vietnam is necessary; they are as follows: (a) the self-determination of nations; (b) aggressive forces; (c) communism as a menace to the world; (d) idea that everything operates like dominoes; (e) avoiding another Munich; (f) responsibility of the American people; (g) a â€Å"new deal† for third-world countries; (h) a better tomorrow for the world Scheer   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this article Scheer explains why the US got involved in Vietnam. Three primary reasons were the imminent collapse of the French government, the success of the Viet Minh, and the instability of the puppet Diem regime. Duncan   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this narrative, Duncan explains through various stories why he believes the war in Vietnam simply propaganda; he concludes his narrative by saying that it took him 10 years in the military to figure out that the government was feeding him lies.

mood, substance, and personality disorders Essay -- essays research pa

Mood, Substance, and Personality Disorders   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Do you know a person that has sudden mood swings? Do you wonder why they act like they do? Their actions could be a result of a type of mood disorder. Mood disorders are part of the Axis One disorders that are found in the DSM IV. Axis One is all categories of disorders except for personality disorders. People who have mood disorders are diagnosed to have a pattern of severe depressive and manic episodes. One major mood disorder that will be discussed is bipolar disorder. People who are bipolar tend to have episodes of both mania and depression, sometime by themselves or sometimes mixed. Some of the symptoms are a very active social life, rapid speech, racing thoughts, lack of sleep and no concern about losing sleep, false belief of having special talents, and the inability to keep one’s attention focused. Bipolar is equally as common in men and in women. However, depressive episodes are more common for women with the disorder than for men. Because of the seriousness of this disorder it is important that it is professionally treated. If the disorder is not treated or if treatment is discontinued, a person can become impaired or extremely symptomatic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Richard Gere plays the main character in the movie Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones is a character that has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or as a manic-depressive. The movie begins in one of Jones’ highs or manic episode. He is a child in an adult’s body; he feels invincible, like he can do anything. The first episode that sends him into the mental hospital is when he walks out on a high beam at a construction site thinking that he can fly. His second episode is at a symphony concert; he jumps on stage and tries to lead the orchestra, feeling he could do a better job then the conductor. His doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Brown, diagnosed Jones with bipolar disorder because he has impaired judgment, he is highly agitated, he has rapid speech, and audio hallucinations. He is unable to fell pleasure, and he has major mood swings. When he was in the hospital he was depressed most of the time; he missed his highs because they were fun. When he had his downs they tended to be destructive; he overreacted when he did not get his way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The movie seemed to be very accurate to what we learned in class an... ...ves. The movie Girl Interrupted is a true story about a young woman who was put into a mental institute and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Winona Ryder plays Susanna, who was just a girl who had a hard time telling the difference between dreams and reality. She was put into the hospital because she tried to commit suicide by taking a bottle of aspirin and drinking a bottle of vodka at the same time. When Susanna first got to the hospital, she did not feel that she needed to be there. However, she did agree that she was depressed and needed to rest. She also had a hard time developing healthy relationships and could not distinguish an identity for herself. During the time before she realized she had a problem she had flashbacks of the moments that may have led to her disorder. Because she wanted to get out of the hospital, she began to tell her doctors every thought she had. By doing this she cured herself. Susanna finally knew what she wanted to do and who she wanted to b e. Overall this movie did an awesome job of depicting all the disorders in the movie as well as borderline personality disorder. This movie is one of my favorites; I would recommend it to anyone.

Explain the Importance of Safeguarding Children and Young People

a. Explain the importance of safeguarding children and young people It is important to safeguard children and young people as without this protection their future could be negatively affected. Their health and development could be impaired as its possible they could withdraw from family and peers which would affect them emotionally and also developmentally fall behind with educational milestones (if school is missed). Children and young people need to be protected from neglect and abuse and have a safe environment in which to grown up in with parents, teachers and any other close adult being approachable and accessible if needed, when/if any problem or concerns were to arise. This is all crucial in a child’s upbringing as the care they receive through their childhood will contribute to the success of the child’s ability to reach their full potential into adulthood. . Explain the importance of a child or young person centred approach It is important to use a centred approach when safeguarding children. As this will give you the first hand opinion and facts from the child including feelings and wishes about their current situation and their future. This will make the organisations response more accurate and appropriate to meet the specific needs of the child or young person. It is important therefore to develop a trusting relationship with the child or young person as this will make it easier to discuss their wishes and concerns, which will give the professionals the opportunity to involve the child or young person where possible in decision making about current intervention if necessary and any future action, as ‘the unknown’ will undoubtedly be a worry to the child so hopefully making them aware step by step will make the process less daunting and give a more accurate diagnosis to the problem.

A Poem for Black Hearts by Amiri Baraka Essay

The poem A Poem for Black Hearts by Amiri Baraka is written in free verse and is consisting of 27 lines which, in a way construct and epitomize an image of Malcolm X. The poem commemorates him and his stature as the â€Å"black god of our time† while subsequently persuading African American men to continue the fight for civil rights. Malcolm’s essence is made fragmented by the speaker for each part of his body is given high significance so as to create an image of a fallen leader who became an icon for all black men. At the same time as the poem is not only for those who have black hearts, as it is also intended to be for Malcolm’s eyes which have the capability to break the â€Å"face of some dumb white man† by challenging his authority. The speaker emphasizes that the poem is also for Malcolm’s words, which were described and symbolically renamed ‘fire darts’ to emulate that his flaming words including the rhetoric of war and were carefully aimed at the enemy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The speaker feels that Malcolm was assassinated, believing that Malcolm was murdered for voicing out his outrage against racism and encouraging the people to conduct political action when it is deemed necessary. In addition, the poem is for Malcolm’s heart, for his love for his fellow black men and his pleas for the African American dignity, life, and education. Finally, the poem is intended to be for all of those people like him [Malcolm] who are dead and all of him remembered which clings to African American political and cultural rhetoric.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The speaker incites that he intended his readers particularly the black men to quit â€Å"stuttering and shuffling†, â€Å"whining and stooping† and to â€Å"look up†. Instead of accepting their defeat, black men should raise their heads with dignity and see Malcolm as their greatest example of African American pride, masculinity, and political activism. In the closing lines, the speaker, challenges the black men to â€Å"let nothing in [them] rest† until Malcolm’s death has taken vengeance. He furthers his promise of retribution by showing his word of honor as that â€Å"if we fail to avenge Malcolm’s death, let us never breathes a pure breath.† At this point, the speaker wanted the black men to look deeper into Malcolm’s eyes, words, heart, and dignity as well as his desire to change the world so that the voices of black men can continue to speak and act within the space Malcolm helped create.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, Michael S. Harper’s public elegy entitled Dear John, Dear Coltrane serves as an elegy to a jazz musician and the legacy which he was able to share through his music. The poem mimics the form of Coltrane’s jazz novelty through depicting his image of bodily death. The elegy focuses on the man’s death and the progress of his music from immediate and alive to reproduced and commodified from the time of his permanent absence. The poem undermines the communication that venerates John Coltrane’s music by making it a big issue whether or not there is a possibility that music of a dead person will serve as an aesthetic to the black’s culture. The poem uses bodily and at the same time cultural images of reproduction calls and attention which later leads to the creation and reproduction of jazz.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The poem focuses on the physical image to bring Coltrane’s jazz to another venue while still squarely within the body. In the line â€Å"Sex fingers toes,† the speaker uses the word sex which may be connoted to have a double meaning. This should be read as both the act and the genitalia to bring into line the body with the sexuality embodied by jazz music. Sex as genitalia can be connected later on through out the poem: â€Å"There is no substitute for pain/genitals gone or going,/seed burned out.† The speaker here shows how genitals failed to connect with the music, with the pain that could have produce both movement and desire. The bodily pain which speaks of slavery can also be seen: â€Å"turn back, and move/ by river through swamps.† The pain of having been slaves, which eventually led to their attempt of escaping through the swamps of the south, is comparable to the pain from which the blues stems. Thus, the poem connects the blues with all of its ties to slavery and a specific African American aesthetic. The end of the poem shows the end of Coltrane’s life and tells the bodily experience of dying which later proved to be too great for Coltrane to produce jazz.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the poem, the movement of the music with the help of the radio clearly shows the people’s movement to being slaves towards their freedom. This represents the new route to the people’s ultimate freedom however, that route will always go back to the musician and his music. As it created links between jazz as a mode for liberation, it elegizes the death of a man who created jazz. The poem builds a relationship between Coltrane’s reproductive organs and his creation of jazz. The poem eulogizes the musician himself, not only â€Å"Dear Coltrane† (the music) but also â€Å"Dear John† (the man). Without the man, the figure of the body, even jazz as revolutionary as Coltrane’s remains an empty aesthetic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   More so, Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth, which is connoted to be a modern elegy, maintains the aspects of ancient an elegy which is composed of both personification and lamentation. The author also uses the conventional form of a pastoral elegy rather than adapting the epic form in writing his poem. Owen also describes that the prayers and church bells as â€Å"mockeries† and directly imply that no matter how grand, immortalizing or well attended a funeral ceremony is this will not be able, in any way, to bring back the dead. This opposes the former known form of elegy which is called the pastoral elegy, which attempts to immortalize the dead, either through words or through divine imagery. The audience cannot be consoled with merely the hope of immortalization and bringing back the dead on some distant plane of human thought. Rather than to personify the nature of mourn the deceased, Owen uses the sound of falling shells to create an image of sorrow. These shells are causing death, so it is strange that they should mourn for the dead as well. Owen personifies machines in the course of the poem instead, and these machines cannot alleviate grief since they are the ones which caused it. The speaker in the poem implies no difference between weapon and life because neither among the mentioned can mourn the dead for us. The words used in the course of the poem is different from the other elegies in different types since it uses more of the most known and colloquial forms to better emulate the feeling of sorrow and lamentation. With this, a new meaning in showing grief was reshaped and was alleviated from the former connotation of such. Gendered elegy American History written by Michael Harper is a short yet dramatic kind of elegy that speaks about the fate of four black little girls who died in a church in Alabama. Through them, the author is reminded of the fate of a hundred more others who are keeping their selves away from the real world in the fear of being caught dead without giving their untimely death any justification. Most of them, according to the author, are in strict hiding and is always operating in groups. This situation was enlivened even if there are only nine lines composing the entire poem; the meaning that the author would want to speak about is clearly spoken. With only that number of lines, the author was not deprived of the freedom to express his thoughts and his genuine intention in writing the said piece. This poem would also want to mimic the situation of the blacks then in the United States where it is vocal on the oppression and inhumane treatment being accorded to them because of their color and race. It does not show much lamentation and sorrow due to the lost of the four black girls but the more visible meaning of it is the fear of other black people to be caught in the same incident as that of the little girls. Meanwhile, modern elegy transforms grief in a new way of interpreting it. It has reshaped personification that is free form writing style, the awareness of the inability to immortalize any person who has been dead and blatant refusal to mourn shows how difficult coping with sorrow over the loss of a loved one can be. This illuminates the intention being shed away by the traditional form of elegy which mimics the scream of anger and denial towards grief over a loss of a person and that acceptance of the said irreversible loss. This kind of elegy is something that transforms the vision of the audience from being sorrowful to somehow a better feeling and acceptance over the lost of someone whom they love the most. This is because of the choice of words that was used in order to come up with the entire poem. Work Cited O’CLAIR;, JAHAN. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003.   

Human Cloning: Morally Wrong, Sinful, and Dangerous Essay

Sheep, cattle and further animals have now been replicated by the cloning method which is known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. The process is that an unfertilized egg has its nucleus removed or inactivated, and swapped with the nucleus from an animal’s body cell. This nucleus, enclosing the animal’s complete genetic code, is moved to interact through the egg, and a new embryo created that is genetically equal to the animal providing the body cell. (William, 2000) According to the scientists, the technique may be helpful for animal breeding and medical research, whereas the Catholic Church does not object, providing the norms in opposition to mistreating animals in research are respected. However the question still remains: is human cloning morally wrong, sinful, and dangerous? Cloning as a danger to Life Cloning possibly will appear like a new means to generate human life, not destroy it. However a closer look exposes its darker side. Animal trials show that any attempt to use human cloning for reproduction will have several sufferers. About over 90 percent of cloned embryos miscarry or are stillborn. The first successful cloned sheep Dolly was the sole survivor out of 277 attempts. Those hardly any who endure to birth have severe medical problems. Dolly, such as, developed early arthritis and lived only half a normal life period. In a nutshell, human reproductive cloning is a dangerous and immoral research on everyone. A lot of scientists are in opposition to reproductive cloning for these reasons; however still support cloning for research. However the major difference among the two is this: In reproductive cloning, the majority of the cloned humans will die at very young age; in cloning for research, all of them will die, since they will be intentionally killed as means to someone else’s idea of medical progress. The reality is that this killing might occur at a very early stage makes no difference, for our ethical tradition regards human life at each stage as justified admiration and safety. Cloning for study presents a new evil which not found even in the practice of abortion: creating new human lives exclusively in order to destroy them. This is the crucial reduction of human life to an object, to a product that has no worth but for the use someone else chooses for it. Pope John Paul II has underscored the grave evil of such researches, calling them atrocities that are unworthy of man. (Michael, 2001) Cloning and Human Dignity Human cloning is the last step along this course of depersonalized reproduction. It absorbs no gathering of male and female at all, actually, a child produced by this means has no mother or father in the normal sense, however only a pattern or model. Rather than openness to existence, it involves control over life, for a technician manufactures the new embryo in a laboratory, along with even controls his or her genetic makeup to be equal to that of somebody else. The method of cloning has the nature of a manufacturing process, suited to a product somewhat than a human kind. It dehumanizes in the act of generating. Human cloning would create a human being who deserves to be treated as our equal, but would do so in a way that undermines this equal dignity. It is not a worthy way for humans to bring other humans into the world. (Leon, 2002) Is cloning Sinful? Cloning encourages humans to treat their creations as less than themselves, as less than human. However it moreover tempts them to think of themselves as better than human, as gods with the power to produce life. So that, certainly, the first and supreme temptation presented to human beings, to Adam and Eve: â€Å"You will be like gods† (Gn 3:5). (Michael, 2001) If this seems an exaggeration, we have only to look at statements by cloning proponents. Cloning is an opening technology to efforts to persuade the human species, for 2 reasons. First, genetic engineering is such a hit-and-miss method that one should be able to copy one’s rare successes. Next, if scientists can make a new being who is accurately as same as another, they can purify their method to create that new being the same except for one or 2 superior traits, and then build on this. The human species itself would be the laboratory bench and the investigate animal for such experiments. Unfortunately, a lot of scientists became blind to the paradox in this magnificent scheme. When the true God creates people in His image and reproduction, He produces an infinite variety of people who reproduce special facets of His endless goodness. (John, 2000) When we simple humans attempt to do the same, we only replicate one narrow set of traits previously provided to us in the history? And when we attempt to get better on that inheritance, all we can apply are our own narrow, prejudiced and defective ideas of an enhanced human. By striking those biases on our issue, we would still treat them as objects we can manage and govern, still if we are trying to create a better product. These new powers for controlling the species are not a net increase of power for humankind; they are ways for a small number of imperfect humans to exercise control over a lot of other humans and the expectations of humankind. (Leon, 2002) To imagine we are prepared for such power above all humans is to commit the ultimate sin of arrogant satisfaction that the Greeks called hubris, the pride of grasping at what belongs only to gods. Although some sensible person can notice the destructiveness of such pride, Christians know especially that the road to human development is paved in its place by humble service to others. Jesus’ sacrifice blazed the right path for us long ago. From this point of view, human cloning and the attitude that accepts and uses it is offend to God. References William E. May, Huntington (2000) â€Å"Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life†, Ind. : Our Sunday Visitor Books John F. Kilner, et al. (eds. ), (2000) â€Å"Cutting-Edge Bioethics: A Christian Exploration of Technologies and Trends†. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub Michael C. Brannigan (ed. ), (2001) Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. New York: Seven Bridges Press Leon R. Kass, M. D (2002) â€Å"Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics†, San Francisco: Encounter Books

The Palace of Minos at Knossos Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Palace of Minos at Knossos - Essay Example There are indications of proper systems of obtainment of natural light during the day. There are signs of proper systems of drainage and water supply. As far as heat is concerned, the palace gives no signs of proper systems for the control of cool and chilled winds in winter seasons (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). Because of the facilitation of natural light, the constructors of the palace had to provide a lot of openings for the incoming light and these facilitations of light appear to be problematic in winter seasons. In night, there were employment of ceramic lamps and candles with olive oil (Dempsey, 2007). The palace of Minos at Knossos served for many purposes according to the archaeologists. It served as an administrative center for the people of Crete. It also served as a religious center for the people of Crete. It also worked as storage of food so; it also served as a food storage center for the people of Crete (Bourbon, 1998). The palace is not like those palaces that provide residential facilities but as a place that provided working facilities as the archaeologists found no furniture or objects that can be called as beds or other residential features (Dempsey, 2007). The palace of Minos at Knossos is regarded as the major site for the analysis of Bronze Age buildings prevalent till this time. It is archeologically the largest building found related to Bronze Age (Bourbon, 1998). It is located at Crete. It gives a clear overview of Minoan culture and civilization. Tourists from all over the world visit the palace in order to judge the features of Bronze Age still found in the world today. The palace of Minos at Knossos is named after the discoverer, Minos Kalokairinos (Benton and DiYanni, 1998). The discovery can be traced back in 1878. The palace can also be named on the King Minos of Crete for whom; it was constructed according to the mythology. With the discovery of the palace, it