Waiting for Godot Persuasive Essay Example For Students

Waiting for Godot Persuasive Essay Going to see Joseph Chaikins production of Waiting for Godot at Seven Stages in Atlanta, I found myself wondering what effect the directors own divine aphasia would have on the fundamental sounds of this cornerstone of contemporary theatre. Chaikin has long had a love hate relationship with Becketts work. While hes been repeatedly drawn to it as actor and director, he has usually found himself enervated after the work, and at times questioned the morality of producing nihilistic texts in a society where hope is already a rare commodity. One walks out with a little less, he once said about the audiences experience of Endgame. We will write a custom essay on Waiting for Godot Persuasive specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The Seven Stages Godot (which traveled to The Hague as part of the International Samuel Beckett Festival in April) is a traditional one. The usual suspects are there: the tree, the mound, a boy, two pairs of men in bowlers trapped in the performance of endless clown acts. Chaikin has always been concerned with Becketts musicality, and has stuck closely, although not blindly, to the authors score. The result is the most accessible Godot I have seen, one that, like Becketts own directorial work, sacrifices neither humor nor nihilism at the others expense. At the heart of this production is Del Hamiltons Didi. Hamilton, Seven Stages artistic director, makes Didi into an agnostic Holy Fool, whether he is daintily hopping over Luckys rope or deciding that Tell him that you saw me is a sufficient report to Godot. This Didi is obviously aware that the fix is on when the Boy returns at the end of the second act. As the lights fade, and They do not move, Hamilton casts his eyes heavenward, a gesture that both pleads for deliverance and reveals the endurance of a contemporary Prometheus. Didi is the true protagonist of this Godot, carrying the burden of memory through Becketts wasteland. Next to him, Don Finneys Gogo is a live-action cartoon, blissfully forgetful of all thats come before, although the gesture that marks his response to Were waiting for Godot (right forefinger in the air, with a smile to the audience) seems increasingly less confident. This is a production of Godot extremely aware of the audience. Chaikin has always stressed the vaudeville aspects of Beckett and the mutual awareness between actor and audience: The characters in his Godot inhabit a liminal space between performer and character. Is it Didi or Del Hamilton who implores the audience Will this night never end? After Luckys (Rick Rogers) surprisingly lovely dance no hard stool this is greeted with applause, is it Didi, Gogo and Pozzo glaring at the audience until the applause stops, or Hamilton, Finney and John Purcell? While this sort of thing could descend into mugging, it doesnt, because the actors in Godot, especially Hamilton and Rogers, maintain contact with that sense of astonishment Chaikin calls for in his book The Presence of the Actor. As a result, Waiting for Godot possesses the wise innocence that has characterized Chaikins best work through his career. This wise innocence is the productions great strength. Becketts form has lost much of its original novelty after 40 years. The urge to break down our sense of familiarity with Beckett lies behind many conceptual productions. Compared with MTV, Holly Hughes or Nicholson Baker, Godot seems almost conventionally narrative. Chaikin takes the opposite tack. He revitalizes our experience of Godot by acknowledging the familiarity. His Gogo and Didi inhabit the world we consciously live in, whether our personal Godot is God, love, a sane society or merely faith in politics (writing this, the headline Waiting for Perot on the national edition of the Washington Post is a reminder how much Beckett permeates our collective self-image). .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 , .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .postImageUrl , .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 , .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8:hover , .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8:visited , .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8:active { border:0!important; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8:active , .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8 .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uacf58e5f096ab297006635b2973317f8:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Alien nation: an interview with the playwright EssayThis is not a perfect production some of the turns lack a definite end, as if the characters have just stopped, rather than been abandoned by their own thoughts, and Finney and Purcell occasionally push too hard but it is one capable of giving power and energy and faith, as Athol Fugard wrote of Beckett. Or, to paraphrase Chaikin, one walks out of Waiting for Godot with a little more.

chinas dynastic cycle essays

chinas dynastic cycle essays China went through dynastic, imperial rule, Western and Japanese encroachments on its sovereignty and territories, nascent national unification under Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek, and a successful Communist revolution since 1949 that drove the KMT forces under Chiang to Taiwan. Mao unified China as never before as the worlds largest Communist state but plunged her into economic disaster through his economic experiments and a cultural revolution. After Maos death in 1976, Deng Xiaopings ascendancy and economic reforms enabled China to finally achieve her economic great leap forward into self-sustaining economic growth at the highest levels in the world. Dengs successors have continued with the economic reforms and instituted some political reforms under the one country, two systems paradigm, exemplified lately by Hongkongs becoming a Special Autonomous Region. Chinas economic and military might worries a number of her Asian neighbors. Hongkong under British rule was one of the earliest newly industrialized economies, or so-called Tiger economies, in East Asia. Pro-democracy dissidents were crushed at Tienamen Square in Beijing in 1989, but the underground democracy movement is alive. The democratic opening in Hongkong, now a Special Autonomous Region, and the dramatic example of democracy on Taiwan demonstrate the advantages of matching economic freedom with political freedom. With external moral support and pressure, the home-grown democracy movement awaits the crucial support of a faction of the national leadership to gain momentum for political liberalization. Like Mao, Deng looked back into China's past for ideas. He chose to extricate the State from a portion of the agriculture sector that it had never - before Mao - been involved in, by giving peasants control over some of what they planted and marketed. Deng's early reforms restored markets in non-staple food ...

Origins of the Spanish Abbreviation Vd. for Usted

Origins of the Spanish Abbreviation Vd. for Usted To understand why usted is abbreviated as Vd.we need a quick lesson in the etymology  of the word, and the story of that pronoun also answers another question about Spanish, namely why the second-person pronoun usted  (those used when talking to somebody to refer to that person) uses third-person verbs (those used to refer to someone other than the speaker and listener). Why Usted Is Abbreviated Usted had its origins during the colonial era, where it was common to address nobility and other people held in esteem (or people who thought they were held in esteem) as vuestra merced, meaning your mercy. Vuestra merced was used in much the same way as your honor is used in English today, with third-person verbs, i.e., we say your honor is rather than your honor are. It began as an extremely formal type of address, eventually becoming the standard way of addressing people in higher positions as well as persons who arent friends or family. As is often the case with much-used terms, vuestra merced became shortened over the centuries. It changed to vuesarced to vusarced and eventually to vusted, which you may still hear, especially among older speakers, in some regions. Vd. was adopted as an abbreviation for that word or earlier forms and remains in use today, although Ud. is more common. Spanish speakers tend to soften their consonants, so vusted eventually gave way to todays usted (which in some areas has its last letter softened so it sounds like ustà ©). Like the earlier vuestra merced, it still uses third-person verbs (i.e., usted es for the formal you are but tà º eres for the familiar/informal you are). As all living languages do, Spanish continues to change, and these days usted itself is being heard less often. In a change that has its parallels in English, much Spanish usage is becoming more informal or egalitarian. Whereas at one time, strangers were frequently addressed as usted, it is common in some areas, especially among younger people, for peers to immediately address each other as tà º. On the other hand, there are areas in which usted is used even among family members, and others where vos is preferred over tà º for family or close friends.

Social Welfare Policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Social Welfare Policies - Essay Example The study is to explore the origins of public welfare policy created specifically for mother-only families. At first, the Government of Chicago initiated the largest mothers' pension program in the United States in 1911. Evolving alongside movements for industrial justice and women's suffrage, the mothers' pension movement hoped to provide "justice for mothers" and protection from life's insecurities. However, local politics and public finance derailed the policy, and most women were required to earn. Widows were more likely to receive pensions than deserted women and unwed mothers. And African-American mothers were routinely excluded because they were proven breadwinners yet did not compete with white men for jobs. Ultimately, the once-uniform commitment to protect motherhood faltered on the criteria of individual support and wage-earning became a major component of the policy (Goodwin). On the other hand, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), commonly known as welfare , is the monthly cash assistance program for poor families with children under age 18. A family of three (mother and two children) may qualify for TANF if their gross income is below $784 a month and assets are worth less than $1,000 (TANF, 2000). This revealing study shows how assumptions about single mothers' roles have traditionally shaped public policy and sheds new light on the ongoing controversy of welfare reform. Mothers' Pension Policy and TANF Mothers' pension system is a magnificent addition to the vast scholarly literature on women and the welfare state. There are some analysis of the compromises and contradictions that plagued mothers' pensions from the beginning provides a much-needed historical perspective on the current welfare mess (Goodwin, 1997). Where most previous scholars have examined the motivations, ideology, and political organization that made possible the enactment of mothers' pensions laws in the 1910s, Gender and the Politics of Welfare Reform is the first monograph to analyze their implementation at the local level. Chicago had the largest pension program in Illinois, the first state to enact a mothers' pension law. The 1911 Funds to Parents Act, which permitted counties to provide cash (as opposed to in-kind) assistance for poor parents to raise children in their own homes, set a new direction in social policy by distinguishing pensions from poor relief. In the same way, the TANF is only for low-incom e families include those with children who: Lack the support of one or both parents because of a parent's absence, disability, unemployment, or underemployment. Are less than 18 years old (they may be 18 if attending school and are expected to graduate before age 19). Are U.S. citizens or legally admitted residents of the United States. Live in Texas with a parent or close relative. Unfortunately, political opposition and fiscal constraints worked to limited the new program almost immediately. In keeping with other recent scholars, it is the matter consideration that how mothers' pensions developed as a component of women's rights (Ladd-Taylor, 1998). However, unlike Theda Skocpol, who stresses the role maternalist women's organizations

Publics Fear of Crime and Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Publics Fear of Crime and Media - Essay Example Common media refer televisions, radios, telephones and newspapers. The media are powerful way of getting messages across to citizens, and some 95% of it is reportedly the prime source for all types of information ("Fear of Crime, " John Howard Society, 1999). Media are always involved with audience participation, hence they have various effects on the public viewers (Krippendorff, 1986). Channels and forms. Media are regarded as channels of communication through which messages flow. They are a form of communication produced by a few people for the consumption of many people (Mass Literacy, 1996). In mass media, there are two main categories: print media and electronic media. Their content may overlap, but they differ in their delivery method and the subject area they cover (Krippendorff, 1986). Print media disseminate printed matter. Examples are newspapers, periodicals, magazines, books, newsletters, advertising, memos, and business forms ("Print media," APT, 2007). Public press are the ones responsible for the gathering and publishing in newspaper forms or magazines ("Print media," Farlex, 2007). Electronic media, on the other hand, include television, radio, internet, CD-ROMs, DVD, and other mediums of information transmission not printed in papers. They are most found in the data management, communication networks, Internet and World Wide Web subjects ("Electronic media," Business Dictionary.Com, 2007). Comparing these two media, print media are more likely to be described as factual, while electronic media are more on visual aids to convey information. One of the forms where people get direct news information in electronic media is through television and radio news reporting. In print media, the news information is readily made available () Newsreporting and its Nature News is often reported by various mediums, such as newspapers, television, radio programs, and now in modern practice, in wires services and the websites (Stephens, 2007). Commonly these days, people get their information about crime from the major source which is the media, particularly more on news reporting. Carole Rich, author of Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method (2000) cited five traditional categories generally employed for news reporting. These are: understanding the news, collecting information, constructing stories, understanding media issues, and applying the techniques. Without any of these, a failure to convey news information might take place. Societies seemingly revolve around news information. This is usually what set people's mood upon their daily routine, as means of awareness to the happenings around them for their security (Stephens, 2007). Commonly, news must contain the answers for who, what, when, where, why, and how question of a certain news that people rely on media people to provide them updates on issues within their area, even to international concerns (Fuller, 1996). This suggests that for any possible perception of the viewers to the news information, media people inevitably partake in it. Evidences Shaping Public's Fear of Crime Media companies' interest comes first before viewers' security. Some psychological studies conducted had formulated the theory that mass media affect how their audiences think and behave (Potter 1999). This is because

Family Movie Essay Example for Free

Family Movie Essay Mrs. Doubtfire is a movie about something that almost every American family faces, divorce. The film stars Sally Field and Robin Williams as parents with conflicting parenting styles and beliefs, who end up divorcing with a bloody battle for the children’s custody. The children are thrown into this mess and the movie showcases how each of them deal with the divorce. Lydia is the rebellious preteen who doesn’t understand why the family dynamic has to change. Chris, the younger brother is the athletic member of the family. Natalie is the small wide eyed child who is still trying to comprehend why daddy doesn’t live at home anymore. The theme of the movie centers around many parenting and family questions such as: How does one properly raise children? Is there really one single parenting style that works? Is it really possible for divorcing parents to set aside their differences for the sake of the children? It is a glimpse into how differently a father would raise his children if given a chance to do so without interference or boundaries. It reminds us that once parents learn to listen to each other instead of fighting with each other during divorce proceedings they will finally come around to doing what is best for their children. The movie introduces the viewers to the changing dynamic of the American family. Mothers are no longer stay at home moms who simply tend to children and cook meals. These days women like Miranda Hillard (Sally Field) are career driven heads of industries. It is also not uncommon these days to find a stay at home dad like Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams). The problem with this situation is that even though mothers bring home the bacon, they are still expected to come home and perform their wifely and motherly duties. Something that society has not once, throughout the history or marriages expected from the husband and father. Such a situation indeed takes its toll on any marriage and weakens the foundation of the family For fathers who are forced to stay home to care for the children, such a move is taken as an insult to their manhood and makes him feel dominated in the process. Let’s face it, men still find it insulting to take orders from a woman, even if that woman happens to be his wife or the mother of his children. In such a situation, the man will rebel the only way he knows how. By playing the good cop, bad cop game with the children. As you watch the  movie you are exposed to two highly different parenting styles. The mother’s rigid parenting style that is meant to instill discipline in the children and the laid back relationship between the father and the three children. Not to say that one style is better than the other but the truth is that, when children are in the middle of their parent’s divorce, they definitely need structure and balance to keep them focused and centered on their own lives and their attention deviated from the chaos brought on by divorce. In such situations, it would help if the parents could agree on how the children will be cared for and what their day to day routine will consist of. Once Mrs. Doubtfire is introduced to the family unit everyone seems to take something away from the experience. The children especially, they are able to convey their feelings and emotions to her as well as the father who is hiding in t he old woman’s costume. The mother, Hillary, also confides in Mrs. Doubtfire about her divorce and how she felt about her ex-husband. This type of communication was healthy for all members of the family including the father even though he was not really being himself. Once the movie hits the turning point and the cat is out of the bag sort of speaks, the children as well as Hillary are very sad to have lost their nanny. As she has become part of the family in just a short amount of time. They mourn the loss of here as if she actually died. But when they find out that Mrs. Doubtfire was there father the children become ecstatic and are overjoyed to see him. The mother is reluctant to communicate with the father after the great lengths he went through to see his children and also after what she had confided in Mrs. Doubtfire who she just found out was her ex-husband. But in the end the divorce worked out for the best and everybody grew as a result of the ensuing changes that they faced. The father was able to get a job and also was able to set up visitation services to see his children and the mother was able to find new love in a new man. This movie is just one of the pioneers in witnessing divorce and the many tolls it can take not only on the couple but the children and also their friends and family. With a little bit of comedy they were able to keep the audience entertained but also tell their story of divorce and how each person was able to deal with the issue.

Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Property Rights of Women in Nineteenth-Century England      Ã‚   The property rights of women during most of the nineteenth century were dependent upon their marital status. Once women married, their property rights were governed by English common law, which required that the property women took into a marriage, or acquired subsequently, be legally absorbed by their husbands. Furthermore, married women could not make wills or dispose of any property without their husbands' consent. Marital separation, whether initiated by the husband or wife, usually left the women economically destitute, as the law offered them no rights to marital property. Once married, the only legal avenue through which women could reclaim property was widowhood. Women who never married maintained control over all their property, including their inheritance. These women could own freehold land and had complete control of property disposal. The notoriety of the 1836 Caroline Norton Case highlighted the injustice of women's property rights and influenced p arliamentary debates to reform property laws. The women's movement generated the support which eventually resulted in the passage of the Married Women's Property Law in 1882. England's mid-nineteenth century focus on married women's property rights culminated in the transformation of the subordinate legal status of married women.    The property owned by women in Victorian England was usually inherited from fathers. To protect the status of their daughters, most fathers included them in the distribution of the patrimony, however, the type of property inherited by sons and daughters differed. Amy Louise Erickson notes that "Fathers normally gave their daughters shares comparable in value with those of their brothers, although girls usually inherited personal property and boys more often inherited real property" (19). The more valuable real property inherited by the sons refers to freehold land, which is the actual land. Personal property referred to copyhold land, which was usually a mansion and its land held by a lord at will, and leasehold land, which was leased to individuals for life. Therefore, copyhold and leasehold land were legally secured for the life of the tenant or longer, depending on the agreement. Real property also included clothing, jewelry, household furniture, food, and all moveable goods. However, social customs held that household property and equipment belonged to the women.

Expressionism in Death of Salesman Essay

From the opening flute notes to their final reprise, Miller’s musical themes express the competing influences in Willy Loman’s mind. Once established, the themes need only be sounded to evoke certain time frames, emotions, and values. The first sounds of the drama, the flute notes â€Å"small and fine,† represent the grass, trees, and horizon – objects of Willy’s (and Biff’s) longing that are tellingly absent from the overshadowed home on which the curtain rises. This melody plays on as Willy makes his first appearance, although, as Miller tells us, â€Å"[h]e hears but is not aware of it† (12). Through this music we are thus given our first sense of Willy’s estrangement not only from nature itself but from his own deepest nature. As Act I unfolds, the flute is linked to Willy’s father, who, we are told, made flutes and sold them during the family’s early wanderings. The father’s theme, â€Å"a high, rollic king tune,† is differentiated from the small and fine melody of the natural landscape (49). This distinction is fitting, for the father is a salesman as well as an explorer; he embodies the conflicting values that are destroying his son’s life. The father’s tune shares a family likeness with Ben’s â€Å"idyllic† (133) music. This false theme, like Ben himself, is associated finally with death. Ben’s theme is first sounded, after all, only after Willy expresses his exhaustion (44). It is heard again after Willy is fired in Act II. This time the music precedes Ben’s entrance. It is heard in the distance, then closer, just as Willy’s thoughts of suicide, once repressed, now come closer at the loss of his job. And Willy’s first words to Ben when he finally appears are the ambiguous â€Å"how did you do it?† (84). When Ben’s idyllic melody plays for the third and final time it is in â€Å"accents of dread† (133), for Ben reinforces Willy’s wrongheaded thought of suicide to bankroll Biff. The father’s and Ben’s themes, representing selling (out) and abandonment, are thus in opposition to the small and fine theme of nature that begins and ends the play. A whistling motif elaborates this essential conflict. Whistling is often done by those contentedly at work. It frequently also accompanies outdoor activities. A whistler in an office would be a distraction. Biff Loman likes to whistle, thus reinforcing his ties to nature rather than to the business environment. But Happy seeks to stifle Biff’s true voice: HAPPY . . . Bob Harrison said you were tops, and then you go and do some damn fool thing like whistling whole songs in the elevator like a comedian. BIFF, against Happy. So what? I like to whistle sometimes. HAPPY. You don t raise a guy to a responsible job who whistles in elevator! (60) This conversation reverberates ironically when Howard Wagner plays Willy a recording of his daughter whistling Roll out the Barrel† just before Willy asks for an advance and a New York job (77). Whistling, presumably, is all right if you are the boss or the boss’s daughter, but not if you are an employee. The barrel will not be rolled out for Willy or Biff Loman. Willy’s conflicting desires to work in sales and to do outdoor, independent work are complicated by another longing, that of sexual desire, which is expressed through the â€Å"raw, sensuous music† that accompanies The Woman’s appearances on stage (116, 37). It is this music of sexual desire, I suggest, that â€Å"insinuates itself† as the first leaves cover the house in Act 1.5 It is heard just before Willy – reliving a past conversation – offers this ironic warning to Biff: â€Å"Just wan na be careful with those girls, Biff, that’s all. Don’t make any promises. No promises of any kind† (27). This raw theme of sexual desire contrasts with Linda Loman’s theme: the maternal hum of a soft lullaby that becomes a â€Å"desperate but monotonous† hum at the end of Act I (69). Linda’s monotonous drone, in turn, contrasts with the â€Å"gay and bright† music, the boys’ theme, which opens Act II. This theme is associated with the â€Å"great times† (127) Willy remembers with his sons – before his adultery is discovered. Like the high, rollicking theme of Willy’s father and like Ben’s idyllic melody, this gay and bright music is ultimately associated with the false dream of materialistic success. The boys theme is first heard when Willy tells Ben that he and the boys will get rich in Brooklyn (87). It sounds again when Willy implores Ben, â€Å"[H]ow do we get back to all the great times?† (127). In his final moments of life, Willy Loman is shown struggling with his furies: â€Å"sounds, faces, voices, seem to be swarming in upon him† (136). Suddenly, however, the â€Å"faint and high† music enters, representing the false dreams of all the â€Å"low† men. This false tune ends Willy’s struggle with his competing voices. It drowns out the other voices, rising in intensity â€Å"almost to an unbearable scream† as Willy rushes off in pursuit. And just as the travail of Moby Dick ends with the ongoing flow of the waves, nature, in the form of the flute’s small and fine refrain, persists – despite the tragedy we have witnessed. Sets In the introduction to his Collected Plays, Miller acknowledges that the first image of Salesman that occurred to him was of an enormous face the height of the proscenium arch; the face would appear and then open up. â€Å"We would see the inside of a man’s head,† he explains. â€Å"In fact, The Inside of His Head was the first title. It was conceived half in laughter, (60) for the inside of his head was a mass of contradictions† (23). By the time Miller had completed Salesman, however, he had found a more subtle plays correlative for the giant head; a transparent setting. â€Å"The entire setting is wholly, or, in some places, partially transparent,† Miller insists in his set description (11). By substituting a transparent setting for a bisected head, Miller invited the audience to examine the social context as well as the individual organism. Productions that eschew transparent scenery eschew the nuances of this invitation. The transparent lines of the L oman home allow the audience physically to sense the city pressures that are destroying Willy. â€Å"We are aware of towering, angular shapes behind [Willy’s house], surrounding it on all sides. The roofline of the house is one-dimensional; under and over it we see the apartment buildings† (11-12). Wherever Willy Loman looks are these encroaching buildings, and wherever we look as well. Willy’s subjective vision is expressed also in the home’s furnishings, which are deliberately partial. The furnishings indicated are only those of importance to Willy Loman. That Willy’s kitchen has a table with three chairs instead of four reveals both Linda Loman’s unequal status in the family and Willy’s obsession with his boys. At the end of Act I, Willy goes to his small refrigerator for life-sustaining milk (cf. Brecht’s parallel use of milk in Galileo). Later, however, we learn that this repository of nourishment, like Willy himself, has broken down. That Willy Loman’s bedroom contains only a bed, a straight chair, and a shelf holding Biff’s silver athletic trophy also telegraphs much about the man and his family. Linda Loman has no object of her own in her bedroom. Willy Loman also travels light. He has nothing of substance to sustain him. His vanity is devoted to adolescent competition. Chairs ultimately become surrogates for people in Death of a Salesman as first a kitchen chair becomes Biff in Willy’s conflicted mind (28) and then an office chair becomes Willy’s deceased boss, Frank Wagner (82). In, perhaps, a subtle bow to Georg Kaiser’s Gas I and Gas II, Miller’s gas heater glows when Willy thinks of death. The scrim that veils the primping Woman and the screen hiding the restaurant where two women will be seduced suggest Willy Loman’s repression of sexuality. Lighting Expressionism has done more than any other movement to develop the expressive powers of stage lighting. The German expressionists used light to create a strong sense of mood and to isolate characters in a void. By contrasting light and shadow, and by employing extreme side, overhead, and rear lighting angles, they established the nightmarish atmosphere in which many of their plays took place. The original Kazan Salesman made use of more lights than were used even in Broadway musicals (Timebends 190). At the end of act 1, Biff comes downstage â€Å"into a golden pool of light† as Willy recalls the day of the city baseball championship when Biff was â€Å"[l]ike a young God. Hercules – something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him.† The pool of light both establishes the moment as one of Willy’s memories and suggests how he has inflated the past, given it mythic dimension. The lighting also functions to instill a sense of irony in the audience, fo r the golden light glows on undiminished as Willy exclaims, â€Å"A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!† We know that Biff’s star faded, even before it had a chance to shine, and even as Willy speaks these words, the light on him begins to fade (68). That Willy’s thoughts turn immediately from this golden vision of his son to his own suicide is indicated by the â€Å"blue flame† of the gas heater that begins immediately to glow through the wall – a foreshadowing of Willy’s desire to gild his son through his own demise. Productions that omit either the golden pool of light or the glowing gas heater withhold this foreshadowing of Willy’s final deed. Similarly, productions that omit the lights on the empty chairs miss the chance to reveal the potency of Willy’s fantasies. Perhaps even more important, the gas heater’s flame at the end of Act I recalls the â€Å"angry glow of orange† surrounding Willy’s house at the play’s beginning (11). Both join with the â€Å"red glow† rising from the hotel room and the restaurant to give a felt sense of Willy’s twice articulated cry: â€Å"The woods are burning!†¦There’s a big blaze going on all around† (41, 107). Without these sensory clues, audiences may fail to appreciate the desperation of Willy’s state. Characters and Costumes Miller employs expressionistic technique when he allows his characters to split into younger versions of themselves to represent Willy’s memories. Young Biff’s letter sweater and football signal his age reversion, yet they also move in the direction of social type. The Woman also is an expressionistic type, the play’s only generic character other than the marvelously individualized salesman. Miller’s greatest expressionistic creations, however, are Ben and Willy Loman. In his Paris Review interview, Miller acknowledged that he purposely refused to give Ben any character, â€Å"because for Willy he has no character – which is, psychologically, expressionist because so many memories come back with a simple tag on them: somebody represents a threat to you, or a promise† (Theater Essays 272). Clearly Ben represents a promise to Willy Loman. It is the promise of material success, but it is also the promise of death.6 We might consider Uncle Ben to be the ghost of Ben, for we learn that Ben has recently died in Africa. Since Miller never discloses the cause of Ben’s death, he may be a suicide himself. His idyllic melody, as I have noted, becomes finally a death march. In Willy’s last moments, the contrapuntal voices of Linda and Ben vie with each other, but Willy moves inexorably toward Ben. Alluding to Africa, and perhaps also to the River Styx, Ben looks at his watch and says, â€Å"The boat. We’ll be late† as he moves slowly into the darkness (135). Willy Loman, needless to say, is Miller’s brilliant demonstration that expressionistic techniques can express inner as well as outer forces, that expressionism can be used to create â€Å"felt,† humane character. The music, setting, and lighting of Salesman all function to express the world inside Willy Loman’s head, a world in which social and personal values meet and merge and struggle for integration. As Miller writes in the introduction to his Collected Plays: [The play’s] expressionistic elements were consciously used as such, but since the approach to Willy Loman’s characterization was consistently and rigorously subjective, the audience would not ever be aware – if I could help it – that they were witnessing the use of a technique which had until then created only coldness, objectivity, and a highly styled sort of play. (39) In 1983, when Miller arrived in Beijing to direct the first Chinese production of Death of a Salesman, he was pleased to find that the Chinese had created a mirror image of the original transparent set. Seeing this set, and observing that the kitchen was furnished with only a refrigerator, table, and two (not even three) chairs, Miller felt â€Å"a wonderful boost† to his morale (Salesman in Beijing 3-4). Teachers and directors might offer a similar boost by giving full weight to the expressionistic moments in Death of a Salesman. For directors, achieving such moments may be technically demanding, but they should not be abandoned simply because they are challenging.7 Similarly, the expressionistic devices should not be considered too obvious for postmodern taste. In truth, the expressionism in Salesman is not intrusive. Its very refinement of German expressionism lies in its subtlety, in its delicate balance with the realistic moments in the drama. This ever-shifting tension between realism and expressionism allows us to feel the interpenetration of outer and inner forces within the human psyche. The expressionistic devices also elevate Willy’s suffering, for they place it in the context of the natural order. To excise the expressionism is to diminish the rich chord that is Miller’s drama

British Colonialism & the Kikuyu Resistance

Colonisation appears to invariably cause conflict. Even where the proto-indigenous population is totally eliminated or absorbed, as in South Africa and Canada, and supplanted by new aboriginals (Canada) or settlers (South Africa), conflict will ensue as either new colonists arrive (Canada) or another wave of settlement arrives and collides (South Africa). The point might be, colonialism ends in violence. It enervates one group to fight the other, no matter the odds. Colonialism must adapt to a new reality for peace to arrive.Much like the North American aboriginal experience, two major shifts occurred in the late 19th century Kikuyu area of Africa. First, a mass outbreak of epidemics took a catastrophic toll its the indigenous population. Then, the ensuing famine forced the devastated populations to vacate the areas they had traditionally farmed. These favourably fertile lands, coined as the White Highlands, became the focal point for British colonialism in Kenya. Parliament then enc ouraged its subjects (i. e.British citizens, East-European Jews, and United South African Boers) to settle the recently acquired land, marketing it as a â€Å"paradise lost†. This marked the second, more influential and important shift in Kenyan society: an influx of white-foreigners. Kikuyu resistance was limited and sporadic, as they ‘lacked a cohesive organized administration’, suppressed by the British colonials as ‘an assault on public order. Violence was sporadic and limited. The East African Protectorate did not command sufficient importance in London politics, and thus received little attention.In 1902, the East African Protectorate acquired fertile lands around Lake Victoria marking the beginning of railway expansion. The completion of the Mombasa-Victoria railway in 1903 shifted London’s perception on the importance of its newly acquired African land. Subsequently, with significant Parliamentary encouragement, European settlement surged int o the East African Protectorate. Although seemingly a principle tenet of colonialism, the last priority of the settlers seemed to be the working of the land that they had acquired.Rather, they opted for cheap local labour, namely the Kikuyu, to work their plantation ‘cash crops’. Soon, London issued a sequence of edicts, laws, and policies to â€Å"encourage local support†. This ‘general policy’ removed the native Kikuyu from their traditionally perceived lands, and forced them either into remote and infertile reservations or semi-urban communities where they constituted a source of inexpensive labour. Such repressive policies were regarded as appropriate actions on the basis of racial supremacy, and therefore justifiable in the eyes of white-settlers, if executed within that perception of fairness.The locals were black, and perceived by whites as un-equal humans. In their eyes, the natives had no inherent right to the land and certainly it was widel y-held by the colonists that they, the kikuyu, didn’t utilize it efficiently anyway. During the 1920s, Kenya’s white society reached a politically critical mass. British administration recognized its increasing affluence and influence. Consequently, London decisively established Kenya (named after the great mountain) as a colony, thereby trapping its indigenous population within a colonial system.They could not get rid of it and instead faced two options: be put to work as virtually another domestic animal, or be forced into a remote reservation. *Despite social repression, a relatively small number of Kikuyu were educated through established Missionary schools. Soon enough, this educated minority realized that the people were being ruled for and by European settlers. Natives were prohibited from cultivating the colony’s primary cash crop, or able to own land in ancestrally-farmed areas. Administratively held to low-wages, natives required ‘settler-control led passbooks’ to travel freely.In light of these, and other, discriminatory state-sponsored practices, the Kikuyu Central Organization was formed. However, the evolution of the Kikuyu’s political and intellectual state was fought and opposed at every turn. During a 1920 peaceful protest over the arrest and exile of one of its leaders, uniformed police and settlers fired upon the Kikuyu Central Organization’s street gathering. This incident cemented the white’s discriminatory view of the natives, and further exacerbated the fear amongst the Kikuyu people. In 1925, London ruled that 150,000 Kikuyu â€Å"squatters† had no traditional ownership rights in settler areas, effectively eliminating the Kikuyu’s surviving economic and legal defenses. *Furthermore, the Kenya Land Commission of 1934 affirmed European title rights to virtually all fertile land within the colony. While the consequences were not immediate, they became increasingly visible as the Kikuyu population’s growth surged, creating severe overcrowding within reserve confines. The inverse relationship between power and population became apparent during the Second World War; when Kenya’s native opulation numbered 4. 3 million, while the white-settlers remained at around 25,000. There was no real cohesive political structure – a British appointee governed the colony. Despite a native population of over four million Kikuyu, the white minority completely dominated all colonial life. Aside from serving in the British Colonial Army and as reservation ‘chiefs’ and administrators appointed to enforce British rule, the natives were completely exempt from all colonial practices. In this context, the colonial administration justified the expulsion of close to one hundred thousand local Kikuyu from the â€Å"white areas†.With nearly every acre of fertile land expropriated for whites-only usage, the Kikuyu had only the overcrowded re servations, or equally destitute urban center ‘shantytowns’. Increasingly, the Kikuyu suffered economic and social deprivation, creating a politically explosive situation. The ensuing, increasing dissidence amongst the Kikuyu prompted the British authorities to criminalize the Kikuyu Central Association in 1940. Under the ruse of â€Å"a wartime security measure†, British colonialism destroyed the Kikuyu’s only peaceful means of expressing grievances, further exacerbating racial tensions within the colony.The collapse of Hitler’s Third Reich brought to light the ultimate horrors of ethnic supremacy. International revulsion at Nazi Germany’s actions subsequently evoked condemnation for the colonial repression of blacks. Consequently, colonial authorities decriminalized Kikuyu representation, allowing for the creation of the Kenyan African Union. This new organization sought recognition as a real political party, advocating the removal of discr iminatory state practices. With only a handful of committed men as its primary leadership, it’s beginning was unpromising.Changing the names, locations, and dates in this sequence would probably read as any other generic history of African colonial resistance. Similar to other African insurgencies, the violence was scattered and sporadic, with a notable vendetta against the white-foreign oppression. What happened in Kenya, however, was distinctively a Kikuyu issue. Increasingly, large numbers of Kikuyu sought methods to organize themselves for strong political advocacy. ( The Kikuyu found neither justice nor substance in nationalism, religion, or Communism.Instead, the Kikuyu linked cultural traditions with the symbolism of ceremonial oath-taking, to encourage social and political unity. Unbeknownst to its membership, this practice effectively gave rise to an informal sense of nationhood within the Kikuyu people. Like all insurgencies The Emergency began modestly, starting in 1950 with only a group of a dozen young activists from the Kenyan African Union. Increasingly frustrated with ineffective bargaining with the whites, this group, the self-proclaimed Kiambaa Parliament, took the baby steps of resistance organization.The ensuing war between the natives, settlers and colonial authorities, which engulfed Kenyan society from 1952-1960, was indisputably brutal, archaic, and oppressive, during which only thirty-two European settlers and less than two hundred police and militia were killed. Why, then, did such a relatively small number of colonial deaths prompt such a blood-chilling rhetoric? Firstly, many of the insurgents were former ‘employees’ of the white-settlers who, while considering the majority of colonial settlers to be severe and even cruel, also considered many as kindly and caring, and were therefore loyal to their previous employers.In the eyes of the whites, â€Å"Jeeves had taken to the Jungle†. That these apparently lo yal employees should revolt against their employers represented â€Å"the ultimate treachery; biting the hand that fed you†. To settlers, this act was all the evidence they needed to vilify the natives, cementing the racial stereotypes in mind. Secondly, the white settlers lacked a thorough understanding of the Kikuyu insurgent’s cohesion. The movement’s lack of nationalism or commitment to a religion or ideology, which gave other insurgencies a unity, evoked fury from the settlers.The Kikuyu’s leaders created unity through cultural traditions (i. e. ceremonial oath-taking), which was perceived by the settlers as ‘black magic’ or ‘witchcraft’. While the terms used would have been very different to the locals, the natives agreed with the resulting terror. The aforementioned ceremonial ‘oathing’ was designed to vilify normal behavioural codes, and psychologically ‘mark’ its taker. Participants transcended normative mental barriers that had constricted their actions, presumably making the participant emerge as a new person, a revolutionary; an itungati.New members were forced to commit acts, sometimes brutal and disturbing acts, to solidify commitment to the cause and the rebel brotherhood. Militants were thus altered into a different person, associated with other, similarly-changed members, within an organization from which it was extremely difficult, if not suicidal, to withdraw membership. The Mau Mau revolt certainly had grounds to take root. The South African and European settlers had appropriated all the land, land that the 1. 5 million Kikuyu perceived as their national patrimony.Converted into cheap market labour to work the lands, the Kikuyu were no more valuable to settlers than serfs to a lord. They had no civil rights to speak of, and were subjected to arbitrary state violence at the hands of militia and police. No effective say was allocated to Kikuyu in their own tribal affairs, let alone Kenyan affairs. Furthermore, while other African countries were moving closer towards freedom, Kenya was seemingly slipping further into white-minority control, as was happening in South African and Southern Rhodesia.Even when British authorities loosened the reigns on their colonies, it was only the white settlers who benefitted, not the natives. Therefore, the Kikuyu felt alienated in their cause and had no hope for improvement; instead, they feared the some twenty-five thousand whites who dominated them. Settlers were horrified to see their standard of living challenged, and demanded massive and indiscriminate suppression of â€Å"the savages†. The response was certainly to their liking. Sir Evelyn Baring, the newly-appointed colonial governor, found that his staff knew little to nothing about what had disaffected those Kikuyu who joined the Mau Mau revolt.Consultation with the British appointed Kikuyu chiefs served little purpose and, in a sense, exacer bated the situation. The chiefs simply vocalized what they felt that the British authorities wanted to hear, maintaining and protecting their own positions. However, Baring accepted uncritically the notion of illegitimacy behind the Kikuyu movement, concluding that â€Å"if you don’t get Kenyatta and those around him and shut them up somehow or other we are in a terrible, hopeless position†* Initially, it seemed as though the British government had fallen into the ‘counterinsurgency trap’, meeting increasing danger with increasing force.However, it was soon realized that force alone would ultimately fail, co-incidentally around the same time London parliament found the conflict â€Å"prohibitively expensive†. A new strategy focused on ‘rehabilitation’ that would not rely entirely on violence and oppression, but which nevertheless failed to recognize the key issue, the rule of Kenya by foreigners. British authorities looked over at Malay a for a ready â€Å"school† of â€Å"proper counterinsurgency†. Its colony had been combatting against a mainly ethnic Chinese rebellion since 1948*.However much other colonial models of counterinsurgency taught lessons, the Malaysian principle would fail in Kenya. Regarded as â€Å"irredeemable Communists†, British Malaysian authorities deported thousands of ethnic Chinese detainees as â€Å"foreigners†. It was impossible, however, to exile even the most committed Mau Mau Kikuyu as a â€Å"non-Kenyan foreigner†. Furthermore, the fervent hate of the Malays for the Chinese, who were far more intrusive and oppressive than the British, could not be replicated in Kenya since everyone was Kikuyu.Instead, Kenyan colonial policy reflected tactics deemed suitable to the local issues, internment camps coupled with robust grilling. British authorities decided that, above all else, information was needed on the Kikuyu resistance. Strategically, authorities so ught an understanding as to why the Kikuyu supported the Mau Mau resistance; tactically, they sought who supported and supplied them. The process of grilling (i. e. interrogation under torture) provided authorities with information that was extorted through force.Once all they could glean was gathered from them, the remaining guerrillas (many died under examination) were placed within the internment camps, out of touch with the active resistance movement. Purely out of luck rather than strategy, did colonial authorities managed to apprehend the charismatic figurehead of the guerrilla movement, in January 1945: Waruhiu Itote. Intensive interrogation revealed all that the authorities wanted to know. Itote revealed everything from his headquarters location, to the support organization, to the size and structure of his guerrilla army.They were revealed to have less than half the fighting capability that the British had thought (i. e. around several thousand fighters, only), and seriousl y underequipped with a pitiful arsenal of weapons (e. g. 361 bolt action rifles/shotguns, 1 hand grenade, & 1,230 ‘homemade weapons’). Surprisingly, much like Tito’s partisans, the Mau Mau had constructed a factory to manufacture and repair the rudimentary weapons they had stolen or created, all while receiving absolutely no external support. Despite the new-found intelligence, the British authorities were at a loss.Like all sensible guerrillas, Mau Maus fighters fled when at a disadvantage. The advantages of advanced aircraft and highly mobilized ground forces were negated by the Mau Mau ability to hide in the forests around Mount Kenya. Lacking progress, authorities pushed Itote to pursue peace negotiations, but gained no ground as neither party trusted the other. Instead colonial authorities utilized the hiatus to identify supporters, arresting over a thousand Kikuyu and beginning a massive detention campaign immediately after talks broke down. Effectively, Br itish authorities imprisoned the entire Kikuyu urban population.Entire villages were de-populated; virtually every Kikuyu male was separated from his wife and children. Over thirty thousand people were plucked from their homes. Ultimately, the British authorities â€Å"packed up† close to 150,000 Kikuyu into interment camps. On a more ‘practical’ level colonial authority sought to encourage loyalty to the state by promising land to those who fought against the Mau Mau. Yet the insurgency did not cease. It became clear to the British authorities that two main problems had been greatly overlooked: the issue of land, and the ceremonial oath.In response, authorities created three separate answers for, what they perceived, as three separate problems. Firstly, to find a way to release the Kikuyu from their oaths of resistance, secondly, to meet the desperate hunger for land amongst the Kikuyu, and finally, to bring forward an acceptable leader to replace the militant I tote. The bitterest issue amongst the Kikuyu was the appropriation of tribal land. Coupled with the post-First World War population explosion, it turned large numbers of Kikuyu into landless labourers.Furthermore, the social policy implemented during the 1930s swelled the population. Those unlucky â€Å"white highlanders† would have no hope of finding land anywhere in the already overcrowded â€Å"cultivable leftovers†. Indeed with such bleak options available, large numbers flocked into urban centers. The surge of slums, particularly in Nairobi, housed the idle landless farmers who had no skill or trade to sustain their living. If Kenya wanted to achieve a lasting peace, this problem had to be addressed promptly.However, ruling authorities (under settler pressure) adamantly refused to â€Å"reward† Kikuyu rebels by the appropriation of land for them from the colonists, and instead proposed increasing current land productivity. Given contemporary fiscal, technol ogical, and social restraints, the proposed policy had the effect of furthering the wealth of the white landowners without addressing the problem of the landless poor. As a result of colonial resistance to large-scale land distribution, over one million Kikuyu were packed into, Kenya’s version of, government-run villages. An improvisation on the ontemporary fortified village program run by the British in Malaya, the inhabitants regarded them as vile prison camps, almost a step down from the internment camps. Even assuming that these villages were acceptable, the land assigned to them was of poor quality, leaving the only source of fertile farming land within the white community. Ultimately, however, reluctant colonial authorities agreed on the repurchase of settler land for native use. From a more military perspective, colonial authorities agreed the second step would be to stop, or at the very least diminish, the impact of the ceremonial-oaths being taken.Seeking to remedy t he issue of zealous commitment, the colonial government commissioned Louis Leakey to create â€Å"un-oathing ceremony†. Renowned for his anthropological work, Leakey’s perception was that Christianity was the greatest counterinsurgency tactic available. He promptly created a program for rehabilitation. With a strong understanding of the Kikuyu’s culture, Leakey knew full well that such a ceremony could remove the moral commitment of many Mau Mau rank –and-file. For the time it was certainly a radical approach to counterinsurgency strategy, and was the most effective application devised.Under this program of rehabilitation over repression, colonial authorities encouraged defection. However this program was far from infallible. Those who opted out were left with long-term imprisonment, or hanging. Ultimately, after a token trial for the suspected Mau Mau sympathizers, colonial authorities hanged a gruesome tally of 1,090 Kikuyu. Such a number reflects upon its oppressive implementers, that justice under British colonial rule in Kenya â€Å"was a blunt, brutal and unsophisticated instrument of oppression†. (p. 122) Conclusively, the white settlers lost their ‘dirty war’.Ultimately, no military or security forces can recreate the pre-insurgency situation. Killing sympathizers and soldiers, hanging the leadership, and interning masses of innocent people creates an uncontrollable socio-political situation. London would no longer condone the actions of the Kenyan white minority. Parliament only saw a dwindling treasury, diminishing international prestige, and no substantial progress towards a solution. So, in 1959, the conservative government sought a tabla-rasa and began dismantling the legal framework of the Kenyan police-state.Finally, the tables had turned, and the white supremacists’ world shattered. The white settlers would be forced to sell their lands now that Kenyans had been given majority rule and open land franchise. The 1961 national reconciliation begun by Jomo Kenyatta, paved the way for independence in 1963. It was the actions of Kenyatta which subdued the Mau Mau rebels. With strong support from London, Kenyatta was able to give the people what they cried for, what the Mau Mau fought for, and what all nations ultimately desire: independence.

BOB

BOB The effectiveness of leaders depend on how appropriate leadership style is to the situation in which they operate. Given that the effectiveness of a leader depends on the situation, it naturally follows that certain leadership behaviors will be effective of ineffective in certain situations. BOB's International Entertainment Conglomerate, although for the most part a financially successful organization, is an organization that is ran by ineffective leaders.This case study will attempt to derive a solution to the many problems cited in the case. Although there are numerous problems, many of these if not all can be resolved through the implementation of several key concepts to be explained in greater detail.All organizations are occasionally confronted with problems that need to be solved. Unlike a decision-making process which centers its energy on selecting the best alternative from several choices, the intention of the problem-solving process is to find the root cause of a problem, or in the case of BOB's , the problems.Michael PhelpsThis distinction is crucial, as we tend to lump decision making and problem-solving together, and treat them much the same way, when in fact they are distinct processes.In an attempt to solve the problems, it is vital that we restate many of the problems that BOB's has had to endure and is currently confronted with. BOB's is an International Entertainment Conglomerate consisting of, bars, opera houses, and ballet houses. My role in this organization is that of Regional Vice President of Operations. Under me, I have three operation managers. Each are in charge with overseeing either the bars, ballets, or operas within my region. Each operations manager has reporting to them, district managers who then in turn, have facility mangers underneath them. The facility managers are supported by their own respective staff members.The current situation has...

Filler Words (Muletillas) in Spanish

Filler Words (Muletillas) in Spanish Question: In English we have many filler words for when we dont know how to continue on in a sentence, or that can even express a certain emotion (e.g., err...). I am thinking of words such as hmmm... err... like (ooh, I hate that. Hey, I used another one.). What I would like to know is, what are some types of words such as this in Spanish? Answer: My least favorite is you know. In any case, in Spanish those filler words are called muletillas (or, less commonly, palabras de relleno) and are very common. But Spanish speakers tend not to use one-syllable utterances as much as in English. Instead, they tend to use common words like este (usually pronounced as esteeeee, depending on how nervous the person is), esto (or estoooo) or in Mexico o sea (which roughly means I mean). Che is often heard in Argentina. In other areas you may hear es decir (meaning, roughly, that is to say). The err has its equivalent in the sound eeeehh, and em is similar to the English ummm. Also, it is very common to use pues, which has a variety of meanings. Pues can be used at the start of a sentence as a kind of filler while you can get your thoughts together. Or try a ver, which can be thought of as lets see or well see.

The writings of Augustine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The writings of Augustine - Essay Example The political satires used in the writings of Augustine were aimed drawing a close relationship with the spread of Christianity in the western societies. Augustine was a Christian theologian who was concerned with showing the compatibility between the politics in the western society and the spread of Christianity. Augustine was the bishop of the Roman province in Africa. Augustine was a prolific writer and a strong proponent of Christianity. The writings of Augustine led to the spread of his increasing popularity and he was regarded as the father of the Church. The most important works of Augustine where he established a strong compatibility between the politics and Christianity are namely, City of God and Confessions. The age in which Augustine wrote his works resembled empiricism. The writings of the eighteenth century, however, reflected the growth of mercantilism. The growth of capital and the politics of the rulers showed that that they developed a strong urgency for the growth of capitalism which would help them to develop into stronger powers. The bold writings of Augustine that were produced in this age contained political satires that that unfolded the nuance and the political interests that created destructions and affected the spread of the religion of Christianity. Through his bold writings, Augustine expressed his deep concerns in showing the compatibility between the political environment and the spread of Christianity. â€Å"The worshippers of the many false Gods whom we worship by the customary name of pagans, blamed the Christian religion for the disaster and began to blaspheme the true God more sharply and bitterly than usual.† (Augustine,  Kries and  Fortin 1) After the conversion to Christianity, Augustine started to develop his own philosophies and theories based on the principle of the Christian religion. The tenure of Augustine as the Bishop in the Roman province in Africa saw the increase of slavery and influence of the politi cal interests in converting masses to religions of interests. This was heavily supported by the increase in capitalism and exploitation of human freedom. Augustine believed that by the grace of Jesus, the spirit of human freedom should be restored in the world and this should not be affected by the political measures in the western societies. The brave writings of Augustine in the area of politics and Christianity considering the socio-economic conditions of the eighteenth century have drawn perfect reconciliation of politics and Christianity which was driven by the attempts to restore humanity and curb the evil forces of power and politics. â€Å"Look at the Roman Republic which having changed little by little from the most beautiful and best, has become the worst and most disgraceful† (Augustine,  Kries and  Fortin 16). Augustine’s philosophy did not allow him to endorse the beliefs of the New Testament through ways of violence. Instead he believed that the true spirit of humanity lies in the peaceful politics that aims to take necessary steps for overall development of the society. Augustine also never wanted Christianity to dominate over the religious beliefs of other sections of the society. The reflection of these philosophies was done with the perspective to reconcile the political interests and the growth of Christianity. The reconcilement of politics and Christianity was the major concern in the political writings of Augustine as he realized that the holy spirit of man could develop in an environment which is peaceful and politically stable. Augustine showed deep concerns in reconciling politics and Chri