Is global warming due to human actions Can the human race take action Research Paper - 5

Is global warming due to human actions Can the human race take action to stop global warming - Research Paper Example These green house gases include carbon dioxide and ozone, which are in alarming concentration in the air (Weart, 2008). Another category of activities by human beings, which have significant contributions to global warming, is the clearance of fertile land for agricultural practices. Evidently, such uses of the land increase the levels of carbon dioxide emissions. For example, there is evidence that the decay of vegetation or its combustion for whatever reason emits carbon dioxide. Such emissions of carbon dioxide lead to the abnormal increase in temperatures all over the globe (Maslin, 2006). It is notable to note that there are numerous possibilities for the human race to stop global warming. For instance, they can ensure that they find different methods of producing power. The substitute methods of power creation must not produce carbon dioxide. Additionally, individuals need to ensure that they engage in minimal agricultural actions to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. Consequently, they should also establish alternative methods of feeding to reduce the prevalent overdependence on agriculture (Houghton, 2006). Everyone needs to prevent global warming in all ways that he/she can. This is because no deliberate efforts evident in stopping the disaster temperatures would continue to rise and in turn affect the entire livelihood of

Impotance of Discipline Essay Example for Free

Impotance of Discipline Essay Discipline is the basis of the whole universe. The Earth, the Sun, the Moon and other plane s, all are governed by a set of laws to maintain perfect harmony and beauty. There will be chaos without this order. Similarly, discipline is one of the basic requirements of a civilized life. Every society has to set certain norms for its people to maintain peace and order. The strength of a nation lies in discipline. It helps to make progress, fight external invasion and maintain national unity. Citizens of a disciplined nation work in a spirit of cooperation and utility. History tells us that whenever a country is torsi by internal strife, its morale drops and opportunist neighbour often takes advantage of the situation. However, discipline does not mean negation of personal liberty. It means a self- imposed discipline. In a democratic country like India, if people object to a certain law, then they can mobilize public opinion and force the Government to withdraw it. But it is possible only if they do not take the law in their own hands. They must act with restrain and organize peaceful agitation; otherwise there is every possibility of violence and threat to public and national property. The importance of discipline in educational institutions is well-recognized. Unfortunately, we notice that discipline in our schools and colleges has considerably declined, Students are disrespectful to their teachers; they misbehave in the classrooms organize strikes; take the law into their hands. This is certainly an alarming trend. Undoubtedly, it is discontentment that leads to breakdown of law and order. The urgent need of the hour is to make an in-depth study of the education system whether it is still relevant to our needs and growing population. In order to improve the atmosphere in the educational institutions the government must look into the genuine grievances of the teachers and the students. Over-crowded classrooms, poor teaching, poor salaries of the teachers all contribute to indiscipline and discontentment. The rapid growth in our population has led to more students seeking admission. The number of schools and colleges has not increased proportionately. Besides, to check the students from flocking to colleges, there is a need to vocationally education at the 10+2 stage, offer facilities for industrial and technical training after school to help them become self-reliant. This will also check the rising unemployment. Teaching, being a grossly under played job, does not attract the best and dedicated people. This affects the quality of teaching and makes students feel disillusioned. As a result they become restless and start cutting classes. The government has recently taken certain concrete steps to improve the situation. Discipline is the life -breath of the army. Military discipline imposes upon members of the armed forces a certain code of conduct. It demands of its officer’s loyalty to the country, a spirit of fellowship and a readiness to cope with an emergency. No army can fight successfully without discipline. The importance of discipline in the social and political life of a nation is also very great. An element of apathy and resignation has been the cause of our country still being so backward. We have made so much progress in technology and science, but still as people we have not been able to shake off our backwardness. Indians are known for their warmth and friendliness, yet they are narrow-minded, bigoted and indifferent One has only to go to government offices to see it. Workers shirk their duty, they are indifferent to their responsibilities, spend their office hours in canteen and pay no attention either to the long queues of people waiting or to the rising pile of unattended urgent files. Thus, the work accumulates. Both the public and the government suffer for their negligence. It is only when they will impose self-discipline and perform their duty with dedication that things will improve. People create chaos even in public places by their indiscipline behaviour. They show utter lack of order while boarding buses, trains. Out ¬side cinema halls, they promote malpractices in the form of black-marketing of tickets. Eve-teas ¬ing is another example of irresponsible behav ¬iour on the part of our youth. Today, women don’t feel safe in our cities because of unruly behaviour of goondas. In the political sphere also there is a need for discipline. Personal ambition and petty jealousy are the driving force for the men in power. This is a source of great pain to the people. The ruling party itself is divided by internal politics. It cannot set an example for the nation to follow. This has lowered the image of the ruling party in the eyes of the common man. The government must take immediate steps to improve its image and restore people’s faith in the party. This can be achieved only if each party member follows a certain code of ethics. Discipline is important even in the domestic life. Parents must raise their children in congenial atmosphere and teach them the right values. They should set an example for their children by leading orderly and peaceful lives. It is often seen that children from broken homes become very aggressive and indiscipline. They pose a danger to the society. Children must grow in secure, happy homes to become balanced adults, Perhaps the best service to the country lies in an effort of parents to bring up their children in a disciplined manner. Discipline though difficult is essential for personal growth as well as national prosperity. Absence of it can lead to failure, defeat and backwardness. Today in society, it is very important to learn to live in harmony with fellow human beings in a spirit of co-operation and mutual co-existence. All this is possible only if every individual follows a personal code of ethics and the one laid by the law for the prosperity of the nation and the progress of the society.

Youth Justice Policy in the UK

Youth Justice Policy in the UK Youth Justice Policy In order to evaluate why developments in youth justice policy and practice since 1997 are a cause for celebration and concern, the ideological motivations and the wider social and political context will be identified. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998; the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, 1999 and the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003 will be discussed in terms of the motivating ideology and rational underpinning. The practical implications of the acts and their social consequences will be evaluated in order to demonstrate what the acts achieve and where they fail to serve the rights of the individual in the youth justice system. Developments in youth justice policy and practice in the previous decade have been rooted in an ideological context that incorporates both neo-liberal approaches of responsibility and risk management (Muncie, 2006) and neo-conservative ideologies that entail an authoritarian realisation of policy (Muncie Hughes, 2002). However, cultural elements cannot be undermined when considering factors that motivate the formation of youth justice policy. Increasingly, a culture of fear and intimidation has arisen in the UK around societys youth. Muncie and Hughes (2002) point to cases such as the murder of 2 year old James Bulger by two 10 year olds as contributing factors to this fear culture. The manifestation of this cultural consciousness of fear is demonstrated in the coining of the term hoody to represent an intimidating youth in a hooded jumper (Sanders, 2005). Thus youth justice policy must be seen to appease these societal concerns. A result of this is that youth are at risk of crimina lisation and marginalisation (Scraton, Haydon, 2002). The risk is of a presumption that members of youth culture are likely to, or already have committed a criminal act. To understand whether developments in youth justice policy should be celebrated or be regarded with concern, it is important to understand the aims of the wider context of New Labour Reform. Policy has been motivated by a desire to form a transition from penal to restorative justice (Gelsthorpe Morris, 2002). This is motivated by a culture of increasing understanding and engaging the offender with the implications of their actions and is reflective of the New Labour political stance to be tough on crime and the causes of it. The resulting revolution in youth justice policy has been criticised for its failure to maintain a consistent ideology throughout (Goldson Muncie, 2006). The resultant risk is a confused, or muddled ideological approach to youth justice, and a contradictory experience between liberalism and conservatism for the offender passing through the reform system. However, this mixture of ideological approach is increasingly difficult to unify in a diverse multi-cultural society (Newburn, 2002; Fergusson, 2007). It is against this cultural and political backdrop that three significant pieces of youth justice legislation have emerged. These are the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 and the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 employs principles of actuarial risk management by imposing local authorities with the duty to implement risk reduction measures within a constituency (Moss, 2001; Farrington, 2002). These Community Safety Strategies are required to specifically address the prevention of youth crime. The practical outcomes of these strategies include the implementation of parenting and child safety orders, local curfews and action plan, detention and training orders (Scanlan, 1998). The Act brought into use the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) and refuted the previous assumption that individuals under the age of ten should not be criminalised for committing an offence. The ASBO is administered to individuals who are deemed to be behaving in a manner that may cause harm or distress to others. The use of risk management strategies to form Community Safety Strategies has been both supported and challenged. Rooted in quantitative analysis, they explicitly identify predictor variables for youth criminal activity providing a target area for interventions and preventative measures (Farrington, 1997). Such identified risk factors have frequently included impoverished socio-economic backgrounds, harsh and erratic discipline cultures and peer group influences (Loeber, Farrington Waschbusch, 1999). Clearly, successful prevention strategies aimed at improving the conditions surrounding these risk factors are of benefit to the juvenile offender and to society as both enjoy improved welfare conditions. However, there are problems inherent in the decentralised approach to Community Safety Strategies. The quantitative approach dictates that concepts are generalised, and the actuarial assessment strategies focus upon efficiency and streamlining through youth justice process (Kempf-Leona rd Peterson, 2000). What is lost is a qualitative, individual approach to youth justice reform, and the individualistic consideration of the most beneficial (if not most efficient) process is absent. Case (2007) argues that this approach neglects to account for the experience of stakeholders such as youth workers and juvenile offenders. A combination of the quantitative and qualitative approaches would improve the ecological validity of risk analysis interpretations. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 amends details of prevention strategies such as parenting contracts and ASBO administration. Inherent in the motivations contributing to the policy is the desire to appease public fear of juvenile offenders by re-establishing a notion of respect within British community culture (Squires, 2008). Rooted in social inclusion discourse, the act predominantly aims in part to improve the educational and social bonds between the youth, parents and the school establishment. This is evident in the parenting contracts which require an insurance of a childs attendance at school. According to the social development model (Catalano Hawkins, 1996), factors of poverty and poor education jointly interact to promote the likelihood of delinquent behaviour. By ensuring parental and childhood engagement with education, this link can be broken. Furthermore, parents may be required to attend parenting courses if their childs behaviour is not deemed to improve. The act st ates that local education authorities are able to engage with parents of children excluded from school in order to establish the contractual process. The Act also puts in place powers for police to disperse groups of more than two individuals in public spaces if they appear to be causing nuisance. There are problems inherent in these new powers allocated to the police. Research has demonstrated that groups of youths are more readily perceived as threatening than congregated groups of other age groups (Mille, Jacobson, McDonald, Hough, 2005). Furthermore, local agencies present conflict in how to deal with individuals deemed to be engaging in anti-social practice. There appears to be a difficulty in balancing neo-liberal and neo-conservative approaches and the favoured approach may vary regionally. Mille et al (2005) also demonstrated a discrepancy between national perceptions and local implementations of ASBO administration. A national consensus that there should be an emphasis on enforcement contrasts with the local implementation of social inclusion policies. While parenting courses have been deemed as successful in the short-term (Kazdin, 1997), concerns have been raised about the long-term efficacy and the cost effectiveness of national implementation. It has also been de monstrated that the notion of responsibility has been centralised in governmental youth justice reform and that the rights of the parent and the child have not been sufficiently conceptualised to deal with this (Hollingsworth, 2007). The failure to do this has resulted in a social stigmatisation and criminalisation of families with low socio-economic status (Goldson, 2002) which negates the desired effects of social inclusion. The overall result of the Act is the social penalisation and discrimination of young individuals and working class parents. The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 was also borne out of a desire to effectively manage youth crime issues in a manner that was economically efficient. The focus on crime prevention and intervention is borne out of this motivation for efficiency. It has been deemed that prevention of crime is more cost effective than punitive measures once the act has been committed (Winter, 2007). Furthermore, concepts of diagnosis, rehabilitation and reformation are considered too individualistic and are more efficiently managed by employing applications of resource management (Muncie, 1999). In order to improve efficiency, the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 orders the referral of first time youth offenders to panels as opposed to serving a custodial sentence. The resource of the panel which is allocated to the youth offender is deemed to be an early solution to re-offending, ensuring that the individual does not become a habitual criminal. This will ensure that the indi vidual requires less resources overall from the penal system. The practical outcome of the Youth Justice and Criminal Act 1999 is that the juvenile offender is referred to a panel upon the first offence if they plead guilty. The individual confers with the panel to produce an action plan that the youth will adhere too. Action plans are aimed at improving the social circumstances of the child and negating risk factors. On the outset this appears positive. The offending individual is consulted and if able to work co-operatively, is theoretically able to engage in a rehabilitative process that will deter future offending behaviour. While this approach has deemed to initially appear as an effective measure, further research is required to fully determine the effectiveness of the approach (Anand, 1999). Muncie (1999) argues that the re-conceptualisation of rehabilitative issues into resource management rhetoric results in a depoliticised issue where youth justice problems are viewed as requiring efficient management as opposed to resolution. Therefo re, while the alternative to custodial sentences may prove beneficial, it is important that the emphasis on rehabilitation is still prominent. It has been determined that youth justice policy is rooted in a conflicting ideological basis centred upon neo-liberal and neo-conservative ideals. This occurs against a backdrop of a social context of a mass cultural fear of the young individual. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 are borne out of political motivations to govern public services with economic efficiency. What results is a process that manages youth justice as a resource issue. Any focus upon individual needs and rehabilitative process is threatened. Actuarial concepts do favour preventative measures which can work to improve the circumstances of the individual. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 aims to improve social inclusion by re-conceptualising notions of social responsibility. However, the administration of parenting contacts; and the power to move on groups of individuals, results in a criminalisation of young individuals and families of lower socio-economic st atus. References Anand, S.S. (1999). Youth Crime: What Works, What Doesnt, and What it Means for Canadian Criminal Justice Policy. Queens Law Journal, 25,177-189. Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003.(c. 38): HMSO. Case, S. (2007). Questioning the Evidence of Risk that Under-pins Evidence Led Youth Justice Interventions. Youth Justice, 7(2),91-105. Catalano, R.F., Hawkins, J.D. (1996). Social Development Model: A Theory of Antisocial Behaviour.Rockville, MD: National Institute of Justice. Crime and Disorder Act 1998. (c. 37): HMSO. Farrington, D. (1997). Evaluating a Community Crime Prevention Programme. Evaluation, 3(2),157-173. Farrington, D. (2002). Understanding and preventing youth crime. In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Fergusson, R. (2007). Making sense of the Melting Pot: Multiple Discourses in Youth Justice Policy. Youth Justice, 7(3),179-194. Gelsthorpe, L., Morris, A. (2002). Restorative youth justice: The last vestiges of welfare? In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Goldson, B. (2002). Youth Crime, the Parenting Deficit, and State Intervention: A Contextual Critique. Youth Justice, 2(2),82-99. Goldson, B., Muncie, J. (2006). Rethinking youth justice: Comparative analysis, international human rights and research evidence. Youth Justice, 6(2),91-95. Hollingsworth, K. (2007). Responsibility and Rights: Children and their Parents in the Youth Justice System. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 21(2),210-219. Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999.(c. 23): HMSO. Kazdin, A. (1997). Parent Management Training: Evidence, Outcomes, Issues. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(10),1349-1356. Kempf-Leonard, K., Peterson, E. (2000). Expanding the realms of the New Penology. Punishment Society, 2(1),66-97. Loeber,R., Farrington, D., Waschbusch, D. (1999). Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders. In R. Loeber D. Farrington (Eds.) Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Succesful Interventions.London: Sage Publications. Mille, A., Jacobson, J., McDonald, E., Hough, M. (2005). Anti-Social Behaviour Strategies: Finding a Balance.Bristol: Policy Press. Moss, K. (2001). Crime Prevention v Planning: Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Is it a Material Consideration? Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal, 3,43-48. Muncie, J. (1999). Institutionalized Intolerance: Youth Justice and the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. Critical Social Policy, 19(2),147-175. Muncie, J. (2006). Governing young people: Coherence and contradiction in contemporary youth justice. Critical Social Policy, 26(4),770-793. Muncie, J., Hughes, G. (2002). Modes of governance: Political rationalities, criminalization and resistance. In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Newburn, T. (2002). The contemporary politics of youth crime prevention. ? In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Sanders, B. (2005). Youth Crime and Youth Culture in the Inner City.London: Routledge. Scanlan, D. (1998). The Crime and Disorder Act 1998: A Guide for Practitioners.London: Callow Publishing. Scraton, P., Haydon, D. (2002). Challenging the criminalisation of children and young people: securing a rights based agenda. In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Squires, P. (2008). ASBO Nation: The Criminalisation of Nuisance.Bristol: Policy Press. Winter, H. (2007). The Economics of Crime: An Introduction to Rational Crime Analysis.London: Routledge.

Eating Disorders :: essays research papers

Addiction is having a devotion to something to a point where it becomes a habit and even obsessive. Anorexia and bulimia are forms of addiction (www.addictionscience.net). Eating disorders are patterns of persistent eating or dieting behavior. They can be caused by significant emotional, physical, and relational distress (www.addictionscience.net). Some eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge eating. Anorexia is the relentless pursuit of thinness. Bulimia is the uncontrollable urge to eat large amounts of food in a short amount of time (Exploring Science 6th Edition Myers, David G). The media plays a big part in this it creates an artificial image that people are supposed to look picture perfect, such as supermodels and athletes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People with anorexia are unable to maintain there average body weight and height for their age (www.aedweb.org). Most are afraid of gaining weight and usually see themselves as being fat, even thought they might be underweight (www.aedweb.org). People with anorexia often deal with depression and withdrawal. They begin strange behavior such as dividing there food into a â€Å"good/safe† category, and a â€Å"bad/dangerous† category (www.calpsy.net/org).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Individuals with Bulimia usually overeat during meals. After eating, they usually feel guilty and punish themselves by forcing themselves to vomit, or by using laxatives, enemas, or by over exercising (Exploring Science 6th Edition Myers, David G). They also deal with depression and loneliness often. People with Bulimia have difficulty talking about their inner feelings. They also have anxiety depression, and anger (Exploring Science 6th Edition Myers, David G). They also might have problems with impulse control, shoplifting, and may be very sexually adventurous. They may also take in the habit to abuse drugs and alcohol depending on severity (www.anred.com).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People who binge eats are usually overweight. They diet to make themselves hungry and then binge eat to make up for the hunger. However, also eat for emotional reasons because they feel it substitutes for their depression (www.addictionscience.net).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some of the warning signs of eating disorders are with food behavior (Exploring Science 6th Edition Myers, David G). They will usually skip meals or only eat a small portion. They will not eat in front of other people and they mix strange food combinations, they will also have an excuse to never eat. Suddenly they will stop eating their favorite foods and only eat a few â€Å"safe† foods. Often find themselves wearing baggy clothes to cover up their â€Å"non-perfect† appearance (www.

Aims of the abstract sculpture,painting or architecture

Abstract art is an artistic style that utilizes both color and form to create a piece that is non-representational.   Its general purpose is to capture the intrinsic qualities of the object that it is depicting. Abstraction is a new way of representing the surrounding world that departs from the utilization of traditional methods.There were several movements throughout art history that helped shape modern abstraction and develop a clearer purpose of these works.   The four chief movements in abstract painting included: Cubism, Futurism, Abstract Expressionism and Post-Painterly Abstraction.Abstract paintings are meant to be thoughtful contemplations in their own right, the meaning interpreted by the spectator.Cubism is a radical movement that was a turning point in the world of Western art during the early twentieth century.   The Cubists, as they were referred, did not depict naturalistic representations, but preferred compositions of shapes and forms that â€Å"abstractedâ⠂¬  from the conventionally perceived world.â€Å"They dissected life’s continuous optical spread into its many constituent features, which they then recomposed, by a new logic of design, into a coherent aesthetic object† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 795).   The Cubists’ rejection of traditional forms is an illustration of the early twentieth century’s new avant-garde attitude.These abstract works were born out of the public’s idea that the world was not necessarily a concrete Newtonian world, these notions brought out by the modern physicists of the time including Einstein.   â€Å"One of the basic meanings of Cubism is that a work of art depends upon both the external reality of nature and the internal reality of art† (Rosenblum, 1966, p. 58).The artistic revolutionaries, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, are often credited for starting the Cubism movement.   The aim of these artists was to dissect the forms of their subjects.   This dissec tion was then put onto their respected canvasses for the viewer to witness.â€Å"Their type of Cubism involved analyzing the form and investigating the pictorial elements in order to convey meaning† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 795).   A prime example of this type of abstract painting is the work â€Å"The Portuguese† by Georges Braque.   In this piece, he dissects the form in the work and uses muted browns as his color palette.   This subtle use of color was meant to draw the viewer’s eye to the form of the piece and to not be distracted by the color of the work.   The complexity of the work is apparent by the large intersecting planes that make it a guess at what the subject could possibly be.That was one of the aims of Cubism, to make it a mere impossibility to arrive at a finite meaning of a piece.   The constantly shifting imagery makes it hopeless to arrive at a final reading of the image.The movement of Futurism was a mere extension of the aims that the C ubists were trying to achieve with their work.   The main difference between the Cubists and the Futurists were that the Futurists had a sociopolitical purpose.   These artists were angry over the political and cultural decline of Italy; therefore, they decided to propose revolution through both the literature and art of the time.   â€Å"When the Futurist manifesto was first launched in 1910 by the painters Boccioni, Carrà   and Russolo, its primary aim was to bring Italian painting on to the European scene and oppose all forms of provincialism† (Ballo, 1958, p. 14).   The aim of these compositions was to launch Italy towards a glorious future.   They felt the need for war in order to erase the country’s past.   The Futurists had extremely radical ideas; they called for the destruction of libraries and museums, in order to start anew.   The art of the Futurists focused on motion, in both time and space.   The forms within their paintings were not pure ly abstract.   â€Å"Futurism encouraged a new boldness of execution and a more adventuresome exploration of effect† (Taylor, 1961, p. 22).   The blending of Futurism and the ideas of Cubism is evident in the composition by Gino Severini entitled â€Å"Armored Train.†This work encompasses the act of motion as well as the idea of revolution.   The painting features group of soldiers upon a train shooting at an unknown target.   In abstract fashion, the artist depicts all of the objects into planes.The purpose of these types of pieces was to promote war and to inspire revolution.   Therefore, the ideas behind this artistic and political movement led to the fascist regime that would emerge in Italy during World War II.A departure from abstraction would rule the art world following the Futurist movement.   It was not until the 1940s, that works of abstraction would gain popularity again.   â€Å"Abstract Expressionism, the first avant-garde American movement , would emerge in New York during the 1940s† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 859).This movement would produce paintings that were abstract in form, but would also express the state of the artist’s mind.   The aim of these artists was to reach out emotionally to the viewers of their works.   This movement was inspired by the popular psychiatric theories of the time.These artists attempted to broaden their artistic processes by expressing what Carl Jung referred to as the â€Å"collective unconscious.†Ã‚   These artists were able to achieve this by turning inward in order to create their work.   The compositions typical of this movement were wild and full of energy.The artists of this movement intended to have the viewers of their work understand the content through their own intuition.   These painting were meant to be felt and to express a person’s absolute emotions.The Abstract Expressionists felt strongly about the importance of freedom.   They aimed for pe ople to see their pieces without memory or association.   As artist Mark Rothko explained, â€Å"Instead of making cathedrals out of Christ, man or life, we make it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings.   The image we produce is understood by anyone who looks at it without nostalgic glasses of history† (Kleiner, 2003, p. 860).   This movement had two central groups: the gestural abstractionists and the chromatic abstractionists.In gestural abstraction pieces, the composition relied on the expressiveness of energetically applied color.   Meanwhile, the chromatic abstraction works used color’s emotional resonance as their central focus.The most famous gestural abstractionist artist would likely be Jackson Pollock.   By the 1950s, he was comfortable with the abstract style and was creating his own unique paintings.   Pollock was best known for using mural size canvasses and composing his paintings out of drips and splatters of paint.These compositions wer e reminiscent of spider webs and were full of energy.   His methods of composing his pieces (using sticks and brushes, he flung and dripped paint) emphasized the method of creation.   Pollock wished to create art that was equally spontaneous and choreographed.   His technique was to immerse himself into his work as he created.His painting rejected the traditional aspects of painting and became abstraction in its truest form.   The paintings contained no central focus and were representative of internalized feelings.The downside of this type of this was the more Pollock â€Å"pushed his imagery toward abstraction, the wider became the range of possible interpretations and the greater the risk of misinterpretation† (Cernuschi, 1992, p. 132).The energy behind the compositions in the method of chromatic abstraction was muted in comparison.   â€Å"Chromatic abstraction did not pretend to have any philosophical or moral claims at all.   The works in this genre meant t o specify sensations and appearances in the immediate environment† (Frascina, 1985, p. 116).   The emotions that they wish to convey in their works were displayed by their use of color.   These works were simplified observations of objects.   Their main feature was â€Å"zips,† which were lines that ran from one side to the painting to the other.These zips were not meant to be seen as specific entities, but rather as accents that give energy to the paintings.   This method of simplification used in chromatic abstraction enabled the artist to express his feelings by the mere use of color.

Post Colonial Essay

PostColonial Literature Essay 3. With reference of at least two short stories from the course, consider in what ways either Desai, Munro, Galgut and Rushdie’s stories are Postcolonial texts. You may consider issues such as home and homelessness, absences in the text, place, positionality or anything you feel is relevant to your attempt at decoding postcolonial identities. Post-colonial literature can be considered as a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization. Post-colonial writers focus on issues such as de-colonization and the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to colonial rule. However post-colonial literature cannot be described only by the definition above, many other issues have to be considered in order to fully understand post-colonial texts. In order to understand post-colonial texts, one has to focus on two post-colonial writers: Anita Desai and Damon Galgut. To begin with, Anita Desai is an Indian novelist and short story writer, especially noted for her sensitive portrayal of the inner life of her female characters. Desai prefers the concerns of Westernized, middle-class characters rather than those facing the majority of India. Desai has comments on her work â€Å"My novels are no reflection of Indian society, politics or character. They are my private attempt to seize upon the raw material of life. † â€Å"Diamond Dust†(2000), a second Desai’s short story collection, features a selection of tales set in North America and India, Indian characters and concerns figure in all of them, illuminating Desai’s thematic preoccupation with the psychological effects on multiculturalism. A short story called â€Å"Five Hours to Simla or Faisla† was written by Desai. Shubha Tiwari in â€Å"Critical responses to Anita Desai† argues that â€Å"Five Hours to Simla Or Faisla is one of the most successful stories in this collection because of the clarity of the motives in it. It is a humorous story about the adamant attitude of a Sardarji causing a good deal of tension to the travelers on the way to Simla. † In my opinion, â€Å"Five hours to Simla or Faisla† can be called as a post-colonial text for many reasons. First of all, I think that key character is a crucial thing while talking about post-colonial texts. A key character in this text is really important as short stories tend to be more interesting in characterisation. In this story the key character is the mother’s character as it shows tradition-bound patriarchal culture in India: mother’s responsibility to take care of children and not having a say in the family, being less important than the father / husband. At that stage Desai tries to focus on middle-class women in contemporary India as they attempt to overcome social limitations. Writers’ qualification is also very important in post-colonial texts as it reflects why the author chose to talk about this particular subject in their text. Desai’s qualification is feminine and we can see why mother’s ( the wife’s) character is such an important thing in this short story. Her qualification is also somehow engaged in as to why her daily life is occupied with the complexities of modern Indian culture from a feminine perspective, while highlighting the female Indian predicament of maintaining self-identity as an individual woman. Being an immigrant, Desai sees differences between her culture and Western world. Talking about the mother’s character, she tries to show the limited opportunities for women in Indian society; she tries to find the dissolution of traditional Indian values and Western stereotypes of India. Talking about central characters, we can consider family as central characters in this story as Desai focus on family relationship so much in this text. She talks from a third person perspective â€Å"she†, â€Å"he† and she never mentioned family member names, so she place very long distance between readers and family-unnamed characters makes a little bit difficult to talk about them for readers. Secondly, language/style is also really important in post-colonial texts. Desai’s literary language is not her native language, but English. She uses fluid language and a less flaky, descriptive style. She writes in a very natural way. This text is really interesting in linguistic terms, for example Desai in this text uses words such as kohl which means German politician who served as chancellor of West Germany. We can see here that Desai tries to focus on her real roots as her mother was German. Thirdly, it is worth to talk about identity in this text as identity is a key issue in post-colonial text. Desai use this story to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which she has taken on the responsibility of representing. Desai in this text represents post-independence India while she is talking about traffic jam. Traffic jam is like a symbol (symbolism is also an important thing in most post-colonial texts) of the stagnancy of the Indian society: India had never formerly existed and so it a huge issue – national identity crises in India. Traffic jam also symbolizes that members of a postcolonial society have an identity which has been shaped jointly by their own unique cultural and community history, intertwined with that of the colonial power. Desai tries to show cultural and social changes that have swept India since its independence from Britain in 1947. Key passages also play a vital role in post-colonial texts. The text I have chosen is: †She did not need to draw upon her thumb juices for long. The news of the traffic jam on the highway had spread like ripples from a stone thrown. From somewhere, it seemed from nowhere for there was no village bazaar, marketplace or stalls visible in that dusty dereliction, wooden barrows came†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (p. 122) I think that this passage shows that the market place finally appeared in Indian society. Market place at this stage is very important as it represents the centre of the community; it connects community together again after British oppression; it is like a sense of community even in stagnancy; it represents a whole nation again. It is always important to look at the title in post-colonial texts. The â€Å"Five hours to Simla or Faisla† title is no exception. Of course, we first look at Five hours to Simla because it makes sense for us- and the text in general represents it, but when we are looking deeper in the text context we make sure that Faisla is an important part of the title too. Faisla in English means judgment/ verdict, so how it is relative to this text? Traffic jam as I said is a symbol of stagnation of the Indian society. It also represents that Indian people are waiting someone to take control of India; to connect all religions together into one India identity/ into one native India. India was damaged by being colonized, so who will bring this country together? Indian people really need someone to take a verdict/leadership. Opening and ending of the text are essential parts of analysis of the post colonial texts too. Desai ends her text with no great judgment and resolution. Short story writers are tend to leave things open. They can’t really solve the problems, but they can represent the problems from all angles and allows people to judge. Another short story, which I would like to analyze is â€Å"The Lover† from â€Å"In a Strange Room† (2010) written by Damon Galgut, a South African novelist. I will start with a speaking person. The narrator is sometimes referred to in the first person singular, sometimes in the third. All this makes connection and at the same time disconnection in one’s mind, especially because Galgut is free and easy with conventional punctuation. Galgut writing style and punctuation is unusual in a way that he does not use any questions marks. Identity is also very important figure in this text. We can see that identity in this text is a migrant identity- the main character in this text is lost in this world, â€Å"he has not made a home for himself†. By this text, the author means that the character has not found a place in the world that he could call home, he doesn’t feel right, and is trying to find a place where he would feel accepted and content. Therefore he travels to Zimbabwe, without having planned anything â€Å"No particular intention brings him to Zimbabwe, all those years ago. He simply decides one morning to leave and gets on a bus that same night. † He also tries to find this place, that in his imagination he could call home. In the text the narrator says â€Å"Somebody has a map and knows which way to go†, he refers to how other people are different than him in a way that they have planned their routine, and have a place they can call home, whereas he hasn’t got any routes or plans, as he feels lost. In my opinion, him travelling around, symbolizes the fact that he is lost. He is trying to change his surroundings, he is trying to find a community, home, to find someone to love. â€Å"If I was with somebody, he thinks, with somebody I loved, then I could love the place and even the grave too, I would be happy to be there. † He emphasizes the fact that he is desperately trying to find a lover, a person who he would love, and that that person would make the surrounding right for him, that only then he would feel happy in the place. The character feels guilt, because he is trying to find a place that he could call home, and a person that he could call his lover, but fails to do that, and therefore he feels guilty. The title â€Å"The Lover† reflects the whole point of this story. In my opinion, the title refers to that person that the main character is looking for throughout his journey. That person in my opinion is the Irish woman that he meets in the hotel and starts his journey. We are told that the moment when they leave the hotel, him and the Irish woman, is the moment when the â€Å"real journey begins†. Sometimes it happens as you leave your house, sometimes it’s a long way from home. † We are told that even though the main character of the story has travelled for a while, his journey has only begun at that time when he, and his ‘lover’, leave the hotel, to go to Malawi. Even though there is no evidence that the woman is feeling any romantic feelings for him, his jo urney only begins now, and this Irish woman gives him hope, and he thinks that she could be her lover, in my opinion. Class issues are very obvious in this text. The officials at the border of Malawi are described as very ignorant, and incompetent. This is due to the fact that when they were told by the tourists, that they were informed by their embassy that they wouldn’t require a Visa. After that the officials shouted at them, and told them that they were wrong, and sent them back to get the Visa. This shows that the officials aren’t well informed, and also badly mannered. This goes to show that the stereotype that most African’s are very narrow minded is still very much true. They wouldn’t allow foreign people to go through the boarded without a Visa, even though it wasn’t required, but they did allow some South African’s through without a Visa. In conclusion, I believe that in order to understand post-colonial text you may consider issues such as identity, story title, characters, language, style, key passages, home and homelessness, place and etc. References: Anita Desai (2000). Diamond Dust, â€Å"Five Hours to Simla or Faisla†. Damon Galgut (2010). In a Strange Room, â€Å"The Lover†. Hart, Jonathan; Goldie Terrie (1993). â€Å"Post Colonial theory†. In: http://books. google. com/books? id=CTJCiLG9AeoC&pg=PA155#v=onepage&q&f=false Word count: 1,967.