Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Othello and Guess Whos Coming to Dinner Comparative Essay Example for Free

Othello and Guess Whos Coming to Dinner Comparative Essay The transformation between Othello, a 16th century Shakespearean tragedy and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, a 1960’s Romantic Comedy, can be compared by addressing themes that are present in each text. The theme of race can be used to compare the different attitudes of each context, surrounding the significant black characters of Othello in Othello and John in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and there interaction with white females that belong to an upper middle class. The theme of interracial marriages can be used to compare the different values and attitudes of each context, towards a black white marriage. This applies to both Othello Desdemona and John Joanna. By exploring the different contexts, ideas and techniques incorporated into each text, we can apprehend the different messages that each composer has attempted to convey to their audience. Othello – Power of Love Othello is a Shakespearean tragedy, set in Elizabethan Times that present the relationship between, Othello, a ‘moor’ who’s an official in the Venetian army and Desdemona, the daughter of a noble Venetian Senator, Brabantio, and how despite their different experiences in love, a strong relationship can occur, without any initial external input. Desdemona’s assertive behaviour towards romantically pursing Othello, demonstrates her confidence and power, which she maintains throughout the play. Most significantly, the fact that Othello did not ask for Brabantio’s permission to marry Desdemona, demonstrates how Othello did not consider the traditional values of Elizabeth society. However as they play develops, Iago’s manipulation of Othello’s insecurities, leads to the relationship between Othello and Desdemona falling apart. This reflects Elizabethan society and its values towards love and marriage. In Elizabethan times, a marriage between a man and a woman was considered extremely important. Women were generally considered to be in the possession of their father, this was because men were considered powerful and important people. It was in the father’s power to determine whom their daughter married, provided that his family were respectable and had money. A marriage between a ‘moor’ and a white would not have been socially acceptable in Elizabethan times, seeing that the Moorish skin colour portrayed a sense of filth and evil. Whites being superior and educated, while others were considered inferior. This theme can be explored through the objectification of Desdemona in scene 1 Act 3 Lines 182-187 â€Å"How to respect you. You are lord of all my duty: I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband: And so much duty as many mother showed To you, preferring you before her father, so much I challenge that I may profess Due to the moor, my lord.† We see that Desdemona, is detaching herself from her father, just as her mother did to her father. This demonstrates her power and her ability to make decisions despite her father’s approval.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Myths of the American Dream Exposed in Arthur Millers Death of a Sales

Myths of the American Dream Exposed in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman    Willy Loman, the lead character of Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, believes in "the myths of the capitalistic society"(DiYanni 412). This essay will examine the impact of the capitalistic myths on Willy Lowman.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Willy believes in the myth that popularity and physical appearance are the keys that unlock the door to the â€Å"American Dream†. We are first introduced to the importance of popularity and physical appearance when Willy is speaking to his wife, Linda, about their son Biff.   â€Å"Biff Loman is lost,† says Willy.   â€Å"In the greatest country in the world, a young man with such personal attractiveness gets lost.†Ã‚   In this quote, not only is Willy confused about how Biff’s good looks can’t help him get a job, but also because his son can’t get a job in a country like America.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Willy believes in appearance, in phoniness, in popularity with those he regards as important in the capitalistic machine. An example of how Willy depends on popularity to help achieve the dream is seen when Willy is having a flashback in which he’s speaking to both Biff and Happy about having his own business. The boys ask their father if his business will be like their Uncle Charley’s.   Willy responds by saying that he’ll be, â€Å"Bigger than Uncle Charley!   Because Charley is not- liked.   He’s liked, but he’s not- well liked.†Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The most significant example of Willy’s belief in the popularity myth also takes place in one of Willy’s flashbacks.   Again, he is speaking to his sons about becoming successful.   He tells them, â€Å"...the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ... ... slogans for his own beliefs: â€Å"Chevrolet, Linda, is the greatest car ever built.† But his blind faith cannot sustain him: â€Å"That goddam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car†.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Each day Willy must run faster and stretch his arms out further in his attempt to catch the dream. When he is too tired to run, Willy is spewed out of the capitalistic machine as a worn-out and useless part. Willy then gives all that he has remaining so that his son can collect the insurance money and thereby pay his entrance fee to the capitalistic machine. The same machine that destroyed Willy. Works Cited DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Compact Edition. McGraw Hill, 2000. 395-530. Miller, Arthur. "Death of a Salesman" in Literature, Reading, Reacting, Writing, Compact Fourth Edition. Harcourt, Inc. 2000.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Chinas Pollution Essay

When people think about China the main thing that comes to mind is its wonderful scenery and growing economy. China has been catching up to the rest of the world by industrializing. According to the organization for economic corporation department (OECD) â€Å" Chinas Economy will overtake the U.S. as the biggest in the world by 2016†. However there are many concerns leading up to Chinas success. In the middle of China’s extraordinary economic growth and industrial growth, the energy outputs to supporting this growth has resulted in an all time high in pollution. This growth has caused China to be the most polluted country in the world. Many parts of China are suffering from water and air pollution due to coal mining and the dumping of toxic wastes. The question we ask today is what has the government done to tackle the pollution issue? Pollution in China has been a major problem for years, dating all the way back to the Mao Zedong and the Industrial Revolution. The government was so preoccupied with the growing agriculture they overlooked the situation. However with angry citizens and protesters they tried implementing different ways to protect the environment. Environmental officials finally took action, creating different laws to improve the air quality and regulate the water. Chinas economy is on a historic run relying on resources such as coal and water for their development. However Chinas increasingly polluted environment is largely due to the country’s hurried industry development causing large increase in energy consumption. This pollution problem has left a deadly impact on the people in China. Air pollution is so bad that in some parts citizens cant see the sun but because of the smoke and fog. The World Health Organization has estimated that this air pollution is responsible for 300,000 premature deaths annually. Those staggering numbers are a major problem that needs to be regulated. Chinese cities are covered in lethal cloak, which leads to water and air contamination. Nearly 500 million Chinese citizens lack the access to unsafe drinking water and 1 percent out of the 560 million breath safe air. China is thriving because of its expanding industry however by using resources such as coal. Coal is a useful resource however it is a very dir ty source and contaminates the air when burned. The industrial industry is allowing China to flourish economically but at the same time leaving a drastic impact on the people.  One of Chinas leading environmental researchers, Wang Jinnan, announced â€Å" It is a very awkward situation for the country because our greatest achievement is also our biggest burden†. This explains how resources such as coal contribute to the growing industry but also has deadly effects on the people. Chinas economy is on a historic run but is it worth putting peoples lives in jeopardy? China’s reliance on coal has an effect on the air quality. It is said that China burns more coal then the U.S., Europe and Japan combined. The sulfur dioxide that is emitted from the coal and fuel can affect breathing, cause respiratory illnesses and lung diseases. An unpublicized report done by the Chinese academy of Environmentalist planning said in estimate that yearly premature deaths attributed from outdoor pollution is on track to reach 550,000 in 2 020. This alarming statistic has China’s people worrying and curious to see what the government is up to. Air pollution not only affected the people but also the water, produce and other resources. The lack of fresh water in China evolves around the contamination of the Water due to illegal littering. In different regions in China factories and farms dump waste into the surface water. Chinas environmentalist monitors say â€Å" One- third of all river, and vast sections of Chinas great lakes†¦ have water rated grade v, the most degrading level†. As a result of this contaminated water China has the highest liver and stomach cancer deaths in the world. Water pollution is a complicated part of Chinas problem and is hard to be prevented. As a result of the dumping of wastes into main rivers and lakes many Chinese citizens don’t have fresh water to drink. Leaving many people thirsty is not a problem government official’s want for their country. In Liangqiao, a small village in China, citizens blame the Mining Corporation for the dumping of chemicals into tributaries in the Laza River. This creates for a shortage of drinking water and untenable for agricultural use. A professor in South China’s agricultural University says, â€Å" The mining company’s waste flows directly into the Laza River which runs into the Pearl River, a major source of drinking water for 12 million residents of Guangzhou city,† This is a horrific problem and the government needs to react now before it gets worse. Riots broke out in a Xinchang, city in China, over the environmental degradation. Citizens are angry at the lack of government initiative in the pollution and took matters into there own hands. One outraged villager  explained, â€Å" Our fields won’t produce grain anymore†¦we don’t dare to eat food grown from anywhere near here†. The agriculture is declining, leaving farmers with a scarce amount of good. Government officials were overlooking this problem in order to keep the economy growing. In just 30 years china has made an extraordinary development economically and with the governments help China can thrive even further by implementing environmental regulations for the people. Over the years, government officials implemented ways to help the pollution problem as well as maintaining economic development. Alarmed by the repercussions of industrialization and urbanization, Chinas environmental agencies are working on imputing laws to regulate the pollution. One of the first improvements made was the removal of lead, which was beneficial to Hong Kong by reducing their mortality rate. Recognizing the problem Chinese leaders such as Deng Xiaoping and Prime Minister Jiaboa are speaking out, telling the people about different environmental protection laws. Although there are many objectives set forth by the government to fix this pollution problem, no real noticeable actions have taken effect. The Chinese Government is more worried about the economy then the people. The most determined effort control china’s fast industrial growth was the project known as the â€Å" Green G.D.P.†, â€Å"which was an effort to create an environmental yardstick for evaluating the performance of every official in China. It recalculated the gross domestic product to reflect the cost of pollution†. This was an effort to regulate the financial loss that pollution had on the economy. However the government pulled out of the project in 2007. The Chinese government saw that the financial and economic issues that resulted from the G.D.P. such as the struggles realizing that any attempt to prevent pollution would hinder it economically. The frightened idea to interrupt China’s growing economy is a reason why China still has pollution today. In attempts to stick to their original goals to prevent pollution, China began to make continuous efforts. In Linfen, China, known as the heaviest polluted city in the word, officials have set up laws to help clean up the region. The Xiangfen County Environmental Protection Bureau announced that seven factories will close due to their environmental harm. Chinese environmentalist Yang spoke out about the factories saying,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"If they fail to meet the (pollution) goals in the first year, their superiors will raise the topic; in the second year, they will receive a formal warning; in the third year, they will be removed from post.† By threatening the closing down of factories, results in a greater up keep among factories. The only problem that would result in closing down these factories is unemployment; however, the health of the people is more important. In 2011, Toyota Motor announced that they would be making low-emission cars in China. China has the biggest market of cars and creating an environmentally safe way to market a car is upright. Further-more, in recent years, China’s attempts to help the environment have been successful and hasn’t prevented economic progression. In the City of Lizhou, the environmental conditions were horrid because of the rapid industrialization and urbanization. However, by implementing the improvement in clean water, the citizens have benefited greatly. The Lizhou Environmental Management Project set forth to invest in sewage networks, wastewater treatment plants, and waste collection stations. As a result of the advancement, wastewater treatment in the City has increased from 15 percent in 2005 to over 75 percent in 2011. The project was designed to provide clean water for poor urban areas in China. This is a stepping-stone for China and can hopefully lead to more change. China’s industry development dates all the way back to the Great Leap Forward when Mao’s goal was to increase agricultural output; with All things considered, the communist government has acknowledged the major pollution problem in the country but is slow in terminating it. It needs to stop worrying so much about the growing economy and think more about the health of its people, an issue that stems from the pollution problem in china. As the environmental situation declines, China will not only become a healthier, more appealing place to live, but also raise funding through tourism and environmental technology, garnering the economical gains that the government strives to get.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

How Static Fields in Java Work

There can be times when its useful to have values that are shared across all instances of a particular class. Static fields and static constants enable this type of sharing by belonging to the class and not to the actual objects. The Static Modifier Normally fields and methods defined in a class can be used only when an object of that class type has been created. For example, consider a simple Item class that keeps track of goods in a store: public class Item {   Ã‚  private String itemName;   Ã‚  public Item(String itemName)   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName;   Ã‚  }   Ã‚  public String getItemName()   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  return itemName;   Ã‚  } } To be able to use the getItemName() method, we must first create an Item object, in this case, catFood: public class StaticExample {   Ã‚  public static void main(String[] args) {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Item catFood new Item(Whiskas);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  System.out.println(catFood.getItemName());   Ã‚  } } However, if the static modifier is included in a field or method declaration, no instance of the class is required in order to use the field or method — they are  associated with the class and not an individual object. If you look back at the above example, you will see that the static modifier is already being used in the main method declaration: public static void main(String[] args) { The main method is a static method that does not require an object to exist before it can be called. As main() is the starting point for any Java application, there are in fact no objects already in existence to call it. You could, if you felt like having a program that continually calls itself, do this: public class StaticExample {   Ã‚  public static void main(String[] args) {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  String[] s {random,string};   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  StaticExample.main(s);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  } } Not very useful, but notice how the main() method can be called without an instance of a StaticExample class. What Is a Static Field? Static fields are also known as class fields. They are simply fields that have the static modifier in their declarations. For example, lets go back to the Item class and add a static field: public class Item {   Ã‚  //static field uniqueId   Ã‚  private static int uniqueId 1;   Ã‚  private int itemId;   Ã‚  private String itemName;   Ã‚  public Item(String itemName)   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  itemId uniqueId;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  uniqueId;   Ã‚  } } The fields itemId and itemName are normal non-static fields. When an instance of an Item class is created, these fields will have values that are held inside that object. If another Item object is created, it too will have itemId and itemName fields for storing values. The uniqueId static field, however, holds a value that will be the same across all Item objects. If there are 100 Item objects, there will be 100 instances of the itemId and itemName fields, but only one uniqueId static field. In the above example, uniqueId is used to give each Item object a unique number. This is easy to do if every Item object that is created takes the current value in the uniqueId static field and then increments it by one. The use of a static field means that each object does not need to know about the other objects to get a unique id. This could be useful if you wanted to know the order in which the Item objects were created. What Is a Static Constant? Static constants are exactly like static fields except that their values cannot be changed. In the field declaration, the final and static modifiers are both used. For example, perhaps the Item class should impose a restriction on the length of the itemName. We could create a static constant maxItemNameLength: public class Item {   Ã‚  private static int id 1;   Ã‚  public static final int maxItemNameLength 20;   Ã‚  private int itemId;   Ã‚  private String itemName;   Ã‚  public Item(String itemName)   Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  if (itemName.length() maxItemNameLength)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName.substring(0,20);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  }   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  else   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this.itemName itemName;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  }   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  itemId id;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  id;   Ã‚  } } As with static fields, static constants are associated with the class rather than an individual object: public class StaticExample {   Ã‚  public static void main(String[] args) {   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Item catFood new Item(Whiskas);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  System.out.println(catFood.getItemName());   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  System.out.println(Item.maxItemNameLength);   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  } } There are two important things to notice about the maxItemNameLength static constant: It is declared as a public field. Generally its a bad idea to make a field public in any class you design but in this case, it doesnt matter. The value of the constant cannot be changed.The static constant is used from the class name Item, not an Item object. Static constants can be seen throughout the Java API. For example, the integer wrapper class has two that store the maximum and minimum values an int data type can have: System.out.println(The max value for int is: Integer.MAX_VALUE); System.out.println(The min value for int is: Integer.MIN_VALUE); Output: The max value for int is: 2147483647 The min value for int is: -2147483648