The Life of Pi by Yann Martel is part philosophical meditation, part "Survivor" story. It tells the tale of a young protagonist, a boy named Pi, who must survive on a raft with wild animals after a shipwreck. Martel's book poses the question-how can a religious person like Pi continue to be moral yet survive according to his moral laws in an amoral, dog-eat-dog world? The answer the book provides is complex and simple all at once-Pi must hold to his values of tolerance, yet be adaptive enough to learn to and respond to his environment. At first, before he becomes a castaway, Pi is obsessed with religion. How to live as a religious person, but when cast adrift from civilization, Pi is faced with an even more pressing dilemma of how to survive physically in the natural world. Soon, one of the animals, a hyena, eats every animal on board-except for the tiger, that Pi names Robert Parker. The tiger eats the hyena, thus saving Pi, as Pi was sure that he was the hyena's next meal! Pi takes care of the tiger but grows weak and blind. Another traveler passing nearly murders him, but once again, t

Both "Henry IV, Part 1," and "The Taming of The Shrew" use the technique of a 'play within the play' as a means of reflecting upon the nature of the roles people play in society, whether these roles pertain to their royal status or gender. However, while "Henry, IV, Part 1" uses the 'play within a play' conceit as a rhetorical weapon between the characters of Hal and Falstaff, and the 'play within a play' heightens the unspoken tension between the two men, in "Taming of the Shrew," the use of a framing play device is designed to deflate the possible discomfort an audience member might feel at the violence later shown in the play of Pertruchio towards Katherine, the shrew of the title. When Falstaff pretends to be Henry IV at the Boar's Head Tavern, and uses his position to

"Since the 1960s, gays and lesbians have moved to cities, like, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, where their greater numbers changed local politics and influenced the national gay movement. The fight over same-sex marriage may very well find its next battleground in the cul-de-sacs and shopping malls of New Jersey. New Jersey is one of eight states being sued by gay couples, and polls there show that 55 percent of voters support same-sex marriage." (Montagne, Renee, 2006, February 6, p.1). Currently the discussion of gay marriage or gay unions in New Jersey brings about conflicts between two moral positions, the liberals and the conservatives. Both liberals and conservatives generally view marriage as an agreement between two individuals who what to raise their children to be self-reliant and capable of exercising their individual rights to be responsible, well adjusted adults. Opponents of gay marriage filed three separate legal motions before the Superior Court in Mercer County, New Jersey. These motions are divided into separate

The film Les Visiteurs (Poiré, 1993) is a fantasy and a comedy in which a knight from the eleventh century travels through time to the twentieth century and to the Paris of 1993. The film embodies elements of the film modes of the time and reflects ideas on social class and national identity for the French. The linking of past and present history helps give the idea of national identity a context and a continuum from medieval times to modern times. Continuity is also implied by the use of actors who have roles in the past and in the present, showing that they are descendants of the first group. Past and present are therefore linked most directly in the film. The film has a French sensibility in the humor that tends toward the gross and slapstick in some areas, and part of this use of humor involves contrasts between past and present: Much of the humor centers around the filthiness of the Middle Ages – people only bathing once a month, their rotting teeth and bad hy

Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body, is an artistically written examination of love. The plot line, however cliched, is not the point. Winterson does a masterful job of allowing us to skip gender labels, and contemplate love at a level of depth that most of us never reach. The two elements that redeem this novel from its threatened triteness is the author's refreshing vagueness regarding gender, and her unique insights into the deepest elements of compassionate love. A more obscure theme is one which implies that the truly profound, intimate love that we seek is parental in nature. Out of weariness from failed relationships, the narrator (who I am identifying as a man for this paper) decides to settle for a safe-harbor relationship with someone he does not love, but who can provide him with some semblance of what he considers a normal home life. Jacqueline is a zoo worker - a nurturer. What she offers him is a maternal kind of comfort, which is what he is really

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Specifically it will discuss how the plot of the opera could be updated to modern times. The "Marriage of Figaro" is a "sequel" opera to Rossini's very famous "Barber of Seville" opera. The Count Almaviva and Countess Rosina are the main characters, and Figaro (who is the Count's valet), and his bride-to-be Susanna are the other couple in the affair. The Count wants to have an affair with Susanna, and the Countess finds out, and conspires with Susanna and Figaro to humiliate the Count. To top it off, another character, Cheribino, is interested in the Countess, which the Count does not like at all. The plot of this comic opera all revolves around love triangles and misplaced affections. It is not realistic in that the various sub-plots and situations are not based on reality, nor are many of the character's solutions. (Such as, the Count has abolished the archaic practice of "droit de seigneur," which is the right of the lo

One of the main objectives of authors is to depict the society in which they live and relate the challenges that individuals of that time period face in their daily lives. Through literature, it is possible to understand and even to sympathize or empathize with the characters as they struggle to find their way through societal barriers. Because of the greater restrictions on women throughout history, many literary works portray the searching and suffering of female protagonists. Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening" and Elisa Allen in John Steinbeck's "Chrysanthemums," although living several decades apart, both exemplify such women who are constrained by the patriarchal world and want to break out but lose the personal battle. The Awakening takes place at the end of the 19th century, when the Western world was undergoing a major transformation due to the Industrial Revolution and increased urbanization. Women at all levels of society had "awok

Diversity in the American workplace is very important but corporate culture in this country works against women and minorities to a certain extent (Tannen, 1995). The conversational styles that most women use tend to be less popular with businesses and corporations than the conversational styles that men use. Because of this, women are often overlooked for promotions, are seen as less confident, and are not considered as worthwhile when it comes to individuals giving their ideas and helping out with teamwork. Much of this comes from childhood when little girls were taught to be nice to other individuals and help to downplay their weaknesses, while little boys were taught to play up the weaknesses of other individuals and claim strength and domination if they were able (Tannen, 1995; Adams & Galanges, 2005). Individuals who come from one part of the country to another also face this and some men who lack a great deal of self-confidence and are not willing to speak up are also trea

This marketing consulting firm's product offerings are geared toward helping our clients to generate more and better qualified prospects, helping them improve customer loyalty, providing strategies to help our clients to better leverage the Internet for both marketing and sales, offering clients suggestions on ways in which they can penetrate new markets, and helping clients to better understand customer needs. These services are designed to enable our clients to increase sales and improve profitability. Some of the specific services this company offers clients include: marketing program planning, including recommendations relating to the appropriate marketing mix for each of our client companies sales forecasting

Flannery O'Connor's story, Good Country People illustrates a favorite theme of the American writer: the difference between the stiff and empty morality advocated by the Protestant religion, and the love and indulgence preached by the Catholicism. The main character in the story, Joy Hopewell undergoes an important transformation by the end of the story that marks the shift from Protestantism to Catholicism. In the beginning, she is a thirty-two year old woman who is an atheist and a philosopher, who mocks at the simplicity of her mother and of Mrs. Freeman, the servant. She has a wooden leg because she has suffered a hunting accident as a child, and it is this handicap that embitters her and makes her believe only in ugliness. The symbolism of the story is very suggestive: first of all, the fact that the girl changes her name from Joy to Hulga hints at her relinquishing of everything beautiful and innocent. Joy gives up simplicity and love in favor of stiff morality and phil

The problem is point of view. Advances in medicine and science have taught humans that sense information is not to be trusted. High-paid performers have perfected the art of capitalizing on the unreliability of human sensation. The fundamental lack of trust in perception means that every human understands the concept of freedom-though most would prefer the term "helplessness." "Freedom" is a term that is loosely applied to the philosophy of free choice, and could be generally defined as the idea that humans are able to make choices of their own volition. This philosophy can be subdivided into two groups: existentialism argues that those choices are objectively meaningless; or rather, that nothing exists outside of perception. Most prefer a lesser extreme, and believe that human choice has the capacity to shape and co

Even on an intuitive level, people often express the problem of the "egocentric predicament" or the fact that we are limited in our perceptions as to what we personally think and feel and experience. Our ability to obtain objective knowledge is limited by our biases and our perceptions. Quite often people will say 'you don't understand unless you've been there,' or 'you can't understand what childbirth/cancer/losing a parent is like until you've experienced it yourself.' But beyond subjective feelings, even on the level of the senses, the philosopher John Locke acknowledged that objective sensory data was difficult to establish outside of the subjective individual mind and body. A blind man might see a dark room, while a sighted person would see a room full of light and colors. Locke stressed that the many differences human beings have as to the correct manner in which we ought to behave means that there are no innate, pre-existing ideas common to all beings, rather culture shapes those perceptions and t

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Another advantage I gained in my new master was, he made no pretensions to, or profession of, religion; and this, in my opinion, was truly a great advantage. I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,--a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,--a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,--and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. (Chapter X, 33). This paragraph spoke loudest about Frederick Douglass' feelings toward religious slave-owners. He made the statement that he regarded being the slave of a religious man the greatest calamity that could befall anyone. Douglass went on to discu

Non-verbal communication is fascinating. I know that we learn to understand it before we learn to talk. A two-month old baby understands smiling! I know also that non-verbal messages can be ambiguous at times. Some non-verbal messages differ in meaning from culture to culture, and when there is a conflict between what a person says and the non-verbal messages the person sends with body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, the listener will believe the non-verbal rather than the verbal. "I'm not mad at you," delivered loudly with a scowl and in an angry tone of voice will be received and decoded as "I am angry with you." I found an interesting article on how sales people can use non-verbal communication to increase their sales by promoting trust and a sense of rapport with their customers. The autho

My original idea for this paper was to expand my knowledge of Deborah Tannen's theory on gender communication. However, when I put "Deborah Tannen" into a scholarly database, it came up with an article she wrote on the use of language by politicians to influence the American public. The article was so interesting I decided to expand my knowledge of how words can be used to manipulate emotional reactions in people. Politicians do it when they have an agenda and want the public to accept it. I knew already, for example, that words are often chosen that reveal the speaker's feelings more than they describe actual reality. For instance, the words thrifty and cheap both describe similar behavior. But if we call a person thrifty, it's a compliment-the person knows how to get the most for his or her money and is careful about spending money. On the other hand, if we say a person it cheap, it is not a compliment although that person is also careful about spendi

The whole poem is actually fanned into a total of 12 volumes, the shortest volume in this pack of dozen is story is Book VII, with only 640 line while the longest volume is Book IX, with 1189 lines. The whole poem basically revolves around two story lines: the first of Adam and Eve and their disobedience and the second of Satan and his rebellious plot. This is the first time when Adam and Eve are brought forth in a very familial/marital and human setting without much contradiction. Satan's attempts to induce Eve to take a bite of the fruit firm the Tree of Knowledge, an act that God had forbidden, had worked successfully and Eve had convinced Adam to pursue the same act. This leads to a fight between the two once they realize their mistake, and repentance in front of God. Adam is shown the incidence of the Flood and realizes that every path takes it course and every action judged accordingly, however he is shown hope as well, and a chance for him to make up for his mistake wh

Arista Records was founded by Clive Davis in 1974. The story of Arista and its founders appear to embody the ideals of the American paradigm in that Davis turned personal misfortune into one of the most prosperous record labels available today. Through innovation and an adherence to his personal values in the face of criticism and evidence to the contrary, Davis built the label of Arista to sky-rocketing success. It is precisely this success that helped the company survive in spite of disasters such as the Milli Vanilli scandal. Arista's story begins with Clive Davis being fired from CBS Records. He was subsequently employed as a record and music consultant for Columbia Pictures. Here he rose to the position of president in 1974, combining Columbia's legacy labels into a single entity that was to become Arista Records. In 1976, Arista was sold to Ariola Records, based in Germany. Ariola then purchased RCA Records from General Electric in 1986, after which the paren

Introduction: Boeing is a major aircraft company of the world holding the unique distinction of manufacturing commercial jetliners for more than half a century and also the biggest producer of both commercial jetliners as well as military aircraft. Presently, its main commercial products are 737, 747, 767 and 777 series of aircraft and also the Boeing Business Jet. Boeing has close to 12,000 commercial jetliners in service throughout the world accounting for about 75 of the world's fleet. With its headquarters in Chicago, the company has in excess of 1, 50,000 employees across US and spread over in 70 nations. Its revenue earning for the year ended 2006 were $61.5 billion. Boeing designs and produces rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, satellites, launch vehicles, missiles and latest information and communication systems. Being a major service provider to NASA, Boeing manages the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. The company also supplies several military a

The purpose of this essay is to contrast representations of scientific findings in the popular presses with their original publication in scientific journals. In this case, I will compare the findings of Bininda-Emonds et al. (2007) in Nature with the report of the same findings as reported by Wilford (2007) in The New York Times.

Emile Durkheim placed great emphasis on the division of labor (DOL) in society. He wondered about what it was, and how it applied to everything that society encompassed, such as individual people, animals, and plants. He was not the first to ponder these things and try to come up with an explanation that made sense of them. As society continues to change and grow there are some aspects of it that stay the same. Rebellion, the attempt to find individuality among the masses, and the independence of the people as being separate from the whole of the group are some of the things that have remained static for decades. There is belief among many sociologists that disputes can be settled by the scientific method and that people are able to restructure their social relationships if they have the right knowledge. This 'right' knowledge is what Durkheim and others feel they are providing by writing on the subject. Most of what Durkheim writes about the nature of society and t

In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, an interesting mix of people gather to comment on various issues in the society. The most commendable aspect of their stories is that none of them seems to be interested in making an issue out of anything. They are simply who are they and through them we get to see beyond the caricatures and stereotypes that society has constructed. These people are all very different from what they are expected to be. Wife of Bath, for example, is not your average timid woman of the 16th or 17th century. She is a bold, lusty, and vocal person with a mind of her own who can be described as a man-eater. Middle Ages were not exactly a time of static moral values. Things had been changing but change was slow and people were not very receptive. Sexuality however was an important subject as people were seeking new meanings of the term and there was some experimentation in this area. Thus we notice that the entire Canterbury Tales pays great deal of attentio

I.Introduction The medieval play, Everyman, has defined what literature has come to know as The Everyman: the common, average person or character that is meant to represent every person. It is the character that is meant to allow the reader to identify with them. It is the character that represents society in general. Thus, the real message behind the medieval play Everyman is a social critique of what is wrong about The Everyman. II.Background Information Everyman can be traced back to the fifteenth century where it originated in a Dutch or Flemish play called Elckerlijc authored by Peter van Diest. The version must commonly read today is the sixteenth century English version. At its core Everyman is a morality play. Everyman is the main character who serves as an allegorical figure of the every man. In the play he is summoned by the allegorical figure of death to visit God and account for the life he has been lent by God. On his way, Everyman is told that he must go along, th

The Eric Lamaze case poses an interesting dilemma to the Canadian Olympic Committee. In a state of panic resulting from false information given to him about his removal from the Olympic Team, he began to suffer from intense depression resulting in intoxication and a lapse in judgment in using an illegal substance. While this illegal substance is not one that can be considered to help Mr. Lamaze gain an unfair advantage over the competition, there are rules that athletes have to follow and that the Canadian Olympic Committee must follow to preserve fairness and protect the integrity of the sport. By the very definition, athletes are subject to additional rules and policies affecting even one's personal life and there are standards which an athlete representing Canada in the Olympics must follow. However, in light of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Lamaze's illicit drug use, he should be allowed to compete on the Olympic Team in Sydney. Considering the ethical issues at

Women rights have gained greater attention with feminist activities and call for liberation of women. The consistent and gradual erosion of patriarchic system is the only way true liberation can be attained. The efforts made for women rights have been impressive but the progress in this connection is still marred by serious issues and ugly incidents. In the Middle East, women are still suffering grave gender discrimination on regular basis. Violence against women is a common problem and though it is also a big issue in the West, in the Middle East it doesn't get any attention, which makes it pervasive. Lack of education can be cited as one of the main reasons why violence continues to exist in this society. We can argue that had lack of education been the only problem, then women in the west would have never suffered abuse. But the real issue at hand is endurance or tolerance of abuse. In the Middle Eastern societies, women continue to endure violence silently seldom raising voice

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper explores one woman's struggle with society's view of a woman's role and takes the reader through the main character's psychological journey. A vast amount of criticism has been written about this story, most of it focusing on the influence the story has had on feminism, along with a close look at what the story achieves. What the story is, at its core, is an autobiographical novel that presents a critique of the relationship between men and women and society's suffocation of a woman's ability to be an individual and live with an independent state of mind. To truly understand what The Yellow Wallpaper is about, one must first have a general background understanding of the author. In 1887 Gilman suffered from a severe and ongoing nervous breakdown that lead to depression. Gilman sought treatment from a nervous diseases specialist by the name of S. Weir Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell essentially misdiagnose