The Long Road to Brown Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Long Road to Brown - Essay Example The case started in 1951 when the thirteen parents of the town with the assistance and representation by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) started a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Kansas over the racial segregation in the schools arguing that separate facilities were inherently unequal and the segregation itself had a negative effects on the education of African American children (Cozzens, â€Å"Brown v. Board of Education†). After the decision of the lower court was announced, the Browns and NAACP decided to appeal to the Supreme Court where the key representative and actual winner of the case was Thurgood Marshall. The case challenged the â€Å"separate but equal† doctrine, established by the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). According to the concept of the doctrine separate public facilities of equal quality did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution which provided for the equal protection of the laws to all citizens of the US. One of the apprehension was that because of the precedent, the court would tend to rule in favor of the Board of Education (Cozzens). When the case of Brown v. ... The protest demanded the adequate facilities for black Moton school which were extremely unequal in comparison with white Farmville school. The strike was supported by NAACP that urged the students and their parents to demand the desegregation in the court (â€Å"Student Strike at Moton High†). Starting from 1930s NAACP were seeking to challenge the â€Å"separate but equal† doctrine by applying the strategy to bring the topic of injustice to the lower courts and then appeal the cases to the Supreme Court. In the particular case NAACP argued that the segregated education was bringing the message of inferiority which could discourage the Black children to study. Those who wanted to keep the status-quo were arguing that since the segregation was inherent element of the way of life in those places, the segregated education should have been maintained because it prepared Black children to face the segregation further in their lives (â€Å"NAACP builds the case†). The Brown decision followed by the negative reaction in the South. In several states there were records of violence. In Virginia the Senator Harry Byrd launched the ‘Massive Resistance’ campaign against the school integration. This campaign gained the support of more than 100 schools on the South. On the community level the reaction took the form of the White Citizens Council in order to preserve the ‘Southern way of life’ applying various methods from public condemnation to legislative lobbying. The importance of the question over how black students would be admitted to schools lied in the quality education for Black children. The integration was a means that guaranteed the proper funding and facilities to all children regardless their race. The better education would obviously put an end to

Critical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critical Analysis - Essay Example He found people use differing social tactics to persuade their partners and that certain tactics tend to be more or less effective based on the social context. To what extent is the accuracy of one’s ability to assess their partner’s mindset correlated with how well they influence by their partner? To what extent is the accuracy of one’s ability to assess their partner’s mindset correlated with how much they are influenced by their partner? In Grounding Communication: Synchrony, GÃ ¼n R. Semin discusses how to understand social behavior explain as the sum of many processes (Kruglanski, A.W. and Higgins, E.T. (Eds.), 2007). Human behavior is adaptive to contextual variations; thus interpersonal behavior processes may be seen as the whole of communication, social cognition, and language. In other words, social behavior is clearly interactive based on flows of information internally within the individual, interpersonal between individuals, and socially between interpersonal interactions. Does this mean we are only as socially adept as the particular language will allow us to be? How might we investigate the extent a given language allows for social interaction? Regan (2008) contended the mating process is the result of combinations of evaluations individuals make of one another. Men and women are at the behest of both modern and ancient forces that shape the way mating occurs in humans. Some of the evaluations are instinctually executed whereas others are more cognitively-based on current social trends. In either case, the selection process for any individual is based on evaluations of the mating candidate’s temperament, social status, interpersonality, and physical attractiveness. Mating decisions are also based on so called deal killers. For example, a man may possess all of the desirable attributes in sufficient degree to a woman, but the fact he may be HIV positive automatically excludes him from her choices. What

Literature Comparative Analysis

Literature Comparative Analysis An Encounter by James Joyce deals with the theme of a persons yearn for escapism from the monotonous routine of day-to-day life through the tale of a day in which two young boys are miching from school a feeling which most, if not all, people will experience at some point in their lives. In this story, Joyce suggests to the reader that although people yearn for escape and adventure, routine is inevitable, and new experiences, when they do come, can be profoundly disturbing. The author achieves this through his incorporation of ambiguity, epiphany and writing through first person narrative, with inner monologue to highlight the consciousness of the protagonist and also to subtly divulge the feelings of others. The theme of paralysis is key to Joyces work; the notion is inherent throughout Dubliners as a whole. With this idea comes its antithesis escape or, in the case of An Encounter, thwarted escape. It is because of the characters desire to achieve this freedom, that when the day fails to reach its high expectations, the stagnation and restrictiveness of the surroundings are powerfully reinforced. From the outset of the tale, Joyce ponders the notion of escape. Characters searching for such an escape often describe how they would wish to travel afar to achieve it. This feeling is openly exhibited in An Encounter, as Joyces first person narrator states; Real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad. In the story, Joyce develops the theme in the form of an inner monologue the thoughts of the protagonist dictating how his Wild West' adventures opened doors of escape. The thought processes of the boy (relating to escape) are ultimately what drive the tale, quietly conveyed by Joyce through subtle details. An Encounter deals with methods of escape other than exotic foreign adventure found elsewhere in Dubliners, focusing on the attempt of two boys to break out of the weariness of their everyday environment. At first the prospect of adventure excites the young boys, although there is a constant undertone of anti-climax carefully intertwined into the story. Joyce writes from the first person point view, often through the use of analepses, leading to a frequent air of restriction and frustration surrounding the boys. Quite often, Joyce does not commit any impassioned emotion to events, preferring to use lacklustre qualifying adverbs or adjectives: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦We were all vaguely excitedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it was a mild sunny morning. Joyce chooses to focus in on the most insipid details such as the docile horsesthe groaning carts which works to suppress the carefree, exciting experience which the boys see as an escapism from their jaded routine. The negativity which is now apparent in almo st everything encountered appears to be an entrapping agent over the boys, who sulk into a resigned and somewhat resentful state, a state which is furthermore reiterated by the repetition of the adverb too: It was too late and we were too tired to carry out our project of visiting the Pigeon House. Joyce presents Dublin as a city of incapacitation to the young characters. He begins to erase the protagonists claim; I was very happy, from the readers memory, introducing words such as solemn, sedulous and eventually even denotes the characters thoughts as jaded. There is constant repetition of the adjective tired; the day has become tedious, adventure and escape have proved elusive, and the encounter of a sinister old man has confirmed that the protagonist will not find merriment in Dublin, but is instead doomed to live in the fantasies of comic book and literature. However, despite its lack of event, the day does provide the boys with one notable incident through the scene encapsulating the encounter with the old man. Aspirations of escape having been superseded, Joyce begins a new paragraph focusing primarily on the silence and stillness of the situation: There was nobody but ourselves in the fieldwe had lain on the bank for some time without speaking. Through creating such an ominous atmosphere; sentences slowly becoming shorter and more concise with a less picturesque use of vocabulary, signalling new themes to be introduced through the introduction of the curious antagonist. The old man introduces the possibility of in-depth monologue and direct speech. In the conversation with the boys, he seemingly manages to entrap the young protagonist with his reference to literature a topic of known interest to the boy. The monotonous voice of the antagonist and the way his voice slowly circles round and round in the same orbit help to achieve the spellbinding quality of the man. This technique paralyses the narrator, who seemingly allows the man to give a discourse in the form of a monologue mainly due to his apparent inability to interrupt. The politeness evident in the boys character is in hindsight, far from being useful, instead placing the boy in a situation of danger. The worrying feature of the mans discourse is the implicitly perverse way in which he speaks. He frequently refers to the whipping'of young boys with an over-excitable zeal. Joyces primary use of such adjectives as magnetised and circle in reference to his thought process establishes the mans odd approach. This creates the impression that he is intent on the subject. Secondly, a section of reported speech is introduced: When a boy was rough and unruly there was nothing would do him any good but a good sound whippingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ what he wanted was to get a nice warm whipping. Joyce emphasises the mans positive outlook on the subject through the use of positive repetition; of the word good, firstly as a noun, secondly as an adjective, and also use of the adjective nice, which appears somewhat misplaced when used in conjunction with the concept of whipping. The protagonists isolation from intellectuals due to young age and low social class means he is quick to warm to the old man when he talks of literature. In the epiphany, he even appears isolated from his closest friend, Mahoney, and it appears to that the epiphany of the piece (from the young boys perspective) confirms that the older man has had a profound influence on his views. It appears that the isolation of the naÃÆ' ¯ve child has left him susceptible to corruption and the encounter has left the boy and the reader with the realisation that the world is not an innocent place. The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, like The Encounter, is concerned with entrapment, but unlike Joyces tale, is centred on one individual and the terror he experiences when in isolation. The protagonist, a prisoner subject to the tortures of the Spanish inquisition, is often left thinking of what may be the surrounding atmosphere offering no apparent subjects for the character to focus on. Poe incorporates a feeling of perpetual unease and fear into the thought processes of his first person narrator, leaving the reader in a parallel state of mind as they experience the horror of the protagonists situation. The perspective that the reader is allowed on Poe choosing a first person narrator gives the reader a stronger feeling of isolation due to our constant awareness of the innermost feelings of the protagonist. The narrative does not, unlike a third person perspective, allow the audience to transcend the situation, providing direct access to the horror which is occurring on the page. There is also no direct speech in the story. This fact reinforces the idea of isolation in the way that the protagonist has no need to speak due to absolute solitude. Poes use of highly descriptive language, incorporating frequent use of alliteration and anaphora, escalates the terror and entrapment suffered by the protagonist, focusing heavily on the senses even before the ghastly prospects of the character are realised, resulting in a heightened state of suspense. The odour of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. I prayed I wearied heaven with my prayer for its more speedy descent. I grew frantically mad, and struggled to force myself upward against the sweep of the fearful scimitar. And then I fell suddenly calm, and lay smiling at the glittering deathà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ To accomplish the desired atmosphere for such the tortured fate of the narrator, Poe describes the physical surroundings of the protagonist in some detail. The subterranean world of darkness becomes a perfect agent to carry an unnerving, mystifying atmosphere. Further concern for the protagonist is drawn from the constant reference to his fatigued' state and also the dangerously moist and slippery characteristics of the chamber his elusive surroundings becoming the antagonist of the story in the absence of any other companion. The tension generated relies heavily on Poes use of a sequence of brief sentences as the protagonist encounters The Pit, representing his calm and clear thought even in the throes of fear: I proceeded for many paces; but still all was blackness and vacancy. I breathed more freely. However, as the narrator becomes evermore aware of the horrific situation, Poe mirrors his mounting terror through increasingly complex syntax, resulting in a faster movement of thought and a growing sensation of confusion: The difficulty, nevertheless, was but trivial; although, in the disorder of my fancy, it seemed at first insuperable. Eventually, as the narrator gradually uncovers the secrets of his confinement, a greater sense of danger inside him is realised. Poe displays this through an ever quickening pace and complex sentences. giving the effect of total bemusement and terror. Quite suddenly, with a simple sentence, out of step with the ever-increasing complexity of the syntax the climax of the characters investigation is revealed: I stepped on it, and fell violently on my face. With this inclusion, Poe signals to the reader that the tension has peaked. The fact that the piece is written in the form of a first person narrative suggests that the protagonist is reminiscing about his ordeal, and that ultimately the piece will not end in his death. The narrators salvation is assured when General Lasalle of the French army comes to the rescue. Poe chooses at the end of his tale, unlike the other events of the story, to dramatically reduce proceedings; deciding to summarise the rescue in a short paragraph, in an anti-climatic fashion: The fiery walls rushed back!.. The French army had entered Toledo. Throughout the tale, the narrator maintains the capacity to recount faithfully and rationally his surroundings while also describing his own emotional turmoil. Terrified and alone as the narrator may be, with the pendulum symbolising deaths literal unstoppable sway, he does not lose hope of salvation, instead recruiting his rational senses and using the starved rats for his own benefit. Along with being a tale of horror, it also shows the nature of human resolve in a seemingly impossible situation; faced with horrific trials and the realisation of deaths inevitability, the human beings instinct for self-preservation remains, in itself, an unstoppable force. Alice Munros short story Floating Bridge is a story of domestic realism about learning to accept the tentative nature of human life and an exploration of the many challenges posed by cancer and its arduous, disfiguring treatments. Like Joyces The Encounter, the protagonist has a chance meeting with a stranger with leads them to re-evaluate their outlook on life. Also, like Poes The Pit and the Pendulum, the protagonist is, too, faced with the prospects of both death and salvation. Floating Bridge is written in the first person narrative, the protagonist is a cancer sufferer named Jinny, whose life is divided into the time before the diagnosis and the time after. The understated and restrained language and rhythm of the prose, suggesting Jinnys resigned acceptance of her illness and her impending death, is sustained throughout, even though at the very beginning of the story, Jinny has learned that her cancer has entered a stage of remission. Because she has already accepted the relative freedom from responsibility that knowledge of her incurable disease gave her, she shows no exuberance at this new knowledge that she has more time than she thought she did. On the day in which the story is set, the doctor has told her that there is reason for cautious optimism, but this does not make Jinny feel better. Before, she was relatively sure of her future, knowing that she had little time left in her life. This new information forces her to go back and start the year all over again, removing a certain low-grade freedom from her life. The new knowledge has removed a dull, protecting membrane she did not even know was there and leaves her feeling raw and vulnerable. Since learning of her illness, she has felt a kind of unspeakable excitement that results when a disaster releases one from responsibility for her life. Now that is gone and a feeling of apathy remains. She reflects on a time she left her husband, Neal, briefly to sit in a bus shelter near her home, reading graffiti on the wall and identifying with people who have left messages there. When she returns home, she asks Neal if he would ever have come after her, and he says: Of course. Gi ven time. Neals detached attitude toward Jinny and his cavalier treatment of her despite her life-threatening illness is an undercurrent that runs throughout the story. Part of Jinnys emotional turmoil at the time of the story stems from Neals excited reaction to Helen. He becomes more animated, enthusiastic, and ingratiating around her, as he often does around other people. Helen has a fresh out-of-the-egg look, and Jinny thinks that everything about her is right on the surface, which gives her an innocent and disagreeable power. Neal teases Helen, his whole being invaded with silly bliss. It is not that Neal desires Helen; rather, it is that her innocence and simplicity seem a welcome relief from the complexity of Jinnys situation. When they arrive at the trailer park where Helens foster parents live, they are invited in, but Jinny wants to stay outside. There is a strong feeling of isolation or the time that Jinny is waiting for Neal to return; he has accepted the invitation while Jinny, his sick wife, is left alone, tired and overly hot from the daytime temperature. The meeting of seventeen-year-old Ricky creates a similar reaction in Jinny as to her husbands feelings towards Helen. There appears to be an instant chemistry between the pair. A sense of connection is established when they discover that they both choose not to wear a watch. It seems in Jinnys sense of isolation, something as mundane as this is enough to cling to. In contrast to her husband, Ricky shows simple consideration to her by offering her a ride home. It is then that Munro takes the reader away from realism and introduces an almost magical element with Rickys innocent simplicity in his desire to show her the floating bridge where he takes his girlfriends, allowing the reader and Jinny herself to forget momentarily about her illness and the self-consciousness she feels over her baldness; his kiss providing an innocent acceptance of her, regardless of these things. When Jinny is on the floating bridge, she imagines that the road is a floating ribbon of earth, underneath which is all water. After the kiss, Jinny thinks of Neal getting his fortune told, rocking on the edge of his future, and accepts the tentative nature of her own future, feeling a lighthearted compassion for Neal. Rickys interest serves to remind her that she is still alive and capable of adventure and secrets. The most problematic subject of the story is Neals treatment of Jinny, which seems, if not cruel, at least unfeeling. The reader may feel he is much too excited by the presence of the young girl Helen and much too indifferent to Jinnys plight. However, there is nothing to suggest that he does not love Jinny. . He, too, is on a shifting floating bridge, trying to find something to cling to, even if it is of such little substance as an innocent young girl who is healthy and sound. Similarly, there is nothing to suggest that the young man, Ricky, at the end of the story has any desire for Jinny. In contrast to the messy complexity of her life, his kiss is the epitome of innocent acceptance, instilling in her a tender-hearted sort of compassion. The storys structure plays a balancing act similar to that required of walking on a floating bridge. The firmness of solid ground is only an illusion; all around lies the danger of loss of self. However, even though the bridge seems to be shiftin g and tentative, it is sufficient if one is content to live in the realm of the unsure. Munros story effectively reflects this tentative and delicate balancing. In all three stories which I have detailed, it is the writers subject matter and careful narrative technique which enrich our reading of them, allowing the reader not only pleasure and entertainment, but to view their lives more clearly. To enable the reader to truly engross themselves in a work of fiction, the story must be intellectually challenging and appeal to our senses and our own life experience. Joyce, Poe and Munro propitiously accomplish this, proving themselves as true masters of their art.

Essay on Symbols, Symbolism, and Allegory in Hawthornes Young Goodman

Symbols, Symbolism, and Allegory in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown Symbolism is a literary technique that is used to clarify the author's intent. Sometimes it is used to great effect, while other times it only seems to muddle the meaning of a passage. In "Young Goodman Brown," Nathaniel Hawthorne uses objects and people as symbols to allegorically reveal his message to the reader. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses different people as symbols throughout "Young Goodman Brown." The largest symbolic roles in the story are goodman Brown and his wife Faith. Both of the characters' names are symbolic and representative of their personalities. "'With Heaven above and Faith below, I will stand firm against the devil!' cried goodman Brown," is just one of many quotes that directly relates goodman Brown's personality with his name (189). Goodman Brown is truly a good man. Faith, goodman Brown's wife, also has a name that is indicative of her nature. The story directly supports this point in the phrase "Faith, as the wife was aptly named . . . " (184). Faith is persistent in trying to keep goo...

Road Rage

A coin is tossed four times. The probability is ? or 0. 25 that all four tosses will result in a head face up. Answer Correct Answer: False A firm offers routine physical examinations as part of a health service program for its employees. The exams showed that 8% of the employees needed corrective shoes, 15% needed major dental work and 3% needed both corrective shoes and major dental work. What is the probability that an employee selected at random will need either corrective shoes or major dental work? Correct Answer: 0. 20A group of employees of Unique Services will be surveyed about a new pension plan. In-depth interviews with each employee selected in the sample will be conducted. The employees are classified as follows. What is the probability that the first person selected is classified as a maintenance employee? Correct Answer: 0. 025 A probability is a number from -1 to +1. Correct Answer: False When are two events mutually exclusive? Correct Answer: If one event occurs, the n the other cannot There are 10 rolls of film in a box and 3 are defective.Two rolls are selected without replacement. What is the probability of selecting a defective roll followed by another defective roll? Correct Answer: 1/15 or about 0. 07 Three defective electric toothbrushes were accidentally shipped to a drugstore by the manufacturer along with 17 non-defective ones. What is the probability that the first two electric toothbrushes sold will be returned to the drugstore because they are defective? Correct Answer: 3/190 or 0. 01579 The first card selected from a standard 52-card deck was a king.If it is NOT returned to the deck, what is the probability that a king will be drawn on the second selection? Correct Answer: 3/51 or 0. 0588 The first card selected from a standard 52-card deck was a king. If it is returned to the deck, what is the probability that a king will be drawn on the second selection? Correct Answer: 1/13 or 0. 077 If there are ‘m' ways of doing one thin g and ‘n' ways of doing another thing, the multiplication formula states that there are (m) †¢ (n) ways of doing both. Correct Answer: TrueA study by the National Park Service revealed that 50% of the vacationers going to the Rocky Mountain region visit Yellowstone Park, 40% visit the Grand Tetons and 35% visit both. What is the probability that a vacationer will visit at least one of these magnificent attractions? Correct Answer: 0 The closer a probability is to 0, the more likely the event will happen. Correct Answer: False The classical approach to probability requires that the outcomes of an experiment are not equally likely. Correct Answer: False The numbers 0 through 9 are used in code groups of four to identify an item of clothing.Code 1083 might identify a blue blouse, size medium. The code group 2031 might identify a pair of pants, size 18, and so on. Repetitions of numbers are not permitted, i. e. , the same number cannot be used more than once in a total sequen ce. As examples, 2256, 2562 or 5559 would not be permitted. How many different code groups can be designed? Correct Answer: 5,040 A discrete random variable can have only certain clearly separated values. Correct Answer: True A listing of all possible outcomes of an experiment and their corresponding probability of occurrence is called a _____________.Correct Answer: Probability distribution A statistics professor receives an average of five e-mail messages per day from students. Assume the number of messages approximates a Poisson distribution. What is the probability that on a randomly selected day she will have five messages? Correct Answer: 0. 175 David's gasoline station offers 4 cents off per gallon if the customer pays in cash and does not use a credit card. Past evidence indicates that 40% of all customers pay in cash. During a one-hour period twenty-five customers buy gasoline at this station.What is the probability that more than ten and less than fifteen customers pay in cash? Correct Answer: 0. 380 David's gasoline station offers 4 cents off per gallon if the customer pays in cash and does not use a credit card. Past evidence indicates that 40% of all customers pay in cash. During a one-hour period twenty-five customers buy gasoline at this station. What is the probability that at least ten pay in cash? Correct Answer: 0. 575 Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a binomial probability distribution? Correct Answer:Each outcome results from two trials The weight of an offensive linesman may be 205. 15 pounds, 210. 23 pounds, 225. 05 pounds or 219. 14 pounds. What is this an illustration of? Correct Answer: Continuous random variable The variance of a binomial distribution is found by ? ? (1 – ? ). Correct Answer: True The mean of a binomial distribution is the product of n and ?. Correct Answer: True A true-false test consists of six questions. If you guess the answer to each question, what is the probability of getting all six qu estions correct? Correct Answer: 0. 016

Obedience To Authority Essay

The Vietnam controversy made many people feel at distress. It was never considered a â€Å"war,† although that is exactly what it was. The My Lai Massacre in Vietnam was one of the many atrocities of that war. There is an unquestionable connection between Milgram’s â€Å"Obedience to Authority† and the My Lai Massacre. According to Kelman & Hamilton, â€Å"Unquestioning obedience has been the cause of such disasters as the My Lai massacre and the Holocaust. People need to resist the dangerous web of influence from strong personalities in fields such as politics, religion and the mass media who become the objects of their idolatry. To become less susceptible to the irrational persuasive power of such personalities, individuals should develop a sense of self-respect and practice critical thinking† (Kelman & Hamilton). In cases such as the My Lai Massacre, the soldiers were not just following the thoughts of a politician or religious figure. They followed their military leader, the same person they counted on for leadership and survival. â€Å"Soldiers are trained to always follow orders, never question orders (When I say jump, u you say how high). But that belief is somewhat erroneous, the charge to the soldier is to obey any lawful order given (Schwalbe). â€Å"Absolute obedience, although not wholeheartedly embraced in official military pronouncements, is nevertheless unanimously praised in combat context (Peppers). Some military scholars call the modern version of military discipline â€Å"enlightened obedience.† Enlightened obedience springs from a belief on the part of the subordinate that his superior’s orders are authoritative and valid (Peppers).† A classic example of the power of authoritative factors is provided by Stanley Milgram’s study on obedience to authority. College students from Yale University were asked to participate in an experiment to test the effects of punishment on learning. They were willing to continue administering what they thought were increasingly higher levels of shocks to  another subject (actually an actor) simply because the experimenter (Milgram) said to do so. The results, in fact, were so unbelieveable that they made Milgram one of the most famous social psychologist. About 65 percent of the subjects continued to obey the experimenter to the end of the experiment even when they thought the victim was getting dangerous levels of electric shock, and even when he asked them to stop So what exactly does the My Lai Massacre have to do with Milgram’s experiment? The My Lai Massacre of 1968, in which a company of American soldiers poured automatic rifle fire into groups of unarmed villagers, killing perhaps 500 people, many of them women and children† (Hammer). Those soldiers were obeying orders from a superior officer. â€Å"It passed without notice when it occurred in mid-March 1968. Yet the brief blood bath at My Lai, a hamlet in Viet Cong-infested territory 335 miles northeast of Saigon, may yet have an impact on the war. According to accounts that suddenly appeared on TV and in the world press last week, a company of 60 or 70 U.S. Infantrymen had  entered My Lai early one morning and destroyed houses, livestock and all the inhabitants that they could find in a brutal operation that took less than 20 minutes. When it was over, the Vietnamese dead totaled at least 100 men, women and children, and perhaps many more, only 25 or so escaped, because they lay hidden under the fallen bodies of others. (Schawlbe) Military men said that stories of what happened at My Lai are correct. If so, the incident ranks as the most serious atrocity yet attributed to American troops† (Hammer). Isard said, â€Å"I see men who obeyed the leaders of their country, then lost themselves†. The My Lai Massacre was planned. â€Å"Planned, how could it have been planned? A recon patrol, perhaps, was planned, maybe even a search and destroy mission: Burn the villages; interrogate the villagers, and all that. But a massacre? Strategies are planned. Brutalities just happen† (Isard). â€Å"Obedience to Authority† Stanley Milgram described the â€Å"agentic shift in  which an individual attributes responsibility for his or her actions to a person in the position of authority.† In the My Lai Massacre the men felt it was their duty to open fire on the village. They were given orders to do just that. There was no questioning of orders from Cally, their superiour. The soldiers must have done as they were told, or incur sever consequences. Soldiers are taught from their first moments in Boot Camp that orders must be obeyed. The way in which the My Lai Massacre was particularly a case of over obedience to the military, is that the men that committed the massacre were ordered to do so. They did not decide on their own to destroy a bunch of people. They were following orders from military authoritative figures to destroy My Lai. What does this mean? Its clearly a case of over obedience to military authority. The men had two choices. They could obey a command and kill hundreds of innocent people, or they could disobey a command and face a possible consequences from the courts. In actuality they didn’t have a choice. many of the soldiers in Vietnam were there because of the draft, they however in their eyes, served their country to their best of their knowledge. They went bravely into battle and they did what had to be done. In the case of the My Lai Massacre, they were following orders just as they had done in many other times in the war. Only this time, the orders were to kill hundreds of villagers, not the Viet Cong, not the enemy. There were women and children in that village. They were gunned down mercilessly. For what reason? They were ordered to do so. The soldiers had an obligation, a duty to obey their superiors. That is what makes the military so successful. Soldiers not ask questions; they merely obey orders. In this  instance the orders went too far. Hundreds of innocent people were killed in the name of following orders. Is this any less an atrocious because the men were ordered to fire on the village of My Lai? No. Were the men doing this for personal gain? No. Were they doing it out of hatred or in defense? No.  Many of the people in the village were women and children. The soldiers had nothing against those people In this instance the village of My Lai was a case of death by over obedience of the American army. Was what they did right or wrong? In the eyes of most people, including the participants, the action was wrong, but they could not be faulted because they were simply following orders. Works Cited Hammer, Richard One Morning in the War: The tragedy at Son My. Coward-McCann NY 1970 Isard, Walter., ed. Vietnam: Issues and Alternatives. Schenkman . Cambridge MA: 1969 Kelman, Herbert C.; Hamilton, Lee V. Crimes of Obedience. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1989 Milgram, Stanley. â€Å"The Perils of Obedience.† Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. 7th ed. By Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman, 2000. 343-355 Miller, Heather. â€Å"Stanley Milgram† http://muskingum.edu/~psychology/psycweb/history/milgram.htm Peppers, Donald A. â€Å"War Crimes and Induction: A Case for Selective Nonconscientious Objection.† Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 3, No. 2. (Winter, 1974), pp.129-166. JSTOR Middlesex County College Library, Edison. 29 Nov. 2000 http://www.jstor.org Schwalbe, David. â€Å"The My Lai Massacre.† American History. 1998 http://americanhistory.about.com/homework/americanhistory/library/weekly/aa031798.htm

Use of allegory of Civilization versus barbarism and violence

Use of allegory of Civilization versus barbarism and violence The film â€Å"Dona Barbara† employs allegory to portray two worlds. The novel is set in the 1940s Venezuelan transitional period. During this time, the country was experiencing a new culture and way of life brought about by the discovery of oil.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Use of allegory of Civilization versus ‘barbarism’ and violence specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As such, an oil economy was starting to emerge, bringing with it an urban culture. The emergence of urbanism set the pace for a conflict between modern civilization and barbarism. This conflict is neatly depicted through allegory. Therefore, the film can be seen as both a national as well as a literary allegory. In â€Å"Dona Barbara†, the conflict is signified through a number of allegorical symbols, such as urban culture versus the rural, progressiveness against retrogressiveness, the law against the outlaw, masculinity versus femininity, rational thought against the irrational thought (passion and Freudian sexual desires), et cetera. There are many critics of the film, each of whom has a varied version of the use of allegory. However, all the critics are in agreement that the use of allegory helps to clearly depict two oppositions not only in the film but also of the 1940s Venezuela. Thus, the film is seen as a way of confronting the old and the new cultures and the significant conflict that arises from this fusion. Allegory is not only used for literary sense but also for explicitly portraying the social cultural history of Venezuela. The allegorical nature of the film is embedded in the film itself as seen in a number of symbols. Allegory is used to illustrate a transition between civilization and barbarism. The character, Dona Barbara, is seen as a synthesis not just of the two worlds, but also in transit between barbarism and civilization. She is an allegory of barbarism and a symbol of the u ncultured woman of loose morals. This is evident in her tendency to use the power of seduction to overpower men, a characteristic that has earned her the title, ‘the devourer of men’1. Still, Dona Barbara is seen as a representation of civility and decorum when she genuinely falls in love with Santos Luzardo2. She is seen as a child of the two worlds and a victim of the Venezuelan social cultural conflict. This transformation from bad to good is overshadowed by the general character of Dona Barbara, otherwise christened Barbarita (a homophone to barbarism). The initial representation of Barbara as a simple girl is soon overshadowed by her transition to a gang leader who uses violence to achieve what she wants. This transition is translated in the Freudian perceptive that childhood sexual experiences determine adult behavior. Dona is a victim of child rape and violence and this transformation is thus seen as a way of reliving her childhood. Dona is thus the allegory of t he Venezuelan woman who is a victim of the synthesis between civilization and barbarism.Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The film is a good example on the use of literature to reflect on matters of social cultural and historical importance to a nation. Allegory is used to show a clear distinction between the Venezuelan historical conflict between law and lawlessness, and John King. Magical reels: a history of cinema in Latin America. (London: Verso, 2000). 49 Juan Pablo Dabove. Nightmares of the lettered city: banditry and literature in Latin America. (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007). 271-280 the subsequent consequences. This country has always been torn between the old agrarian order (the rule of the law) and lawlessness (characterized by violence). This is portrayed in the Ilanera agrarian rural culture in which there is confusion between law a nd lawlessness. The director of the film achieves this by intertwining cattle ranching (the allegory of agrarian law – civilization) and cattle rustling (the allegory lawlessness – barbarism) 2. Santos Luzardo, a civil gentleman, is also a symbol of the confusion between lawlessness and the rule of the law. The judges (symbolic of lawfulness) rule against him, thereby denying him the ownership of his property3. Santos Luzardo’s acceptance of this rule is an indication that he does not necessarily see himself as a victim of the injustices as he is well aware of his violent past, a means through which he acquired his wealth. As such, literature is used to not only synthesis civilization and barbarism, but also to clearly depict Venezuelan social cultural historical struggles with lawlessness. The film is a clear depiction of how literature can be used to illuminate not only the relevance of literary characters but also of reality. Allegory is a stylistic device em ployed by the director of this film to highlight the social cultural conflict in 1940s Venezuela, brought about by the emergence of urban civilization. It thus helps to portray the synthesis of the civility of modernity and the barbarism of the Juan Pablo Dabove. Nightmares of the lettered city: banditry and literature in Latin America. (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007). 271-280 â€Å"Dona Barbara† directed by Fernando de Fuentes. (RTI Colombia) pre-1940s Venezuela. This synthesis is seen effectively through some characters like Barbarita, law, and gender, among others. Bibliography Dabove, Juan. Nightmares of the Lettered City: Banditry and Literature in Latin America. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007. 271-280 â€Å"Dona Barbara† directed by Fernando de Fuentes. RTI: Colombia.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Use of allegory of Civilization versus ‘barbarism’ and violence specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More King, John. Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin America. London: Verso, 2000. 49