International Human Rights Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Human Rights Law - Essay Example war lasted for several years and it was in 1918, when the war came to an end, irrespective of the outcome, leaving massive bloodshed, manslaughter, misery, orphanage, annihilation and demolition of human ethics, morals and ignorance of the respect of humankind behind as its everlasting impressions on the history of the world.1 The great powers of the world, still hungry for power and possession, momentarily recognized the need for an organization that could prevent future mishaps like that of World War I and laid the foundations of League of Nations, LN. The role of LN was to safeguard the rights of minorities and to serve as a platform that shall provide opportunities to Great Powers of the world to bring their differences on the table. LN was to play the role of a negotiator, arbitrator and mediator to help the dust settle down and to prevent animosities from growing into battles and wars. The formation of LN was an indication of the fact that whatever happened, World War I could have been prevented and the aims could have been achieved in a better manner. LN was to serve a body that would recognize and safeguard the right of humans irrespective of their colour, cast, race and religion. LN was formed with a broader perspective to serve humanity not only by preventing future wars but also by addressing t o and focusing up on areas that were never streamlined and subjected to international attention in the past. LN also comprised bodies that were aimed at defining and securing rights of labour and highlighting public issues at an elevated platform such as health, opium and rights of refugees. But in 1939 the world witnessed another jolting war, World War II, that led to the demise of LN, as LN was created to prevent wars and within a few decades of its existence the world was at the verge of another war, this time even bigger in its magnitude and bitter in its essence.2 More than 100 million humans participated in this war, belonging to various regions, religions

The Importance Of Sustainability In Hotels

The Importance Of Sustainability In Hotels Human activities over the past centuries have affected the earths ecosystem. Today, the negative consequences of human actions can be noticed everywhere. Being one of the larger industries in the world, the hospitality industry is an important contributor to these problems. In this report, Ill be focusing on what impacts humans have on the eco-system. Defining what sustainability truly is. How hotels can benefit from practising sustainability and what they could do to be sustainable with references. Human Impacts on the Planet To understand the magnitude of human impacts on the environment, economies, cultures and society, we must first understand the contributions of the travel and tourism sectors. Travel and tourism is one of the largest industries in the world, which is responsible for creating jobs, increasing a countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP), generating revenue worldwide and many more. It comes with positive and negative effects. In 2008, there were 922 million international tourist arrivals with tourism receipts of US$944 billion [8]. It is estimated that the global travel and tourism industry contributed 9.6 per cent of global GDP and 7.9 per cent of worldwide employment in 2008 [9]. Tourism and travel is also a vector of climate change, accounting for approximately 5 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Our human footprint on earth is disrupting the biogeochemical cycle that has remained unchanged for millions of years. Lavish cities built on deserts irresponsibly waste our limited water supply and fragment habitats. Hotels wasting huge amounts of energy, water and food after being built upon habitats that contain life necessary to the biogeochemical cycle such as photoautotrophs and other primary producers. Excessive amounts of food are both consumed and wasted beyond our human needs. Another consequence of human activity is the changing climate. Human activity has caused increases in the concentration of greenhouse gases, which have led to increases in air and ocean temperatures, and global sea levels. As our planets natural resources become depleted, man is urged to become more responsible in their usage of non-renewable resources and look for other renewable resources either in the form of energy, water or raw materials. What is Sustainability? UNWTOs definition of sustainability is: Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability [9]. In simple terms, sustainability means: things can keep going, can sustain themselves, can continue into the future and go on forever. From a human perspective, sustainability for our planet means that it can continue to do what it was designed to do; provide fresh air, clean water, produce food and have a high quality of life. Unsustainability means that it cannot and that is where we are at now. There are four basic principles to follow to achieve sustainability. These could be seen as the care instructions for our planet. Reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and heavy metals. Reduce our dependence on synthetic chemicals that persist in nature. Reduce our destruction of nature. Ensure we are not stopping people globally on meeting their needs. Demand for the earth services: air, water and food increases as the population increases and living standards rise. But the earths ability to provide these services is declining because of the way we are living. In our search for prosperity, growth and success, we are destroying the system that we as humans are completely dependent on, nature. We humans have become a threat to our own way of life. The earth is a system and everything is connected, society, environment and economy. To live sustainably, we need to follow the four care instructions and apply them to everything we do at home and at work. Sustainable operation in hospitality can be defined as a hospitality operation that manages its resources in such a way that social, economic and environmental benefits are maximised in order to meet the need of the present generation while protecting and enhancing opportunities for future generations [2]. Many hotels today have recognised the negative effects their business activities have had on the environment and have taken steps to minimise or prevent those impacts from happening. Today, the term green hotels describes hotels that achieve to be more environmentally friendly through the efficient use of energy, water, and materials while providing quality services [10]. Green hotels conserve and preserve by saving water, reducing energy use, and reducing solid waste. They have seen benefits such as reduced costs and liabilities, high return and low-risk investments, increased profits, and positive cash flows [10]. Identifying these benefits and incentives has allowed the popularity of green hotels to grow. Using the Orchard Garden Hotel, San Francisco, as an example, what is so different about this hotel? Why is it green? The answer truly is that its green from the inside out. The concrete of the basement, and all the walls and floors have recycled contents in them. The carpet backing is 100 per cent recycled. The drapes, the sheets, curtains and bed spreads in the hotel are washable. This is very important because they do not have to use chemicals to keep them clean. The wood that Orchard Garden uses throughout the hotel is actually Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified maple and all the guestroom furniture is made out of that material. The beautiful wood panelling that you could see in the restaurant, lobby and hallway is actually recycled particle board. Another unique feature of the hotel is the key card management control system. Simply by slotting the key in a switch right by the front door in the guestroom will enable all the light switches, air-conditioning and heating. Or chard Garden also encourages their staff to implement green business practices. These are the things that you can truly do and it shows that it does not necessary cost more money to go green. (For more information, refer to case study, page 18) Why Should Hotels Practise Sustainability? Hotels, resorts, motels, hostels and other forms of accommodation are the largest sector of the travel and tourism industry, and it has been shown that hotels have the greatest negative impact on the environment compared to other commercial establishments. Implementing good environmental practices in hotel operations, including using biological resources more sustainably, can result in positive business benefits as well as make an important contribution to biodiversity conservation. Key business benefits include: Appealing to engaged consumers Tourists are increasingly motivated by sustainability and contributions to biodiversity conservation, as well as healthier environments and products. Reducing costs Good biodiversity practices can actually lower a hotels operating costs, by reducing expenses for resource procurement, usage and disposal. Improving the quality of the destination Destinations rich in biodiversity are attractive places, appeal to quality customers, and offer scope for biodiversity-based recreational activities. Improving employee productivity and sense of responsibility to the environment Employees are often strongly motivated by actions to enhance biodiversity; such motivation helps to increase employee productivity and loyalty, and can reduce staff turnover. Securing a hotels license to operate Implementing good practices for biodiversity demonstrates that a hotel cares about the environment and runs a responsible business, and can lead to increased support from government, staff and local communities. Attracting investment from socially responsible investors Investors want to be sure that their funds are invested in businesses that have good environmental records. Energy and Water Consumption, and Waste Created in the Hospitality Industry Hotels are one of the largest consumers of energy, which provide guests with high levels of comfort, services, facilities and amenities. On average, Americas 47,000 hotels spend $2,196 per available room each year on energy. This represents about 6 per cent of all operating costs. Through a strategic approach to energy efficiency, a 10 per cent reduction in energy consumption would have the same financial effect as increasing the average daily room rate by $0.62 in limited-service hotels and by $1.35 in full-service hotels [2]. Hotels are aware of their costly consumption of non-renewable energy, huge generation of wastes and excessive use of water, and are taking measures to be greener. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, there are 47,000 hotels that spend $2,196 per available room each year on energy which represents about 6 per cent of all operating costs [2]. Utilities make up 20 per cent of the average US hotels operating costs a huge percentage with a major impact on the bottom line and the environment. Inefficient use of lights, heating and air conditioning is one of the major culprits in this waste of resources. Solid waste generated by hotels comes in many sizes and forms. Wastes from 25 hotels were examined. The statistics showed that from 1991-1993 the hotel waste consisted of 46% food waste, 25.3% paper, 11.7% cardboard, 6.7% plastics, 5.6% glass, and 4.5% metals [10]. This gives a clear indication of the various forms of waste that a small number of hotels can be produced in a city. It is estimated that by 2010, water use will increase to approximately 475 gallons per day for each room in high luxury facilities [10]. This will continue to put more stress on an already stressed environment. The use of water will always be a vital part of the guests experience. However, hotels must take the initiative to inform guests of the impacts their actions would have on the environment. Energy Conservation Hotels can have large, costly energy requirements, especially in areas for cooling, heating, lighting and others. There are various alternatives and ways to conserve energy such as: Solar Power The application of the suns rays can be used for natural lighting, heating and capturing electricity through solar panels. Wind Power Wind turbines capture the kinetic energy stored in the wind, which is then converted into electricity, very similar to those used in farms. Hydropower Hydropower is electrical energy that is generated by using the flow of water through a turbine with a generator. Geothermal Power Geothermal power is energy that is gained by heat stored beneath the surface of the earth. Pumps bringing heat from beneath our feet can be used to directly heat hotels and other buildings or used as a source of power that drives steam turbines to produce electricity. Hotels worldwide are recognising the benefits of energy conservation and are undertaking projects to tap onto these benefits, and doing their part to save the environment. Choices made when purchasing equipment can have a major impact on the hotels operating expenses and on the environment; therefore, it is important that efficiency be considered before purchasing energy intensive equipment. For example, the Solar Valley Micro-E Hotel, Dezhou City, eastern China, is the worlds largest solar-powered hotel. It has thousands of permanent solar panels and solar heat pipe collectors to harvest the energy from the sun, and stores enough energy to sustain 70 per cent of its needs. The Hyatt Regency International Hotel in New Zealand understood that guests often left appliances and heating and cooling systems on when they were out of their rooms. The hotel developed a project to link energy use with room occupancy. Now when a guest leaves the room, all energy appliances shut down, with the exception of refrigerators, alarm clocks, and other essential appliances. The project costs were $16,000, while the payback period was only 14 months, with savings of $14,000 annually [10]. About 40 per cent of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louises electricity needs are met by wind and hydro electricity. Since 1999, they have been using green power derived from sources such as wind, hydro and biomass. They produce little or no greenhouse gas emissions and have minimal environmental impacts. The Sheraton Auckland Hotel and Towers realised that the daily washing of sheets, towels, flannels, tablecloths, and other linens accounted for 35% of the energy consumed in the laundry process, while drying consumed 65%. The hotel simply changed the temperature of the wash from 85 degrees Celsius to 65 degrees Celsius. This change saved $2,000 in energy costs in the first 3 months alone, and the linens came out just as clean. This project, in addition to reducing energy costs, reduced the use of washing chemicals and decreased pollution of the hotel wastewater. Also, allowing the hotel guests the option of having linens washed every other day rather than daily can significantly assist in energy and water conservation [10]. A hotel can have thousands of individual light bulbs and may use 30 per cent of its total electricity. Lighting is the second largest energy consumption system in a hotel and presents one of the best opportunities for energy savings by doing some simple upgrades. By making upgrades in guest rooms, common areas and behind-the-scenes areas, a hotel can see immediate, consistent savings with no impact on the overall guest experience. Ways to save electricity: Replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs can reduce maintenance and cut lighting costs. CFLs last many times longer and use five times lesser energy than a traditional light bulb. A compact fluorescent light used in place of an incandescent light that is left on continuously for 12 months, all 8,760 hours of the year, will pay for itself in less than one year [10]. Install motion sensors or key-activating systems in rooms. With such a system the room lights will always be off when unoccupied, without inconveniencing the guest. When upgrading lighting systems in common areas, consider installing new control systems to manage lighting in large areas. Computerised lighting controls will allow hotel operators to provide the ideal level of lighting based on the time of day, event or situation. This will prevent unnecessarily high lighting levels or unneeded lighting. Hotels should educate their staff to switch off lights and turn down heating or air-conditioning when rooms are unused. Simple actions like closing the drapes during the summer months can save the hotel money in air-conditioning costs. Install films on windows, which will lower heating and cooling loads. Window films can also reduce the glare in guestrooms. Use proper insulation and reflective roof coverings. This can save in heating and cooling costs. Purchase appliances, which are Energy Star certified wherever possible. In laundry areas, remove old washing machines and replace them with both energy and water conserving models. Use natural daylight in lobby, bar and restaurant for as much as possible. Consider installing skylights. Exterior lighting can be used as a design element and can have dramatic effects. However, consider adding timers, which would switch off the lights at times like 3am, when no one is around to impress. Install solar water heating systems for heated pools. Use covers to cover hot tubs and pools when the areas are closed, this will reduce evaporation. Exit signs, such as LED, when installed throughout a building can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in energy and maintenance costs. Use an energy management system (EMS), which is designed to control the mechanical equipment in the hotel, thereby saving utilities such as gas and electricity. This system determines when air-conditioning or heating can be switched on/off or up/down. As soon as the guest enters the room, his room key card is inserted in a slot behind the door. Electricity for the light and the air-conditioner will now be activated. As soon as the guest leaves the room the utilities will be automatically switched off. The energy consumption of the hotel can be monitored by comparing reports generated by the energy management system and the front office. For example, if occupancy levels are not high the energy consumption should be lower and visa versa. In kitchens, use smaller convection ovens to replace oversized conventional ovens. If available, schedule an energy audit with the local energy provider or energy auditor. Water Conservation Water conservation is just as important as energy conservation. Fresh clean water is one of the most valuable commodity on earth. Using improved technologies hotels can deliver equal or better services to guests using less water. From a guests perspective, the use of water is a vital part of his or her experience. Any water restrictions would result in guests being unhappy and so maintaining adequate water comfort must be central to all water management strategies. Ways to save water: Start a linen reuse programme for towels and sheets in all guest rooms. Giving the option to guests to choose whether or not they want to reuse their towels and sheets, which can save huge amounts of water and reduce chemical wastage. Laundry washers, which use final rinse water for prewashing of the next load of laundry. Install low-flow showerheads and sink aerators. 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) showerheads and 1.5 GPM aerators are recommended for water savings and guest satisfaction respectively. The latest generation of sink taps is equipped with infrared sensors that automatically turn off when a person walks away or when the allotted quantity per wash has been delivered. Install low-flow toilets or toilet-tank fill diverters. The THC Rotorua Hotel in New Zealand had urinals that flushed automatically every nine minutes. Each flush used 10 liters of water. This added up to 66 litres per hour, regardless of whether the urinals had been used or not. The total consumption for three urinals was 4,740 daily [2]. After realising the huge water cost, the hotel installed detectors that could sense when someone is using the urinals, and allow flushing to occur after being used. This greatly reduced the water usage from 66 litres per hour to 40 litres during the day and 20 litres in the night. For gardens, watering should take place either early in the morning or later in the day to reduce the possibility of evaporation in hot weather. Switch to drought resistant plants. Replace mowed landscaping with artificial ground cover or native ground cover. Pool covers will reduce evaporation and have the added advantage of reducing heat loss in cooler climates. To reduce water use, consider rainwater harvesting and/or a greywater system. Properties investing in fountains and water features should turn off appliances at night and consider the use of greywater. In kitchens, use a food-thawing machine instead of running water over foods for faster thawing. Water conservation urges hotels to use improved practices that will reduce and enhance the beneficial use of water, addressing the technical and human side of water management issues. For example, The Houston-based Green Hotels Association observed water use in the San Antonio-based La Quinta Inn. Through a one-month period, the hotel showed an average of 100 gallons of water being used per guest per billing period. The chain totaled more than a billion gallons in the first nine months in 1996. La Quinta Inn then installed low-flow showerheads and aerating faucets in each room, resulting in a saving of $1.50 per room per month. Replacing all toilets with ultra-flow toilets at a cost of $3,250 showed a payback in 2.1 years and annual water saving of 180,000 gallons per year [10]. Waste Reduction The hospitality industry creates tons and tons of waste each year due to its mass facilities, amenities and services provided to their guests. To give an indication of the size of waste created, The European Union produces 1.3 billion tons of waste each year. In other words, 3.5 tons of refuse and liquid or solid waste per European citizen, nearly a third of this food waste for which the food service industry has a responsibility. Another 40 45 million tons of this huge mountain of waste is classed as hazardous, or particularly dangerous [2]. In response to current trends, hotel owners and operators are analyzing ways to make changes in operations to cut waste disposal costs, protect the environment and increase guest loyalty. A few proactive hotel corporations have mandated hotel environmental programmes such as water and energy efficiency and more recently, waste reduction and recycling. Ways to reduce waste: To increase guest involvement, place recycling instructions in guest rooms and locate recycling collection containers in convenient locations in convention halls and public areas throughout the hotel. Always place a trash container along side of the recycling container in public areas to avoid trash being thrown in the recycling bin. Buy guest amenity and office products that contain recycled material. Provide amenities such as shower caps, shoe wipes on request. Shred office paper and use it to package shipments. Decrease the number of hard copies of documents by establishing a central filing system to store documents. Use recycled, unbleached and chlorine-free paper products, and try to minimise the amount of paper used by staff and guests. Print with soy-based inks, which are less harmful to the environment. Purchase vacuum cleaners with reusable bags versus disposables ones. Reduce the need for pesticide applications in guest rooms and employee work areas by removing food containers, garbage and recycling containers daily; clean employee break rooms daily to remove crumbs and spills; and report cracks around doors and windows to the engineering department for repairs to prevent crawling pests from entering. Re-dye stained bath towels and washcloths for reuse as pool towels and cleaning cloths. Re-dye linens and carpet to match remodeled decor. Re-dye tablecloths and napkins to match new color schemes when remodeling; reuse worn table linens as cleaning rags or remake into aprons, laundry bags, mattress covers. Provide reusable items such as cloth napkins, glass cups, ceramic dishes, etc. with all food and beverage services. Just by using glass or plastic coasters can reduce cocktail napkin waste, and by providing mugs for coffee instead of disposable cups can play a large part in conserving the environment. Purchase refrigerators, freezers, and coolers which are CFC-free. Donate leftover food to a local non-profit organisation. Consider using a compost bin. Purchase cleaning products with less hazardous constituents. Use a hazardous chemical containment pan to prevent leaching of unused chemicals. Donate leftover guest amenities, old furniture and appliances to charities. Refinish and reupholster damaged and dated furniture. Use dry, concentrated dishwasher chemicals in dispensers to reduce chemical spills and waste. Most guests are pleased to see the use of products made from recycled materials, energy efficient light bulbs, low-flow showerheads and recycling programmes in hotels and restaurants that they patronise. Hotel managers report that most guests are willing to participate in the hotels recycling efforts. No matter how well planned the hotels waste reduction and recycling initiatives may be, they probably wont succeed without the support of the hotel department managers and staff. Successful hotel recycling programmes require employee involvement, training and recognition. Involve all employees in the recycling programme. They are already disposing of waste as they perform their daily jobs. Recycling is simply disposing of job related waste in a different container from the one used for trash. Hotels should seek their ideas in organising the recycling programme and for methods of collecting and storing the materials. Employees are more likely to support a programme that they understand and have helped design. Case Study The Orchard Garden Hotel Location: 466 Bush Street, San Francisco, California 94108 Management Company: Portfolio Hotels Resorts, LLC Number of Guests Rooms: 86 rooms Awards and Certifications: San Francisco Green Business Green Seal Certified Silver LEED certified U.S. Green Building Council Best Organic Restaurant in San Francisco British Airways Tourism Located in the heart of San Francisco, the Orchard Garden Hotel is near the Financial District, Union Square, and the Chinatown gate. At 10 stories, the 56,000-square-foot building includes 86 guestrooms and a 56-seat restaurant and bar. The hotel opened in 2006, and in 2007, it became the third hotel in the U.S. and the fourth hotel in the world to earn LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Among the Orchard Gardens most innovative features is the key card. After allowing guests into their room, the card becomes a powerful energy-management system. Guests activate the rooms lighting and mechanical systems by inserting the card into a slot near the door. When they leave the room, they remove the card from the box, turning off all systems except for one outlet, which can be used to charge laptops or cell phones. The system, which cost about $37,000 to install, was anticipated to save nearly 20 per cent in energy costs, paying for itself in two years. Since the building is located in an urban centre, multiple public-transit lines stop within walking distance of the hotel. The hotel also features bicycle stalls for both employees and guests, and employees who cycle to work are welcome to use a guestroom shower. High levels of insulation reduce sound transmission between rooms while improving energy efficiency. More than 80 per cent of all regularly occupied spaces are day lit, reducing the need for electric lighting, and a roof terrace strengthens visitors sense of connection to the natural environment. The project team selected materials for their recycled content, regional origin, and low chemical emissions. Materials used in the project include concrete made with flyash in place of some of the cement, wood certified to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards, and low-emitting carpeting made with recycled content. During the construction process, the project team diverted 77 per cent of all waste, by weight, from the landfill. The entire hotel is designated tobacco-free. Housekeeping staff use green cleaning products, and all fabrics, selected for their low chemical emissions, are machine-washed to avoid the use of dry-cleaning chemicals. Bins in each room encourage guests to recycle, and the hotel uses recycled paper and soy-based inks for their printed materials. Thanks to these and other strategies, the hotel has been recognised by the San Francisco Green Business Programme and certified according to Green Seals standard for lodging properties. Conclusion For a hotel to change its traditional ways of operating and to accept sustainability will take time. Being sustainable is not costly and does not really have a slow payback rate. A hotel can start its journey in becoming green by implementing simple changes, policies and services such as providing your guests with bicycles, walking maps to encourage them to do something that is more environmentally friendly and healthy. Creating an incentive programme to encourage your staff to participate in and improve upon environmentally friendly practices. Replacing a simple incandescent light bulb with a CFL. Coming up with creative ways to reward hotel guests for being green. One great example is Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers offers a free meal to guests who generate 10 watt hours of electricity on the gym bicycle [12]. These are only a few examples of what hotels could do, while some steps may be small, none are insignificant. If we can follow the four basic principles (page 4) to achieve sustainability, we can work together to be sustainable. We will all have a better quality of life, we will waste less, we will pollute less and we will create more things we value in society while improving our planets chance of providing us with the very things we need to survive.

Symbolism In Ethan Frome Essay -- essays research papers

Symbolism can give additional meaning to a variety of texts. From music to movies to novels, symbolism creates an even deeper meaning than found in a surface reading. The symbolism found within Ethan Frome adds to the inherent meaning of the text to give it an even deeper meaning. Edith Wharton uses the pickle dish, the Oak tree, and the cat as symbols to achieve deeper meaning. The pickle dish is of great significance in the novel. It is used to represent Zeena's virginity. Mattie seamed to know a great deal more about the pickle dish than Ethan did. She had to remind him "It was a wedding present don't you remember? It came all the way from Philadelphia, from Zeena's aunt that married a minister"(70). Ethan never bothered to pay much attention to the pickle dish. When Zeena ...

Faulkner’s Short Stories Essay

‘A Rose for Emily’ and ‘Barn Burning’ is both short stories created by William Faulkner. In both short stories, Faulkner used the Old Southern setting as his character’s orientation of culture and societal norms. Emily from the story of ‘A rose for Emily’ and Abner from the story of ‘Barn Burning’ both guilty of terrible crimes, terror and violence yet Faulkner, with his creativity and unconventional talent in creating literature, manage to generate sympathy for both characters. The continuous used of the Old South as the main setting of his both short stories suggests that the characters’ predicaments have to do with the place’s history. Though Emily and Abner are both portrayed as cruel and violent, Faulkner employed sympathy through subtly demonstrating that they are just victims of society, history and culture. Emily and Abner’s revelation of their dark side human nature was been provoked by their past experiences in the hands of cruel society. Emily’s character was created with authentic insights about a woman who can not accept change. Emily was a spinster who was seen as a lonely and impoverished woman who was so attached to the past, a woman that shuts herself off from the rest of the world simply because she cannot accept change. The story begins with Emily’s death at the age of 74 and flashes back to the near distant past of Emily’s life. She was a character who was so attached in the tradition of the past that she continually personifies until her death. Faulkner used the pronoun ‘we’ which tells that the narrator is some of the townspeople sympathizing Emily. It is a well structured and detailed events of Emily’s life the will give a deeper understanding why there is pride and isolation in her character. Emily’s structured character brought her to an unlucky fate. The story tells how Emily copes and accepted the nature of time, change and chance. Emily’s father who represents the ruling class of the South contributed most in the construction of her pride and arrogance. Emily was raised in an upper class home which made them prominent in the community. She perceived herself as rich and powerful which motivated her poise and bearing. Their position in the community had unconsciously taught her to hold herself high from the surrounding people even after her father’s death. As time passes by, perspective about class and status change. People accepted the changes of time and ideas. But Emily who was a complex and well developed character chose not to adapt. This made her a grotesque or unique personality in the setting that encouraged the townspeople to analyze her life. Faulkner’s sympathy towards Emily is perceived through the narrator’s tone and how he symbolically represents the rose in relation to Emily’s life. The rose in the story represents affection. It is affection given by the narrator to Emily. Other people may perceive Emily’s pride and violence as something immoral, but the narrator’s point of view towards Emily is different. He clearly sympathize with Emily and understands the reason how Emily constructed such character. The narrator justified her through presenting series of events about her past. She was a victim of bitterness and complete attachment. The community itself during her father’s time constructed her different reality that made her of what she became. I can also suggest that the rose in the story represents Emily’s love for Homer. It represents the soft side of Emily which the outside world can not see. She was perceived differently by the people as a scandalous and proud. But Emily like any other needs love and affection. Her love was violent and harsh though which represents the thorns of the rose. The narrator gave detailed events of Emily’s history which suggests the gossip nature of the southern town where everyone knows everybody else. In the beginning of the story, the author emphasized those women in town had a different perspective in attending Emily’s funeral. Emily was respected by the men of the town but women were driven by curiosity. This suggests the domestic nature of women that time that seems more concern to the detailed events of Emily’s life. Women wanted to appease their long curiosity. Most of the time ladies in town find Emily’s scandalous and unusual. They find Emily a threat to the community. She was a symbol of the past. Other readers may perceive this horrifying when the people in town discovered the secret of Emily after her death. She has kept the body of her lover named Homer Baron locked in a separate bedroom after she killed him years before. But the body was not alone. The Northern man had been locked with an embrace since behind the indented pillow was a strand of iron-gray hair of Emily. The dead man had not died without love and attention. It was a horrifying in a way that Homer’s death was not given a social justice. But it was sad for Emily who wanted to give love and be loved but the circumstances and public opinion will no permit her so. The morality of Miss Emily Grierson was not justified in the end of the story. The consequences of her isolation and pride made the townspeople pity her all the more. However, her solitude made her missed significant chances of her happiness. Though destiny and fate is a choice but we must reconsider the factors that influenced Emily’s choices. The narrator was so clever on how he presented Emily not as an antagonist but a woman that has to be sympathized which made me see her as a victim. Abner on the other hand on the ‘Barn Burning’ story is a barn burner and who have a 10year old son named Sarty who always wish to death that his father will stop his horrifying and unjust activity. Abner finds perverse sense of joy in setting a fire on someone else barn without reconsidering that farmers hold their livestock and harvested crops on barns which provide food and money for the farmers and their families in order to survive. Moreover, Abner also never reconsidered that his activity and crime may affect his son’s sense of morality at his very early age since his activities of barn burning is no secret in the family. Faulkner generates a sense of sympathy to Abner’s character when he narrated Abner’s past involvement during Civil War. Abner grew accustomed to building small fires as a way to hide from troops during civil war. The threat of fire is Abner one and only source of power. Fire â€Å"spoke to some deep mainspring† of Abner’s character â€Å"as the one weapon for the preservation of integrity . . . and hence to be regarded with respect and used with discretion.† Fire is Abner’s unconscious defense mechanism believing that no one will ever harm him anymore. In setting fire, he unconsciously acquired sense of power, protection and confidence that he will never be defeated by anyone who cross his path and anger him. His experience in war continually haunts him. Ab has never held an allegiance to any man or thing.  In war, to kill is for the purpose of self preservation. After the war, he has not changed. When he experience pressure to an employer or to any authority, he takes away the power from them through burning what they own. Someone who is more superior than him is bound to destruction. When one is gone, he moves on and takes another again. Abner is basically a Southern man attached by the role given to him during civil war that a man’s place in the society is derived by their actions during the war. In burning barns, Abner accumulates a sense of pride and of manliness disregarding that the war is over and that his life is now in reality. Through the character of Abner, Faulkner illustrated the destructive psychological effects of war and how it distorts the participants’ sense of morality. Abner’s character manifests war’s ugly truths which are in contrast to the ideas of glory, courage and heroism associated with war. When the war ends, they perceive that everything is over. However for those who experience it, there is a greater battle that not everybody understands. Abner as a participant of civil war destroyed. He became a victim of political conflict. Both Emily and Abner’s actions were motivated by the psychological effects brought to them by war and societal norms and standards.

The Joy Luck Club

joyHigh-context Cultures and Low-context Cultures The Joy Luck Club  explores the clash between Chinese culture and American culture. One way of understanding the difference is to look at communication in these cultures. Chinese culture can be classified as a high-context culture and American culture as a low-context culture. First I will define these terms, then explain the significance of these two categories, and finally apply them to The Joy Luck Club. * Culture  is the way of living which a group of people has developed and transmitsfrom one generation to the next.It includes concepts, skills, habits of thinking and acting, arts, institutions, ways of relating to the world, and agreement on what is significant and necessary to know. Race, ethnicity, class, and gender are cultural creations; they derive their meanings from the culture. * Context  is the whole situation, background, or environment connected to an event, a situation, or an individual. * A  high-context cult ure  is a culture in which the individual has internalized meaning and information, so that little is explicitly stated in written or spoken messages.In conversation, the listener knows what is meant; because the speaker and listener share the same knowledge and assumptions, the listener can piece together the speaker's meaning. China is a high-context culture. * A  low-context culture  is one in which information and meanings are explicitly stated in the message or communication. Individuals in a low-context culture expect explanations when statements or situations are unclear, as they often are. Information and meaning are not internalized by the individual but are derived from context, e. . , from the situation or an event. The United States is a low-context culture. High-context Cultures In a high-context culture, the individual acquires cultural information and meaning from obedience to authority, through observation and by imitation. To acquire knowledge in this way and to internalize it, children must be carefully trained. High-context cultures are highly stable and slow to change, for they are rooted in the past; one example is the Chinese practice of ancestor worship. They are also unified and cohesive cultures.In such cultures, the individual must know what is meant at the covert or unexpressed level; the individual is supposed to know and to react appropriately. Others are expected to understand without explanation or specific details. Explanations are insulting, as if the speaker regards the listener as not knowledgeable or socialized enough to understand. To members of a low-context culture, speakers in a high-context culture seem to talk around a subject and never to get to the point. The bonds among people are very strong in a high-context culture.People in authority are personally and literally responsible for the actions of subordinates, whether in government, in business, or in the family. (In the U. S. , on the other hand, the general practice is to find a â€Å"fall guy† or scapegoat who takes the blame for those with more power and status. ) In a high-context culture, the forms (conventional ways of behaving) are important; the individual who does not observe the forms is perceived negatively; the negative judgments for an individual's bad behavior may extend to the entire family.In embarrassing or awkward situations, people act as though nothing happened. Individuality, minor disagreements, and personality clashes are ignored, so that no action has to be taken. Taking action tends to be taken seriously, because once started an action must generally be completed. Individuals can't stop an action because they change their minds, because they develop another interest, because unforeseen consequences arise, or because something better comes along.Consequently there is greater caution or even reluctance to initiate an undertaking or to give a promise. Chinese parents may overlook a child's behavior, because they expect that the strong family tradition, which is based on ancestors, will cause the child ultimately to behave properly. The Clash of Low-context and High-context Cultures in  The Joy Luck Club In a low-context culture, as Edward T. Hall explains, â€Å"Most of the information must be in the transmitted message in order to make up for what is missing in the context (both internal and external). In a low-context culture change is rapid and easy; bonds between people are looser; action is undertaken easily and can be changed or stopped once initiated. The mothers in  The Joy Luck Club  expect their daughters to obey their elders and so learn by obedience, by observation and by imitation, as they did in China. Their elders did not explain. Because the mothers internalized values and knowledge, they seem to assume that knowledge is innate and that it is present in their daughters and only has to be brought out or activated.The internalization is so psychologically complete and so much a part of the mothers' identities that they speak of it as physical. Am-mei, for instance, sees in her mother â€Å"my own true nature. What was beneath my skin. Inside my bones† (p. 40); to her, connection to her mother or filial respect is â€Å"so deep it is in your bones† (p. 41). But in this country, the mothers' warnings, instructions, and example are not supported by the context of American culture, and so their daughters do not understand. They resent and misinterpret their mothers' alien Chinese ways and beliefs.Similarly, the mothers do not understand why they do not have the kind of relationships with their daughters that they had with their mothers in China. The Joy Luck mothers were so close to their own mothers that they saw themselves as continuations of their mothers, like stairs. The communication problems that arise when one speaker is from a high-context culture and the other is from a low-context culture can be seen in the conversations of June and Suyuen, â€Å"My mother and I never really understood one another.We translated each other's meanings and I seemed to hear less than what was said, while my mother heard more† (p. 27). June looks for meaning in what is stated and does not understand that her mother omits important information because she assumes her daughter knows it and can infer it; her mother, on the other hand, looks for meaning in what has not been stated and so adds to what has been stated explicitly and comes up with meanings that surprise her daughter.The difficulties of growing up in a family from a high-context culture and living in a low-context culture appear in other Asian-American writers. The narrator of Maxine Hong Kingston's  The Woman Warrior  is unable to decide whether figures she sees are real persons or ghosts, whether stories she is told are true or fiction, what the meaning of those stories is, why she is told the stories, and whether an event really happens or is imagi ned. The Talk Story One way of maintaining and instructing children in traditional ways which Chinese immigrants adopted is the traditional Chinese talk story.According to Linda Ching Sledge, the talk story â€Å"served to redefine an embattled immigrant culture by providing its members immediate, ceremonial access to ancient lore†; it also â€Å"retained the structure of Chinese oral wisdom (parables, proverbs, formulaic description, heroic biography, casuistical dialogue). † In the talk-story the narrator expects the listener to grasp the point, which is often not stated (unlike the Western  Aesop's Fables). Tan adopts the Chinese talk story in the mothers' warning stories to their daughters.The talk story serves another function in this novel; E. D. Huntley explains, Talk story enables women who have been socialized into silence for most of their lives–the  Joy Luck  mothers, for instance–to reconfigure the events of those lives into acceptable p ublic utterances: painful experiences are recast in the language of folk tale; cautionary reminders become gnomic phrases; real life takes on the contours of myth. More significantly, the act of performing talk story allows the storyteller to retain a comfortable distance between herself and her audience.Thus, the storyteller manages in some fashion to maintain the silence to which she is accustomed, as well as to speak out and share with others the important stories that have shaped her into the person that she is. An issue for both mothers and daughters is finding a voice, that is, finding a way to express the essential self. Themes in  The Joy Luck Club Identity. The stories tell of events which shape the identities of the mothers and daughters and give direction to their lives.Though David Denby is speaking of the movie, his description applies equally well to the novel, â€Å"each story centers on a moment of creation or self-destruction in a woman's life, the moment when he r identity becomes fixed forever. † The mothers do not question their identities, having come from a stable culture into which their families were integrated. Their daughters, however, are confused about their identities. Communication between American daughters and Chinese mothers.The mothers see their duty as encouraging and, if necessary, pushing their daughters to succeed; therefore, they feel they have a right to share in their success (the Chinese view). The daughters see the mothers as trying to live through them and thereby preventing them from developing as separate individuals and from leading independent lives (the American view). The link of the Chinese mothers and Chinese daughters. The Chinese mothers form a continuity with their mothers in China, a connection which they want to establish with their American daughters.Love, loss, and redemption. Throughout there exists what David Gates calls a â€Å"ferocious love between mother and daughter† both in China and in this country. But the women also suffer loss, which ranges from separation to abandonment to rejection, in the mother-daughter relationship and in the male-female relationship. Sometimes the loss is overcome and the love re-established. Connection of the past and the present. The mothers' past lives in China affect their daughters' lives in this country, just as the daughters' childhood experiences affect their identities and adult lives.Power of language. Without proficiency in a common language, the Chinese mothers and American daughters cannot communicate. St. Clair cannot communicate with his wife, and so he changes her name and her birth date, taking away her identity as a tiger. Lena St. Clair mistranslates for her father and for her mother. Also, words have great power. Expectation and reality. The mothers have great hopes for their daughters; their expectations for their daughters include not just success but also freedom.They do not want their daughters' lives to be determined by a rigid society and convention, as in an arranged marriage, and made unhappy as theirs were. The American reality fulfilled their expectations in unanticipated and unacceptable ways. Another way of expressing this theme is The American Dream and its fulfillment. Chinese culture versus American culture. This conflict appears throughout the novel, from the struggles of the mothers and daughters to Lena St. Clair's Chinese eyes and American appearance and Lindo Jong's Chinese face and her American face.

Examples of Mixed Metaphors and Cliches

Examples of Mixed Metaphors and Cliches As defined in our glossary, a mixed metaphor is a succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons. When two or more metaphors (or cliches) are jumbled together, often illogically, we say that these comparisons are mixed. In Garners Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner offers this classic example of a mixed metaphor from a speech by Boyle Roche in the Irish Parliament: Mr. Speaker, I smell a rat. I see him floating in the air. But mark me, sir, I will nip him in the bud. This sort of mixed metaphor may occur when a speaker is so familiar with the figurative sense of a phrase (smell a rat, nip in the bud) that he fails to recognize the absurdity that results from a literal reading. Now and then a writer may deliberately introduce mixed metaphors as a way of exploring an idea. Consider this example from British journalist Lynne Truss: Well, if punctuation is the stitching of language, language comes apart, obviously, and all the buttons fall off. If punctuation provides the traffic signals, words bang into each other and everyone ends up in Minehead. If one can bear for a moment to think of punctuation marks as those invisibly beneficent fairies (Im sorry), our poor deprived language goes parched and pillowless to bed. And if you take the courtesy analogy, a sentence no longer holds the door open for you to walk in, but drops it in your face as you approach. Some readers may be amused by this sort of metaphorical mix; others may find it tiresomely twee. In most cases, mixed metaphors are accidental, and the haphazard juxtaposition of images is likely to be more comical or perplexing than revealing. So stick these examples in your pipe and chew them over. So now what we are dealing with is the rubber meeting the road, and instead of biting the bullet on these issues, we just want to punt.[T]he bill is mostly a stew of spending on existing programs, whatever their warts may be.A friend of mine, talking about the Democratic presidential candidates, tossed out a wonderful mixed metaphor: This is awfully weak tea to have to hang your hat on.The mayor has a heart as big as the Sahara for protecting his police officers, and that is commendable. Unfortunately, he also often strips his gears by failing to engage the clutch when shifting what emanates from his brain to his mouth. The bullets he fires too often land in his own feet.The walls had fallen down and the Windows had opened, making the world much flatter than it had ever been but the age of seamless global communication had not yet dawned.Ive spent a lot of time in the subways, said Shwa. Its a dank and dark experience. You feel morbid. The environment contributes to the fear that de velops in men and women. The moment that you walk into the bowels of the armpit of the cesspool of crime, you immediately cringe. Anyone who gets in the way of this cunning steamroller will find himself on a card-index file and then in hot very hot water.A Pentagon staffer, complaining that efforts to reform the military have been too timid: Its just ham-fisted salami-slicing by the bean counters.All at once, he was alone in this noisy hive with no place to roost.Top Bush hands are starting to get sweaty about where they left their fingerprints. Scapegoating the rotten apples at the bottom of the militarys barrel may not be a slam-dunk escape route from accountability anymore.It is easy to condemn Thurmond, Byrd and their fellow pork barons. Few of us would hail a career spent stewarding the federal gravy train as the vocation of a statesman.Rather than wallowing in tears, let this passionate community strike while the iron is hot. It probably won’t cost the National Park Service a single penny, will be no skin off its nose, will heal the community and it presents a golden opportunity for first-person interpretation. Federal Judge Susan Webber Wright stepped up to the plate and called a foul.[Robert D.] Kaplan keeps getting into scrapes at the keyboard. I wanted a visual sense of the socioeconomic stew in which Al Qaeda flourished. You smile in admiration, as at something rare, like a triple play; its a double mixed metaphor. Remember this: Keep an eye on your metaphors and an ear to the ground so that you dont end up with your foot in your mouth. Sources Lynne Truss,  Eats, Shoots Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, 2003 Chicago Tribune, cited by  The New Yorker, August 13, 2007 The New York Times, January 27, 2009 Montgomery Advertiser, Alabama, cited by  The New Yorker, November 16, 1987 Bob Herbert, Behind the Curtain,  The New York Times, November 27, 2007 Thomas L. Friedman,  The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, 2005 Our Town, N.Y., cited by  The New Yorker, March 27, 2000 Len Deighton,  Winter: A Novel of a Berlin Family, 1988 The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 1997 Tom Wolfe,  The Bonfire of the Vanities Frank Rich,  The New York Times, July 18, 2008 Jonathan Freedland,  Bring Home The Revolution, 1998 Daily Astorian, cited by  The New Yorker, April 21, 2006 Catherine Crier,  The Case Against Lawyers, 2002 David Lipsky, Appropriating the Globe,  The New York Times, November 27, 2005 Garner, Bryan A. Garners Modern American Usage. 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, October 30, 2003.

Essay Book of Faces

Essay Book of Faces Essay Book of Faces Amongst the greatest inventions of our century are the hordes of social networking sites made available to the entire world. Combining the capabilities of e-mail, instant messaging, journal writing, and picture sharing- they have allowed us to overcome communal differences and surmount even the biggest gaps between generations, cultures, and livelihoods. But even these social web innovations have their adverse effects. The ability to create a whole new persona with the simple strokes of keys and the click of a button has allowed for an even more dangerous field of unknown to be discovered by the people around you; almost as if everyone now wears a virtual mask to cover up who they really might be on the inside. This new height of pretense has crippled the idea of integrity. The people you see at school, at work, even at church may be the quiet and shy person you have come to know and accept. But through websites such as Facebook, you can have a peek into how they would really like to portray themselves- how they spend their time, who they spend it with, what they like and dislike, and all their preferences available and editable to their will. With the hundreds of ‘Friends’ people have connected to their online profiles, how many of them can really truly say that they know exactly how they act and what they think or like? And how many of those people can even answer without ever looking at all their online ‘Info’ first? These are the questions that result from such lack of truth. This is what happens when diving into the world of Facebook- everyone’s essentially a stranger. At school, almost everyone I know has somehow interacted with me on Facebook. As with all the new people I meet, I somehow always end the conversation with, â€Å"Alright, be sure to Facebook me!† or something along those lines. At work, my coworkers and I discuss the many different trending things happening on everyone’s ‘Walls’ or taking turns asking, â€Å"Did you see so-and-so’s status?† At church, and in local supermarkets, and on TV and the radio, all the buzz is about ‘uploading to Facebook’ or ‘Liking’ or ‘Poke Wars.’ Which proves only the fact that people everywhere- even in your very own community, involuntarily believe in the facades that they see after ‘Accepting’ someone’s friend request. The information that is shown on Facebook is fully customizable, so each and every user has the ability to show what they like and whom they want it to be visible to. This in itself is already masking out one’s true identity, whether or not all the things posted were accurate or not. Most people find it so regular to see that some people even have faces of celebrities as their own ‘Profile Picture.’ Why does everyone do that? To make themselves feel better? To feel special and important? Jose Antonio Vargas, renowned jour nalist of the Washington Post, wrote â€Å"The Face of Facebook,† an unexpected view of the founder of Facebook himself- Mark Zuckerberg. Vargas also sees that â€Å"Facebook profiles are always something of a performance: you choose the details you want to share and you choose whom you want to share with.† The most interesting part is that Vargas notes â€Å"Now, Zuckerberg, who met with me for several in-person interviews this summer, is confronting something of the opposite: a public exposition of details that he didn’t choose.† (Vargas) This information is of the highest level of bewilderment; the founder of Facebook himself does not even correctly portray who he is on his Facebook profile! With even the most popular individuals, groups, and organizations now on Facebook, how can we be so sure into trusting what they want us to see? Even at a comfortable level of familiarity with ‘Friends,’ when do you draw the line between the Facebook w orld and the real one? As a student, I am surrounded by people getting affected by this phenomenon on a daily basis. The people I talk to may seem to be one thing on their profile, maybe a nice, social, hipster kind of