Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ Essay Example

Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ Paper Lots of symbolism has used by Robert Frost in this poem. Although the poem itself is written on a very typical, iambic and rhythmic approach using simple language that can easily be understand, there are lots of hidden messages enclosed on every words, lines, stanzas and even to its title itself which has to be interpreted in order for the poem as well as the poet to be understood. Thus, his symbolism, which adds more spice to the poem, has been a help in analyzing its meaning. The title ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ was a thought-provoking message which could predict that someone has saying goodbye to his life when he was undergoing through the worst time. Perhaps, the life that he was trying to saying goodbye with or to have its stopping period was a life that is full of misery and agony. The first stanza alone covered four symbolisms in which after interpreting those them could help identify the real meaning of the poem. Firstly, the woods here suggest life. The speaker in this poem tried to figure out whom life it was after all, although he said he thinks he knew who it was. We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolisms in ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’ specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Life may have different meanings, and that was the very reason why Robert Frost wanted to write it in plural form –woods. Secondly, the house of the woods’ owner might depict God or the giver of life. The tone of speaker offered the connotation that God doesn’t see him while he was staring at the life he provided. Thirdly, it was the village. Probably, village was the representation of heaven. Frost did not mention that the village was snowy or freezing as well as the house. God in heaven, as everybody believes, would never experience such upheaval. The last symbol was the snow. The snow represented storm or blizzard, a cold natural phenomenon, or perhaps an unpredicted but anticipated natural catastrophe that can freeze one’s life. Again on the second stanza laid four symbolisms, the little horse, farmhouse, frozen lake, and the darkest evening of the year. To the little horse, it might speak as a voice of the speaker’s conscience. It was written as little because one’s conscience never took proud over the consciousness but not as littlest because it would never be littlest to the point that one could see it as insignificant. The farmhouse suggested point of recognition to the presence of the speaker’s conscience, probably located in his heart where the speaker does not always referring to. Frozen lake might offer a clear picture of death. Lake with its deep and wide characteristic is as frightening as death. Frozen can also be seen literally as lifeless or immovable. The darkest evening of the year although it was written figuratively indicated hopelessness, helplessness and powerlessness. At certain moment, the speaker confidently admitted that he was undergoing through his roughest time. Third stanza covered symbolisms formed on different sounds such as harness bells, easy wind, and downy flake. The harness bell of the horse denoted murmuring of the conscience. It’s as if the shaking sound of the bell tried to awaken the speaker about the stopping thinking in the midst of such heavy snowfall. Easy wind offered calmness and lightness of the speaker’ burden in his heart or perhaps denoted a peace of mind while downy flake suggests tears falling. Such peace of mind might be experience only if one lets his tears flow because it is the best way to lighten up the heart’s load. In the first two lines of the last stanza, which said that ‘the woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep,’ (Frost, 1011) one could predict that the tone of the speaker here tried to figure out the bad and the good memories collected all through his whole existence. Those memories might be though some were somewhat upsetting, all of it could be meaningful and hard to forget. However, he still has no option but to do what he has to do just like performing the promise that he once said. Two last two stanza was identical. Robert Frost made this very ending as dramatic as it looked like. Having that style would make the readers think that the speaker still followed his heart’s desire to just do the stopping by the woods on a snowy evening which means to pause for quite sometime with the life he is living while it still on its darkest and gloomiest period. The speaker here realized not to just cut his journey as he has so many miles to go before he went asleep. Lastly, the poem although can be perceived its tone as very depressing all throughout just like a suicide note, the ending still portrayed a positive outcome and contentment. R E F E R E N C E S Ciardi, John. â€Å"Robert Frost: The Way to the Poem. † Robert Frost: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. James M. Cox. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1962. 21-30. Frost, Robert. â€Å" Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening. † Literature and Its Writers. A compact Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 4th Ed. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. 2007. 1010-1011. Jeffers, Susan, and Robert Frost. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. New York: Penguin, 2001.

Gulf of Tonkin essays

Gulf of Tonkin essays Was President Johnson's decision for retaliatory acts against North Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin incidents justified? Or an even better question to ask is, did both incidents ever really happen? To answer these questions its necessary to look at some of the historical background of the region. For much of Vietnam's history it has been under foreign rule, primarily by the Chinese. In 1860, France began its domination of the area and had, by the late 19th century, had several colonies in a number of regions around the Gulf of Tonkin. During WWII, the Japanese government took control of much of the area and set up a puppet regime that was eventually forced out by the Vietnamese at the end of 1945. After WWII and until 1955, France fought hard to regain their former territories in the region, their effort was wasted. The French were finally defeated at Dien Bien Phu on the 8th of May 1954 by the communist general Vo Nguyen Giap. The communist regime set up its headquarters in Hanoi under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. Many North Vietnamese left the country and fled south where the self-proclaimed president, Ngo Dinh Diem had formed the Republic of Vietnam. In the 1950's, the United States began to send troops to Vietnam, during the following 25-year period; the war would c reate some of the strongest tensions in US history. Almost 3 million US men and women were sent thousands of miles to fight for what was a questionable cause. In total, it is estimated that over 2 million people on both sides were killed. On August 2, 1964, three North Vietnamese patrol boats attack the American destroyer U.S.S. Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin ten miles off the coast of North Vietnam. They fire three torpedoes and machine-guns, with no resulting causalities. U.S. Navy fighters from the carrier Ticonderoga, attack the patrol boats, sinking one and damaging the other two. At the White House, it is Sunday morning (twelve hours b...

Polar bear Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Polar bear - Essay Example The polar bear have adaptive mechanisms that enable them to survive in circumpolar Arctic region. The environments in these regions are extremely cold and have both ice and water. These areas are also referred to us ice pack habitats. The species have thick fur which enables their survivability in such region. In addition, the polar bears are excellent in swimming. The female polar bears become sexually mature at the age of five years while the males obtain sexual maturity at around six years. During the mating seasons, normally between March and June, males and females congregate at the habitat suitable for seal hunting. There is usually stiff competition for the breading female. It is followed by multiple males that have to fight among themselves. The strongest on e chases others away and succeeds in mating the female. The polar bears feed on seals, especially the seal fat. They hunt ringed and bearded seals. The ringed seals are not as difficult to get as the bearded seals. They are easily accessible and can easily be hunted by young and female bears. In case of a good hunt the species extract blubber from the seals to leave the carcass for scavengers such as ravens and arctic foxes (WWF 10). There are series of unregulated shipping in the polar region. Such activities often result in oil spills that that the polar bears. The oil spills also deplete seals which are the foods of the polar bears. The climatic changes which trigger the increase in temperature, the precipitation and salinity are estimated to have drastic impacts on the physiological processes of the species. Both reproduction and survivability of polar bear will be significantly affected. In this instance, the rate of population of the polar bears will go down because the pregnancy rates will fall. Similarly, only few polar bears will be able to survive the season that high temperatures have melted the ice. The change in the

Critic's response to William Faulkner's literary canon Research Paper

Critic's response to William Faulkner's literary canon - Research Paper Example Prior to his death in 1962, William Faulkner had written various novels including the Hamlet (1940), the Town (1957), and the Mansion (1959) (Educational Broadcasting Corporation 1). These novels address various topics including civil war, social conflicts, and cultural displacement among other topics. Subject to addressing controversial topics, William Faulkners Literary Canon faces many critics. Indeed, many critics and readers could not understand William Faulkners Literary Canon in his entire life. However, in the modern literature, many critics and readers recognize William as a prominent author in American literary history. William Faulkner was a modernist writer who explored the themes of isolation and cultural displacement that prevailed in America in the 1920s and 30s. Although the literary critics and public have in time appreciated the significance of William Faulkners works and their audacity in terms of both form and content, very few literary critics have managed to analyze Faulkner’s literary production in terms of working-class aspects that are prominent in his works (Bucaria 1). In addressing his most prominent works that include the Hamlet (1940), the Town (1957), and the Mansion (1959), we can establish that William Faulkners Literary Canon depicts the use of a tragic tone (Educational Broadcasting Corporation 1). Indeed, it is clear that William Faulkners Literary Canon manifests a mixture of tragedy and comedy. William inherited the use of comic sense in writing as used by earlier writers. Notably, the three novels noted above define the tragicomic chronicle of the Snopes Trilogy that establishes the effect of the Snopes Trilogy on Yoknapatawpha County (Educational Broadcasting Corporation 1). These works faced numerous criticisms. Indeed, upon his death, the New York Times asserted, "Mr. Faulkners writings showed an obsession

Learning from successful people or failure Essay

Learning from successful people or failure - Essay Example In addition, a person who yearns to learn should either learn from the experiences successful people or learn through failures. From the on-start, I would argue that both methods of learning are important depending on the prevailing situation. Learning from personal failures is paramount in some situations. For example, in school, we are taught various concepts and theories that are important for us to understand and probably apply them in our future career or somewhere in life. In such a scenario making mistakes resulting to examination failures can have a bigger lesson compared to learning from those who have been successful. This mode of learning helps us to experience the reality of what our capacity was at the time of the failure and forge a way forward that will facilitate improvement. In addition, when a student gets a concept wrong, they are curious to know what was expected of them. In contrary, other people’s experience may not teach that. People have very different personalities; the path taken by a successful person to achieve what they have achieved may be quite different from the one that another person will use. This means that to some extent success is personality customized. Though an individual ma y take a path taken by a successful person, chances of failure cannot lack. Learning from the success of others is a very important aspect. Actually, every individual should yearn to learn from others more than learning from their personal failures. This is because personal failures are likely to expose an individual to some bitterness as well as trauma that may be hard to recover. However, some circumstances will require individuals to make mistakes so that they can learn. Firstly, personal failures can expose us to danger. It is better to follow what someone else did and became successful instead of trying a new route unless the route is shorter and convenient. However, this is mainly dominant in research. In most of the areas in life,

Why Stravinskys Rite Of Spring Is Revolutionary

Why Stravinskys Rite Of Spring Is Revolutionary The Rite of Spring is famously and perhaps infamously regarded as one of the most major turning points in the history of Western music. Furthermore, the notoriously catastrophic reception at the premià ¨re of Stravinskys 1912 composition has now come to be appreciated as an historical phenomenon in its own right of unmatched and, in all likelihood, unmatchable proportions. The social climate capable of spawning outrage of such violent and uncouth physical embodiment as evidenced in the theatre in Paris that fateful day of 29 May, 1913, betrays at its core an undercurrent of volatility which reaches its talons well beyond the scope of aesthetic opinion and pleasurable diversion into something much more sinister. The Rite of Spring sparked a revolution which may be considered truly political in nature; a sociological confrontation which elicited spontaneous combustion in the music world and from which point, nothing would ever be the same. The following study will expound upon the nat ure of this revolution and collate a survey of possible reasons for its extraordinary and unprecedented sociological impact. The Rite of Spring was the third in a triptych of ballets by Igor Stravinsky for Sergei Diaghilevs itinerant company the Ballets Russes, an initiative which travelled the continent to perform and met with particular success in Paris as the result of the citys large Russian exile population and its rooting in Neonationalistic Russian themes. The Rites predecessors The Firebird (1910) and Petrouchka (1911) achieved near unanimous positivity and celebrated critical acclaim. The Rite was written over the course of several months in late 1912 but the rehearsal season was considerably extended due to its choreographic complexity, not to mention the comparable inexperience of the young dancer-choreographer, Nijinsky, for whom the piece was intended as a primary collaborator. Although having presented the composition in its pianistic form to a veritable plethora of notable artistic and musical minds in the leadup to its orchestrally staged debut, Stravinsky is nonetheless purported to have had no indication whatsoever, nor reason to remotely conceive that the presentation of The Rite might provoke the scandal and outcry that ensued. Modris Eksteins provides a particularly colourful and somewhat exhaustive account of the circumstances of its premiere. In terms of historical data, reports from the premiere are conflicting, confused and wildly varying. Witnesses tell of catcalls, hissing, and a battery of screams; of howling, whistling, spitting, slapping and punching. The police were called and at least forty of the offending protesters were forcibly evicted, this doing little to lull those remaining, who continued their commotion. By all accounts, the performance elicited no less than a seismic response which has retrospectively become a thing of legend. The socio-cultural context of Paris at the time is of much import in setting the scene for such an upstanding brouhaha. Programmes being rehearsed and billed contemporary to The Rites premiere included Ravels Daphnis et Chloe and Debussys Jeux. The ballet audience was largely contingent on the lavish snobbery of both high society and the intelligentsia, comprising predominantly wealthy patrons with a desire for elegance and enchantment, and altogether typical of the common lightweight perceptions of French taste. Although exotica themes were very much in Parisian vogue, the passions and political motivations of Russia could hardly but remain distant in every respect. Enormous media hype surrounded The Rites premiere and in an effort to garner an underlying core of support, Diaghilev ensured a generous distribution of free tickets to his loyal supporters. The particularities of the newly unveiled layout of the Thà ©Ãƒ ¢tre des Champs-Élysà ©es held that this ring-in cheersquad, albeit a guaranteed endorsement, was situated in an area of the auditorium central to the masses, essentially circled by the opposing faction. Such provocative positioning of the Russians in itself was perhaps enough to instigate a brawl in the first place. With such explosive jeering and cheering, it is of exceptional logistical importance that according to numerous accounts, Stravinskys music was completely drowned out by the audience reaction. With the 100-piece orchestra inaudible, dancers have been said to have relied exclusively on Nijinsky shouting counts from the prompt. Whether this pertained to the metric complexity of the composition or the pervading inability to hear it remains questionable but either way, it was certainly the case. The abstract and absurd quality of a company dancing their euphoric tribal sacrifice to a chorus of insults and abuse was perhaps a telling premonition of the Dada sentiment which succeeded the event several years later. The lights in the auditorium were fully turned on but the noise continued and I remember Mlle. Piltz (the chosen maiden) executing her strange dance of religious hysteria on a stage dimmed by the blazing light in the auditorium, seemingly to the accompaniment of the disjointed ravings of a mob of angry men and women. If in fact the orchestra was itself inaudible, it follows in point that the public outrage expressed so vehemently at The Rites premià ¨re was not a response to the pitches, rhythms, structures and instrumental colourings of Stravinskys music, however bold his innovations, but to something else entirely. The inward turned feet and graceless jumping and pumping gestures of the dancers were certainly denounced as bad taste and grotesque caricature, with witnesses suggesting such blasphemy to the elevated art of ballet was received as a direct insult to the integrity of the cultivated audience. But while representing somewhat of an innovation in dance style, the propulsion for such outrage seems more deeply rooted in the commentary of stylistic change on the nature and sociological function of the arts, and the implications of this change in structuring socio-economic factions. As expressed so concisely by Ekstein, Is there not sufficient evidence to suggest that the trouble was caused more by warring factions in the audience, by their expectations, their prejudices, their preconceptions about art, than by the work itself? The Nature of Revolution Thus it can be seen that Stravinskys Rite of Spring generated a series of revolutions at various levels. I have taken the term revolution to refer both to an upheaval of policy which breaks radically from the past, as well as to the cyclic implication of the word revolution, the continual and somewhat meditative return to a point, each time with new outlook. In musical terms, The Rite brought a repudiation of the post-Romantic and Impressionistic ideals which permeated the Parisian scene. The typical French soundworld cut clearly by Debussy, Saint-Saà «ns, Ravel, Massenet, Faurà ©; but notably never adopted nor remotely assimilated by Stravinsky, was in this case so thoroughly replaced by the primacy of clustered chordal rhythms, uncharacteristic harmonic motivation, and intervallic asymmetry in melodic structures that the French government was effectively overthrown. Despite much retrospective dispute to be discussed in due course, the programmatic genesis of The Rite was an imagined prehistoric ritual of a sacrificial virgin dancing herself to death to entice the gods of the seasons. It is implicit that although a fabricated mythology, the essence is of a tribal Russian character. Thus not only does the work posses a haunting, if not definitively terrifying spiritual presence of extraordinary power, but makes a simultaneous nationalistic statement in doing so which can simply not avoid political implication due to the aggression with which it is asserted. The combination of such pounding rhythmic impetus and the breadth of the chords with which this ruthless impetuosity so compulsively drummed sends out the message of its all-encompassing rule in an urgent, brutal S.O.S. The combination of relentless rhythm and hard-edged, dissonant chordal units has the tendency to give a sense of impulse associated with violence. Heavy and ultimately colourist ic percussion, brass and winds were featured, these being associated with outdoor, warring instrumental forces. However, as undoubtedly evidenced by ethnological studies, actions which may appear ferocious within a cultivated urban setting may hold completely different meaning within their own cultural context. That which we may observe as savage or defensive may in fact resonate with ecstasy and/or tribal belonging. A notable example of this is the distinct absence of clarity surrounding the nature of the virgins sacrifice; whether this pertains to a giving of her life or of her maidenhood. Either way, the surrender carries mixed emotions in its duality of horror with martyrdom, and equally for the Western listener, in its voyeuristic presentation. The mammoth scope and intensity of The Rite of Spring, dwarfing humanity and quashing everything in its path, is bigger than Paris, bigger than Christianity, bigger than social class structure, pearls and silks. The tribe is bigger than the individual. The Rite of Spring is bigger than artistic divertimento, The Rite of Spring is essentially bigger than the arts itself. Musical Modernism The Rite is widely considered to be the primary hallmark example of Modernism in music. It was praised and acclaimed primarily for its rhythmic innovation and asymmetry. The work is an informed but conscious reaction against the Germanic Romantic realism, French Impressionism and the generic urban industrialist mentalities which pervaded the compositional climate at the turn of the century. At the same time, through the recently discovered inclusion of abstracted folksong transcriptions, The Rite was a nod to Nationalistic tendencies, now on the rise with thanks to technological developments both in travel and the recording industry. This reactionary stance brought about by Modernism heralded the beginning of the current period of compositional production which encourages a multiplicity of styles for a multiplicity of audience tastes. Serialism and minimalism might coexist in the same cities; likewise Expressionism and Impressionism just across the border from each other. The major musical innovation of The Rite of Spring was a new and absolute denial of expectation in terms of meter and harmony. At the most basic level, Stravinsky instigated a complete regeneration of the conventions of functional pitch and rhythm in Western music. The works critical condemnation by Taruskin as anti-symphonic is certainly true in Schenkerian terms, in that pitch polarities in the scalic sense were radically abandoned: the leading note no longer led, the supertonic, subdominant and submediant no longer sought the triad. The same pertained to beat hierarchies within the bar and even the dominance of the downbeat. Established polarities and gravities which had evolved in due course over the history of Western music were at once relegated to something of the past. Instead, this music relaxed into a new and ultimately organic creation of expectation, allowing the music to breathe in every respect, through pause and rest, pace and weight, singing its strange new laments at whim of a deeper soul rather than stickytaped haphazardly onto someone elses framework. This is not to say that the concept of polarities became obsolete. To the contrary, organic weight and depth became the natural new order. Gravity and innate direction was now established through a more abstract tool of arched melodic contouring, essentially through patterning and figuration; if not in the primary melodic voice, then in the accompanying section. Whether or not the base of these arch structures held pitch significance to a tonicized, home or bassline pedal became irrelevant, as the weight of the fall was enough in itself to establish a root. In the works Introduction this is repeatedly evident: firstly in the clarinet section at Figure 1, bassoons after 3, flutes leading into Figure 7, etcetera. It is important to note that while harmonic motivations were annulled, homophonic motions continued to exist, primarily doing so in a polytonal setting: for example, intervallic relations at Figure 94 in The Mysterious Circles of the Young Girls, where the clarinets and later, first violin section, move languidly together at the 7th. As for rhythm, The Rite is perhaps most widely acclaimed for its eradication of meter as a polar tool and the subsequent introduction of the use of time signatures purely for organizational purposes. Its constantly shifting meters to the point of seasickness have retained their power of obscurity even to the present day. It has been mentioned that the undisputed reign of the downbeat had already been questioned. In Dance of the Adolescent Girls, the accentuation patterns in the string opening at Figure 13 are as good as anti-metric. Although the famous bassoon solo exists in somewhat of a dreamscape beyond the scope of meter, the weight of the downbows at the start of the second movement function effectively as a transition which is equally free of metric form. Melodic phrases are grouped into threes and fives, the bass at Figure 28, for example, delineating a broad 6/8+6/8 within a context where others are playing superficially in the notated meter of 2/4, but not within any kind of phrase arrangement sympathetic to the 3-bar base cushion. It follows that such freedom opens the floodgates for polymeters, and equally, polytonalities to coexist in true equality. A notational innovation particular to Stravinsky is the beaming of groups of notes such as quavers as they sound metrically, rather than the way they would ordinarily fit into a given duple or compound metric frame. This notational peculiarity makes the polymeters easy to identify from a visual standpoint. Structurally, much debate has ensued about the architecture of The Rite of Spring. The majority of critics of the period observed its construction as a series of independent dances in an almost Cubist-style pastiche. This reading supported the genesis of the work in the ballet tradition. The most vocal of these was Taruskin, who identified static blocks progressing, if at all, through repetition, alternation, and above all, sheer inertial accumulation Each chord or motif was so fixed that even transposition let alone transformation or transition were inconceivable. Such ideology has been recently challenged by the favoured notion of organic evolution at a more cellular level, essentially posing the possibility of through-composition. It seems natural and essentially implicit that the The Rite, by nature of its seasonal programmatic ties, should undergo a process of careful growth, cocooning and rebirth over of its visceral half hour in the ear. Revolutions of Appraisal The Rite of Spring also enjoyed what one might consider a series of revolutions of appraisal. Following the calamity of its original balletic premià ¨re, Stravinsky was quick to denounce the works tie to the stage so that it might exist independently in the concert hall in and of itself. It is no secret that he was disappointed in the product of Nijinsky and disenchanted with the production as a whole. Obviously there were also significant financial advantages to the works availability in concert version and this undoubtedly also played a role in its redefinition. Thus The Rites interdisciplinary conception was staunchly and quite strangely abandoned in favor of its musical construction insomuch as Stravinsky giving, over the course of his life, many dramatically differing accounts of factual events in an effort to disguise or distort the nature of its compositional origins. This somewhat mechanistic dissociation of the work towards an abstract, absolute and/or autonomous entity, wh ether or not it could possibly exist as such with its particular strength of character, was a telling precursor to Stravinskys Neoclassical mindset, a purging and reinvention of something heavy with baggage but which might then live on in its cleansed form. It is an inexplicable curiosity that in what van den Toorn describes as a complete reversal of the riot that had gone before, the 1914 premià ¨re performance of The Rite on the concert platform was an absolute unequivocal success; so much so that Stravinsky himself was hoisted to the shoulders of a few bystanders [and] led triumphantly from the hall of the Casino de Paris by an exuberant crowd of admirers. A further revolution in the works appreciation took place in the late 1960s based on the rediscovery of sketches, source materials and other evidence. Apparently this revisionist revival was equally enjoyed by the composer himself, who appeared equally interested to revisit the works origins in what was casually designated a r evisionist revival. As an aside, it is a curious multiplicity to note that the French version of the works title, Le Sacre du Printemps, identifies directly the character of the chosen maiden, Le sacre being the sacrificed one in question. In translation to The Rite, the work takes on a more holistic quality of process, ceremony and celebration. While originally conceived as a staged piece, the work is universally acknowledged for its complete bonding with dramatic vision, its honesty and rawness, unique in comparison with Stravinskys other work which is often heavy with satire and irony. In transferral to the concert platform, the intensity of the drama is so strong as to be able to hold its own even without an interdisciplinary accompaniment. The Rite is an existing and ultimately monumental fatalistic presence which, more surely than ever, needs no frame, no theatrical artifice. This is a work which seems perhaps more aptly suited to the genre of ceremonial theatre than to the stage or even the platf orm. Thus, the many revolutions, both instigated and undergone by Stravinskys Rite of Spring. The works historical evolution over the course of the 20th century as a pivotal compositional cornerstone has become modern-day folklore of its own, and of mammoth proportions; rousing freedom and preaching the Great Sacrifice for the sake of seasonal rebirth and newness of thought in a constantly revolving artistic climate.

Hamlet Essay -- Literary Analysis, Shakespeare

Comedy lightens the mood, progresses the plot, and provides a necessary reprieve from the suspense of the play. Comedic relief commands a vital role in the William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. In order to maintain the audience’s interest, an author inserts puns and other comedic vices to enhance their work. Shakespeare constantly introduces characters to allay the strain on the audience from past events in the plot. This comedic relief usually contains a hidden meaning or message that augments the plot. In the play Hamlet Osric, Polonius, and the Gravedigger are used as these conduits of humor. The character Osric relieves much of the tension built from the proceeding acts. His interjection in this tragedy culminates with Hamlet and Laertes’ fighting sequences. Hamlet manipulates this character by exploiting his obedience to royalty when he states, â€Å"Put your bonnet to his right use, ‘tis for the head† (V.ii.101). Osric replies, â€Å"I thank your lordship, it is very hot† (V.ii.102). Hamlet then responds â€Å"No, believe me, ‘tis very cold; the wind is north- / erly† (V.ii.103). Hamlet persists with this ruse, constantly pressuring Osric to remove and replace his hat. This scene mitigates the stress from the graveyard scuffle and leads into Hamlet and Laertes’ duel. Shakespeare further uses Osric to express his personal opinion on the class structure of the present society. William Shakespeare criticizes the new wealthy merchant class, prevalent in the Elizabethan era, through Hamlet and Osric’s dialogue. Hamlet ridicules Osric and his social standing in an aside to Horatio, â€Å"Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall / Stand at the King’s men† (V.ii.95-96). Hamlet implies that any fool with money can gain entran... ...nteractions with the Gravedigger. Although this character has a relatively small role, he has an enormous impact on the course of the play. Comedic relief plays a vital role in any tragedy or suspenseful play: It serves as a stark contrast to the harsh reality being presented throughout the story. In the tragedy Hamlet by William Shakespeare, comedy is utilized to distract the audience from the dramatic course of events. The theatrical plot also progresses with the comedic relief inserted in the play. Shakespeare brilliantly develops his characters in a comedic way that continues the plot and eases his spectators. If writers chose not to offset tragedy with comedy, the story would simply be too depressing to entertain the vast audiences. Therefore, it is fair to surmise that without comedic relief, Hamlet may not have been the iconic story it has become. Hamlet Essay -- Literary Analysis, Shakespeare Comedy lightens the mood, progresses the plot, and provides a necessary reprieve from the suspense of the play. Comedic relief commands a vital role in the William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. In order to maintain the audience’s interest, an author inserts puns and other comedic vices to enhance their work. Shakespeare constantly introduces characters to allay the strain on the audience from past events in the plot. This comedic relief usually contains a hidden meaning or message that augments the plot. In the play Hamlet Osric, Polonius, and the Gravedigger are used as these conduits of humor. The character Osric relieves much of the tension built from the proceeding acts. His interjection in this tragedy culminates with Hamlet and Laertes’ fighting sequences. Hamlet manipulates this character by exploiting his obedience to royalty when he states, â€Å"Put your bonnet to his right use, ‘tis for the head† (V.ii.101). Osric replies, â€Å"I thank your lordship, it is very hot† (V.ii.102). Hamlet then responds â€Å"No, believe me, ‘tis very cold; the wind is north- / erly† (V.ii.103). Hamlet persists with this ruse, constantly pressuring Osric to remove and replace his hat. This scene mitigates the stress from the graveyard scuffle and leads into Hamlet and Laertes’ duel. Shakespeare further uses Osric to express his personal opinion on the class structure of the present society. William Shakespeare criticizes the new wealthy merchant class, prevalent in the Elizabethan era, through Hamlet and Osric’s dialogue. Hamlet ridicules Osric and his social standing in an aside to Horatio, â€Å"Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall / Stand at the King’s men† (V.ii.95-96). Hamlet implies that any fool with money can gain entran... ...nteractions with the Gravedigger. Although this character has a relatively small role, he has an enormous impact on the course of the play. Comedic relief plays a vital role in any tragedy or suspenseful play: It serves as a stark contrast to the harsh reality being presented throughout the story. In the tragedy Hamlet by William Shakespeare, comedy is utilized to distract the audience from the dramatic course of events. The theatrical plot also progresses with the comedic relief inserted in the play. Shakespeare brilliantly develops his characters in a comedic way that continues the plot and eases his spectators. If writers chose not to offset tragedy with comedy, the story would simply be too depressing to entertain the vast audiences. Therefore, it is fair to surmise that without comedic relief, Hamlet may not have been the iconic story it has become.

Impact of Peers and School in Middle Childhood Essay

Middle childhood is a stage in growth where the members age between six and twelve years. Sigmund Freud defines this as the latency stage where aggressive and sexual urges are introverted. Others theorists have highlighted this stage as very crucial in the development of personality, cognitive skills, inter-personal relationships and motivation. Furthermore, it is at this growth stage that peers and school have great impacts, either positive or negative, to the individual. Schools do promote the children’s competence and self-esteem since they are enthusiastic to learn and work. This enthusiasm plays a great role since it acts as a motivating factor. Due to their development in competence in social and interpersonal relationships as aforesaid, they also undergo an experience in peer orientation. If they interact with the best peers, they create a strong foundation for future adult rapports that will be healthy. The diverse relationships may lead to increased violence in schools, drug use, depression and eating disorders that negatively affect the students in the upper elementary education (Blume & Zembar, 2007). In schools, the children also learn and develop interests in other co-curricular activities such as sports, arts and music. However, as they grow, the necessary skills for achieving success in academics tend to become more sophisticated. Those who overcome these challenges end up being academic conquerors but those who are overwhelmed perform poorly in the subsequent years. One’s family at this growth stage also plays an important role especially in socialization. The parents, for instance, have the responsibility to make negotiation with the socialization agents on behalf of the child. This kind of socialization that is family-based is directly linked with the child’s deviance, either in the current life or in the future. It may lead to the child indulging in alcoholism, aggression or delinquency. However, through various reinforcement and disciplinary methodologies, the parents teach their middle-aged children on the behaviors to adopt and those to refrain from (Collins, 1984). Academically, parents motivate their children to be performers. This influences them to embrace reading and more often than not, require them to come out directly from school.

Oroonko or the Royal Slave Essay

Oroonko or the Royal Slave tells a story about the life of a man captured and sold into slavery and some of the adventures his life encompassed. Oroonko was the grandson to the King of Coramantien. He possessed a very rare and unique magnificence that all admired. Oroonko was brought up learning and living the life of an honorable soldier and prince. He was well educated and well-liked far and wide by all who knew him. Oroonko became acquainted and quickly fell in love with his mentor’s daughter, Imoinda. They soon decided to be joined as husband and wife. According to the customs of their time, Oroonko’s grandfather, the King of Coramantien, was to be allowed the opportunity to bless the union before anything became official. The king had heard of Imoinda’s beauty and instead of blessing their union, the king took Imoinda for himself. This very greatly disgraced Oroonko. With the passing of time, the love Oroonko held in his heart for Imoinda did not fade. He desperately wanted to be with Imoinda and was eventually afforded the chance. The jealous and ever-suspicious king discovered Imoinda and Oroonko together and became very angry. The penalty for treasonous acts, as this was most certainly considered, was death. Oroonko was able to escape, but Imoinda was not. The king, unable to put such a beauty as Imoinda to death, instead sold her to a slave trader to be shipped off to America to become a slave. Death would have been preferable to Imoinda and she begged for it, but the king wanted nothing to do with her any longer. Selling Imoinda into slavery was kept an absolute secret from Oroonko. The king knew if Oroonko ever learned what had really happened to Imoinda, his rage would be unequaled. And so it was assumed by all that Imoinda was, in fact, put to death for her treachery. At this point, the king felt it necessary to make his peace with Oroonko. He realized and wanted to repent of the disgrace he brought upon his grandson. He also felt extremely guilty about his decision to sell Imoinda into slavery, but again, that was not widely known. Oroonko conceded no revenge would be taken on his part against the king. Time passed and in the course of this time Oroonko became a highly decorated and popular war general and hero. Forever longing in his heart for Imoinda, Oroonko resigned to live the life he was born to live – the life of a nobleman. It was to happen after a particularly successful battle, Oroonko came home to a celebration. At this celebration, there was a ship’s captain who was familiar to Oroonko and they spent some time together. Oroonko was aware that this particular captain was a slave trader, but had no reason to distrust him or hold animosity against him. Unjustly so, as it would turn out, since this captain deceived Oroonko into a tour of his ship and then shackled him to the ship and set sail for America to be sold into slavery. The captain continued in his deception while on the voyage and convinced Oroonko that he and his men would be let go at the next port. Oroonko had not encountered dishonesty as was present in the heart of the captain before, so he suspected nothing and trusted the captain to keep his word. When they arrived on land, Oroonko and his men were at once sold to the highest bidder and sent off to be slaves. Oroonko worked for a short while and then heard of a woman of great beauty who was also a slave. He soon found Imoinda and they were married. Oroonko lived as a slave, but was restless to regain his freedom. He frequently spoke to his owner and pleaded for this and was put off time and again for one reason or another. He was given promise after promise or release to no avail. Oroonko soon realized exactly how dishonorable the slave owners were. With only a little effort, Oroonko called together the slaves from all around and when they had gathered, he convinced them they were being treated unfairly and should leave their cruel and uncaring owners to find a better life somewhere else. With his eloquence and affirming manner, Oroonko was able to sway them that even the evils of the wilderness could be overcome with enough conviction and team work. Regardless of the hardships facing a journey of such proportion, losing your life fighting was more honorable than being treated like animals. Unfortunately, the revolt did not take the slaves far. Their trail was easily discovered and it was not long before they were caught and surrendered. The terms of the surrender Oroonko struck with the slave owners who had caught them included fairness and avoidance of retribution or retaliation against the group who had attempted escape. However, disregarding the word given at the surrender, the slave owners marched their slaves back to their respective plantations and they were all punished. Oroonko, however, was taken to a post, tied securely, and severely lashed. There was barely any life left in him when the evil slave owners were finished. Oroonko made up his mind that he would one day seek revenge against such untrustworthy, wicked, and dishonorable men. While the end of the story tells that this plan was not brought to fruition, Oroonko left this world a legend. He held his honor to his dying breath. The story of Oroonko is an excellent anti-slavery argument. Through the story, the reader is allowed a glimpse of a man who could have very easily been from any race or station in life. Oroonko was well educated. He was taken in and taught by the best of the best. Many slave owners, in those days, believed slaves were nothing but unintelligent, low-life heathens, but Oroonko was none of these. Oroonko may not have believed in the same religion or faith as the slave owners, but his beliefs were just as important and essential as theirs. The slave owners judged without considering the differences that existed between their very unique cultures. For example, Oroonko and Imoinda came from a country where wives were expected to give honor to their husbands. Imoinda pleaded with Oroonko to take her life as an alternative to living without him by her side. She considered being killed by someone so noble as Oroonko was far superior than living as a slave. The slave owners and white men would not and did not understand this logic. By their standards, Oroonko was a vile and murderous heathen. Slavery abruptly stole men, women, and children from their place of origin and flung them into a life of degradation and submission. They were required to work for little to nothing by way of payment and treated as no better than dogs. Oroonko spoke of them being whipped at the end of the day. It made no difference if you had done well or poorly, all slaves were whipped. The â€Å"gods† these slave owners prayed to and had faith in was a puzzling deity to Oroonko. His faith in his gods was built on very different standards, and Oroonko believed so strongly in these gods, there was no questioning how others should be treated and how one should conduct themselves in all situations. Everyone deserved to be treated with honor and respect. The faith of the slave owners came into question several times. Oroonko was unable to understand how these people could on any level of decency treat anyone the way the slaves were treated. While it remained unsaid, Oroonko must have certainly felt as though all were created different, but equal. Not all slave owners were cruel in their treatment of slaves. Oroonko befriended several compassionate men along the way. The narrator of the novel happened to be one of these men. While remaining benevolent in spirit, these men did own slaves and were hesitant, if not downright unwilling, to grant them their freedom. None of the men and women sold into slavery deserved the life they were forced to lead. The white men who bought them did not consider the lives they left behind. These were real people with real lives and real customs and real traditions. The religion practiced – on whatever level – by the white slave owners was not the only way to believe. The simple belief they held that they were right did not by any means make that a truth. The Negroes held their own beliefs, and right or wrong according to someone else’s standards, they had every right to believe however they chose. Oroonko was a prince and more than likely more educated than many of the slave owner’s themselves, and yet was treated with contempt and disrespect. With his breeding and the instruction he had received, Oroonko knew in his head and in his heart that treating anyone in such a manner was unreasonable and outrageous. In the end, despite the best efforts of the slave owners, Oroonko died as he had lived with his honor and dignity.

Sima de los Huesos, a Key to Human Evolution

Sima de los Huesos, a Key to Human Evolution The Sima de los Huesos (Pit of Bones in Spanish and typically abbreviated as SH) is a lower Paleolithic site, one of several important sections of the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo cave system of the Sierra de Atapuerca in north-central Spain. With a total of at least 28 individual hominid fossils now firmly dated to 430,000 years old, SH is the largest and oldest collection of human remains yet discovered. Site Context The bone pit at Sima de los Huesos is at the bottom of the cave, beneath an abrupt vertical shaft measuring between 2-4 meters (6.5-13 feet) in diameter, and located about .5 kilometers (~1/3 of a mile) in from the Cueva Mayor entrance. That shaft extends downward approximately 13 m (42.5 ft), ending just above the Rampa (Ramp), a 9 m (30 ft) long linear chamber inclined about 32 degrees. At the foot of that ramp is deposit called the Sima de los Huesos, a smoothly oblong chamber measuring 8x4 m (26x13 ft) with irregular ceiling heights between 1-2 m (3-6.5 ft). In the roof of the eastern side of the SH chamber is another vertical shaft, which extends upwards some 5 m (16 ft) to where it is blocked by cave collapse. Human and Animal Bones The sites archaeological deposits include a bone-bearing breccia, mixed with many large fallen blocks of limestone and mud deposits. The bones are mainly composed of at least 166 Middle Pleistocene cave bears (Ursus deningeri) and at least 28 individual humans, represented by more than 6,500 bone fragments including over 500 teeth alone. Other identified animals in the pit include extinct forms of Panthera leo (lion), Felis silvestris (wildcat), Canis lupus (grey wolf), Vulpes vulpes (red fox), and Lynx pardina splaea (Pardel lynx). Relatively few of the animal and human bones are articulated; some of the bones have tooth marks from where carnivores have chewed on them. The current interpretation of how the site came to be is that all the animals and humans fell into the pit from a higher chamber and were trapped and unable to get out. The stratigraphy and layout of the bone deposit suggest  the humans were somehow deposited in the cave before the bears and other carnivores. It is also possible- given the large amount of mud in the pit- that all the bones arrived in this low place in the cave through a series of mudflows. A third and quite controversial hypothesis is that the accumulation of human remains might be the result of mortuary practices (see the discussion of Carbonell and Mosquera below). The Humans A central question for the SH site has been and continues to be who were they? Were they Neanderthal, Denisovan, Early Modern Human, some mixture we havent yet recognized? With the fossil remains of 28 individuals who all lived and died about 430,000 years ago, the SH site has the potential to teach us a great deal about human evolution and how these three populations intersected in the past. Comparisons of nine human skulls and numerous cranial fragments representing at least 13 individuals were first reported in 1997 (Arsuaga et a.). A large variety in cranial capacity and other characteristics were detailed in the publications, but in 1997, the site was thought to be about 300,000 years old, and these scholars concluded that the Sima de los Huesos population was evolutionarily related to Neanderthals as a sister group, and could best fit into the then-refined species of Homo heidelbergensis. That theory was supported by results from a somewhat controversial method redating the site to 530,000 years ago (Bischoff and colleagues, see details below). But in 2012, paleontologist Chris Stringer argued that the 530,000-year-old dates were too old, and, based on morphological attributes, the SH fossils represented an archaic form of Neanderthal, rather than H. heidelbergensis. The latest data (Arsuago et al 2014) answers some of Stringers hesitations. Mitochondrial DNA at SH Research on the cave bear bones reported by Dabney and colleagues revealed that, astonishingly, mitochondrial DNA had been preserved at the site, much older than any other found to date anywhere. Additional investigations on the human remains from SH reported by Meyer and colleagues  redated the site to closer to 400,000 years ago. These studies also supply the surprising notion that the SH population shares some DNA with the  Denisovans, rather than the Neanderthals they look like (and, of course, we dont really know what a Denisovan looks like yet). Arsuaga and colleagues reported a study of 17 complete skulls from SH, agreeing with Stringer that, because of numerous Neanderthal-like characteristics of the crania and mandibles, the population does not fit the  H. heidelbergensis  classification. But the population is, according to the authors, significantly different from other groups such as those at Ceprano and  Arago  caves, and from other Neanderthals, and Arsuaga and colleagues now argue that a separate taxon should be considered for the SH fossils. Sima de los Huesos is now dated to 430,000 years ago, and that places it close to the age predicted for when the split in hominid species creating the Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages occurred. The SH fossils are thus central to the investigations concerning how that might have happened, and what our evolutionary history might be. Sima de los Huesos, a Purposeful Burial Mortality profiles (Bermudez de Castro and colleagues) of the SH population show a high representation of adolescents and prime-age adults  and a low percentage of adults between 20 and 40 years of age. Only one individual was under 10 at the time of death, and none were over 40-45 years old. Thats confusing, because, while 50% of the bones were gnaw-marked, they were in fairly good condition: statistically, say the scholars, there should be more children. Carbonell and Mosquera (2006) argued that Sima de los Huesos represents a purposeful burial, based partly on the recovery of a single quartzite  Acheulean handaxe  (Mode 2) and the complete lack of lithic waste or other habitation waste at all. If they are correct, and they are currently in the minority, Sima de los Huesos would be the earliest example of purposeful human burials known to date, by ~200,000 years or so. Evidence suggesting that at least one of the individuals in the pit died as a result of interpersonal violence was reported in 2015 (Sala et al. 2015). Cranium 17 has multiple impact fractures which occurred near the moment of death, and scholars believe this individual was dead at the time s/he was dropped into the shaft. Sala et al. argue that placing cadavers into the pit was indeed a social practice of the community.   Dating Sima de lost Huesos Uranium-series and Electron Spin Resonance dating of the human fossils reported in 1997 indicated a minimum age of about 200,000 and a probable age of greater than 300,000 years ago, which roughly matched the age of the mammals. In 2007, Bischoff and colleagues reported that a high-precision thermal-ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) analysis defines the minimum of deposits age as 530,000 years ago. This date led researchers to postulate that the SH hominids were at the beginning of the  Neanderthal  evolutionary lineage, rather than a contemporary, related sister group. However, in 2012, paleontologist Chris Stringer argued that, based on morphological attributes, the SH fossils represent an archaic form of Neanderthal, rather than  H. heidelbergensis, and that the 530,000-year-old date is too old. In 2014, excavators Arsuaga et al reported new dates from a suite of different dating techniques, including Uranium series (U-series) dating of speleothems, thermally transferred  optically stimulated luminescence  (TT-OSL) and post-infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IR) dating of sedimentary quartz and feldspar grains, electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of sedimentary quartz, combined ESR/U-series dating of fossil teeth, paleomagnetic analysis of sediments, and biostratigraphy. Dates from most of these techniques clustered around 430,000 years ago. Archaeology The first human fossils were discovered in 1976, by T. Torres, and the first excavations within this unit were conducted by the Sierra de Atapuerca Pleistocene site group under the direction of E. Aguirre. In 1990, this program was undertaken by J. L. Arsuaga, J. M. Bermudez de Castro, and E. Carbonell. Sources Arsuaga JL, Martà ­nez I, Gracia A, Carretero JM, Lorenzo C, Garcà ­a N, and Ortega AI. 1997.  Sima de los Huesos (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). The site.  Journal of Human Evolution  33(2–3):109-127. Arsuaga JL, Martà ­nez, Gracia A, and Lorenzo C. 1997a.  The Sima de los Huesos crania (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). A comparative study.  Journal of Human Evolution  33(2–3):219-281. Arsuaga JL, Martà ­nez I, Arnold LJ, Aranburu A, Gracia-Tà ©llez A, Sharp WD, Quam RM, Falguà ¨res C, Pantoja-Pà ©rez A, Bischoff JL et al. . 2014.  Neandertal roots: Cranial and chronological evidence from Sima de los Huesos.  Science  344(6190):1358-1363. doi: 10.1126/science.1253958 Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, Martinà ³n-Torres M, Lozano M, Sarmiento S, and Muelo A. 2004.  Paleodemography of the Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos Hominin Sample: A revision and new appropaches to the paleodemongraphy of the European Middle Pleistocene population.  Journal of Anthropological Research  60(1):5-26. Bischoff JL, Fitzpatrick JA, Leà ³n L, Arsuaga JL, Falgueres C, Bahain JJ, and Bullen T. 1997.  Geology and preliminary dating of the hominid-bearing sedimentary fill of the Sima de los Huesos Chamber, Cueva Mayor of the Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain.  Journal of Human Evolution  33(2–3):129-154. Bischoff JL, Williams RW, Rosenbauer RJ, Aramburu A, Arsuaga JL, Garcà ­a N, and Cuenca-Bescà ³s G. 2007.  High-resolution U-series dates from the Sima de  Ã‚  Journal of Archaeological Science  34(5):763-770.los  Huesos hominids yields : implications for the evolution of the early Neanderthal lineage. Carbonell E, and Mosquera M. 2006.  The emergence of  a  symbolic   Comptes Rendus Palevol  5(1–2):155-160.behaviour: the  sepulchral pit of  Sima de  los  Huesos, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. Carretero J-M, Rodrà ­guez L, Garcà ­a-Gonzlez R, Arsuaga J-L, Gà ³mez-Olivencia A, Lorenzo C, Bonmatà ­ A, Gracia A, Martà ­nez I, and Quam R. 2012.  Stature estimation from complete long bones in the Middle Pleistocene humans from the Sima de  los  Huesos, Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain).  Journal of Human Evolution  62(2):242-255. Dabney J, Knapp M, Glocke I, Gansauge M-T, Weihmann A, Nickel B, Valdiosera C, Garcà ­a N, Pbo S, Arsuaga J-L et al. 2013.  Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a Middle Pleistocene cave bear reconstructed from ultrashort DNA fragments.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  110(39):15758-15763. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1314445110 Garcà ­a N, and Arsuaga JL. 2011.  The Sima de  Ã‚  Quaternary Science Reviews  30(11-12):1413-1419.los  Huesos (Burgos, northern Spain): palaeoenvironment and habitats of Homo heidelbergensis during the Middle Pleistocene. Garcà ­a N, Arsuaga JL, and Torres T. 1997.  The carnivore remains from the Sima de  Ã‚  Journal of Human Evolution  33(2–3):155-174.los  Huesos Middle Pleistocene site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). Gracia-Tà ©llez A, Arsuaga J-L, Martà ­nez I, Martà ­n-Francà ©s L, Martinà ³n-Torres M, Bermà ºdez de Castro J-M, Bonmatà ­ A, and Lira J. 2013.  Orofacial pathology in Homo heidelbergensis: The case of Skull 5 from the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca, Spain).  Quaternary International  295:83-93. Hublin J-J. 2014.  How to build a Neandertal.  Science  344(6190):1338-1339. doi: 10.1126/science.1255554 Martinà ³n-Torres M, Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, Gà ³mez-Robles A, Prado-Simà ³n L, and Arsuaga JL. 2012.  Morphological description and comparison of the dental remains from Atapuerca-Sima de los Huesos site (Spain).  Journal of Human Evolution  62(1):7-58. Meyer, Matthias. A mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de los Huesos. Nature volume 505, Qiaomei Fu, Ayinuer Aximu-Petri, et al., Springer Nature Publishing AG, January 16, 2014. Ortega AI, Benito-Calvo A, Pà ©rez-Gonzlez A, Martà ­n-Merino MA, Pà ©rez-Martà ­nez R, Parà ©s JM, Aramburu A, Arsuaga JL, Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, and Carbonell E. 2013.  Evolution of multilevel caves in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) and its relation to human occupation.  Geomorphology  196:122-137. Sala N, Arsuaga JL, Pantoja-Pà ©rez A, Pablos A, Martà ­nez I, Quam RM, Gà ³mez-Olivencia A, Bermà ºdez de Castro JM, and Carbonell E. 2015.  Lethal Interpersonal Violence in the Middle Pleistocene.  PLoS ONE  10(5):e0126589. Stringer C. 2012.  The status of Homo heidelbergensis (Schoetensack 1908).  Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews  21(3):101-107.

Sony Corp. Final Report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Sony Corp. Final Report - Research Paper Example The management believe that the strategy implementation would further reduce costs by more than ?300 billion. Nevertheless, Sony should pay particular attention in improving its long term solvency position given that its liquidity ratio is currently below the industry average and it poses a risk that it might not be able to meet its current obligations in an event of emergency even though inventories are not liquidated. (Annual Report, 2009-2010) The debt-to-worth ratio expresses the extent to which the business is relying on debt financing as opposed to shareholders funds (Albrecht, 2004). The increase in debt-to-worth ratio from 2.62 in 2008 to 3.05 and 3.34 in 2009 and 2010 respectively display that Sony is gradually increasing its reliance on debt financing mainly to fund the innovation required for the business growth. The Group’s financial risk position is increased as reflected by the total debt position of the Group. The total debt in 2008 as at balance sheet amounted to ?1,084 million, ?1,111 million in 2009 and ?1,209 million in 2010. (Annual Report, 2009-2010) The debt-to-worth ratios for 2008, 2009 and 2010 which are higher than the industry average further lay emphasis that Sony is currently at a highly leverage position as compared to its competitors. It would pose a threat to its financial safety and flexibility to borrow in the future if the trends continue. Moreover, there might be debt covenants which the Group is obliged to comply and it is critical that the Group monitors them tightly as non-compliance cause breaches in contract and immediate repayment is required. Gross Profit Margin shows a decrease from 2008 (23.1%) to 2009 (19.7%) mainly caused by the challenging economic environment hit by the global financial crisis and the negative impact driven by the appreciation of the yen against U.S dollar and Euro. There is an overall decline of sales in the Electronic, Game, Pictures and Financial Services businesses. Sales in the Electr onic business declined 17% from ?6,613 billion to ?5,488 billion as there is a low demand for products such as the Handy cam video cameras, Cyber-shot compact digital cameras and VAIO PCs. Additionally, Sony has exited its business in LCD rear-projection televisions and CRT televisions during the year. The drop in sales in the Game business from ?1,284 billion to ?1,053 billion is mainly contributed by the decrease in revenue in its PS2 business while motion pictures revenue were down by 16.4% from ?858 billion to ?718 billion primarily driven by lower home entertainment demand and fewer films being sold to the home entertainment market. Financial Services revenue dropped 7.4% from ?581 billion to ?538 billion due to profit deterioration at Sony Life caused by the net valuation loss of convertible bonds and increase in impairment loss on equity securities. However, in 2010, the gross profit margin has improved considerably recording a margin of 22.9% subsequent to restructuring meas ures and cost reduction activities implemented. The restructuring consists of three horizontal platforms – the Global Sales and Marketing Platform, the Manufacturing, Logistics, Procurement and Customer Service Platform and the Research and Development and Common Software Platform aim to achieve cost efficiencies,

Teacher Performance Assessment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Teacher Performance Assessment - Case Study Example For example, he uses the words abuelita and abuelito to refer to his grandmother and grandfather. There is evidence of his poor writing and oral skills in his writing about the family and oral response respectively. Most of his sentences are incomplete, and his spoken words have a weak structure.   Student activity or instructional strategy presented on the second day could be challenging to Guillermo. The instructional strategy demands the student to hold a discussion based on the defining features of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. The activity also requires the entire class to design a chart that will highlight the features of each and every rock that will be discussed. Every student will be required to cooperate during every stage of the discussion. In addition, all groups of students who cooperate during the discussion will be provided with additional ten rocks. The students will be required to arrange the rocks into different categories on the basis of their characteristics. Afterwards, the students will draw a picture that is appropriate and write matching paragraph about the features of the different rocks. These are metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rocks. The reason I chose the activity or learning strategy employed on the second day is because of the student’s poor writing and oral skills. Guillermo reads English that is two years below his fourth grade level. This will make it difficult for him to efficiently participate in a discussion based on the defining features of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks (Scriven 23). He will face several challenges when grammar that is technical is used during speaking or writing on the rocks. In addition, the student is socially shy; this will also hinder his active participation during the discussion. His poor writing skills will also isolate him when the rest of the students are making a chart for the rocks that are being studied. The