Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Dickens' notes
Dickens was a writer who got very into his writing. He was seen as a creative genius to the world. And because he was so involved in this creative world he produced, he became distant from the real world. During the time he wrote "Tale of Two Cities" was a time of war throughout the world. In America we were dealing with the Civil War, and in England and Britain they were dealing with the French Revolutionary war. Dickens grew up in a family who did not have a lot of money whatsoever, and because of this , it made him a better writer. This allowed him to relate better with his readers because he had an authentic voice and they were able to immediately identify with him. "Tale of Two Cities" was written in a time in Dickens life in which he was dealing with a lot of pain and problems. You may even say it was his dark period of his life. His father died, and he met an actress and left his wife. This correlates with his somber tone starting off in the novel. A "Tale of Two Cities" is a classical historical novel that describes the French Revolution.
Tale of Two Cities : First 100 pages
Dickens first starts by explaining the parallels between Paris and London, and explaining the sort of situation that the cities are in. He delves deeply into the dismay and lawlessness that take place in London, and the indulgence and power-hungry French aristocracy. You can understand why he wrote about both things the way he did by remembering how he grew up poor and in a harsh environment. Then you can see why he knows so much about the ways of the London streets, and is resentful of the nature that was present in Paris pre-revolution.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Lit Analysis #4 - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
1. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In Leo Tolstoy’s, Anna Karenina , begins with the Oblonsky Family being torn apart by adultery. Anna Karenina then arrives to mend the family issues and convince Dolly to not get a divorce. Kitty, Dolly’s younger sister has two men who both are potential suitors for her. Vronsky, the man Kitty chose, soon falls in love with Anna instead of Kitty. Kitty then becomes ill, and Anna returns to St. Perersburg and wit in that move, she decided that her and Vronsky just had a fling that was simply just an infatuation with one another. Vronsky Follows Anna and expresses his love for her, and once again she dismisses him. Years later, Vronsky participated in a horse race in which Anna and her husband Karenin , attended. This is when Anna admits to her husband that she is having an affair with Vronsky and he is the man she loves. Kitty and Levin rekindle their love at a dinner party, and they become engaged and marry. When Anna attempts to divorce Karenin, he rejects it due to the reflection of a divorce on their social status in society. Therefore, Anna just leaves, its not until Karenin caught Vronsky at the Karenin country home one day, he agrees to a divorce. Anna and Vronsky go to Italy, where they lead an aimless existence. Eventually, the two return to Russia, where Anna is spurned by society, which considers her adultery disgraceful. Anna and Vronsky withdraw into seclusion, though Anna dares a birthday visit to her young son at Karenin’s home. She begins to feel great jealousy for Vronsky, resenting the fact that he is free to participate in society while she is housebound and scorned. Anna becomes depended on sedatives to sleep, while she still awaits a divorce. Levin and Kitty move to Moscow to await the birth of their baby, and they are astonished at the expenses of city life. When Anna and Levin meet, they immediately become enchanted with one another which confused them both. Anna picks a fight with Vronsky and after saying goodbye to Dolly, agrees to meet him at a train station after his errands. At the station, despairing and dazed by the crowds, Anna throws herself under a train and dies. Levin was depressed but then becomes transformed by faith. And after a thunderstorm, Levin feels real love for his son, and Kitty is pleased. Levin reflects again that the meaning of his life lies in the good that he can put into it.
2. A Christian's first duty is to abstain from living by the work of others and from participating in the organized violence of the state. While all forms of violence are evil, any government compulsion shares this taint, since the individual must be free to follow his own inner goodness, seeking for himself what is right and wrong. These as yet unformalized doctrines motivate Levin's disinterest in the "Slavonic question" and make him challenge why Russian soldiers should murder Turks.
3. The narrator maintains an impersonal yet sympathetic tone. He focuses on both facts and feelings but without authorial commentaries on the fates of characters. Anna Kareninadoes not include explicit philosophical generalizations, except in the opening sentence of the novel.
a.) “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” It is not a narrative beginning that tells a story about particular characters and their actions. Rather, it is a generalization, much like a philosophical or scientific argument.
b.) “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be. But if you don’t love me, it would be better and more honest to say so.” Anna makes an irrational connection between Vronsky’s mother in the first sentence and herself in the second. Anna refers to the lack of love Vronsky must feel for his mother and then immediately—saying “But” as if continuing the same thought—refers to his lack of love for herself. Anna’s contrast between respect and love is startling, even illogical.
c.) “. . . [M]y life now, my whole life, regardless of all that may happen to me, every minute of it, is not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it!” Levin’s gain corresponds precisely to Anna’s loss, in a symmetry typical of Tolstoy’s careful structuring of the novel.
4. Five literary elements used in the novel are interior monologue, stock epithets, symbolism, recurrent phrases, and structure.
a. Interior monologue: gives verbal definition to the semi-articulate processes of a character's consciousness. Anna's soliloquy as she drives to the place of her suicide is an example of this dramatic device.
B and C. Stock epithets and recurrent phrases: Anna's "dark curls" and "light step" appear frequently. Stiva's "handsome, ruddy face," Kitty's "truthful eyes," and Karenin's "deliberate, high-pitched voice" provide a few examples of this device.
D. Symbolism: the storm corresponding to the stormy state of one's soul; the symbolic value of the train station; the horse race as a working model of the Anna-Vronsky affair; the symbolism of the ball and the theater; Anna's "drooping eyelids" as the first sign of her witchery; her symbolic state of having a "double soul;" the "little man" of death in Anna's dream which echoes the ill-omened railway accident.
E. Structure: “. . . [M]y life now, my whole life, regardless of all that may happen to me, every minute of it, is not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it!” Levin’s gain corresponds precisely to Anna’s loss, in a symmetry typical of Tolstoy’s careful structuring of the novel.
2. A Christian's first duty is to abstain from living by the work of others and from participating in the organized violence of the state. While all forms of violence are evil, any government compulsion shares this taint, since the individual must be free to follow his own inner goodness, seeking for himself what is right and wrong. These as yet unformalized doctrines motivate Levin's disinterest in the "Slavonic question" and make him challenge why Russian soldiers should murder Turks.
3. The narrator maintains an impersonal yet sympathetic tone. He focuses on both facts and feelings but without authorial commentaries on the fates of characters. Anna Kareninadoes not include explicit philosophical generalizations, except in the opening sentence of the novel.
a.) “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” It is not a narrative beginning that tells a story about particular characters and their actions. Rather, it is a generalization, much like a philosophical or scientific argument.
b.) “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be. But if you don’t love me, it would be better and more honest to say so.” Anna makes an irrational connection between Vronsky’s mother in the first sentence and herself in the second. Anna refers to the lack of love Vronsky must feel for his mother and then immediately—saying “But” as if continuing the same thought—refers to his lack of love for herself. Anna’s contrast between respect and love is startling, even illogical.
c.) “. . . [M]y life now, my whole life, regardless of all that may happen to me, every minute of it, is not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it!” Levin’s gain corresponds precisely to Anna’s loss, in a symmetry typical of Tolstoy’s careful structuring of the novel.
4. Five literary elements used in the novel are interior monologue, stock epithets, symbolism, recurrent phrases, and structure.
a. Interior monologue: gives verbal definition to the semi-articulate processes of a character's consciousness. Anna's soliloquy as she drives to the place of her suicide is an example of this dramatic device.
B and C. Stock epithets and recurrent phrases: Anna's "dark curls" and "light step" appear frequently. Stiva's "handsome, ruddy face," Kitty's "truthful eyes," and Karenin's "deliberate, high-pitched voice" provide a few examples of this device.
D. Symbolism: the storm corresponding to the stormy state of one's soul; the symbolic value of the train station; the horse race as a working model of the Anna-Vronsky affair; the symbolism of the ball and the theater; Anna's "drooping eyelids" as the first sign of her witchery; her symbolic state of having a "double soul;" the "little man" of death in Anna's dream which echoes the ill-omened railway accident.
E. Structure: “. . . [M]y life now, my whole life, regardless of all that may happen to me, every minute of it, is not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it!” Levin’s gain corresponds precisely to Anna’s loss, in a symmetry typical of Tolstoy’s careful structuring of the novel.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
THE BIG QUESTION: INTRODUCTION
Without doctors in our society, people will suffer and die from diseases. Without garbage men, trash will pile up in our streets. Without teachers, our students and therefore our society's future would lead to chaos. On the other hand, if you remove professional athletes out of society.... nothing really happens. So, why in the world do we pay these guys millions just to throw a ball around and make themselves look good for cameras to snap? Is it even possible for someone to come up with a reason why they deserve these of-the-chart salaries? These outrageous salaries usually belong to professional MALE athletes. There is no gender equity within professional sports between male and female athletes concerning salaries, endorsements, and marketing.
It is true that when it comes to sports, men are usually paid more than what women can earn even if they are playing the same sports. The most possible reason for this is that men’s sports are more popular and they often have lots of sponsors that bring in money as compared to women’s sports. The more sponsors a particular sport can generate, the higher pay the athlete can receive. And while there are no objective studies made on this, anybody can deduce the fact that men are paid twice as much even under the same circumstances, same experience, and the same qualifications. For example, the average WNBA salary for 0-2 years of service in 2012 is $37,260 and for 3+ years it is $54,000. The maximum salary is $95,000 per year and that is usually for the top one or two players in the WNBA. Sue Bird is considered to be the “poster child” for the WNBA and at the most makes $87,000 per year. In 2004 when Sue and her fellow teammates won the league title, they only received a $10,000 bonus. Now in the NBA, the teams who make it to the finals get about a $12 million dollar bonus to split accordingly amongst their players and the coaching staff. The differences between the two are evident, and it’s ridiculous how extreme it is. The maximum salary for NBA players who have been in the league for 6 years or less receive about $9 million per year or 25% of the salary cap; a player with 7-9 years of NBA experience receives $11 million per year or 30% of cap; 10+ years is about $14 million or 35% of salary cap. While opinions may vary, the main reason women athletes are paid less than male athletes is because the amount of revenue generated by male athletes. Male sports bring in more ratings on television which in turn bring out bigger sponsors who are willing to spend more money to endorse the team or product.
A common opinion of the typical sports fan is that athletes are overpaid. That is to say, athletes are paid more than their relative “worth”--- as opposed to teachers, lawyers, doctors, etc. For example, a USA Today article published in November 1994 cites a survey conducted on 2000 individuals on how adequately they feel athletes are paid. 87% of those surveyed responded that they feel athletes are overpaid, compared to nurses (10%) teachers (8%), and secretaries (2%). Sentiments have not changed much in the past 13 years. With these statistics, you can infer that society’s views an occupation’s “worth” as its value to society. After all, nurses are essential components in American health care; teachers are essential to public education; while secretaries are crucial to various administrative tasks. Within this context of the definition, professional athletes seem to have little intrinsic value to society. They seem disposable. Take teachers away, and we have nobody left to teach the children. Solomon and Anderson conclude that “fans cannot be the people who ascribe worth to professional athletes. After all, an athlete’s only concern is whether his employer thinks he is worth a high salary, not the fans…” True, higher fan consumption means higher revenue which means more worth. But at the end of the day fans are not the people who write the checks. This responsibility falls on the owners of these professional teams. Just as any CEO of a Fortune 500 company, it is the owner of the professional sports franchise that has the most at stake when examining whether an athlete is worth the investment. Therefore, he must examine this investment carefully; and if he doesn’t, his company will lose money and he will go out of business.
How does the franchise owner examine a player’s worth? In an interesting study entitled, “The NBA and the Influx of International Basketball Players”, economists Erik Eschker, Stephen Perez, and Mark Siegler examine the process by which an owner, or whoever within the organization has the responsibility of evaluating talent, determines a player’s worth on the market. They use the structure of the National Basketball Association as an example. As long as teams are able to buy or sell players, they say, NBA salaries will resemble an auction.
In today’s culture, it is evident that professional athletes are making a ridiculous amount of money. The only question I have is why. I don’t understand why or how In one year, first year rookie player in the NBA can make more than a top orthopedic surgeon can in 18 years. Another issue is the apparent lack in gender equity among professional sports. These men and women are putting in the same amount of time and effort into each of their selected sports, but they are definitely not receiving the same salary rates.
It is true that when it comes to sports, men are usually paid more than what women can earn even if they are playing the same sports. The most possible reason for this is that men’s sports are more popular and they often have lots of sponsors that bring in money as compared to women’s sports. The more sponsors a particular sport can generate, the higher pay the athlete can receive. And while there are no objective studies made on this, anybody can deduce the fact that men are paid twice as much even under the same circumstances, same experience, and the same qualifications. For example, the average WNBA salary for 0-2 years of service in 2012 is $37,260 and for 3+ years it is $54,000. The maximum salary is $95,000 per year and that is usually for the top one or two players in the WNBA. Sue Bird is considered to be the “poster child” for the WNBA and at the most makes $87,000 per year. In 2004 when Sue and her fellow teammates won the league title, they only received a $10,000 bonus. Now in the NBA, the teams who make it to the finals get about a $12 million dollar bonus to split accordingly amongst their players and the coaching staff. The differences between the two are evident, and it’s ridiculous how extreme it is. The maximum salary for NBA players who have been in the league for 6 years or less receive about $9 million per year or 25% of the salary cap; a player with 7-9 years of NBA experience receives $11 million per year or 30% of cap; 10+ years is about $14 million or 35% of salary cap. While opinions may vary, the main reason women athletes are paid less than male athletes is because the amount of revenue generated by male athletes. Male sports bring in more ratings on television which in turn bring out bigger sponsors who are willing to spend more money to endorse the team or product.
A common opinion of the typical sports fan is that athletes are overpaid. That is to say, athletes are paid more than their relative “worth”--- as opposed to teachers, lawyers, doctors, etc. For example, a USA Today article published in November 1994 cites a survey conducted on 2000 individuals on how adequately they feel athletes are paid. 87% of those surveyed responded that they feel athletes are overpaid, compared to nurses (10%) teachers (8%), and secretaries (2%). Sentiments have not changed much in the past 13 years. With these statistics, you can infer that society’s views an occupation’s “worth” as its value to society. After all, nurses are essential components in American health care; teachers are essential to public education; while secretaries are crucial to various administrative tasks. Within this context of the definition, professional athletes seem to have little intrinsic value to society. They seem disposable. Take teachers away, and we have nobody left to teach the children. Solomon and Anderson conclude that “fans cannot be the people who ascribe worth to professional athletes. After all, an athlete’s only concern is whether his employer thinks he is worth a high salary, not the fans…” True, higher fan consumption means higher revenue which means more worth. But at the end of the day fans are not the people who write the checks. This responsibility falls on the owners of these professional teams. Just as any CEO of a Fortune 500 company, it is the owner of the professional sports franchise that has the most at stake when examining whether an athlete is worth the investment. Therefore, he must examine this investment carefully; and if he doesn’t, his company will lose money and he will go out of business.
How does the franchise owner examine a player’s worth? In an interesting study entitled, “The NBA and the Influx of International Basketball Players”, economists Erik Eschker, Stephen Perez, and Mark Siegler examine the process by which an owner, or whoever within the organization has the responsibility of evaluating talent, determines a player’s worth on the market. They use the structure of the National Basketball Association as an example. As long as teams are able to buy or sell players, they say, NBA salaries will resemble an auction.
In today’s culture, it is evident that professional athletes are making a ridiculous amount of money. The only question I have is why. I don’t understand why or how In one year, first year rookie player in the NBA can make more than a top orthopedic surgeon can in 18 years. Another issue is the apparent lack in gender equity among professional sports. These men and women are putting in the same amount of time and effort into each of their selected sports, but they are definitely not receiving the same salary rates.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Great Expectations
The main character, Pip, ends up with Great Expectations thanks to the seeming patronage of the local eccentric rich old lady Miss Havisham. He starts to get full of himself, but things do not turn out in his life the way he thinks. Pride goes before a fall, and he is humbled and his Great Expectations seem really foolish and shallow in retrospect once he goes through everything he endures in the course of the novel.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Poem Worth Loving
Our Deepest Fear
By Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
*My reasoning for choosing this poem was due to the message the author portrays. The author is telling you to look past the superficial lives we live and qualities we have and open up and witness our true purpose on this earth. "We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us..." Our true purpose...
By Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
*My reasoning for choosing this poem was due to the message the author portrays. The author is telling you to look past the superficial lives we live and qualities we have and open up and witness our true purpose on this earth. "We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us..." Our true purpose...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
THE BIG QUESTION: ABSTRACT
*Why do professional athletes make so much money ? Focus on the ethics of fairness and also gender equity.
Background: *The highest paid team in professional baseball is the New York Yankees.
*Tiger Woods is the highest paid athlete ($127,902,706). This includes his endorsement income.
*NFL average salaries by position in 2009 were: Quarterback- $15million, Defensive Tackle- $1.224, Running Back- $5 million
*Female Athletes: Sue Bird, the “poster child” for the WNBA makes at the most $87,000 per
year. in 2004 when Sue and her fellow teammates won the league title, they only received a $10,000 bonus.
*The average WNBA salary for 0-2 years of service in 2012 is $37,260 and for 3+ years it is $54,000. The maximum salary is $95,000.
*Maximum salary for 6 years and under is $9 million or 25% of the total salary cap; 7-9 years- $11 million or 30% of cap; 10+ years - $14 million or 35% cap.
Need: *In today’s culture, it is evident that professional athletes are making a ridiculous amount of money. The only question I have is why. I don’t understand why or how In one year, first year rookie player in the NBA can make more than a top orthopedic surgeon can in 18 years. Another issue is the apparent lack in gender equity among professional sports. These men and women are putting in the same amount of time and effort into each of their selected sports, but they are definitely not receiving the same salary rates.
Purpose: *To open society’s eyes to the faults in today’s culture. We are creating an environment for young kids in which glorifies its athletes to the point where it influences their career paths while growing up. They are aspiring to be professional athletes, not doctors or lawyers. And when and if that dream does not occur in these kids lives when they grow up, they will not know what to do because they never thought about a different career of life path. Professional athletes make entirely too much money, and yet…THEY STILL WANT MORE.
Organization: *I am going to first organize my research paper by giving my reader clear facts of my topic so that before they even get past the first two paragraphs they know that I did my research and I am giving them nothing but the truth. I will then explain my purpose and give them my own personal experience on why I am so passionate about this subject. Then I will explain the effect this is having on society, and then finish it off with the need for a change.
Background: *The highest paid team in professional baseball is the New York Yankees.
*Tiger Woods is the highest paid athlete ($127,902,706). This includes his endorsement income.
*NFL average salaries by position in 2009 were: Quarterback- $15million, Defensive Tackle- $1.224, Running Back- $5 million
*Female Athletes: Sue Bird, the “poster child” for the WNBA makes at the most $87,000 per
year. in 2004 when Sue and her fellow teammates won the league title, they only received a $10,000 bonus.
*The average WNBA salary for 0-2 years of service in 2012 is $37,260 and for 3+ years it is $54,000. The maximum salary is $95,000.
*Maximum salary for 6 years and under is $9 million or 25% of the total salary cap; 7-9 years- $11 million or 30% of cap; 10+ years - $14 million or 35% cap.
Need: *In today’s culture, it is evident that professional athletes are making a ridiculous amount of money. The only question I have is why. I don’t understand why or how In one year, first year rookie player in the NBA can make more than a top orthopedic surgeon can in 18 years. Another issue is the apparent lack in gender equity among professional sports. These men and women are putting in the same amount of time and effort into each of their selected sports, but they are definitely not receiving the same salary rates.
Purpose: *To open society’s eyes to the faults in today’s culture. We are creating an environment for young kids in which glorifies its athletes to the point where it influences their career paths while growing up. They are aspiring to be professional athletes, not doctors or lawyers. And when and if that dream does not occur in these kids lives when they grow up, they will not know what to do because they never thought about a different career of life path. Professional athletes make entirely too much money, and yet…THEY STILL WANT MORE.
Organization: *I am going to first organize my research paper by giving my reader clear facts of my topic so that before they even get past the first two paragraphs they know that I did my research and I am giving them nothing but the truth. I will then explain my purpose and give them my own personal experience on why I am so passionate about this subject. Then I will explain the effect this is having on society, and then finish it off with the need for a change.
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