Discrimination towards Asians Essay Example for Free

Discrimination towards Asians Essay The expansion of America was a realization within the political and financial elite that there is a need for America to create markets in foreign countries for the American goods. By the turn of the 1890s there was a lot of surplus in goods that we need to penetrate overseas markets to address under consumption and economic crisis. The United States was under the premise that the countries with the largest navies and military force would eventually inherit the earth (Zinn, 1942). Before the election of President William McKinley he said that the American people needs overseas market for the surplus products since the American soil and factories are producing more than what the American people needed. This surplus should be of the advantage of the country since it will bring commercial supremacy. This supremacy led to the expansionist view in politics and even in the naval forces. President Roosevelt created propaganda for expansion in the 1890s together with other political elites who share his expansionist standpoint. Roosevelt was perhaps the greatest expansionist of his time. He was up to penetrate Hawaii, Philippines and China. In 1898, 10% of American goods were sold in the foreign markets which amounted to billions of dollars. By the year 1895, the foreign investment of American Capitalists has reached billions of dollars especially in the steel industry. This further fanned the need for the American capitalists to create overseas markets and this made engaging in war an option. As in the case of Philippines, the conflict between the Spanish conquerors and the Filipino rebels paved way for the intervention of America in the guise of â€Å"generosity†. In 1899, the American government under the presidency of William McKinley sent troops to the Philippines to aide the Filipinos in fighting their war against the Spaniards. Mckinley states four reasons on why he decided to colonize the Philippines. The first was he can’t give the Philippines back to the Spaniards. Second is that he can’t give the Philippines to the French. Third is that he thinks that the Philippines is â€Å"unfit† to govern for themselves and the forth is that he has no choice but to â€Å"adopt† the Filipinos and â€Å"civilize† them (Zinn, 1942). By the term â€Å"civilized† and â€Å"unfit† he was under the notion that Filipinos are savages, uneducated, and unscrupulous. This only shows that even the president of a democratic country thinks lowly of a race that has endured 300 years of oppression and was courageous enough to ouster a government as strong as Spain. The country was under the Spanish rule for more than 300 hundred years and the Filipinos were craving for freedom. The Filipinos under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo were gaining much power at that time and some historians say that the Filipino people could have won the war without the American intervention. Since the Americans came on cue, just as the war was supposed to end, America took all the credit and branded themselves as heroes and liberator of the country. This scenario is similar to what the United States did to Cuba. When the Cuban rebels sought help from the United States, they sent American troops instead of financial resources (Zinn, 1942). When the Spanish colonizers where defeated, the US did not recognize the efforts of the rebels and took over Cuba. Before the US freed Cuba, they made sure that Platt amendment will be added to the constitution giving the US rights to intervene with the Cuban government. Some US bases where also retained and the Cuban market was remained opened to American exports. In the case of the Philippines, US intervention came in together with education, clothing, healthcare and other basic necessities that were deprived by the Spaniards. Since the Spaniards aimed to suppress education among Filipinos and keep them dependent to their regime, the â€Å"Education for everyone scheme† of the United States was a hit for most of the Filipinos. However the struggle continued for those who seek real independence (Grey, 2003). The expansionist point of view of Americans towards the Philippines was regarded as acts of robbery and oppression by a black soldier designated in the Philippines. It was a bloody war as news articles and journals of soldiers revealed that they shot Filipinos like â€Å"rabbits† including the women and children who were helpless (Zinn, 1942). Discrimination in the political system was also evident since only the Americans hold office and Filipinos where kept at the lower offices of the political structure. Similar to the faith of those non-whites, the Filipino people where discriminated even in today’s society. Due to economic reasons a great percentage of Filipinos are now working abroad as domestic workers. Blue collar jobs such as domestic helpers, construction workers, waiters and etc are the most common employment for Filipinos residing in the United States (Manalansan, 2003). Because of this, stereotypes where based upon the assumption that Filipinos are uneducated and are capable of doing only menial jobs. In fact, in a British dictionary the meaning of the word Filipina is â€Å"domestic helper†. This may be attributed to the fact that 90% of Filipinos working abroad are females. However, we fail to see is that a large percentage of these Filipino workers have a college degree and are in fact educated. Sociology dictates that since Filipinos have been subjected to three colonizers (Spanish, Americans and Japanese) they are by nature patient, enduring and industrious. Thus, doing menial jobs are sacrifices they are willing to make just to alleviate their families current economic status (Manalansan, 2003). Today, the Philippines is the worlds major exporter of manpower especially in health care. Filipino nurses and care givers pride themselves as pioneers in their craft and the country even hails them as the present day heroes. However, when they set foot on the foreign soil, that pride turns to discrimination. Though they are well capable and well trained in nursing, skin color often hinders them from being treated the same way as that of the white nurses. A quote from the TV show Desperate Housewives uttered by Teri Hatcher says: â€Å"Okay, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas because I just wanna make sure that theyre not from some med school in the Philippines. This only supports the fact that Filipinos are still caught under the stereotype that they are incapable and are discriminated upon (Salanga, 2007). In comparison to the African-Americans, Filipinos experience greater amount of discrimination due to the fact that they are smaller, second is the portrayal of the Philippines as a country of terrorists, third is that they are uneducated and forth is that most of them don’t speak good English. But unknown to most Americans is that there is a thriving business of call centers in the Philippines which started in 2000. When we dial customer service and ask for help for a certain product, we might be seeking advice from Filipinos that we discriminate against. The thing is we don’t even notice that they are Filipinos by the way they speak. They are proficient in English and are able to address of plights properly, hence, the notion that Filipinos are dumb serves as an irony. In call centers, we ask for help from Filipinos and not the other way around. At present the Call center industry in the Philippines captures 20% of the world market share in call centers and the Philippine government aims to get 50% of share by the year 2008 (Ortigas Online, 2007). Filipinos today face what sociologists call double jeopardy. Because Filipinos are discriminated, they have difficulty of finding good jobs. It is estimated that a majority of Filipinos in the United States today are still holding blue collar jobs though some of them have white collar jobs. Some have even made it big time in the United States just like the lead singer of the Pussy Cat Dolls who is a Filipino-American (Ezugwu, 2007). Though some have made it up in the economic ladder, Filipinos still comprise the majority in service sectors jobs in the United States. Their poverty reinforces their minority status. Thus, the so-called â€Å"ladder of discrimination† as what sociologists call is also reinforced. Filipinos have the difficulty of upgrading their status by economic means because of these stereotypes. Thus, white Americans always associate Filipinos with poverty, terrorism, violence and ignorance. This then hinders them from alleviating their status and making their chances at getting high paying jobs a lot slimmer as compared to the whites. However, when I check the web and type â€Å"Philippines† in the search box it is amazing how it differs from what the media is projecting. As a country the Philippines has wonderful places and beautiful culture. They are deeply rooted to their religion and values which make them generally warm and happy individuals (Tope, L. Nonan-Mercado, 2007). Their history with the Spaniards taught Filipinos how to be industrious and enduring as they were colonized by Spain for 300 years. These characteristics of Filipinos show in their approach to their work here in the United States. I think the fact that they are willing to occupy menial jobs that most Americans would shun is a manifestation that they are hardworking people. Perhaps it is this realization that led to further acceptance to the Filipino culture and the Filipino people. In the United States there are Filipino communities in every state (The Filipino, 2007) and a lot of Americans prefer to have Filipino wives saying that Filipinos make a loving wife and mother. The country also has a strong president as of pres time and aims to renew the image of the Philippines as a country filled with communists. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wasfeatured in the Times Magazine for the second time and was hailed as one of the most powerful women in Asia (Spaeth, 2001). Since she is very stern in her fight against terrorism the Philippines and the Filipinos are beginning to portray a wonderful picture in our minds. In addition to that, society has become more lenient as to the case of racism. Many citizens are now aware that skin color or race does not limit a person’s ability to do his job properly. Filipinos, much like the other minority groups should be given the chance to grow and show their abilities. The growing popularity of snit racism and equality has made some impact on the way Filipinos are treated, however it is not yet evident in most cases. Reference http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/views03/1117-11.htm

Crime Victim Provisions: An analysis

Crime Victim Provisions: An analysis Critically explore the needs of victims of crime and the services currently provided for them. Include reference to the demands of the victim movement and the limitations of the current criminal justice system. The recent years in the UK and throughout the world has seen the importance and influence of human rights growing. This has had an effect on the law as a whole, but instead of the good of society being protected by statute and common law the individual has come to the forefront, i.e. an individuals rights cannot be derogated unless a set criterion is followed. Therefore this focus on the individual has not only given stricter rules for the courts and police to follow in respect to suspected and convicted criminals, it has also laid an emphasis on the individual victim and the resources, after-care and support, as well the effect on sentencing in respect to criminal cases and restitution or compensation in respect to civil cases. The recent rise of the role of victims in the Criminal Justice system is highly important, which will be identified in the discussion of restorative justice. The role model for incorporating the victim providing restitution and their needs can be seen in Australia within Victorian Criminal Justice System. Therefore this case study is not going to explore not the medical help that victims need and which have been procured, but their search for justice and restitution and compare it to the UKs approach to the victim in the Criminal Justice System. It is here that the victims rights groups are calling for justice, as seen in the recent Home Office Survey of Victims Rights Groups wishes, i.e. a true role for the victim in the Justice system, especially Criminal Justice:To genuinely reflect the needs of victims, the social rights referred to in the paper The social rights of victims of crime should be included in the new Charter, clearly identifying the agencies responsible for delivering them. Restorative Justice: This is the most modern reasoning for sentencing and balances the various elements of the sentencing, such as the victims needs, the rehabilitation of the offender, interests of protecting society. It could be adapted to include public opinion, but in the interests of justice it would need to be informed public opinion because the theory is Rawlsian in nature, which results in a theory from the standpoint of justice. Rawls in his thesis for engendering equality states that justice is the prime basis of all government and to ensure justice, the access to justice for all is the obvious means and end to ensure justice is fulfilled; therefore in the Criminal Justice system this would include the access to justice for the offender, the victim, and the rights for the public to voice their opinion on sentencing of a convicted criminal. Rawls theory is based on a few key ideas, which are the rights and duties of government/institution of society and the burdens and benef its of citizens co-operating. Rawls bases his theory on distributive justice, where inequalities are restrained by the greatest benefit of least advantaged and each person has the condition of fair equality of opportunity. Therefore Rawls would allow for restorative justice but retribution would be unjust, rather aims to rehabilitate and return the perpetrator to society would be appropriate, i.e. in order for the perpetrator to compensate society because if the perpetrator is rehabilitated and educated then society will be benefited. Rawls would argue that there is a role for the victim in the sentencing procedure and for public opinion as long as the perpetrator is not subject to hatred, prejudice and vengeance that would be the fear if public opinion was allowed to take over the proceedings. Rather Rawls would argue there needs to be a balance between the rights of the perpetrator, the publics opinion and its protection and the victims access to justice. There still needs to be the rule of law and objectivity but within the realms of these new considerations. It is possible that the perfect model the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council has met these obstacles and created a system that allows an ap propriate mixture of these elements. Victorian Sentencing The Victim Role in the Criminal Justice System: The VSAC was set up to ensure that there was just sentencing as well as allowing for the victim to have a sufficient statutory role in the sentencing procedure. This follows ensuring that the victim plays a proper role in respect to the criminal justice system. Yet in order for there not to be retributive and vengeance sentencing and in order to stop tainting of the trial before the judgment the role of the victim is closely monitored. Section 5 of the Sentencing Act 1991 ensures: Just punishment to punish the offender to an extent and in a manner which is just in all of the circumstances; Specific and general deterrence to deter the offender or other persons from committing offences of the same or a similar character; Rehabilitation to establish conditions within which it is considered by the court that the rehabilitation of the offender may be facilitated; Denunciation to denounce the type of conduct engaged in by the offender; Community protection to protect the community from the offender; or a combination of two or more of the above purposes. Therefore this limits the role of the victim and ensures that the defendants rights and the victims rights and community views are balanced. It also allows for informed public opinion to be taken into account in the sentencing procedure. This sentencing procedure takes the views of victims and the public in to account through a thoroughly monitored manner, rather than allowing the press to have a field day and public outcry. The Victorian sentencing procedure allows for the victims views to be taken in the form of an impact statement and this only occurs if the defendant is found guilty, i.e. this system does not allow such views to taint the defendants right to a fair hearing. In addition sentencing is gauged against informed public opinion rather than the outcry of the uneducated or the enraged so that there is a rounder understanding on the effects of the crime on the society and the individual. The British Approach to Victims: The government has always been on the side of the victim it takes on his or her case and seeks to punish the perpetrator but it has no always done so with enough rigour or sensitivity of their needs.Helena Kennedy focuses on the problem with the Criminal Justice System in the UK in respect to the lack of acknowledgment for the victim. In many ways the system is cold to the victim; it forgets there is more than retributive justice. The England and Wales Sentencing Advisory Council is made up of judges and academics, there is no real voice for the victim as in Australia. The only impact statements by the victim are those taken by the police and prosecution, when the victim is in a highly stressful situation. It pervading culture of the UKs system is that a conviction will satisfy the needs of the victim; this is not the case as the VSAC has seen. In many cases the victim needs to know why the crime happened and have the ability to talk the perpetrator . Also this is a method that can help the perpetrator acknowledge the harm done and hopefully rehabilitate the offender, especially in the youth justice system. The UK system has recognized this and in has instituted this as an alternative to imprisonment in the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. The key is the use of restorative justice, the approach taken in Australia, which is understanding and balancing the needs of the perpetrator and the victim. The problem in the UK is that on some levels it recognizes the need for this balance, but on others especially in the recent wakes of the terrorist attacks to forget about justice and civil liberties in order to have to power to punish anyone who may be a threat. It has followed the media frenzy of the US and forgotten about justice. The victim no longer figures in such approaches but the needs of the state. In order to satisfy the victims needs there needs to be an inclusive role, such as answers, apologies, informing the offe nder of the impact of their crimes on innocent people, crime prevention and restitution. This is harder in respect to serious crimes, but sometimes the reasons for the actions of the perpetrator not only help the victim to reconcile their experiences but it also ensures that the government understands the reasoning for certain crimes and make the perpetrator understand the impact of their crimes. Therefore the role of the victim in the Criminal Justice System is more than just attending a court room but can play a role in understanding and preventing crime. The VSAC has understood this problem and has introduced impact statements, as well as more diverse advisory panel and the influence of informed public opinion; rather than the pick n mix that the UKs government is taking whenever it suits the needs of the state. This approach was verbalized by John Major during his leadership as condemn more and understand less but as Helena Kennedy argues the victims of crime, their desire is often to understand why a criminal acted as they did. Conclusion: The objective approach that the VSAC makes it very hard for the press to create witch hunts and put pressure on the court to impose an unjust sentence in favour of perceived public opinion; rather the specific victims of the crime are taken into account. This objective approach halts and the fears that the courts will become a place for the media based witch hunts are stopped and justice for the victim is considered at the same time as balancing the justice for the defendant. This creates a unique approach to criminal justice and possibly a way forward for ensuring that victims do gain a voice, without the witch hunts that have been seen recently in the US, especially those held in Guatanamo Bay. Also the UK system which is on the brink of following the US should heed the fears of those in the UK justice system against the media/witch hunt approach and follow the approach the VSAC and subsequent jurisdictions in Australia have taken, which is to balance the criminal justice between the public opinion, the victim and the defendent in an objective manner as Justice Badgery-Parker states: [T]he need which the criminal justice system exists to fulfil is the need to interpose between the victim and the criminal an objective instrumentality which, while recognising the seriousness of the crime from the victims point of view and, in the case of murder, the magnitude of the loss which the victims family and friends have sustained, attempts to serve a range of community interests which include but go beyond notions merely of retribution. In order to do this there needs to be easy access to forums and practioners from the Criminal Justice system in order to stress the different reasoning behind sentencing procedures, as well as Victims AND Offenders rights groups in the UK. Bibliography: R G Fox, 1995, Victorian Criminal Procedure: State and Federal Monash Law Book Co-operative Freiberg, 2001,Sentencing Options, Sentencing Review 2001Discussion Paper Freiberg, 2002, Pathways to Justice Sentencing Review 2002 Discussion Paper Graycar Morgan, 2005, Law Reform Whats in it for Women, Windsor Yearbook on Access to Justice Volume 23 Home Office, 2001, Review of the Victims Charter: Summary of Responses can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs/vcreviewvictims.html Helena Kennedy, 2004, Just Law, Vintage BooksJohn Rawls, The Theory of Justice (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1971) Rawls J., Justice as Fairness: a restatement, (E. Kelly Ed) (2001, Cambridge Mass, Harvard University press) Ridge, M. 2003 Giving the dead their due Ethics 114: 38-59. Sentencing Advisory Council, About Sentencing Principles and Purposes, can be found at: http://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/CA256F82000D281D/page/About+Sentencing?OpenDocument1=20-About+Sentencing~2=~3=~

Celie and Caddy of Color Purple and Sound and the Fury :: comparison compare contrast essays

Celie and Caddy of Color Purple and Sound and the Fury Reminisce of the days of being a child. What comes to mind? Feeling free and innocent? Basically, what society views childhood to be? Unfortunately, many children have horrible childhoods, suffering from abusive parents. Bad childhood stems from bad parents. Every ten seconds go by, and a parent abuses his child. Acts of rebellion, loss of self-esteem, lack of confidence-all factors are the results from a child being abused. Sadly, sometimes society ignores that aspect. Luckily, literature differs from other mediums in that it can express thoughts and emotional more effectively. Alice Walker's The Color Purple and William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury depict two girls going through a bad childhood. Celie and Caddy experience abuse from their parents, which causes Caddy and Celie to have emotional difficulties in their adult life. Caddy's parents never beat her or sexually molest her; she suffers from psychological neglect, which many people do not see as a type of abuse. Psychological neglect includes the lack of emotional support and love, or the parents never attend to the child. Neither Mr. Compson nor Mrs. Compson says, "I love you" to Caddy; they do not show any type of emotional support. The father is a booze-drinking-could-care-less-life-is-a-bitch-then-you-die type of person, and the mother is a neurotic, whining bitch. Guilty as charged. No personal relationship exists between Caddy and her father; Mr. Compson is not there for his daughter. Can a relationship be established with a man who believes women "have an affinity for evil for supplying w hatever the evil lacks in itself for drawing it about them instinctively... until the evil has served it's purpose whether it existed or no" (110)? He sees women as evil and subordinate. Whereas most fathers would be outraged, Mr. Compson disregards Caddy's promiscuity. To him, Caddy's promiscuity is natural, human absurdity. Her integrity is none of his concern. When a father fusses at his misguided child, it is a sign of caring; he is fusses to improve his child. Mr. Compson does nothing; he does not care, leaving Caddy neglected. Caddy's mother is no better than her father is. A girl needs her mother; a mother is the only one a girl can turn to sometimes. However, Mrs. Compson is not the mother that a girl can always rely on.

My Favorite Kind of Vague :: Personal Narrative Jealousy Envy Essays

My Favorite Kind of Vague When dreams mix with realities it’s 2 o’clock on a Sunday morning, and no one is awake but you, scribbling on a notebook pad behind the bathroom door, trying to grasp how something so mild, how heartwarming, could be converted by its counterpart. I read this book last summer, it was required reading, everyone told me it was horrible. The book takes place in the south at this boy’s boarding school called Devon during the summer session, in it Gene, this guy with a terrible sense of self and an even worse self-esteem, engages in a codependent relationship with the magnificent athlete Phineas. Everyone loves Finny, he’s charming, he’s naive, he’s everything Gene isn’t. So anyway, Gene is jealous of Phineas, although they’re best friends, so he develops this concept of Finny being jealous of him, justifying the hatred he develops for him. It becomes apparent that Phineas isn’t at all jealous; Gene’s, consumed with envy, and pushes Finny out of the tree they used to jump out of together, essentially killing his best friend. It’s strange how literary life parallels life so perfectly sometimes. But it really is a good book, I recommend it. But who am â€Å"I†? Well, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Beth. Some may accuse me of being antisocial, but I’m not. I mean, sure, I get calls all the time, but they’re for homework help and advice on weak poetry. It’s not that I mind it; it’s just that I don’t exactly enjoy it. When I was in seventh grade, I cracked a book open at my father’s library, you should probably know he’s a librarian. It was called â€Å"Popularity in 100 steps.† I remember a few guidelines from it â€Å"Be nice to others,† that means listening to them, and giving good advice another was â€Å"Try not to be pessimistic,† another â€Å"Use your fashion sense† and then the big 100 was â€Å"Be yourself.† Well, I’d been being myself for 16 godforsaken years, and it was time for a change. I met her in a hallway, at the time squirming at her singing, her faà §ade of giddiness. She could have authored the awe-inspiring â€Å"Popularity in 100 steps,† her life was based around its rules. She was happy then, happier than she’s ever been since, we hadn’t exchanged words, yet, I was just a nametag, and she was just the ringmaster of a group of 30 boys.

Mongols Essay example -- History, The Indian Ocean Trade

Introduction Between 1200 AD to present, there have been many changes in the world economy. The most important change is how integrated the world economy has become. When countries have a demand for something the first question is where is that supply going to come from. In the end, the way that all nations and places were able to meet their demands was by going internationally and getting it that way. The whole world found a way by sea and land to get the items that they needed and, in the process, connected the whole world through trade. First Question The first types of societies were agricultural and pastoral. Pastoral societies has less productive economies because they were nomadic and needed large grazing areas and supported smaller populations. They usually organized themselves by family and common ancestry (Strayer 334). The main pastoral group was the Mongols as they conquered from the Pacific coast of Asia to Eastern Europe (Strayer 342). Part of their large success was their vast network of trade. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a large and interconnect trading system was put in place. (Marks 33) The Mongols did not so much participate in the trade as they did tax it. They provided a secure route for merchants to take the long journey across Central Asia between Europe and China (Strayer 354). This trade route relied on mostly on middlemen, as it was a series of circuits that were all connected. An item can make it from Asia to Europe and cross through many hands with the price increasing each time. This trade gave way to the Indian Ocean Trade as well as the Silk Roads in the fifteenth century. The Silk Roads connected China, Siberia, Central Asia, India, The Middle East, and The Mediterranean B... ...ations. The French and the English created slave-based sugar plantations on the Caribbean Islands (Marks 83). The slaves also became a central part of the economies in colonial America as it kept plantation agriculture going (Class Notes 12/6/10). The Mongols were the first pastoral group to basically become an empire. Then when China and Europe started to build themselves back up and start voyaging out into the sea, Trade became a worldwide idea. China started to use silver as their currency, which meant that they needed the bulk of the world’s silver in Asia. The rest of the world benefited from trading their silver into Asia. Silver was the first thing that really connected the whole world and specifically incorporated the Americas into their trading network. Then there was the fur and slave trade, which further brought together the world economy as a whole.

Crucible Projects Essay

Select one of the following to complete independently or with a partner: People Magazine’s Love Triangle of  the Year Produce a magazine article in which you try to piece together the story of this love triangle from the various characters’ points of view. Your article should include comments by John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Williams. The main goal here is to understand the effect their actions had on each of the others. Be sure to bring out the major events of the story in some way. Your finished product should look like a magazine article and include various pictures or whatever your creative minds can come up with! Look at some People Magazine articles for ideas. The Crucible: An Alphabet Book For your final project, you will create an alphabet book using one letter of the alphabet per page. It may be rhyming or nonrhyming. Give your book a cover and illustrate it. As this will be your final grade, I am particularly interested in seeing that you have an understanding of the major events and themes of the novel as well as relationships between the characters. (EXAMPLE: A is for adultery. M is for McCarthyism.) The Crucible Greeting Cards Design five greeting cards that you think John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Parris, and Abigail Williams would have sent to each other for a holiday. You choose the holiday/occasion and design the five cards, one from each of these characters. Include a picture and a quote or poem that they would have written in each card. They can be funny or serious. Be creative and make the cards look nice! I am particularly interested in seeing that you have an understanding of the major ideas and the relationships between the characters. Include an explanation with each card. The Crucible Soundtrack Create a soundtrack for the novel, choosing or composing five songs (ONE can be an instrumental). The songs must represent the main themes, moods, relationships, or events in the story in some way. Create a CD insert with appropriate artwork, artist information, dedications, and a booklet that includes lyrics and a paragraph for each song explaining how and why each relates to the book. You may burn the songs onto a CD if you’d like, but it is not required. The Crucible Diary Create a journal/diary for one of the three main characters. In that character’s voice (first person),you will create at least 10 one page, typed and dated entries based on what’s happening at the time. This will allow you to comment on the major events of the plot. You MUST comment on the following: The first appearance of the character in the story Any meeting that your character has with another of the characters Any important event that occurs in the story Any physical/psychological changes in the character Where the character leaves the story The story covers years in the character’s life so you will observe changes in the character’s acceptance in the community, the physical and/or mental condition of your character, and his/her relationship with the other characters. The main characters who will appear in your journal will be John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and/or Reverend Parris. You may choose any of these as your â€Å"journal writer†, but all of them will appear in your journal. The Crucible Times Develop a front page from a Salem newspaper during the time/setting of this story. Your front page will be full of the story of Abigail and Company, the scandal, and/or the aftermath. The goal is to show me that you have an understanding of the plot and characters in the play. Your front page should include several of the following: 1. A banner headline 2. At least one picture with a caption 3. The lead story (at least 300 words) 4. Related side bar stories 5. Horoscope 6. Title of newspaper 7. At least one advertisement that is play related 8. Advice column 9. Gossip column 10. Classifieds

“Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx Essay

â€Å"Brokeback Mountain†Annie Proulx was born on August 22, 1935, in Norwich, Connecticut, into a family of farmers, mill workers, inventors, and artists whose ancestors had lived there for three centuries. Because of her father’s career in textiles, Proulx’s family constantly moved, so she lived in several states, including North Carolina, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Vermont in 1969 and then went on to graduate from Concordia University with a Master’s degree in Art in 1973 (Info Please). Starting as a Journalist, her first published work of fiction was â€Å"The Costums Lounge† and she subsequently published stories in Gray’s Sporting Journal in the late 1970s, eventually publishing her first collection in 1988 and her first novel in 1992. Proulx has twice won the O. Henry Prize for the year’s best short story (Info Please). In 1998, she won for â€Å"Brokeback Mountain,† which had appeared in The New Yorker on October 13, 1997. Proulx won again the following year for â€Å"The Mud Below,† which appeared in The New Yorker June 22 and 29, 1999. Both appear in her 1999 collection of short stories, Close Range: Wyoming Stories. Proulx emphasizes a heartbreaking tale of two homosexual individuals who struggle to be together, bound by the norms and rules of society. I found â€Å"Brokeback Mountain† to be a very real and compassionate tale of two cowboys who unexpectedly found love in each other. In a most peaceful setting, away from the world, two cowboys embody one of the most disquieting issues affecting our entire culture. The pain experienced by every character is believable as is the anger. Proulx does a great job of letting Ennis’s confusion and his accompanying anger percolate beneath the cloak of social conformity. It is a garment that doesn’t fit, yet he is terrified to remove it. Proulx helps depict the depth of pain experienced when the object of love is socially unacceptable, and the anger one experiences when forced to live dishonestly. Proulx is the narrator of â€Å"Brokeback Mountain†. She tells the story of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist’s summer on Brokeback Mountain, and the many years after that, and the deep love they develop for one another in an intolerant world. The point of view of the story is third person omniscient. The narration is real in tone and employs description and dialogue to examine the actions, emotions and thoughts of the characters. Proulx describes a sequence of events from a beginning point in time, when the characters are introduced in the year 1963 in Wyoming, to the end of the story nearly 20 years later. Throughout the story, Ennis and Jack reunite for brief liaisons on camping trips in remote settings over the course of 20 years. Proulx uses setting details to heighten the thematic significance of the story. The most effective use of setting as symbol occurs when she juxtaposes harsh and beautiful images of the landscape’s cruel beauty to suggest the difficult nature of Ennis’s and Jack’s relationship. The story starts out with Ennis Del Mar getting a job on the mountain as a sheep herder with Jack Twist. Day after day, Ennis tends the camp while Jack herds the sheep and sleeps out on the mountain with them. One day, when Jack complains about his â€Å"commutin four hours a day,† he accepts Ennis’s offer to switch jobs. Every evening, they share supper by the campfire, â€Å"talking horses and rodeo, rough stock events, wrecks and injuries sustained,† (Proulx 75) and other details of their hard lives in the West. Toward the end of the summer when they shift the camp, the distance Ennis has to ride out to the sheep grows longer and he begins to stay later at the camp at night. One evening, after the two sing drunken songs by the campfire, Ennis decides it is too late to go out to the sheep and so beds down at the campsite. After his shivering wakes Jack, he insists that Ennis share his bedroll. Soon after, the two have sex, something Ennis had never done before. Their sexual activity becomes more frequent in the following days while they both insist that neither of them is â€Å"queer.† One day the foreman, Joe Aguirre, watches them together through his binoculars. At the end of the summer, When Jack asks Ennis if he is coming back to the mountain the next summer, Ennis tells him that he will be getting married in December and then will try to find work on a ranch. Jack determines to go back home and then maybe to Texas, and the two say an awkward goodbye. As Ennis drives away, his gut wrenches and he feels â€Å"as bad as he ever had†. Ennis marries Alma  and their first child, Alma Jr., is born a year later and after their second child is born, Alma convinces Ennis to get a place in town, so she doesn’t have to deal with anymore â€Å"lonesome ranches.† Four summers after their first on Brokeback Mountain, Jack visits Ennis. When Jack first arrives, he and Ennis share a passionate embrace, watched by Alma. When Jack meets Alma, he announces that he too is married and has a baby boy. After a few awkward moments, Ennis and Jack leave, pick up a bottle of whiskey and head for a motel where they spend the night together. They talk of how they missed each other and Jack suggests that he married his wife, Lureen, because she came from a wealthy family. Ennis admits that he has been thinking about whether he is gay, but insists that he is not because though he does not enjoy sex with women, he has not been with any other man. Jack declares the same. After the two express their passion for each other, Ennis determines that nothing can be done since they both have families and warns Jack that if they are seen together, they may be killed. The only future Ennis can see for the two of them is to get together once in a while, explaining â€Å"if you can’t fix it you got to stand it.† After a while, Ennis and Alma begin to grow apart and she starts to resent him for not finding a stea dy job, and always going with Jack on fishing trips. Eventually, they divorce and Alma remarries but stays in touch with Ennis and lets him visit their children. During the following years, Ennis and Jack occasionally meet on different ranges throughout the West. One night, they catch each other up on their lives, both admitting affairs with women and problems with their own children. After complaining about the infrequency of their time together, Jack suggests that they move to Mexico, but Ennis declines, insisting that he has to stay and work. Months later, when Ennis receives back a postcard he had sent to Jack marked â€Å"DECEASED,† he calls Lureen, who informs him that Jack was killed when a tire blew up in his face. Ennis suspects, however, that he was murdered after he was caught with another man. He makes a trip to see Jack’s parents and offers to take Jack’s ashes up to Brokeback Mountain, where Jack had told Lureen that he wanted to be buried. During the visit, Ennis goes up to Jack’s room where he finds Jack’s shirt, which is covered in Ennis’s blood. Inside the shirt, he finds one of his own. Ennis then buries his face in Jack’s shirt, hoping to be able to smell his scent, but there is nothing there. Before Ennis leaves, Mr. Twist informs him that  Jack’s ashes will be buried in the family plot. Ennis would have dreams of Jack and visions of their time in Brokeback Mountain, which fills him with both sorrow and joy. The protagonist of the story are Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar. Proulx gives a good description of both stating â€Å"They were raised on small, poor ranches in opposite corners of the state, Jack Twist in Lightning Flat, up on the Montana border, Ennis del Mar from around Sage, near the Utah line, both high school drop out country boys with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation, both rough mannered, rough spoken, inured to the stoic life†(Proulx 74.) The antagonist of the story would be the locals and society for killing Jack because they didn’t find it acceptable for a man to be living with another man. I think both Ennis and Jack changed because they were both very masculine, rough, cowboys who had never been with a man before until they had a sexual encounter with each other and realized they were in love. This change is very believable because there are many people in our society today who are homosexual, marry their partners, and even take pride in be ing gay. The story’s use of language is informal. Informal language is characterized by spontaneous speech and situations that describe natural or â€Å"real life†. It’s used by family and friends, which proves the story has informal dialogue with casual conversation. The external conflict of the story is Man versus Society. Jack and Ennis must hide their relationship because of its immoral content. Thus, they live a life hiding from their true feelings. At times they even tried to deny their nature. Because of the threat of being ostracized and possible killed, these men led a life separate from their love for one another. In the end, their prejudice, along with everyone else’s, killed Jack. The internal conflict of the story is Man versus Himself. Proulx sketches a picture of two men who live in a constant struggle with their ideas of morality and presents a devastating study of Jack and Ennis’ subsequent struggle with both their families and their work as they try to come to terms with their sexual relationship. In exploring the intimacies and sexual pleasures emerging from  this masculine world, Proulx captures the destruction and isolation, which comes from both men’s disapproval of their homosexual tendencies. Proulx identifies this conflict when she writes, â€Å"There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it† (Proulx 79). Throughout the story the reader sees Jack and Ennis deal with the fact that they do not approve of their own feelings. The moral norm in the American West was that homosexuals are perverts. Ennis lives his adult life plagued by the remembrance of a man who was brutally killed because people thought him to be a homosexual. In essence these two live a life that could have been a lot happier if there weren’t prejudices that prevented them from being together. What I find most interesting is that it wasn’t other people’s prejudices that kept them apart; these men are kept apart by their own morals. They truly believed that their homosexuality was immoral. The climax of the story is when Ennis sends Jack a postcard about getting together in November and it got sent back to him stamped â€Å"DECEASED†. After Ennis visits Jack’s parents and they tell him of Jack trying to fix up a ranch for him and another man, Ennis realizes that it wasn’t the tire that blew out that killed him. The locals murdered him for being homosexual and there was no resolution. As Ennis said, â€Å"If you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it†. I found that Proulx used the descriptive settings as a symbol. The most effective use of setting as symbol occurs when she describes harsh and beautiful images of the landscape’s cruel beauty to suggest the difficult nature of Ennis’s and Jack’s relationship. For example, she describes the â€Å"sweetened† cold air of the mountain on their first morning with the phallic â€Å"rearing lodge pole pines massed in slabs of somber malachite†(Proulx 74). When Ennis and Jack begin their sexual relationship, Proulx captures its harsh and exhilarating duality when she describes Jack and Ennis as â€Å"flying in the euphoric, bitter air† (Proulx 76) on the mountain. The title of the story is â€Å"Brokeback Mountain†. The title is the name of the mountain where Ennis and Jack worked together when they first met.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Brokeback Mountain† represents all the memories the two cowboys had together and where their intimacy and love for each other deepened. I believe the story only had one significant meaning which was that although love is prescriptively understood by people as a feeling between a man and a woman, as the evolution of human beings continues, love should be looked in another way. Any two people, no matter what gender or race, can find love. Shame is a major theme in the story. Ennis’s internalization of the belief that homosexuality is indecent and punishable by death, causes him to be ashamed about the intensity of his feelings for Jack. At the beginning of their relationship on the mountain, he insists that he is not â€Å"queer,† that their feelings for each other are not indicative of his sexual orientation. His shame, coupled with his need to maintain his marriage in the face of public scrutiny, causes him to lie continually to Alma about his feelings for Jack, insisting that when she catches the two in a heated embrace, their actions are a result of their not having seen each other for years. His internalized homophobia makes him unable to accept himself or act congruently. Ennis needs to maintain the illusion of a conventional life, even if that life denies him the one person he desires most. The plot of this short story mirrors many experiences that gays have had to deal with in today’s society, such as banding gay marriages or homosexual hate crimes. There have been many incidents where homosexuals have been threatened, abused, and even killed because people don’t agree with their lifestyles. Although I was very skeptical about reading this story at first, I found it to be very eye opening and real. Proulx does a wonderful job of telling a tale of two men who develop a deep love for each other but who are forced to live separate lives in an intolerant world. I think the story will help people empathize diversity in each other and become more tolerant. Works Cited â€Å"Annie Proulx Biography.† Info Please. 2007. Information Please Database. 13 Oct. 2008 . Proulx, Annie. â€Å"Brokeback Mountain.† The New Yorker 13 Oct. 1997: 74-85.