Beloved Slavery - 1080 Words

The Never Ending Cycle of Slavery In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, emotions and memories of the past create certain physical and mental conflicts for Sethe, the protagonist of the novel. These memories, oftentimes related to Sethe’s experience as a slave, take control of her life. As Sethe continues to recall these memories, she inches closer and closer to insanity. These events that occur with Sethe, in both her past and present, show a theme that Morrison tries to illustrate in the story. This theme shows that the memories of slavery will never die in the eyes of a former slave. This is illustrated through three phases: Sethe’s memories of life at Sweet Home, Schoolteacher’s return, and Beloved and Paul D’s return. All of these help†¦show more content†¦The actions taken by Sethe show a theme developed by Morrison in the novel. After Sethe escapes Sweet Home, she never attains the comfortable feeling that she will forever be free from slavery. Instead this idea of slavery c omes back to haunt her on multiple occasions. This illustrates the thought that Sethe and her family will never be free from slavery. Schoolteacher’s arrival at Sethe’s home and Beloved’s reawakening help develop this theme through their connections with slavery. Schoolteacher ruled over Sethe with merciless power. After she escaped, he then went on to find her at her new home with a family. Because Schoolteacher seems to find Sethe wherever she goes, Sethe develops a condition where she believes that he constantly is coming to find her. At one point, Sethe begins chasing after a man with an ice pick. This man turns out to be Mr. Bodwin; however, Sethe remains oblivious, believing that Mr. Bodwin resembles schoolteacher or â€Å"the man without skin† (309). This shows Sethe’s insanity and obsession with schoolteacher. He clearly holds a strong grip over Sethe’s mind. Beloved, alike Schoolteacher, also pays a second unexpected visit, drainin g all of Sethe’s pride and life out of her. Sethe’s guilt for the murder of Beloved makes her an easy target for the new Beloved. WithShow MoreRelatedBeloved : The Horrors Of Slavery And Its Memory1434 Words   |  6 Pagesresounding praise as Beloved, a novel about the horrors of slavery and its memory. The reason for the praise is clear when investigating the character Beloved, who, in Morrison skillful hands, is eventually turned into the book’s central symbol for slavery. Beloved, the character, embodies various aspects of how slavery relates to us all, representing the reckoning of slavery’s traumas in her relationships with ex-slaves, symbolizing the communal action needed to rid a community of slavery in her eventualRead MoreBeloved : Slavery And Motherhood2571 Words   |  11 PagesBeloved: Slavery and Motherhood The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison captures punishing hardships that were endured through slavery in the 1800’s, as well as life at home. Sethe is not only a recently freed slave, but a mother struggling to guard and maintain normality for her children. In this story of manipulation and negligence, there is a war between memories of slavery, motherhood, and searching for what she hopes to be an ideal life for herself. Slavery and racism in America beganRead MoreThe Trauma Of Slavery s Beloved1389 Words   |  6 PagesThe Trauma of Slavery in Beloved As opinions on slavery differed in both the North and South in the 1800’s, plantation owners in the South defended their rights to human ownership. Many slaves continued to contend with the unpredictable emotions by their owners which were responsible for the physical and emotional everyday traumatic events that shaped their lives. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved she shares the trying times of slave families who suffered greatly from slavery. Trauma caused sufferingRead More slaverybel Morrison’s Beloved as Chronicle of Slavery? Essay1105 Words   |  5 Pages Morrison’s Beloved as Chronicle of Slavery?nbsp;nbsp; Stories written in our present time about slavery in the eighteen-hundreds are often accepted as good accounts of history. However, Toni Morrison’s Beloved cannot be used to provide a good chronicle in the history of slavery. While writing about black female slaves and how they were the most oppressed of the most oppressed, Toni Morrison, herself as a female black writer, has a very bias view, as seen by many others. Beloved is written inRead MoreEffects Of Slavery In Toni Morrisons Beloved1613 Words   |  7 Pagesknow what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave† (Harriet Tubman Quotes). In the novel Beloved, the dehumanizing elements of slavery affect the characters in every aspect of their lives. Toni Morrison paints the picture of slavery in a realistic frame. In her foreword she explains she wanted to throw the readers into chaos to simulate the real effects of racism an d slavery (Morrison XIX). Throughout theRead MoreEssay about Slavery in Beloved, by Toni Morrison1960 Words   |  8 PagesBeloved â€Å"Beloved† is the story of a young black womans escape from slavery in the nineteenth century, and the process of adjusting to a life of freedom. Most people associate slavery with shackles, chains, and back breaking work. What they do not realize is the impact of the psychological and emotional bondage of slavery. In order for a slave to be truly free, they had to escape physically first, and once that was accomplished they had to confront the horror of their actions andRead MoreThe Hypocrisy Of Slavery In Fredrick Douglass Beloved784 Words   |  4 Pagesmale population, which diversity frowns upon African American and women’s right. An effect of the exclusivity was slavery, which prevailed throughout the country and tortured African Americans with extreme mistreatment and oppression. In the perspective of white American men, slaves were property strictly forbidden to make their opinions and create a life for themselves. The novel Beloved captures the point of view of an escaped slave named Sethe who says â€Å"nobody speaks to us. Nobody comes by. BoysRead MoreGender Roles In Slavery In Toni Morrisons Beloved756 Words   |  4 PagesDuring slavery, African American men and women were subject to cruel labor and punishment throughout the Americas. They were beaten, abused, and forced to toil for long hours, burdened with the weight of an astronomical workload. In Toni Mor rison’s novel Beloved, she is able to capture this aspect of slavery by identifying gender roles and the effects of slavery on laborers. The narrative tells the story of a runaway slave named Sethe who has found freedom in Cincinnati after escaping Sweet HomeRead MoreSlavery and Dehumanization in Toni Morrison’s Beloved Essay1616 Words   |  7 PagesThe atrocities of slavery know no bounds. Its devices leave lives ruined families pulled apart and countless people dead. Yet many looked away or accepted it as a necessary part of society, even claiming it was beneficial to all. The only way this logic works is if the slaves are seen as less than human, people who cannot be trusted to take care of themselves. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved the consequences of a lifetime of slavery are examined. Paul D and seethe, two former slaves have experiencedRead MoreSlavery And Social Criticism In Toni Morrisons Beloved1999 Words   |  8 PagesToni Morrison’s Beloved w as not intended to stand alone as a story and novel; a standalone novel iswill be relevant, meaningful, effective and moving regardless of anything going on outside the world that the author has created. Beloved does not stand alone because it doesn’t render the world outside the novel unimportant; it is so integrated into the context of its time period and the one we live in now that to separate the book from its surroundings would be counterintuitive, and the primary message

Love, Chaos, and Disorder in Midsummer Night’s Dream

Love can be quite chaotic at times. As much as poets and songwriters promote the idea of idyllic romantic love, the experience in reality is often fraught with emotional turmoil. When people are in love, they tend to make poor decisions, from disobeying authority figures to making rash, poorly thought-out choices. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses various motifs to illustrate how love, irrationality, and disobedience are thematically linked to disorder. First, Shakespeare uses the motif of the seasons early on in the play to solidify the connection between love gone awry and chaos. The initial romantic conflict is established when Egeus brings his daughter, Hermia, to Theseus to try and force her into marrying†¦show more content†¦Another crucial aspect of love and the disorder that often follows in its wake is the idea of irrationality. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses the motif of dreams to show how irrationality and love are connected. By Act 5, Scene 1, all of the play’s romantic conflicts have finally been resolved. As Theseus and Hippolyta reflect on the tumultuous relationships of Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena, it becomes clear that they each have a different opinion on the subject. Although the young Athenians claimed to have awoken from a strange dream to find their conflicts resolved, Theseus and Hippolyta are not so sure whether to believe their story. Theseus, the more cynical of the two, believes that the four lovers were simply driven to insanity by love, and that the fairy world was probably just a figment of their imaginations. Hippolyta, on the other hand, believes that there is more than meets the eye to this story, and that it could be the truth. Both give interesting reasons for their viewpoints. In Theseus’ opinion, the entire situation was merely a series of poor decisions caused by the irrationality that inevitably comes with love. Drawing a sharp distinction between the â€Å"cool reason† of people in full possession of their faculties, Theseus claims that people in love have â€Å"seething brains† and are mentally similar to lunatics. He also states that â€Å"as imaginationShow MoreRelatedA Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare1368 Words   |  6 PagesA Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an enchanting comedy that presents many dominant views widespread in the society of Shakespeare’s time. Ideas of love and romance are central to the play, and notions of gender and male-dominance prevalent at the time surface throughout the text. Modern audiences may find such notions confronting, whereas Jacobeans might find other elements of the play such as the rampant disorder, uncomfortable. Love is one of the central ideologies presentRead MoreA Midsummer Night s Dream1094 Words   |  5 PagesJeana Jago Theater History J. Robideau October,1st 2015 A Midsummer Night’s Dream In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare story about romantic desire. Theseus and Hippolyta, are about to be married; both of them are wonderful figures from classical mythology. (Greek Mythology) Theseus is a great warrior, a kinsman of Hercules; Hippolyta is an Amazon warrior-woman, defeated in battle by Theseus. (Theseus and Hippolyta) He was longing for the wedding day, and this is what opens the play and closingRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream And As You Like It1434 Words   |  6 Pagesparticular had a knack for setting, and seamlessly blended elements of the time period in which he lived within the plays he wrote. A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As you like it are two plays in which their settings are especially important to plot and theme and both have pairs of settings that form interesting dichotomies, with themes of Hierarchy/Patriarchy and disorder in the former and the positive/negative light of the two settings of the latter. It is through these dichotomies that Shakespeare isRead More A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay: Order and Disorder1377 Words   |  6 PagesOrder and Disorder in A Midsummer Nights Dream Order and disorder is a favorite theme of Shakespeare. In A Midsummer Nights Dream the apparently anarchic tendencies of the young lovers, of the mechanicals-as-actors, and of Puck are restrained by the sharp Athenian law and the law of the Palace Wood, by Theseus and Oberon, and their respective consorts. This tension within the world of the play is matched in its construction: in performance it can at times seem riotous and out of controlRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1357 Words   |  6 Pagesthe intentions of maintaining order and harmony; without them many would believe that society would fall into chaos. Within Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ these rules can be undermined in the confines of settings in which the supernatural reigns, allowing the characters to grow and develop before returning to society as changed people. Through this creation of comedic disorder, characters of authority are often displaced from the ir positions within a social hierarchy, thus making the supernaturalRead MoreDiscuss William Shakespeares Presentation of Order and Disorder in ‘a Midsummer Night’s Dream’2239 Words   |  9 Pagesinterest in symmetry and patterning. My intention is to examine Shakespeares concords and discords in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s use of these musical terms, concordance and discordance, puts in mind a famous quote of his: â€Å"If music be the food of love, play on,† This was written soon after AMSND, around 1600, and the idea of music being the sustaining and rejuvenating factor of love is clearly present in AMSND. In act 4 scene 1, following the concordance of the lovers, the removal ofRead MoreA Midsummer Nights Dream : Reality Versus Fantasy1079 Words   |  5 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s play, â€Å"A Midsummer Night’s Dream,† he tells a tragic yet, comical tale that toys with the boundaries between realism and the fantastic. The play depicts the theme of how reality can often be manipulated by a fantasy due to the results of magical occurrences in the woods. Although the natural world we live in does not contain magic happenings, the play allows the audience to run wild with imagination and essentially invites them into this surreal dream. Shakespeare develops similarRead MoreRepresentation Of Love In A Midsummer Night Dream1329 Words   |  6 PagesIn A Midsummer’s Night Dream, love is represented in many ways, but the overall representation of love is how fake and sophisticated it is. We can see in the play that love isn’t a conscious choice but a cruel game. The characters perfectly display how sophisticated and powerful love is, yet it is also confusing. Specifically, the relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta has no pure love involved in it. Theseus had to capture the Amazons in order to marry Hippolyta, which means he doesn’t haveRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesBookMasters for her expert assistance with this edition. Finally, and most importantly, we express appreciation to our families for their ongoing patience and support, which is reflected in their willingness to share their time with this competing â€Å"labor of love† and to forgive our own gaps between common sense and common practice. David A. Whetten Kim S. Cameron PREFACE xxi This page intentionally left blank MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   ââ€"   The Critical Role of Management Skills

Obesity in Western Culture free essay sample

Within our constantly evolving and ever-changing Western world, what is deemed as being deviant has shifted and adapted to suit the norms and values of society at large. Thus, deviancy can be defined as behaviour that violates the normative rules, understandings or expectations of social systems. The issue of obesity has become increasingly prominent within Western society and is deemed as being deviant due to its wide unacceptance throughout society. In applying the Functionalism perspective of deviance on obesity, the ways in which society attempts to handle and understand this issue is further outlined and explained. Obesity is a term used to describe body weight that is much greater than what is considered the healthy range. Individuals who are obese have a much higher amount of body fat than is healthy or recommended. Adults with a body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) greater than 25 kg/m2 but less than 30 kg/m2 are considered overweight (Insel, Turner, Ross, 2009). The ways in which those who classify as obese are perceived and portrayed by society are, within a Western society fixated on image and obsessed with reaching physical perfection, often negative and highly critical. The media plays a crucial role in shaping the ideas and values our society holds. As we are constantly bombarded with images of idealistically thin celebrities, it becomes evident that those who do not fit this normality are excluded from social acceptance and pressured into losing weight and fitting in. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald stated that; while there was sympathy for underweight models because of possible eating disorders, those with overweight body shapes were blamed for not doing something to lose weight (Gray, 2010). It is evident here that although there is some negativity urrounded with being underweight, super-thin models and celebrities continue to be represented as acceptable throughout the media, whereas those classified as obese are rejected from mainstream society and blamed for not taking the initiative to lose weight. As we concentrate more on what is considered to be physically attractive, we lose sight of the various biological, genetic, and noncontrollable etiological factors (Puhl, Shwartz, Brownell, 2005) that relate towards obesity. Thus, negative stereotypes and stigmas are placed upon the obese, further strengthening heir label of deviancy. In a recent study conducted by Yale University, the perceived social consensus on attitudes toward obese people was tested. Three experiments were created towards educating the participants on the issue of obesity in hope of reducing the bias stereotypes and stigmas our society has successfully created towards the obese. (Puhl, Shwartz, Brownell, 2005). The study describes how the consensus attitude towards obesity prevents the reduction of stigmatizing and excluding the obese from mainstream society as people in general feel a sense of security and approval in following the beliefs of the majority. Thus, if we as a society take greater acknowledgment in the causes of obesity and perhaps even empathize towards those labeled as obese; the idea of obesity as being a form of deviance could potentially shift throughout the long term. The ways in which the obese are negative stigma held towards obesity by society at large. According to David F. Williamson of The New England Journal of Medicine (1999), it is crucial that doctors encourage greater weight loss towards obese patients as obese people are twice as ikely to die from any cause as people of normal weight. Society then not only recognizes obese people as being obscene, lazy, slothful and gluttonous (Adler, Adler 2000) but also as ill, and in a sense, ignorant towards the consequences of their poor state of health. As modern technology continues to develop and treatment options further increase, obesity becomes more and more deviant throughout society. Procedures such as liposuction are becoming more available, with surgeries having increased 21 5 percent since 1992 (Naisbitt, Naisbitt, Philips 2001). Although ndergoing plastic surgery has not yet attained complete social acceptance, procedures such as liposuction reduce the consequence of the obese being labeled deviant due to their status. In contrast, the way obese people perceive and view themselves is largely impacted by the constant discrimination and criticism carried out by society at large. Although it can be said that in the presence of other obese people there is a greater sense of acceptance and understanding, the self-representation of obese people is generally negative and painful. According to an article on ABC news, one obese female stated hat (you feel like) you have no right to exist as you are. Feeling as though this body is an outlaw body (Stark, 2004). The majority of obese people often view themselves as outsiders to the social norms of image and feel as though there is a culture of blame (AN, 2008) constantly against them. There have been studies undergone which illustrate the reluctance amongst obese patients to seek preventive health care services due to the embarrassment of their weight, and perhaps even the feeling of being criticized by physicians (Fontaine, Faith, Allison, Cheskin cited in Puhl, Shwartz, Brownell, 2005). This clearly shows that obese people themselves are not content within their condition and recognize their deviant label within society. Although they inevitably feel the pressure to lose weight, the embarrassment of yet again being Judged and criticized by healthcare professionals prevents them from doing so. The Functionalist approach to deviance can be applied to obesity in many ways. Functionalism was developed by Emile Durkheim and illustrates how the institutes within society function and maintain social equilibrium. A functionalist analysis of eviance begins with looking at society as a whole rather than focusing on the individual. It looks for the source of deviance in the nature of society rather than the biological explanations or psychological nature of the individual (Covington, 1999). In this regard, applying functionalism to obesity becomes difficult as obesity is initially a personal health concern. Both biological and psychological aspects contribute towards obesity which then labels the individual as deviant, proving that rather than focusing on the nature of society at large for explanations on deviancy, it is equally ital to focus on the obese individual to understand their deviant label. Inevitably, this can be recognized as a weakness within the functionalist argument. In contrast, applying functionalism to obesity presents much strength in understanding why education have had to shift and develop in order to combat the obesity epidemic and create greater equilibrium within Western society. Australian schools have recognized the deviant nature of obesity, mainly due to its associated health risks, and have recently began enforcing healthy eating and exercise habits (Hareyan, 006). School systems have recognized that many families are unable to teach their children healthy habits, so have taken upon this role to maintain the social order within society. Alongside this, there has been a vast increase in weight-loss alternatives (rather than simply the gym, or perhaps surgery) to suit the modern, working individual. Quick weight loss pills and detox diets are now more on the market than ever before and are available to anyone willing to pay. Functionalism revolves around creating solutions to maintain social order, and in regards to obesity, any actions have been taken as obesity is seen as a deviant act which disrupts the balanced functioning of society. In conclusion, obesity has been labeled as a deviant act within modern Western society as it violates what the consensus recognizes as normal behaviour. It is increasingly less acceptable with those carrying the status left facing the consequences of social Judgment and exclusion. In applying the functionalist theory, the deviant nature of obesity can be further outlined and understood as a problematic issue within contemporary society.

Perfect Chemistry free essay sample

A high-pitched squeal pierced my eardrums. Of all places, I was in Fort Detrick – 20 minutes from the nation’s capital. Fragments of thought collided in my mind as I stared at the light dancing on the conical tube shaking in my hand. Is this a  ­terrorist attack? Definitely. And then my mentor, the docile scientist whom I had met two days before, began laughing maniacally. Was this some kind of joke? Could he really be behind it? He was looking past his brand-new intern, who was on the verge of hyperventilating, and staring at the -20?C freezer. I was not at all relieved to discover that my ears were throbbing not from a terrorist attack but because of the freezer’s alarm. My mentor had, in fact, been scheming as I innocently gathered the necessary enzymes to complete the digestion reaction assigned to me. It was my third day at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cell and Developmental Signaling Laboratory, and I was completely focused on executing my task perfectly. We will write a custom essay sample on Perfect Chemistry or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Little did I know that my 20 or so expeditions to the freezer would induce mechanized screaming. My mentor had been waiting mischievously as the freezer’s temperature rose to -7?C. Ever since then, I have been wary of that banshee freezer. I found my first days as a Summer Cancer Research Training Award Fellow filled with many wild experiences. The first time I heard about CERT protein, my head spun, but by the end of the summer I had cloned it multiple times and studied the protein-protein inter ­actions of its specific domains using S2 cell models. This summer I did so many things that I never could have imagined. I woke up many times fearing that it was all a dream. I loved this new world that I was experiencing – a world saturated with science. Of course, I faced challenges during my eight weeks at NCI. My second week, my mentor announced that we would be dissecting pregnant mice in our attempts to generate a CERT knockout mouse. My pinky toe quivered enthusiastically, as it usually does when I am overexcited. In what looked like an ice cream carton with holes was a swollen female mouse with slick black fur. The pungent smell of food pellets filled the lab. As my fingers  ­encroached into her space, her black-marble eyes locked with mine. I immediately snatched my fingers back – was it compassion, fear, regret? My mentor motioned for me to pick her up, and my hand slowly descended into the box again. As I lifted her by the tail, she struggled fiercely, but I did not loosen my grip. The hardest part was dropping her into the CO2 box and watching her chest heave as she took her last breaths. It may have been silly, but I prayed for that mouse. But as I was doing the dissection and removed the linked chain of embryos, I understood that in order to advance science and save thousands of lives in the  ­future, sometimes sacrifices must be made. Leaving the lab left me hungry for more  ­science. I still find my thumb in a pipetting position and retain the ability to unscrew  ­bottles and tubes with my left hand. And I sometimes wake up thinking that I was just doing a dissection or an experiment until I  ­realize that it was a dream. In search of a  ­continued experience, I am already looking for internship opportunities at research laboratories, and I absolutely cannot wait to get back to that environment!