Anthem of doomed Youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est Essay Example

Anthem of doomed Youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est Paper Anthem of doomed Youth is one of Owens most famous poems and one over, which he took great pains. The poem is written in sonnet form. The poem is a long comparison between the elaborate ceremonial of a Victorian-style funeral and the way in which men go to death in the Western Front. The poem was written while Owen was in Craiglockhart war Hospital. He was expressing his views and personal experiences from the front and back home. The poem compares home life to the front line; but it is shown in how the soldiers are treated after they fight and die for their country and that they have no meaning. Dulce Et Decorum Est is poem that describes four corresponding sections. The first deals with the extreme condition of the exhausted soldiers. The second stanza deals with a gas attack and the cruel death of a soldier. This also happens in Exposure where the soldiers are attacked by shells and are confused to whether they are dead or alive. The third stanza is the poets reaction, and nightmare. The fourth stanza addresses the poetess. He expresses his views to the other poets who lie about the greatness of fighting. So we can see, already only in my introduction, that the poems are in different context and at different scenes and have a different way of showing the same message which is said in both poems. The message is hidden in all of Owens poems. He is an Anti- war poet and tries to express his feelings of wear from personal experiences through his poems. The poems have hidden messages inside them, and show Owens true meaning to war and the soldiers. Both poems are from real-life experiences; Owen has seen the war at the Western Front for himself and has been through the same experiences as the other millions of men. We will write a custom essay sample on Anthem of doomed Youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Anthem of doomed Youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Anthem of doomed Youth and Dulce Et Decorum Est specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Owen has just put into his words the views of millions of other young soldiers. It is full of imagery and all use of the senses, this is just like his other poem Exposure, where the poem is full of visual sensory. Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on March 18th 1893. He was on the Continent teaching until he visited a hospital for the wounded and then declared, in September 1915, to return to England and enlist. He was seduced by the propaganda used to persuade boys to join the army. On 4th June 1916, after nine months of training, Owen became a second lieutenant. Though he had outwardly become an officer, determined that if I get to be solider, I must be a good one, anything else is unthinkable. He was now an inwardly poet. But on May 1st, Owen commanding officer noticed that he was shaking and confused in speech he was suffering from Neurasthermia or shell shock. He was sent to Craiglockhart war Hospital. His time there was from June until October 1917 was to be of great importance to his development as a poet. Before World War One Owen was a young boy wanting to help his country, just like millions of others, after the trauma at the western front he realised that the boys enlisting were going to the Hell of Earth. Owen wrote, All a poet can do is warn. That is why true poets must be truthful Watch in those dreams still. In those dreams the horror is re-born, the reality of battle re-shaped to the dimensions of poems; poems which we, his readers, our vision of reality of the Western Front Hell of Earth. Owens attitude in both poems are anti-war. In poem one, Anthem of Doomed Youth, we can tell by the title that the poem is anti-war. Anthem heralds the poems solemnity, Anthem is a song of praise; this is emphasis of the sadness and remorseful for the Doomed Youth. The Doomed Youth address the millions of dead and yet to die soldiers. This title yokes together contradictory terms; your youth is the time of hope, promise and years ahead and a time of looking towards the future. If the youth is Doomed, there can be no hope or future, just death. The youth will have no hope or future this means only death will come to the youth. In poem two, Dulce et Decorum est which means It is sweet and meet, it is the opposite devise he has used to poem one. Here he has used a slight twist; by reading the title Owen has made us readers to believe his poem is pro-war, and his says all the great things about dieing for ones country. We think Owen is will be praising the soldiers and describe them and strong and brave on the front line. Both poems have the same attitudes towards war, one of them the lack of respect to the soldiers and their death. In poem one Owen shows his attitude clearly and straight away just on the first line. What passing bells for those who die as cattle? Owen here has used a rhetorical question to make the readers think and wonder. He has answered the question on the next line. The readers know straight away what the answer will be but Owen uses his poetic devises to answer this question in seven lines. He asks the audience what respect and funeral will be given to the soldiers who died a painful death? Die as cattle Owen uses animal references to the soldiers. Owen compares the soldiers treatment with the treatment cattle receive when slaughtered. This simile has many implications. Cattle are slaughtered in large numbers as food for human consumption, and no one expresses any grief at their death. The soldiers are given no individual identity; they die brutally and with no ceremony to honour or recognize their humanity. Animals are below humans and are treated in a process of living for one purpose: to die for human survival. This is like the soldiers to live for one purpose: die to save humans and their country. Die and cattle are both stressed words, which Owen stresses and makes the reader, catch these two important words. They emphasise the meaning that the cattle are slaughtered just like the soldiers are, with no respect or dignity. In poem two Owen shows a lack of respect to the soldiers. The poem is in four stanzas; the first deals with the extreme condition of the exhausted soldiers and is couched in somewhat hyperbolic terms all went lame; all blind indicating the fervour of Owens feelings rather than the misery of the men. The first line in Dulce Et Decorum Est also shows the lack of respect to soldiers, just like in Anthem of Doomed Youth. Like old beggars under sacks, this is a misplaced image and emphasize about the soldiers image on the front. Old beggars are not noticed or given respect to by other people. They are coming towards the end of their life without achieve anything, just taking others money because they cannot be bothered to find a job. People judge the old beggars by their appearance. Some soldiers sign up for attention and it looks glamorous, they end up dieing without knowing why. Owen has used the letter b as alliteration, so he has used this technique to make the b a strong word so you pronounce and understand his meaning. Old is giving the readers the impression that the soldiers are aging before their time. They are growing old without knowing and suffering the old age symptoms. These soldiers sighed up young and are fighting like old beggars. Coughing like hags, hags are known as old tarts with cigarette in their mouth and coughing. Mainly mainly upper class women do not respect tarts. Jessie Pope was a middle age upper class woman who urged young boys to sign up for the war. This is metaphor to express that the soldiers have been cheated and lied to, Jessie Pope does not like the soldiers just wanting them to sign up and be brave. Hags are not respect by the public and are not attractive people; this also applies to the old beggars. When we say hag it gives the impression of an old man; sick and dirty. Owen in just the first two lines shows the image of unglamorous and pathetic image of the soldiers at war. The images conjured up in this stanza create a devastating contrast with the classically rooted idea of the glory of dying for ones country. In poem one the soldiers are given no individual identity, they die brutally and with no ceremony to honour their or recognize their humanity. No prayers, nor bells this also shows a lack of respect to the soldiers. The soldiers who died fighting for their country do not unity with God when they have given their lives for other people. All the soldiers do is fight and die; in a circular process like the cattle when being turned into meat. Owen shows a religious side, that the soldiers are unable to be forgiven from their sins or given a prayer when dead. This is disrespectful to the soldiers. Owen states that they will not receive mockeries or false expressions. This shows all his anger to the disrespect to the brave, foolish soldiers who died for nothing. The boys will die a silent death with no tears for them, no false feelings or no prayers. The express this in poetic terms he uses negative words like no and nor. His feelings here are expressed in many ways; using various forms of devises like, metaphors, parables euphuism etc. In poem two it describes how they flung a soldier in a wagon. Flung is a word, which shows no emotion or feeling to a precious body; it gives no dignity to the soldiers who died for ones country. We feel as if the body is being handled without any care and treated like nothing. They body is being treated like nothing, not even an animal, animals have little respect, these bodies are not respected. Blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as cud of vile, this phrase is an unpleasant and vile description of a dead soldier after being gassed. Cancer has no cure, and you only have a small chance of living, finding out that you have cancer is terrible and people response to it is sad and shocked. They feel sorry for you and want to help you, cancer is also a disgusting sinful thing which is pure bad no goodness. Is cud a suitable image of bitterness? Cud is not bitter, but even when Owen misuses words, he does it with an intensity that is arresting his misjudgements and balanced by fervour. Blood and cud rhyme words, they both are powerful words which emphasize their meaning. The description is overall drastic, horrific and disrespectful to the soldiers. So we can see that both poems are showing lack of respect to the soldiers and they both do this in describing their meaning in different ways. Poem one shows it through a funeral and the ways the bodies are treated, while poem two describes the appearance of the soldiers and also just like poem one adds explanation of what happens to the body afterward and their vile appearance gives us his attitude. Owens attitude towards war is shown in both poems; no reason to death in war, their sacrifice for nothing in return. The soldiers give their lives and they have noting in return, no memories, noting. In poem one the first octet is a dark picture and has no reference to the safe light; it is full of sadness and cruelty. This is a contrast with the light on the sestet. In the sestet Owen uses light as candles, and holy glimmer, this is all interpreted in a religious form, to the church. The darkness is reference to Earth on the battlefields where war is taking place. The guns are monstrous which shows Owens anger to war and weapons. Monstrous make the guns sound human-like which is personification, Owens has used this to give the effect that the weapons are just like humans; bad, evil and ruthless, they dont know when to stop and only cause bad things. In poem one Owen uses a lot noise sounds, onomatopoeias, and make them cacophony. The noise in this poem represents hellish sounds and war like, but the light represents the peace and harmony of war, candles, which also is known as heaven. Owens impatience with formal religion, which is certainly one of its themes, but the whole poem also stands as a lament for the soldiers lonely deaths, and for the fact that they are denied proper burial. We can see a process which the soldiers go through, from earth on the battlefields in war, they fight and some last only minutes other hours, then in the sestet we see light and candles which represent heaven and safety; no more war. The Doomed Youth have no life, just fight and die. They have no remembrance or goodbyes or prayers. Their life is shown as a waste. Owen hasnt put any reason why the soldiers are dying or why they arent given any dignity. So in poem one Owen shows that the soldiers are dieing for nothing by the way he explains that they have no remembrance for them and they are not missed by anybody. In poem two Owen has two main messages. The first is the suffering of the men at the front line; the second is to the other poets who lie about being great. In stanza two Owen translates his personal experience of a gas attack into seven lines. An ecstasy of fumbling, is a phrase, which evokes both the sharpness of fear and the clumsiness of exhaustion. This phrase is an oxymoronic; it is a figure of speech, which brings together two contradictory terms. The boys are fighting for their life or death. If they are not quick enough, its death. gas! GAS! this I feel is a cacophony on the front line in war. To all the soldiers this is the sound of their life running before their eyes if they have no gas helmet. Clumsy, Shaken the boys are petrified and scared, they have no time to think. It emphasizes the fact that the soldiers are ill equipped, this is also shown in stanza one, many had lost their boots. Owen then goes on to describe how one soldier hadnt found his helmet on time; someone was still yelling. Owen does not give the soldier any identity, they are just boys that nobody knows and will never be remembered. He uses an image of drowning through the pane of sea green glass in his mask. This description is from Owens view of his mask. He then describes the death of a soldier in a gas attack. I saw him drowning. His use of I makes us engulfed it feels personal and realistic. His use of the metaphoric language, drowning is effective. He is literally drowning as his lungs fill up with poisonous gas, and Owen sees him drowning like under the sea. This use of metaphoric language is used in most of Owens poems, to expresses his feelings and his sights at the front line. In all my dreams Owen has used this delirious effect of dreaming in Exposure when they are confused to whether they are dying or sleeping. So we drowse the soldiers here are sleepy due to the cold weather. The weather in Exposure is used a metaphor and is described as a person. Before my helpless slight, Owen here describes his experience with death in war. Helpless is a metaphor, which has two meanings. Owen is literally helpless to help the soldier and rescue him; he is also helpless to see the soldier die in front of him. Guttering, chocking, drowning, guttering conveys sounds of the fast flickers of life in the moments before a painful death. These are the stages of dying. Owen feels usele ss and guilty of murder like the other million of men who are dying for a reason they barely know about. The soldiers believe that they are brave. This is shown in stanza four when Owen describes the innocent tongues, so these boys dont know the truth are given the old lie, which persuades them to sign up. He makes the word innocent strong because it is linked with the in sound in incurable so they are both words, which you emphasize without knowing. So in poem one Owen expresses his views of sacrifice for nothing by showing that the soldier has no dignity in dying because they arent given a proper funeral. He uses a lot of alliteration and onomatopoeia to describe the gunfire. They all end in rhyming couplets. In poem two Owen express his view of sacrifice for nothing by explaining the soldiers are innocent and that they are clueless to what they are doing, this is shown by the gas attack. He uses metaphoric language and uses one word to describe a paragraph of meaning to those words. He also does this in Exposure when writing snow-dozed in poem two he writes blood-shod. These are the same poetic devises Owen has used, in Exposure he has written about how the weather affects the soldier to fight, they are freezing and some dying in the snow; they sadly dont know if they are alive or dead. In poem two Owen uses blood-shod to express the amount of blood lost and losing. They are both metaphors. Owen also uses puns in poem two more often than in poem one. In the first stanza he uses half rhyme, like in Exposure half rhyme is used throughout the poem. Sludge is one a new line by itself and trudge is at the end of the fifth sentence. Owen also shows a great deal of anger in both poems. In Anthem of Doomed Youth he shows this in the title. Doomed has no future or hope in it, is it a strong and powerful word that Owen has used in his title. He shows is anger that the youth, which he was, have no future. Owen was a teacher working abroad and successful, he then joined the army like the millions of others and realised that he was one of the Doomed Youth so he is trying to save them from signing and entering hell. The onomatopoeic stuttering, together with the alliterative rifles rapid rattle picks up the anger of the guns and their noise in turn is taken up by meaningless repetition, or patter which are all the prayers, which are offered for the dead soldiers. The monstrous anger he has used harsh words to describe the sound in the battlefields, he has made the sound as well as busy but angry and continuous throughout the poem. The guns are angry because of the killing they are doing and the people using the guns are clueless. Sad shires is a personification used to show the sadness the towns where the soldiers come from. The shires represent the traditions of home, however, are left saddened by the soldiers death and this offers a note of hope. He has used alliteration to capture the sorrow of this poem. At the end of this poem you are lest with a slight faith of hope that the soldiers have people who shed tears. Owen then shows the sadness in the sestet; it begins with a question, which dismisses the candles, which are burnt by Christians traditionally to ensure that the soul had a safe journey to eternal life. It is not the candles, an irrelevant symbol, which the choirboys hold, which will be of any significant, but the tears in their eyes, which express real feelings. Similarly, it is the paleness of the girls faces, which express their real emotions, which will form their pall or cover for the coffin. This stanza shows real emotions and tears, which fall for the loved solders, in stanza one we hear no emotions and feeling, not even a tear to the eye. We feel hope for the lost soldiers and that the mourning of the girls suggests that not all soldiers die as cattle. This start is also in the first octet; the use of a rhetorical question. In poem two there is no hope in a stanza, it is just full of horrific images of the front line. Dusk is when day is coming to an end, and light is fading; this is a metaphor for the lives of soldiers. This is also shown in Exposure, dawn is when light shines over all the dead bodies, light shows the death and has a dark side to it. Because the losses the days the go slowly, slow duck perhaps while they wait for news, but finally life is ended with the drawing-down of blinds, this shows the end of life and the curt ain shall never be raised again. In the octet the last line ended in hope, this sestet has ended in sadness. In poem two Owens attitude towards war is that the poor soldiers were innocent and so they didnt know why they were fighting or dying. All lame, all blind Owen uses all to sound personal and meaningful. All is all the soldiers were affected not just some. Blind is a metaphor; they are all blind to see what has happened to them and why they are fighting, they are oblivious to these reasons. They are also literally blind to see the fighting and some soldiers were blinded. Owen creates innocence for the soldiers; readers become sorry and feel guilt and horror. Blind; is also in with a rhyming scheme with behind. Someone still was yelling out and stumbling this somebody is identified and is known as nobody. He is portrayed as young and full of innocence, the poor soldier is yelling and panicking for his life, he probably didnt know he was going to die like this. He was sure he was going to die brave and fighting the enemy hand to hand, not in a small gas attack. Owens message is clear; young ones are vulnerable and easily die in war, they are clumsy and their tiredness catches up with them. They are not alert and therefore pay the price of death. There are harsh and dreamlike/nightmarish passages in this poem. The innocence lies in what he did to deserve this punishment: nothing. Helpless sight this means to be useless and unable to help what you see and what you cant do. This causes guilt to Owen that he is part of his death; the audiences feel innocence that Owen had to watch this horrific death. In stanza four of poem two Owen concludes in his poem you too, you is engaging the readers as the other poets who lied to these innocent soldiers persuading them to sign up to fight in the war. This is also reminding the readers of the common phrase used in wartime: Your country needs YOU I feel as if this small word you makes a whole difference to the poem. He is criticises the poets who lied and said war was a great thing, but they never fought to see what was war really like. He also pronounces the ou sound he does this in the same line to make the words sound important. My friend is a sarcastic word addressing Jessie Pope, a famous poetess who persuaded boys to sign up; Owen was one of the boys who signed up. These poets had no experience of life on the front line so this is partly why Owen is full of anger towards these lying poets. Such high zest neatly sums up the tone of Jessie Popes exhortative verses. Children this emphasises the point the people signing up lied about their ages and pretend to be old enough to sign up but were really only children. She sent children to their grave. These children were desperate for a taste of glory, they thought they were going to come back alive and their parents would be proud, instead they died in horrific deaths and sad endings. This stanza is her to consider the scene and then The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori. Owen is enlightening through contrast. A devils sick of sin- why would a devil vomit, that is, reject what he stands for and this really a telling image of the dying mans face? This line really emphasizes the fact that the dead face was a not forgetting sight. That even the devil, possessed by evil and sin, rejects this innocent young man. Owen is at a poem dedicated by truth and not by beauty and one that is part of his movements away from vagueness to greater realism. Its tone, however, is not of compassion but indignation and bitterness which is at its best both lofty and cutting. In Anthem of Doomed Youth this works through a series of contrasts, and here the contrasts are framed as questions followed by answers. What burial ceremonies are appropriate for those who die in the war? The answer is in the octet is that the sounds of battle are the appropriate forms of mourning; they function as a wordless lament. Its strength lies in those images which aptly and justly chosen to suggest the horror of war, the inadequacy of religion and the validity of love and grief. It has a greater compassion and respect for human relationships than Owens more acrid poem Greater love and marks his rapid growth as a poet in the second of 1917, inspired by his war experiences. The poem is full of sensory images, half rhymes, rhyming couplets, onomatopoeic phrases and metaphoric language. In poem two it is full of meaning and bitter and sarcastic tone. Owen was greatly concerned about the patriotism of people who knew nothing of the horrors of fighting and Dulce Et Decorum Est is an attempt to outface authors with such views. Here we have a maturer Owen, as it is a poem dictated by the truth not by beauty and one that is part of his movement away from vagueness to greater realism. In poem two Owen chooses words that deepen the poems meaning and make it more vivid: haunting flares which transforms the whole setting of the poem into a nightmare, outstripped Five-Nines literally the bombs are tired, but it is the fatigue of the men that makes them so seen so. The main attitudes in the poems are the same, they both are anti-war and dont like innocent men dying for no reasons and poets lying to these children. They both belie that the soldiers are not treated right and have no dignity. They are strong in their attitudes and the men having no future and both mention death and that is what is most likely going to happen to you. The poetic techniques used are different in the two poems. In poem one alliteration, rhyming couplets, onomatopoeia, sensory images and some personification are the main poetic uses used in this poem. In poem two it is quite different. The main techniques used are half rhymes, oxymorons, metaphoric language, puns and ironic language are the main uses. In poem one we see this poem is more formal and mature style. But the effect is hard to see, in poem two the effect of the images is powerful because it is written there are the description is more horrific, but in poem one we read less about the description, just more about the dignity and no respect. Owen writes that the soldiers are not worthy of a funeral. But in poem two we read the death of a solider and we feel sick and sad of this. His intended reaction for poem one was to show the people who arent fighting in war or who are thinking to, is that not everybody gets noticed and they are not treated with respect. He wanted to save the young people and warn people and try to influence them not to go to war unless you are trained. In poem two his audience is mainly the other poets and warns them not to lie because of the tragedies happening on the front. He uses more descriptive language so Jessie Pope can understand more clearly what life is like. Both poems have impact, but in different ways, they both are the same, but give their message in a different way. War today is very different. We are today experiencing war, but it is nothing like war back in 1917. The war in Iraq is not about land. The soldiers are not dying in masses, and never coming back. Only a small amount of soldiers have died. I have not had personal experience of war. I have seen small effects like the Twin Towers on September 11th. But Owen experienced something that millions of others did, and in poems he describes a lifetime in a short poem. He has written famous poems, which cannot be beaten by or compared their power because Owen was one of the few who expressed his views without care of what might happen. That is why he is admired and one of the many soldiers who are not forgotten. But he is remembered for his poems not his help in the war.

Prehistoric Life During the Eocene Epoch

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Threats to the Tropical Rainforest - Essay Example The potential impact of these threats on biodiversity of tropical forest is difficult to assess, due to the fact that the threats could be interlinked and each precipitates either direct or indirect effects. Regardless of the uncertainties associated with threat evaluation and impact assessment, the fact that these forests are subject to radical ecological changes, hence degradation is indubitable. For these reasons, it is imperative for conservationists and the global populations, to monitor, comprehend, and prevent the negative impact of these threats at all costs. Background Information Most studies in Earth systems reveal the fact that Tropical rainforests represent one of the World’s oldest and uninterrupted ecosystems. For instance, fossil records indicate that South-east Asia’s humid forests have been in existence for between 70 and 100 million years, without much alteration to their original form. Tropical rainforests make up some of the world’s haven for species, since they could have more than 1000 different species within an area of one square kilometer (km2). This is a very large proportion of both floral and faunal species, in comparison to that found in temperate forests, which harbor a meager 100 species within a similar spatial area. Tropical rainforests cover an estimated 2% area of Earth’s surface, which amounts to approximately 2000 million hectares (Ha). These forests get their name â€Å"Tropical† from their location within the tropics, that is, the Tropic of Capricorn about 23 degrees south and the Tropic of Cancer about 23 degrees north of the Equator (Primack and Corlett 15). Given the strategic location of Tropical rainforests within the tropics, they span across most of the world’s continents, including Africa, Asia, Northern Australia, and South America. These forests are also found in many of the tropical islands within these areas (Wright 554-555). The Amazon Rainforest is the largest of the Tropical rainforests in the world. Found in South America, the Amazon forest covers eight nations including Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela, Suriname and Ecuador. This huge forest covers a 2 million square miles area. Studies have shown that Tropical rainforests play a significant role in regulating local, as well as, global climatic conditions, in addition to regulating the crucial carbon cycle. The forests regulate the carbon cycle by absorbing and storing large amounts of carbon, while releasing much needed oxygen to the environment. This happens when the vast number of plants takes up carbon during photosynthesis, thus incorporating it into stored biomass. Even though there is no agreement as to whether preserved rainforests constitute the principal sink or source of carbon, negative influences of excessive deforestation are clearly known. Additionally, the role of deforestation in negating the carbon cycle is indubitable (Fearnside 681). Over the last severa l years, discussions regarding the links between forests’

The Unforgiven Essay Example for Free

The Unforgiven Essay For the final essay, the movie I will be writing about is based on the Clint Eastwood’s movie â€Å"Unforgiven.† Clint Eastwood portrays a story of William Munny, a killer and aging outlaw who has taken up one more job after years of external and internal peace. In the movie, the plot begins as to why William does decide to come back for one last rendez-vous with death. Taking place in Big Whiskey, Wyoming, a group of prostitutes, led by Strawberry Alice, offer a $1,000 reward to whoever can kill â€Å"Davey-Boy† Bunting and Quick Mike. The reason that these bounties were places is because these two individuals disfigured Delilah Fitgerald, a prostitute who is one of their own. An important factor to keep in mind in this situation is that the prostitutes greatly exaggerated the factual events that transpired, and the story that was sent out to the public â€Å"bounty hunters† was based on a major over exaggeration and so much to that point that it was not factually based. However, the idea of these bounty that was sent out by the prostitutes upsets Little Bill Daggett, the local sheriff, who himself was a former gunfighter but is not a converted keepers of peace who has taken the law upon himself and has dis-allowed guns and criminals in his town. What Little Bill does in this town is take the law into his own hands. While there is some sort of legal system in place in this town, the prostitutes have no rights under the system and according to Little Bill, it is up to him to decide what should be done in this situation. He is always taking the laws in his own hands. In this specific case, Little Bill gives these two men leniency despite the crime that they have committed. Will, hearing the over exaggerated version of the factual events, decides to come to this town and hunt and kill these two men not only for retribution for the prostitutes but to also collect the reward money. Using the reasoning of Kant, Mill, and Aristotle, I will analyze this entire current situation in the movie and using these different thinkers then compare and contrast who would agree with each other and who would disagree with each other. The first thinker I will bring up is Kant. The first issue that comes up in the state situation is justice which then leads into the rest of the problems presented in the beginning of the story. What the prostitutes did  to Will is actually manipulate him because what the factual events was greatly differed that the story that was presented to him. As a result, Mill was manipulated into making his decision to help solve the prostitute’s problem, and by him being manipulated into making this decision the prostitutes took away his free choice. Immanuel Kant is against taking away people’s free choice. There are three imperatives that are used by Kant to determine if a certain deed should be done. The three imperatives include the universal law based on principle, the means end formula (never treat anyone as a means but always as an end), autonomy formula (act in accordance to the maxim of a member that legislates the law)or the people who make the law are moral and thus the laws must be followed. When taking in consideration the universal law, what Kant is saying is that the acts act according only to maxim and thus must be applied to everybody. In this situation, the following maxim could be read as â€Å"if a prostitute is attacked, then it is ok to pay for someone to come in and seek vengeance.† The maxim for the prostitutes is to pay for justice and if applied to everyone this maxim would definitely not work and the world would become more chaotic and dangerous if this were a true maxim. The second part of the imperative deals with the means end formula. This states that one should never treat anyone as a mean but always as an end. In other words, do not use someone just for your benefit at the expense of another person’s but at the same time the other person should be getting something back in return that they need. All information needs to be presented in a factual way to help the person make a decision that they really want. With this being said, the prostitutes are using Will merely as a mean because what they did was lie to him. By exaggerating the truth, the prostitutes manipulated Will and use him as a mean to get justice among themselves. While there was indeed a reward for him, his decision to do this for the money was based on a wrong assumption because he was told a lie. His free will was taken away to make this decision because he was told the truth about what happened and if he did know the actual true events he may not have made the decision that he made. The last part of Kant’s three imperative is the autonomy formula. The autonomy formula talks about how acts should be followed according to the maxim that regulates law because the people that make the law are moral thus they should be followed because moral acts will help build a moral society.  However, the prostitutes would not have to follow the law based from Little Billy because this certain law was made from an immoral person and thus since it comes from an immoral person that only means that the law will be immoral. The next thinker that we will use to examine the following situation is the great mind of Mill. Mill says that a right is an expectation that society will help protect other people’s rights. Just can vary from each person and that the difference that does exist in society means that there is a different kind of equality. Utilitarianism is what brings the ideas all together. This states that if the majority of the people are happy then the act or deed should be done. The idea presented my Mill in utilitarianism is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. In the following situation from Clint Eastwood’s movie, Mill would don’t condone what has occurred because it is unjust to deprive anyone of anything that is legally their liberty or property. It is unjust to kill the two cowboys because he was never convicted of the crime that he did commit. The prostitutes should have had rights, and the two cowboys should have their voice heard in a trial. Mill would say that there is a bad law in place towards these prostitutes and the sheriff has rights in this town that he should not have. According to utilitarianism, it is wrong to harm certain individuals in order to make other people happy. In this instance, Will is killing these two individuals because this will make the prostitutes happy. John Stuart mill would be against this and so for Will to go and kill these two men is wrong in the eyes of the great philosopher Mill. The final thinker that will be used to examine the following situation is the great Greek philosopher Aristotle. To Aristotle, the law should be respected and if you do not respect the law then what you are doing is rejecting the government. The sheriff in town has placed un-just laws to the people. However, if these laws are not followed then what the people are doing is doing un-just to the community. To Aristotle, in order to have properly fixed the problem is that there needs to a mediator, one whom is un-biased and will look at each individual case down the middle and determine whether or not a disciplinarian action needs to occur. There needs  to be the right to a trial for a person to be properly convicted. This directly relates to the two cowboys who were punished without the mediator and â€Å"their day in court.† Aristotle would also say that the prostitutes should have right and the males who committed the crime should be trialed by law and a proper punishment, if any, would be warranted by an un-biased mediator of who would not include Little Bill. He is a very biased individual and Aristotle would be very against him and the actions that he is placing on society. To Aristotle, it will be no surprise to have heard that Will would take this job and to go back to killing. To Aristotle, it is very hard to break a habit that one did for so many years. Aristotle would not say that Will does an evil behavior, but instead Will has bad character traits. The habits he grew up with were not very good with the constant killings he did. As he killed more and more he got into the habit of killing, and for him to break this bad habit of killing is only going to get harder and harder as he not only kills but gets older continuing to kill. Deep down he already knew how to kill, and when the situation presented him his old habits came out and decided to go back and kill again. Aristotle would be against Will’s killing because it is not adding to his own happiness . These acts are immoral and his happiness is not reaching his full potential with the action that Will has done to these two other cowboys. After going over what the three great philosophers have said about the same situation, in my opinion Aristotle and Mill agree with each other the most because they both say how you need the community to be happy. They both correlate with each other. Aristotle is about the action itself and this directly disagrees with as to what Kant believes. This is why Aristotle and Kant both disagree with each other the most. As Aristotle is more about the action itself, Kant is all about the intent of the action. Aristotle and Mill would again agree because he says that the prostitutes should have rights and that the males should have been held on a fair trial. This eliminated the sheriffs and what he feels right according to himself and instead there would be a non-biased individual who will not already be prone to one side or the other like Little Billy was evident by his actions in the movie. In conclusion, Mill, Aristotle, and Kant all have some similar but different points about how the same situation should have been handled. Some were similar, and others were very different. It is my opinion that I agree most with Aristotle. He talks about having a non-biased individual (the judge in today’s society) and how everyone deserves rights including the prostitutes who had no rights in the movie. He is against Will going to kill for vengeance and also agrees with how people who have too much power and make immoral laws should lose that power for the benefit of the community. Ultimately, I agree with all of them because they bring up different but valid point. In the end, I agree the most with Aristotle because what he says is very similar in what steps would be taken in modern society today. With this being said, justice is still very unfair in today’s society. There are still these bounty killings and many of them do get away because of a lack of evidence or some other cause that prevents a judge from getting a conviction. Nevertheless, justice is many times unfair in today’s modern world, but improvements are being made and the judicial systems are doing the absolute best job they can do to bring justice to criminals and to get modern bounty hunters off the streets to make society a better and nicer place to live in.

Carolyn Forche and The Country Between Us :: Country Between Us Essays

Carolyn Forche and The Country Between Us      Ã‚   While reading Carolyn Forche's poetry in her book The Country Between Us, I often wondered what this woman has gone through while spending her time in El Salvador. She lived in El Salvador during an ugly state: a time when this country was in the middle of a civil war and bloodshed. All those acts of cruelty that she faced and so clearly wrote about must have been troublesome on her heart. And now thanks to her we can understand a piece of history and the cruelty of mankind through her poems. These poems that strike interest in our minds, would seem as if they would still strike fear in hers. That is, to overcome those terrible memories would take a lifetime, if that were even conceivable. But in her final poem of this book she suggests that these unforgettable details can possibly be put aside. This poem she dedicates to Terrence Des Pres, someone who also has gone through similar tragedies and titles it "Ourselves Or Nothing." The experiences they had and endu red, Terrence Des Pres and Carolyn Forche, in turn, allowed Forche the stamina and fortitude which she encouraged within Des Pres, and thus dedicated her writing to him.    Terrence Des Pres was a friend of Carolyn Forche's. He too was an author that wrote great contemporary poetry, the most significantly a poetic work called The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps. He had written this literary novel upon witnessing the tragedies occurring during the Holocaust of World War II, an event that we understand to be one of the most inhumane and gruesome events of human recollection. The Holocaust intrigued him and captured his mind and soul. Besides completion of his novel he taught at Colgate University a literature course on the Holocaust. And from his experiences, as summarized of Des Pres in the Triquarterly Fall 1996, he taught students of what he repeatedly called the "dark times" of 20th-century political life. But all these experiences he faced, and the constant reminder of them carried a great price. He drank a lot, especially as his work on the Holocaust grew more harrowing. It is noted, once while writing his book he thought he was having a heart attack, but he was medically fine; instead his memories of the Holocaust had been squeezing at his chest causing psychosomatic symptoms.

Indian Civilization

INDIAN CIVILIZATION Also called Indus Valley Civilization; the earliest in South Asia Contemporary with Bronze Age civilizations in pre-dynastic Egypt, Mesopotamia Compared to the other Bronze Age civilizations, Indus Valley Civilization was unspectacular Early civilizations of the Indian sub-continent were centred on two major river valleys: The Indus River and its tributaries, especially the Saraswati River Valley (2600-1500BCE) – associated with Dravidians. Called Harappan Culture The Ganges River Valley (1500-500BCE) – associated with the Aryans. Called the Vedic Age. Along the Indus & Saraswati, there were two major centres of this civilization: Mohenjodaro and Harappa hence Harappan Culture Other cities of this civilization include Kalibagan, Chanhudaro & Doraji in Gujerat Origins and Development This civilization appears as fully developed & distinctive culture; little is known about the cultures that came before it or the factors that led to its development Recent research indicates that antecedents of this civilization can be found at Mehrgarh on the western edge of the Indus plains Evidence that domestication of plants & animals, pottery production and village life began here Around 3200 – 2600 BCE, several pre-urban cultures existed in Indus Plains and the western hill valleys that show aspects of the Harappan culture HARAPPAN CULTURE: CHARACTERISTICS Built on irrigation-based agriculture. Irrigation based on dikes and drains. Barley and wheat the most important crops; grains stored in granaries in Harappa and Mohenjodaro (as a form of tax? ) Domesticated animals cattle, water buffalo, goats, pigs, donkeys Trade was very important; extensive trade connections with areas around the Arabian Sea & up the Persian Gulf to Mesoptamia Fortified cities; well-planned with straight streets intersecting at right angles; a system of underground drains and sewers Buildings made of baked bricks. At Mohenjodaro, multi-roomed houses have been recorded Thickness of walls and remains of staircases point to the existence of upper floors Skilled artisans including bead makers, metal workers, cotton weavers and potters Potters made painted pots decorated with nimal figures, water jars, cooking & drinking vessels & storage vessels Metal workers produced copper and bronze vessels, silver and gold ornaments Other artisans produced the square and rectangular seals from steatite & other soft rocks Seals had an animal carved in negative relief and a line of script that could be read when the seal was stamped on wet tablet Seals were used to authenticate messages. The script on the seals revealed the name, lineage, social identity or the public office held by seal-owner Seals could also have been worn as talismans or amulets They are the only examples of writing from this period 400 pictographs/characters have been identified so far, but the script is not fully deciphered RELIGION Little is known about the early religions of the Indus River Valley in these early times However, many elements of India’s religious heritage today are evident from some seals from Harappa and Mohenjodaro. A seal from Mohenjodaro has a human-like figure with three heads wearing a headdress and sitting in the Yoga position. He is surrounded by animals: elephants, rhinos, water buffalo, deer etc. Thought to be a Prototype of the popular Hindu god, Shiva (the Lord of Beasts) Seal impressions and clay figurines from Harappa depict a female deity with conspicous sexual organs = thought to represent the goddess of fertility FALL & DECLINE Harappan Culture declined and fell around 1500 BCE; Harappa, Mohenjodaro and other cities were abandoned and their populations dispersed into smaller settlements There was a reversal of achievements: writing was forgotten and much of northern India returned to village life REASONS FOR DECLINE/FALL 1. Possible flooding along the Indus, affecting the densely populated areas and cities 2. Shifts in patterns of long distance trade with Mesopotamia and other regions 3. Changes in subsistence farming; rice cultivation was introduced along the Ganges Basin and had taken root by 1500BCE; millet was introduced in Gujerat. So new environments were opened for farming where conditions were unsuitable for wheat and barley 4. Major geological disturbances near the source of Saraswati river, causing it to dry up, catastrophically disrupting agriculture downstream. 5. Invasion by the Aryans (Arya = noble) who came from the northern steppes of Europe REASONS FOR THE SUCCESS OF THE ARYANS A highly developed spoken language that tended to displace other tongues that it encountered Better military organization: horse-drawn war chariots and weapons made from iron which was superior to bronze GANGES RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS Aryans became sedentary landowners along the Ganges; others became traders on the river Crafts became more specialized & increased in complexity; produced iron ploughs, luxury items for trade Urban centres re-emerged with substantial populations of artisans, traders, resident landowners, priests, warriors Major metropolises along the Ganges include Patna, Benares (which is still a holy city for Hindus even today) SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Early Indian societies were matriarchal (i. e. headed by women) and matrilineal (inheritance was through the female side of the family). This changed with the coming of the Aryans who were patriarchal Before the Aryans, husbands lived with the wife’s family; the wife’s family paid dowry. After Aryans, wife’s were required to move to the husband’s family, bring substantial dowries and accept husband’s authority The caste system was introduced at this time. Basis for caste division was social and economic rather than racial Originally there were four castes: 1. Sudras = cultivators of land, manual labourers, domestic servants 2. Vaisyas = landowners, artisans, herdsmen, merchants . Kshatriyas = the warrior nobility 4. Brahmans = priests, scholars The caste system became a dominant factor in shaping Indian society Economic specialization & division of labour played a role in the evolution of the caste e. g. Brahmans engage freely in other occupation, avoiding those considered to be polluting The hierarchy embodied in the caste system also applies to the cosmic order; the ranking order o f the caste (from pure to impure) corresponded to the ascending order of the divinities as well POLITICAL ORGANIZATION Not much is known about the political organization in India before the coming of the Aryans However, we know that Harappans had adopted the city as a means of organizing & controlling their civilization Up to five major Harappan cities are known: Harappa after which the civilization is named; Mohenjodaro, Kalibagan, Chanhudaro & Doraji Aryans were loosely organized into families, clans and tribes. Tribes were headed by chiefs/kings called Rajas, most of whom were elected or chosen by rotation from the leading families Rajas shared political power with councils of elders & assemblies of adult males There were two forms of states in India: Republics and Kingdoms In the Republics, rajas continued to rule in conjunction with powerful councils and the assemblies while in the Kingdoms, the power of the rajas grew at the expense of the councils & the assemblies. Most often, power became hereditary Monarchies developed administrative systems headed by chief priests and military leaders Close alliance between kings & priests; Brahmans were involved in the consecration of new kings; the kings supported the emerging Hindu priesthoods RELIGION Again, little is known about early religion in Harappan India. However, we know that religion in early India was a form of polytheism People of Harappan culture worshipped a goddess whose clay figurines have been recovered in Harappa & Mohenjodaro Aryans introduced new gods including: Indra = the god of war Agni = The spirit of the sacrificial fire Varuna = the lord of the big sky Aryans sacrificed to these divinities by slaughtering dozens, even hundreds of animals & sometimes humans too Sacrifices were accompanied by hymns, prayers & rituals. The hymns were passed on through generations to become core of the Hindu scriptures, the vedas HINDUISM Hinduism emerged from the merging of the gods of the Aryans and those of the conquered Dravidians Early Hindus saw some of their gods in the shape of animals (anthropomorphic divinities) such as snakes, the sacred cow etc However, Hinduism did evolve to engage in philosophical search for the deepest spiritual principle of the universe The most important gods of the Hindu faith are: Brahma = the creator god; also called the Absolute Being or the World/Universal Soul Vishnu = the preserver of the universe Shiva = the dancing divinity with four arms and the destroyer of all things; also the Lord of Beasts The concept of Brahma later subsumed all the three gods (Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva). Brahma personified the concept of a deity that could be worshipped; Brahman (as the title for the priestly class) is a derivative of the same word Brahman can also be described as the universal principle that underlies all that exists, the spiritual essence permeating the entire cosmos & the one hidden in all things; hence reincarnation THE VEDAS Today, Hinduism is based on the vedas, the sacred books of the Hindu religion. Vedas are believed to have been divinely inspired. There are four vedas: 1. Yajurveda: a manual of sacrifice for the officiating priest 2. Atharvaveda: a catalogue of charms & spells supposed to be effective in curing illnesses, arousing passion in the object of one’s desire or in destroying one’s enemies 3. Rig Veda (means â€Å"verses of wisdom† or â€Å"knowledge†): a compilation of more than 1000 poems composed between 1500-900 BCE, addressed to various Aryan gods. For example one of the poems is dedicated to Indra who is described as the god of thunder who pierced the bellies of the mountains to release waters (possibly referring to annual floods caused by the melting of snow in the Himalayas). Another poem appeals for protection of goddess Night whose radiance was believed to drive away darkness Another poem is by a gambler lamenting an unlucky throw of the dice which has caused his wife to repel him and his mother-in-law to hate him. 4. Upanishads (meaning â€Å"sitting down near†): These are philosophical treatises in prose and verse. They are cast in the form of dialogues between teacher and student They examine the nature of reality and the problem of man’s place in the universe. They reveal a genius for conceptual reasoning still admired today. †¢Upanishads teach that evil is the fruit of ignorance; that the pursuit of wisdom is pursuit of the highest possible good and that attainment of wisdom bestows both power and virtue †¢Main Teachings: The Absolute Being/World Soul is the only supreme reality Material world is an illusion (or maya); it is not permanent †¢That individual souls go through a cycle of rebirth; the soul seeks to reach nivarna (spiritual liberation) †¢That the soul can escape the cycle of rebirth by union with the Absolute Being. The individual soul (atman) is actually a fragment of Brahman, the Universal Soul. OTHER ASPECTS OF HINDUISM The concept of brotherhood of all living things embodied in the concepts of reincarnation and transmigration of souls, karma and ahimsa The Hindu faith holds that each human soul is reborn/reincarnated in the body of some other creature – human, animal, plant or even supernatural being over & over again The precise form one takes on reincarnation depends on karma or the actions one takes in the present life Good and pious life – you may be reborn as a Brahman or other high caste; a life of self-indulgence & sin – you may live your next life as a worm, dog or something else Members of lowly castes were encouraged to diligently do their duties to be born to higher status Dharma (faithful performance of one’s assigned role) and Karma (merits and demerits earned as a result of action) cemented loyalty to the prescriptions of caste. Thus doctrine of transmigration of souls reinforced the caste system Ahimsa refers to the doctrine of nonviolence; first emerged among the Jains before adoption by others in Indian society Meditation – Hindus belief that one might escape endless rounds of lives filled in with human suffering through meditation (i. e. the mystical concentration of all psychic forces) The goal of Yogi meditation is the submergence of one’s ego in the supreme unity of Brahman. This is achieved through spiritual enlightenment: that all differences are illusions (or maya) & that all that really exists is the totality of Brahman, the Absolute Being BUDDHISM Has origins in religious reforms in Indian society in the 6th century BCE. These reforms produced the spiritual teachers or gurus The gurus were later described as the naked philosophers (or the gymnosophists) because they walked naked in the rain and the sun to discipline the flesh Also fasted for long periods of time & engaged in exhausting exersices that developed into the sacred discipline of yoga Two leading gurus were Mahavira (540-476 BCE) & Prince Siddartha or Gautama (563-483 BCE) Mahavira founded Jainism & Gautama founded Buddhism Gautama was given the title of Buddha (the Enlightened One) by his followers; was born in the Himalayas, present day Nepal GAUTAMA’S TEACHINGS He denied the existence of a soul; taught that only matter existed (in opposition to teaching of Upanishads) Because matter was always in a state of flux, he recognized no Absolute Being or any fixed universal principle other than constant change Even gods were subject to laws of growth & decay; the universe is forever becoming He retained the concept of karma; he believed that the root of suffering is desire (i. e. he pursuit of unattainable goals because the objects sought are fleeting & unreal) In this sense, he agreed with orthodox Hinduism that worldly things are an illusion or maya To reach Nivarna, one should recognize & reject worldly desires as blind follies; cultivate unselfishness, compassion & honesty; reject injury to others such as murder, theft & adultery; choose a life that does not bring harm to other living things 500 years after Buddhism was founded, it split into two major divisions: Hinayana School ( the Lesser Vehicle) and Mahayana School (the Greater Vehicle) HINAYANA SCHOOL So called because it emphasized individual salvation; claimed that a diligent person could attain nivarna in three lifetimes Bodhisattva – successive incarnations of the Buddha Denied existence of a soul; does not recognize the founder of Buddhism as a god. However, prayers, gifts of flowers & incense may be offered to his image Found in Sri Lanka, Bu rma (Myanmar), Thailand, Cambodia & Laos MAHAYANA SCHOOL Mahayana sets as its goal the redemption of the entire human race; worships Buddha as a god The concept of Bodhisattva – represents the Buddha-elect, an individual who has won enlightenment but chooses to remain in the world for the liberation of others; agreeing to suffer as ransom for all human beings Everyone is potentially a Bodhisattva & may become a Buddha. It embodied as cardinal virtues love, piety, joy & serenity Mahayana Buddhism found in China, Tibet, Mongolia, Nepal & Japan, but it disappeared in India in later centuries JAINISM Founded by Mahavira; it is contemporary with & in many respects parallel to Buddhism. Mahavira broke radically with traditional religions, rejected both their deities and their scriptures Doctrines of Jainism To Mahavira, the material universe is real, but it is filled with an infinite number of souls lodged in living creatures & inanimate things Rejected the concept of an overriding World Soul & taught that individual souls are held in bondage by matter; this bondage is perpetuated through successive births by operation of karma Because every action produces karma and karma adds weight to the chains of bondage, the only route to escape is to avoid action altogether; thus nivarna represents a place of absolute passivity Mahavira prescribed a regime of extreme asceticism, ideally culminating in death through self-starvation. Despite its atheistic tendencies, Jainism did resemble a true religion with prayers, holy scriptures and gods. Today, there are about 2 million Jains in southern and western India Prominent in Jain faith is the doctrine of ahimsa or non-injury to living things; it imposes taboos against slaughter of not only of animals but even insects. Ahimsa contributed ethical suppo rt to the ideal of pacifism Since Jainism ruled out the practice of agriculture, Jains turned to trade & money-lending, becoming some of the wealthiest in Indian society ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE VEDIC AGE Medicine: dissection, delicate surgeries; thorough knowledge of human anatomy; study of embryology Knowledge of astronomy: the first to suggest that the earth revolves on its axis & that the earth rotates around the sun Mathematics: were the first to extract square & cube roots; used the decimal system; invented the principle of zero, eventually adopted by the rest of the world; Arabic numbers in use today originated in India; advances in algebra Literature: Two epic poems: Mahabharata & Ramayana Mahabharata – the longest poem in the world with over 10,000 verses. About the struggle between two powerful Indian clans, but gods were involved also Ramayana – a romantic story of Prince Rama who rescues his lovely wife Sita fromRavana, the demon king of Ceylon Arthasastra a political commentary