The American Dream In Jeannette Wallss The Glass Castle

Comedian George Carlin once stated, â€Å"That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.† Financial security, freedom to live how one chooses, retiring at 65 and living comfortably in old age, owning a home, knowing that working hard pays off: these are all fundamental beliefs tied to the American Dream. As newer generations are increasingly finding the dream to be unrealistic, people are beginning to abandon the concept; however it is still a very present ideology. While many believe the American Dream is a lively goal that everyone strives to achieve, it is actually a dying illusion that is unattainable for all but the wealthiest and used to propagate a classist society, causing a cycle of ignorance†¦show more content†¦The purpose of the American dream is not to promise success as a reward for hard work; conversely, it is the idea that individuals should be able to achieve success despite their socioeconomic status. This belief is intended to inspire and create equality. Although the American Dream sounds optimistic in concept, it further propagates inequality in practice. The American Dream is not a function of ability and achievement, but a dying illusion. America is not truly the land of the free, but an ignorant classist society. Gregory Clark, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, stated that â€Å"America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England or pre-industrial Sweden †¦ That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility - it s shattering people s dreams† (qtd. in Evans). The United States has an incredibly outdated economic system that does not allow disadvantaged citizens opportunities regardless of how hard they work. People get stuck in their social status and are not able to stray out of it, which affects their further generations. Additionally, immigrants coming to America in hopes of prosperity are likely to have even less luck than immigrants of the pass and widen the gap of social inequality. Clark continues to state, â€Å"The truth is that the American Dream was always an illusion. Blindly pursuing

The American Dream In Jeannette Wallss The Glass Castle

Comedian George Carlin once stated, â€Å"That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.† Financial security, freedom to live how one chooses, retiring at 65 and living comfortably in old age, owning a home, knowing that working hard pays off: these are all fundamental beliefs tied to the American Dream. As newer generations are increasingly finding the dream to be unrealistic, people are beginning to abandon the concept; however it is still a very present ideology. While many believe the American Dream is a lively goal that everyone strives to achieve, it is actually a dying illusion that is unattainable for all but the wealthiest and used to propagate a classist society, causing a cycle of ignorance†¦show more content†¦The purpose of the American dream is not to promise success as a reward for hard work; conversely, it is the idea that individuals should be able to achieve success despite their socioeconomic status. This belief is intended to inspire and create equality. Although the American Dream sounds optimistic in concept, it further propagates inequality in practice. The American Dream is not a function of ability and achievement, but a dying illusion. America is not truly the land of the free, but an ignorant classist society. Gregory Clark, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, stated that â€Å"America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England or pre-industrial Sweden †¦ That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility - it s shattering people s dreams† (qtd. in Evans). The United States has an incredibly outdated economic system that does not allow disadvantaged citizens opportunities regardless of how hard they work. People get stuck in their social status and are not able to stray out of it, which affects their further generations. Additionally, immigrants coming to America in hopes of prosperity are likely to have even less luck than immigrants of the pass and widen the gap of social inequality. Clark continues to state, â€Å"The truth is that the American Dream was always an illusion. Blindly pursuing

The American Dream In Jeannette Wallss The Glass Castle

Comedian George Carlin once stated, â€Å"That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.† Financial security, freedom to live how one chooses, retiring at 65 and living comfortably in old age, owning a home, knowing that working hard pays off: these are all fundamental beliefs tied to the American Dream. As newer generations are increasingly finding the dream to be unrealistic, people are beginning to abandon the concept; however it is still a very present ideology. While many believe the American Dream is a lively goal that everyone strives to achieve, it is actually a dying illusion that is unattainable for all but the wealthiest and used to propagate a classist society, causing a cycle of ignorance†¦show more content†¦The purpose of the American dream is not to promise success as a reward for hard work; conversely, it is the idea that individuals should be able to achieve success despite their socioeconomic status. This belief is intended to inspire and create equality. Although the American Dream sounds optimistic in concept, it further propagates inequality in practice. The American Dream is not a function of ability and achievement, but a dying illusion. America is not truly the land of the free, but an ignorant classist society. Gregory Clark, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, stated that â€Å"America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England or pre-industrial Sweden †¦ That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility - it s shattering people s dreams† (qtd. in Evans). The United States has an incredibly outdated economic system that does not allow disadvantaged citizens opportunities regardless of how hard they work. People get stuck in their social status and are not able to stray out of it, which affects their further generations. Additionally, immigrants coming to America in hopes of prosperity are likely to have even less luck than immigrants of the pass and widen the gap of social inequality. Clark continues to state, â€Å"The truth is that the American Dream was always an illusion. Blindly pursuing

A Systemic Functional Analysis of the Advertisement of the Cadd Free Essays

[pic] A Systemic Functional Analysis of the Advertisement of the CADD A statistic in 2008 shows that around one in six deaths on roads caused by drunk drivers. People may have wrong judgment and slower reaction after they drunk alcohols. A traffic accident is most likely to occur in such situations. We will write a custom essay sample on A Systemic Functional Analysis of the Advertisement of the Cadd or any similar topic only for you Order Now As a consequence, a variety of campaigns have taken numerous actions to persuade people not to drink and drive. They built websites, and published advertisements and videos to promote their ideas. The Campaign Against Drinking Driving is one of them. CADD is trying to free people whose relatives have died or injured in drunk driving from sorrows. This short essay will analyze a public service advertisement against drink and drive published in the website of the CADD. The visual images, verbal texts, and the linkage between them will be discussed in systemic functional approaches. The advertisement is displayed in a horizontal angle which involves viewers’ reflection. Two elements, a collection of smashed glasses and the sentence â€Å" What’s the price of a bottle of wine† are most salient in their color and size. In a blank background, the green glasses and the red sentence are enlarged to attract viewers’ attention. Furthermore, the distance between viewers and the visual image become intimate by close shot. Firstly, some visual metaphors can easily observed from the visual image of this advertisement. The shape of broken bottle is identical to a crashed car. The target domain is a collection of smashed glasses, while the source domain is a crashed car. The separated segment can be seen as the tyre of the crashed car. In addition, some small glasses that arranged to two lines can be regarded as car tracks. The designer used a broken bottle to form a scene of a car accident. The connection between the broken bottle and the crashed car is the wine, namely, the alcohol. It warns implicitly that a car accident will happen if the intake of alcohol is excessive. Apart from the connotation the metaphors contain, some other elements abd styles of representation are consisdered as carrriers of connotation (Machin,2007). Firstly, the participant can be analyzed. As there is no participant in the â€Å"crashed car†, it can be concluded that the result of drunk driving is being a victim in a car accident. Then, the color of these visual images also has connotations. The color of headline and text is red, while the wine bottle is green. Since the background is blank, these two contrastive colors form a sharp contrast to attract viewers’ attention. The red color also means warning, so that viewers will put more attention on the headline and text. Additionally, the linguistic messages cause the advertisement’s purpose more explicit. There are two clauses in the advertisement. The first clause is a special question which asks for the viewers’ responses. The designer wanted viewers to give an answer of â€Å"price†. According to the analysis, the â€Å"price† in the headline â€Å"what’s the price of a bottle of wine† can be analyzed in three levels. The first level is analyzing from its denotation. The â€Å"price† in this level will be the value labeled in the goods shelf. The second and third level meanings are connoted in the background. The â€Å"price† in these two levels are more likely consequences of drunk driving. As this advertisement aimed at persuading people not to drink and drive, the connotation of â€Å"price† can be derived from it. The â€Å"price† paid in the second level is drunk drivers’ health, even the life. In order to understand the third level, the background of the Campaign Against Drinking Driving should be introduced. One of the CADD aims is providing support to the families of victims killed or injured by drunk drivers (CADD). If a person killed or injured because of drinking alcohol over legal limit, his relatives will in grief for a long time. As a consequence, the â€Å"price† in the third level is the sorrows of relatives. A word play the designer made can be noticed after analyzed the three levels the headline contains. The viewers will understand the meaning of headline by digging into the word â€Å"price†. After the advertisement having guided viewers to consider the the consequences of drunk driving, the designer raise his idea timely in the following text. â€Å"Don’t drink and drive† is an imperative sentence which expresses the attitude of persuasion. If visual images linked together with linguistics messages, the advertisement will be understood better. The headline and the broken bottle are complementary in achieving the goal of the advertisement. The verbal texts appears in the top, and the image forms an illustration of it. A question is introduced by the headline, and the broken car extended viewers’ understanding of this question. The viewers are led to the direction of the relationship between the wine and the car. In this way, the visual image extends the understanding of the verbal information. In addition, the second clause also can related with the logo in the advertisement. The logo was comprised of four capital letters: CADD; which is the abbreviation of the Campaign Against Drinking Driving. The idea that transmitted by the campaign is not drinking and driving, which expresses the same meaning with the text. Moreover, there are a wine glass in the first letter D, while a car key in the latter letter D, and red slashes cut the letters. As a result of special form of letters, the topic of the advertisement is pointed out: do not drink and drive. Additionally, the red slashes echo the color used in the text and the headline, which connects the elements in this advertisement closely. In conclusion, this essay analyzed the visual images, linguistic messages and the connection between them in systematic functional approaches. The purpose of this advertisement is persuading people not to drink and drive. The designer guided people to think about the consequences of drunk driving in visual and verbal messages, then the designer’s purpose is achieved by a persuasive way. However, because the publisher of this advertisement is a campaign that mainly helps the drunk drivers’ relatives, more attention will be attracted, if some information about those people added. Word count:1022 Reference Machin, D. (2007) Introduction to Multimodal Analysis, Hodder Education CADD Retrieved from http://cadd. org. uk/aims. htm This advertisement is retrieved from http://gongyi. hexun. com/2011-08-12/132383278. html How to cite A Systemic Functional Analysis of the Advertisement of the Cadd, Papers

Music History Essays (1130 words) - Musical Texture, Harmony

Music History Music has been a great influence in the lives of many people through lyrics and rhythm. There are many different styles that can be performed by either a male or female. Music has been around for many years and is constantly changing. Music has been divided into six periods: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Twentieth Century. Music is written in symbols that represent musical sounds. The system of written symbols is called Musical Notation. "The primary requirement of any notation is that it be suited to the music it represents (Gerboth)." The simplest texture of music is monophonic or single voiced texture. Gregorian chant is an example of monophonic texture. "All music up to about a thousand years ago, of which we have any knowledge, was monophonic (Machlis 295)." Its melody is heard with out a harmonic accompaniment or other vocal lines and attention is focused on the single line (Machlis 295). "To this day the music of the Oriental world - of China, Japan, India, Java, Bali, and the Arab nations -is largely monophonic (Machlis 295)." Polyphonic or many-voiced texture is when two or more melodic lines are combined. Most Medieval polyphonic music is anonymous, though some composers were so important that their name was preserved along with their music ("Historical"). The polyphonic texture is based on counterpoint: the art and science of combining in a single texture two or more simultaneous melodic lines, each with a rhythmic life of its own (Machlis 295-96). The development of counterpoint took place at a time when composers were mainly occupied with religious choral music, which was by its nature, many-voiced (Machlis 296). Polyphony had to be written in a way that would indicate the rhythm and pitch precisely. It brought the emergence of regular meters that enabled different voices to stay together. Polychoral music is music for several chiors singing in answer to each other across the huge resesses of the church (Frowler 122). Homophonic texture is a single-melody with chords (Machlis 296). Homophonic means "same" or similar sounding. Its texture is based mainly on harmony. This texture dominated the Classical style. The Medieval period was the longest and most distant period of musical history and consists of almost a millennium's worth of music ("Historical"). One of the difficulties in studying Medieval music is that a system for notating music developed only gradually ("Historical"). A musical notation system was started in the 12th or 13th century. Notation in music, for several centuries, only indicated what pitch (or note) to sing. The Renaissance (1400-1600) began in 14th century Italy (Kirshner) and its name means rebirth. A cultural break with Medieval tradition was the Renaissance idea of humanism. "The Renaissance was a time of brilliant accomplishments in literature, science, and the arts (Frowler 445)." During the Renaissance there is an increase in individualism that is reflected by the changing role of the composer ("Historical"). In late Renaissance instrumental music went toward an independence from vocal music (Ulrich). Most of the popular songs were played on the lute. The Renaissance, in the arts, was on of the most innovative and active periods in the history of Western man, based partly on the philosophic movement called humanism (Ulrich). The Baroque period (or Middle Ages) (1600-1750) is divided into three fifty-year periods, early, middle, and late Baroque. Music of the Baroque era was characterized by the vastness of proportion, rich counterpoint, great splender and a highly ornamented melodic line (Mautz). Baroque music is often highly ornate, colorful and richly textured when compared with its predecessors ("Historical"). The term Baroque came from a French word for an imperfect or irregular pearl (Frowler 448-49). "The early baroque was a time of intense experimentation, led in large part by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi ("Historical")." Many aspects of the Baroque art were determined by religion (Sullavin). "The intensity and immediacy of Baroque art and its individualism and detail - observed in such things as the convincing rendering of cloth and skin textures - make it one of the most compelling periods of Western Art (Sullavin)." Major events of the early 17th century were related to the invention of a new method of composition called monodic style. Monodic style music was for one singer with an instrumental accompaniment. It was achieved by a group of Florentene writers, artists, and musicians known as the Camerata, a name derived from the Italian word for"salon" (Machlis 354). Opera was born around 1600, the beginning of the Baroque era. Opera was considered by many to be the single most important achievement of the Baroque period (Machlis 354).

Nicaragua and Terrorism essays

Nicaragua and Terrorism essays Nicaragua The following is the definition of terrorism as defined by the FBI: "the unlawful use of force against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population or any segment thereof, in the furtherance of political or social objectives" (FBI, 2003). It is the aim of this essay to determine whether the actions of the United States in Nicaragua in the early 1980s fit this American definition of terrorism, and to compare those actions with the actions of regimes that the United States government has been critical of in recent months to establish if such criticism may be seen to be hypocritical. Nicaragua gained independence from Spain in 1821, along with the rest of Central America. It was a part of Mexico for a brief time, then part of the then Central American Federation. Nicaragua finally achieved complete independence in 1838. Soon after, Britain and the USA both became extremely interested in Nicaragua and the strategically important RÃÆ'Â ­o San Juan navigable passage from Lago de Nicaragua to the Caribbean. In 1848, the British seized the port at the mouth of the RÃÆ'Â ­o San Juan on the Caribbean coast and renamed it Greytown. This became a major transit point for hordes of hopefuls looking for the quickest route to Californian gold. In 1855, the liberals from the city of Leon invited William Walker, an American intent on taking over Latin American territory, to help seize power from the conservatives based in Granada. Aided by a band of mercenaries, Walker and his fellows took Granada easily and he proclaimed himself president, one of his first moves being to institutionalize slavery. He was soon ejected from power and the country, but showed almost absurd tenacity as he repeatedly tried to invade the country. This was the first American intervention in the affairs of Nicaragua, and in many ways set the preced...

Swedish Patronymics and Surnames Explained

Swedish Patronymics and Surnames Explained Until the turn of the  20th century, family surnames were not in common use in Sweden. Instead, most Swedes followed a  patronymic naming system, practiced by about  90–95% of the population.  Patronymics (from the Greek  pater, meaning  father, and  onoma, for name)  is the process of designating a surname based upon the given name of the father, thus consistently changing the family surname from one generation to the next. Using Gender Distinction In Sweden,  -son or -dotter was usually  added to the fathers given name for gender distinction. For example,  Johan Andersson would be the son of Anders (Anders’ son) and  Anna Svensdotter the daughter of Sven (Svens’ dotter). Swedish sons names are traditionally spelled with a double s- the first s is the possessive s (Nils as in Nils son) while the second is the s in son. Technically, names that already ended in s such as Nils or Anders should have three ss under this system, but that practice wasnt often followed. It is not uncommon to find Swedish emigrants dropping the extra s for practical reasons, to better assimilate into their new country. Swedish patronymic son names always end in  son, and never sen. In Denmark the regular patronymic is sen. In Norway, both are used, although sen is more common. Icelandic names traditionally end in son or dotir. Adopting Nature Names During the latter-half of the 19th century, some families in Sweden began to take on an additional surname to help distinguish them from others of the same name.  The use of an extra family surname  was more common  for people who moved from the countryside into the city where long-term use of patronymics would have  resulted in dozens of individuals with the same name.  These names were often a composition of words taken from nature, sometimes called nature names.  Generally, the names were made up of two natural features, which may or may not have made sense together (e.g. Lindberg from lind for linden and berg for mountain), although sometimes a single word would make up the entire family name (e.g. Falk for falcon). Sweden passed the Names Adoption Act in December  1901, requiring all citizens to adopt heritable surnames- names that would pass down intact instead of changing every generation. Many families adopted their current surname as their hereditary family surname; a practice  often referred to as a frozen patronymic. In some cases, the family just chose a name they liked- such as a nature name, an occupational surname related to their trade, or a name they were given in the military (e.g. Trygg for confident). At this time most women who were using patronymic surnames ending in -dotter changed their surname to the male version ending in -son. One last note about patronymic surnames. If you are interested in DNA testing for genealogical purposes, a frozen patronymic does not generally go back enough generations to be useful for a Y-DNA surname project. Instead, consider a geographical project such as the Sweden DNA Project.