Contrast in Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay Example for Free

Contrast in Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay Conrad uses contrast in his novel â€Å"Heart of Darkness†. Conrad would use contrast to convey meaning in his writing. Not only did contrast help convey meaning, but he also used it to show feelings. Of the many contrast in â€Å"Heart of Darkness† the difference of light and dark and the difference between the Thames River and the Congo River are the most obvious. The biggest contrast in â€Å"Heart of Darkness† is the difference between light and dark. London represents the light. London is in civilization, and if London represents the light, then civilization also has a big thing to do with light. The light represents everything that everyone has learned in their life, whether it was through experiences or through other peoples mistakes. On the other side there is the darkness. Africa is the main representation of darkness. Africa was uncivilized territory that everyone wanted to explore, but the darkness frightened people. Everything that happened in the darkness, â€Å"cannibals† and â€Å"savages† prowled the darkness, awaiting travelers. Africa is the heart of darkness. The contrast of the Thames River and the Congo River is also big in the story. The Thames is characterized as calm. Like the light the Thames represents good. The light from London makes sure the river is seen and nothing is cryptic about the river. On the other hand, the Congo is a dark, cryptic river. It is a place of evil. The contrast of these two rivers is the difference between the good and the evil, and light and dark. The Thames is peaceful and tranquil; it symbolizes light and civilization. The Congo is wild and barbaric; it symbolizes the dark and everything uncivilized and frightening.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Analysis Essay

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Analysis Essay With reference to one or two episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer studied in class, explain how the series encourages the viewer to question assumptions about high and low culture and/or television as a form of popular culture. You may wish to consider issues of genre, authorship and gender. Vampires are widely known for their slick back black hair, fanged teeth and black and red capes; however, in the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer these traditions have made different way for female fighters and ghoulish monsters. We each have our own different thoughts about what and who vampires are, but the media use their power on public to create a strong image of what are vampires should look like and have endorsed traditions believed for many years. In order to maximise viewing figure, the producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have made a good mix of the horror genre and the typical, classical American high school show. This mixture of different genres is suitable for many different class or age groups and tastes. The first episode is titled Welcome to Hellmouth this name is an oxymoron as it uses words that express good and bad. The build up to the episode shows a young couple breaking into the school through a window in the science lab. This action not only ads tension but also shows a link between science and the supernatural, something that has been talked about for hundreds of years. The woman turns into a green hideous monster and kills that boy. This is very rare for a vampire tale as traditionally vampires did not look like monsters and also they only attacked defenseless females. The episode starts properly when Buffy Summers, a 16 years old girl moves to Sunnydale, from LA with her mother. This is not the setting that the audience would expect for a vampire story as the word Sunnydale hardly paints a picture of a dark, horror place full of vampires. Therefore, this name subverts the traditional signifiers. On the first day of school, the popular girl named Cordelia inducts Buffy into the cool crowd, Buffy attempts to be friends with three other students,Willow, Xander and Jesse. This gesture shows us that Buffy is a good judge of character, strong minded and that she is a leader not a follower. Buffy goes to the school library to get some text books. The library, although a more unusual setting was much more like something from a vampire story, it was dark and empty. To add tension the producers used scary disjointed music to try and set the scene and the camera moves in onto a newspaper article, to which you can read the headline which refers to a missing teenage boy. This article casts a question mark over the normal nice Sunnydale. Then a figure appears behind Buffy, it is Buffys new watcher and the new school librarian,Giles. He brings a book with Vampyr on the cover and scares Buffy off. This endorses the old traditions as the book was old, and full of cobwebs, possibly to add more mystery to this section. The spelling Vampyr again highlights the books age and tries to make it look even more strange, this also brings more history and tradition into the episode, two elements that are important to any gothic style story. The show seems to take a different twist when a dead body is found in the school changing rooms. It is unusual that the body was discovered in the school and another good point to note is that the victim was a man, which is unusual for a vampire story, as traditionally the victims were all defenseless females. Buffy to investigate and found the body was killed by vampires. At home, Buffy prepares for her night out to the Bronze, Sunnydales only night club. Her mum thinks that everything is going to work out in Sunnydale and that they will be able to have a happy life there. It is very ironic as Buffy knows that bad things are just around the corner and also this shows that her mother is unaware that she is a vampire slayer. On her way to the Bronze, Buffy senses she is being followed and heads into an alleyway. A tall young man comes out of the shadows searching for her. She swings down from a bar above him and knocks him to the ground. He claims not to bite and that he just wants to help her. This section endorses up to the point where Buffy swings down and attacks the man. He warns her of the Harvest and tells her about the Hellmouth. This name paints a bad picture in the audiences minds and it is the total opposite to Sunnydale. Later at the Bronze, Buffy chats with Willow about boys. She tries to inspire Willow to stop waiting and to seize the day. Buffy spots Giles upstairs and goes up to talk to him. He continues to tell her she is the Slayer and has no choice in the matter. At first the setting for this scene may seem to be totally radical in a vampire style story, however after thought the venue is dark and full of young potential victims so is a modern adaptation of the settings for the older tales. For example, the more traditional tales were set in a graveyard or spooky house, which was dark and the time was always in the dead of night. These characteristics can also be linked to the nightclub used in Buffy, as it too is dark and people only go to th ese clubs during the hours of darkness.The show seems to take a different twist when a dead body is found in the school changing rooms. It is unusual that the body was discovered in the school and another good point to note is that the victim was a man, which is unusual for a vampire story, as traditionally the victims were all defenseless females. Buffy to investigate and found the body was killed by vampires. At home, Buffy prepares for the night out to the Bronze, the only night club in Sunnydale. Her mum thinks that everything is going to be fine in Sunnydale and they can have a happy life there. It is very ironic as Buffy knows that bad things are just around the corner and also this shows that her mother is unaware that she is a vampire slayer. On her way to the club, Buffy senses she is being followed and heads into an alleyway. A tall young man comes out of the shadows searching for her. She swings down from a bar above him and knocks him to the ground. He claims not to bite and that he just wants to help her. This section endorses up to the point where Buffy swings down and attacks the man. He warns her of the Harvest and tells her about the Hellmouth. This name paints a bad picture in the audiences minds and it is the total opposite to Sunnydale. Later at the Bronze, Buffy chats with Willow about boys. She tries to inspire Willow to stop waiting and to seize the day. Buffy spots Giles upstairs and goes up to talk to him. He continues to tell her she is the Slayer and has no choice in the matter. At first the setting for this scene may seem to be totally radical in a vampire style story, however after thought the venue is dark and full of young potential victims so is a modern adaptation of the settings for the older tales. For example, the more traditional tales were set in a graveyard or spooky house, which was dark and the time was always in the dead of night. These characteristics can also be linked to the nightclub used in Buffy, as it too is dar k and people only go to these clubs during the hours of darkness. Buffy spots a vampire in the crowd below them and then realizes hes talking to Willow. The guy leaves with Willow as Buffy goes searching for him. She mistakenly attacks Cordelia and then pretty much ruins her chances for popularity. As Buffy leaves, she runs into Xander and asks him where Willow may have gone or else there will be one more dead body tomorrow. The vampire manages to lead Willow into the cemetery where he throws her into a tomb stone. As he tries to escape, Darla arrives with Jesse. Buffy and Xander turn up and Buffy kills one of the vampires and then fights with Darla as Xander gets Willow and Jesse out to safety. A vampire shows up and fights with Buffy. While they are fighting, Darla escapes to get Jesse, Xander and Willow. The vampire throws Buffy into a coffin where he jumps in and leans in to bite. Apart from Buffy, a female fighter, who manages to attack all the vampires single handed. This endi ng endorses the signifiers we think off when we talk about vampires. As the setting, a graveyard is the usual place for an attack in a gothic or vampire story. It is also interesting to note that the episode concludes with a cliffhanger, an unusual ending for many gothic style stories and films. As traditionally, the story finished with either the death of a victim or of the attacker. In any television programme or feature film, camera angles and effects are important as they portray certain feelings that the producers want to show to the audience, these may be something like making the audience think a character is small and weak by using a high angle shot, which looks down on the character. Or you could use the opposite effect by making a character look strong and powerful from using a low angle shot (looking up). In Buffy The Vampire Slayer they producers use one effect which is featured on several occasions. This is where a quick series of flashing images is presented to the vie wers; this technique is called a montage of images. In episode 1 this feature is used twice, in the first case, the montage is used as a title sequence and shows images that both subvert and endorse the conventions, including images of signifiers including black cats, stakes and green monsters along with modern things like female fighters. This sequence promises viewers fast pace, all action entertainment and shows clips of future episodes in order to encourage continual viewing throughout the series. The second montage is shown where Buffy is in bed dreaming at the beginning of the actual programme, after the introduction and the title sequence. This series of images is showing the audience that she is restless as there is some kind of distortion in the images, and some are not fully visible. This makes the viewers to try and understand the sequence and the majority suggest that Buffy is involved in someway with vampires or as a protector of some description. The images shown inclu de an old book which suggests the cultural history of vampires, a cross which represents Christianity and the way to kill vampires. Because of this legend, the cross points out that Buffy is a protector. Moreover, Buffy creator Joss Whedon described Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an all over the place transcending-genre kind of thing. (Stein, 2002) Well the text is mainly considered to be of the teen genre it does contain elements of the horror genre to. The fight against monsters and the idea of a patriarchal society is all central to the horror genre. The way that Buffys world is invaded by monsters, horror invades home is another shared convention between horror and BVS. However one aspect of the show that goes against the horror genre is the role of women. In previous horror texts women were weak and frightened; however BVS changes traditional genre and ideological views. Buffys embodied strength, power, and assertiveness destabilize the traditional masculinity power of the vampire character in the horror genre, in effect policing those who prey upon the feminized (Owen, 1999). Through the text femininity is conveyed as a forceful strong identity. Buffy is stronger then all the men she meets both physically and mentally. However Buffy is not empowered by past feminist movements in the text. She is empowered by herself. Indeed Karras writes that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffys relationship with her mother can be understood as a metaphor for the tenuous relationship between second and third wave feminists(Karras, 2002) Buffys mother feels angry at the fact that Buffy doesnt take full use of the rights she now has to the feminist movement of the 60s. In conclusion,Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a popular culture because it provides a good blend of many aspects of both low and high cultures. It contains scenes that are scary, action packed and also offers addictive viewing like a soap opera. Buffy can be viewed by many different age groups as it seems that there is almost something for all, just the opening episode included many different styles of programming, from comedy to gothic style features. ‘Yet Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ also manages to defy convention by establishing its protagonist as an all strong, powerful willed women. Buffy as an open-image hero expose stereotypes and coded symbols that shore up a rigid war-influenced gender system in an attempt to chart new meanings for womanliness and manliness (Early, 2001) Reference list Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 Episode 1 â€Å"Welcome to the Hellmouth† Owen, A. Susan. 1999. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Vampires, postmodernity, and postfeminism. Journal Of Popular Film Television 27(2): 24-31 Irene Karras, 2002. â€Å"The Third Waves Final Girl:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer.† [http://journals.sfu.ca/thirdspace/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/karras/50] Francis H. Early, 2001. â€Å"Staking Her Claim: Buffy the Vampire Slayeras Transgressive Woman Warrior† [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0022-3840.2001.3503_11.x/abstract] â€Å"Chose an episode of any teen TV programme of your choice and identify the generiv conventions of this TV text.† [http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/media-studies/chose-an-episode-of-any-teen-tv-programme-of-your-choice-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-and-identify-the-generic-conventions-of-this-tv-text.html]

Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching

Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching Unmasking Power Stephen Brookfield in the Power of Critical Theory for Adult Learning and Teaching, OUP Maidenhead 2005 Brookfields chapter on the unmasking of power leads him immediately to consideration of the French theorist, Michel Foucault, by whom he was first introduced to the concept of regimes of truth: the types of discourse which it (society) accepts and makes function as true (Foucault).   Regimes of truth operate to lull teachers into believing they are operating in a power free setting.   Brookfield uses Foucaults description of power to explore the paradox that apparently emancipatory adult education practices can contain oppressive dimensions. Brookfield rebrands Foucault as a critical theorist on two grounds, firstly that he focuses, in a Marxian fashion, on how existing power relations reproduce themselves and secondly, that he is self-critical about his own theoretical formulations of power.   I quote Marx without saying so. (Foucault).   However, Foucault did not see power only as being imposed from above by a dominant elite.   Using the analogy of the connections made by synapses, power is seen as flowing throughout the social body.   We are all implicated in the exercise of power, even we do not believe we possess it. Fundamental to Foucaults analysis of power is the idea of disciplinary power which is malevolently attentive to our every move and which is constantly exercised by means of surveillance exemplified by a panopticon. Brookfield balances this analysis of power with what Foucault sees as its necessary corollary, resistance.   Like power, resistance can be found in multiple places and can be integrated in global strategies.   One example given of this is how oppositional groups can use the internet to organise effectively.   Foucault himself was deeply involved in contravening the status quo because he believed in essence that theory is practice. Looking at the world we now inhabit, it is clear that the all-seeing operation control centres in new prisons are replicated in many other areas of our lives including education, social services and workplaces.   Foucaults concept that surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action, strikes a very sombre chord, particularly as we are voluntarily submitting ourselves, more and more, to such surveillance through the use of social media.   Images and comments from decades ago can be retrieved with ease.   We may have moved on, but what we did or said is frozen in time, ready to be immediately defrosted at a touch of a search button.   Within education, opportunities for asynchronous learning through virtual learning environments can in fact be perfect weapons of surveillance used to assess the apparent engagement of the learner with the materials provided. The idea that we can derive pleasure from disciplining ourselves is disturbing, but it rings true.   Brookfield makes an association between this and Gramscis notion of most peoples willingness happily to embrace ideas, value and interests which actually work against our freedom. Brookfield applies Foucaults ideas across a number of staple items in the adult educators toolkit: learning journals, learning contracts and discussion groups, and shows how such techniques, which we adopt unquestioningly, can inadvertently reinforce the discriminatory practices we seek to challenge. The effect of disciplinary power on education resonated with me.   Far from the mutuality that pervades the relationship of a voluntary tutor with a 1:1 student or the collaborative learning in small groups, the drive for perpetual assessment and indicative content of courses drives tutors to assign individual projects so that collaborative projects are seen as a plagiaristic diversion of the intellectually weak.   Similarly the discrete tests which make up the awards system serve technological rather than educational ends.   That simply is not the way learning happens. Brookfields example of changing seating practices made an impression on me.   Despite the unquestioning belief on the part of many adult educators that it has an equalising effect, in fact such actions do not magically do away with power, but rather displace it and reconfigure it.   Circular seating can be intimidating, too open and too exposed and thus not necessarily less oppressive. Word count: 653

Free My Antonia Essays: Importance of Landscape :: My Antonia Essays

Importance of Landscape in My Antonia In the book, My Antonia, the landscape along with Jim's reactions to it help us to feel all the emotions of the scene. His feelings of lonliness, sadness, awe and happiness are felt through his words and we can form a picture from the descriptions, adding to what we already know. He feels these emotions in the first few scenes. All because he wants a place to call home. The feelings we get when Jim arrives are awe with hints if lonliness. He pulls into town and is being taken to his grandparent's house. He is riding in a wagon and since he is having trouble sleeping and tries to look at the land and sees nothing. This can be seen in the lines: "There was nothing but land: not a country at all but the material out of which countries are made...I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man's jurisdiction. I had never before looked up and at the sky when there was not a familiar mountain ridge against it...I did not believe that my father and mother were watching me from up there; they would still be looking for me at the sheepfold down by the creek, ... I had left their spirits behind me... I did not say my prayers that night: here, I felt, what would be would be."(pgs 11-12) We see that Jim is a state of awe. He does not see this place as land or a country, but the building blocks for such things. He thinks he is in the heavens, not on the planet. He feels like he is in his own universe. The landscape adds a sense of lonliness as well. He looks at the land and there is nothing he can hold onto so he will know where he is, no mountains or anything. The feelings of awe can also be read as lonliness. He is looking in wonder at this new land, but he feels so alone. He is in the middle of nowhere. He also believes that the spirits of his parents will not be there for him. I'm sure the fact that his parents died upset Jim, but he also think that they will no longer be there for him since he has left.

Prostitution Should be Legal on College Campuses :: Education Crime Prostitute Essays

Prostitution Should be Legal on College Campuses I am sure that there are some of you that are thinking, "Prostitution on college campuses, he can't be serious!?" but indeed I am. After all, how hard have you ever thought about the subject? Probably not much, if ever. I mean really, the most any typical guy usually thinks while walking across campus or at a party is geeze, I wish I could get to know her. Well, fortunately for you I am going to give you the low down as to why legalizing prostitution should be implemented on college campuses. I know most of you guys will agree, and possibly some girls, with what I have to say, but I'm sure there will be many critics opposing this change. However, with appropriate monitoring, I believe that State U. should legalize campus prostitution. First, I must say that I am not trying to create the impression in people's minds that I want to see young college students, especially women, roaming the campus streets trying to turn a trick. That would just be insane because that person could only end up getting hurt. What I am envisioning is an escort service. Girls and guys would be able to dial a number where they can acquire the company of someone for the evening. True identities of all parties involved would be concealed to respect privacy, and only ISU students would be allowed to use the service. This way, it would just be the college students, and not the community that would benefit from this service. One of the things that college students suffer from the most is stress, why else do they break the law and go out and get trashed from drinking each weekend? By getting overly stimulated by alcohol, they forget about the stressful week that they just endured. Sex could possibly become a substitute for this, therefore reducing the number of underage drinkers. After all, it has been proven that a little physical activity can rejuvenate the body and leave you feeling refreshed and energized; ready to take on new and challenging tasks. On the flip side though, it can be argued that some people might take advantage of the system and try to pay for sex when they are not truly stressed out. A person may simply want to have sex and making an appointment may possibly take away the service from someone who truly needs it.

Justification of Hamlets Sanity in Shakespeares Hamlet Essays

Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his father's murderer. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare Hamlet is sane but acts insane to fulfill his destiny of getting vengeance on his father's murderer. Hamlet throughout the play seems insane but in reality it is only an act to achieve his goal of killing his father's murderer. Hamlet chooses to go mad so he has an advantage over his opponent and since he is the Prince of Denmark certain behavior is unacceptable, so by faking madness he is able to get away with inappropriate sayings and actions. We can see this when he talks to Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia and his mother. When Hamlet talks to Horatio in the first act he says how he is going to "feign madness" and that: " There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy...How strange or odd some'er i bear myself (As i perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on) That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, With arms encumbered thus, or this headshake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase...let us go in toget... ...sane because he is fully aware of his surroundings and before acting he always rationalizes everything. He fakes madness so he can say and do things that a mad man would do, but internally he is aware of what he is doing and we know he is not insane but he acts crazy in front of certain people. His way of thinking is like a normal individual's, if an individual was crazy they would not be thinking everything through and if someone were crazy they would definitely not have the capabilities of outsmarting someone, like how Hamlet outsmarted Claudius. All these reasons and much more are why Hamlet is not insane, he is as sane of an individual as any other, but unlike others he had to go through a lot of emotional pain and a sense of abandonment to reach a successful point in his life. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. New York: Washington Square, 2004. Print.

Light in August Essay

William Faulkner’s celebrated novel Light in August says the tale of an orphan Joe Christmas, who has an unknown or doubtful ancestry who considers himself to be part-black. The novel includes excellent themes that involve issues of gender, race, community and religion. The capture of the racist identity and the portrayal of Calvinistic religion are the main features of the novel. Light in August is one of the best works of William Faulkner. The story starts with Lena Grove, a helpless pregnant girl (from Alabama) who set out of her house in search of her unborn baby’s father Lucas Burch. Lucas Burch had actually escaped from Lena so that he need not bear the burden of fatherhood. Lena’s hunting for Lucas Burch make her reach another man with the same name Byron Bunch. He was a simple man who makes friendship with Lena and later falls in love with her. Byron was kindhearted and provided Lena with home and security that the actual Byron Bunch (the child’s father) could not provide. After that we can see Byron narrating his feelings for Lena to the former Presbyterian minister Rev. Gail Hightower who was pushed to withdraw from his ministry as his wife committed suicide. In the middle of this strange story between Lena Grove and Lucas Burch, there appears Joe Christmas the roommate of Lucas Burch. He was an orphan working in the planing mill like Byron Bunch. The word ‘Christmas’ was added to his name as it was on the day of Christmas that he reached the orphanage. Christmas was also not sure about his ancestry as he wandered across in search of his lineage; a voyage for self-discovery. Christmas’ journey led him to Jefferson, Mississippi where he falls in a dangerous relation with Joanna Burden spinsterish civil rights activist. This affair led him to grave destruction. The most interesting theme of Light in August is the Southern issue with racial identity. Joe is mistreated and humiliated as people suspect that he has a black ancestry. They never him the way they treat white people (Dondlinger, 98-125). We can find in Light in August that majority of the characters are influenced by the notion of race disparity. For example, Joanna Burden, Joe Christmas, Doc Hines, Nathaniel Burde and lastly Percy Grimm are some or the other way influenced by the concept of race (Towner, 45-65). Some of the characters become victims of the senseless racial classification and suffer. Others who are out of this threat believe that there is nothing wrong in treating blacks inhumanly on the basis of racial difference. Racial discrimination is quite acceptable for them (Dondlinger, 98-125). For example The Jefferson sheriff, Watt Kennedy appears to be a decent man. However we can see him punishing a randomly chosen black person in an unwanted investigation (appeared unwanted at first). Similarly several other characters are found to be under the grip of the notion of race. Gender also plays a crucial role in the novel Light in August. Male-female identity and relations is an important topic. For example, we can find Joe being hostile to women. Lena’s baby’s father Lucas Burch also ran away from his pregnant wife; he was also fleeing away from women. Byron Bunch also did not have any plans to marry and was living a lonely life till Lena comes. He was adjusting his life in such a way that he could continue living alone. Rev. Gail Hightower also do not have a good fellowship with women as he led his wife to suicide. Another character Joanna Burden does not even marry. However we can find that the author never attempts to contrast the lonely life of these unfortunate characters with any happy or satisfied normal family or love relationships until the novel reaches the last chapter. We can see that the marriage of Hines and McEachern was also not a happy one. Moreover the Armstids also do not appear to have any love among them. Finally it appears to come to a happy end when Byron Bunch moves away with Lena Grove. But disappointment suddenly comes in she refuses him to share her bed. That relation also seems to be failure. The only relationship that appears to be happy is the relationship of the furniture dealer and his wife. They only had a relationship that had any trace of happiness or satisfaction.