Black Bourgeoisie Reading Response :: Free Essay Writer

Black Bourgeoisie Reading Response In the first section of Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie, â€Å"The World of Reality†, Frazier introduces his discussion of the interplay of class and race. He outlines the historical roots of the social place of most African-Americans in the U.S.A. and that of the black middle class. Frazier asserts the inconsequential place of middle class African-Americans and their resulting inferiority complex. He depicts the black middle class as living in a â€Å"no man’s land† in the dominant white culture of America. Frazier begins a more detailed explanation of his theories by discussing the place of the black bourgeoisie in the political and power structures of America. He contends that the black middle class has no real power in America at this time. He attributes the appearance of power to the fact that the members of the black bourgeoisie hold strategic positions in the segregated community. However, he maintains that all of these â€Å"power† positions still feed into the white power structure. Next, he discusses the break with traditional African-American culture. According to Frazier, the black middle class has abandoned the folk culture of â€Å"the black masses† in favor of shell of the middle class white world that rejected them. Therefore, the black bourgeoisie lives in what Frazier calls a cultural vacuum, disdainful of the culture of most African-Americans, dismissed by the white middle class culture. Finally, Frazier discusses the result of this displacement on the black middle class. Because the black bourgeoisie buys into the ideals of white America more and is simultaneously more exposed to its hostility, their sense of inferiority is compounded. They seek to fill this void in two ways.

Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden 40 lines analysis Essay

The following forty lines from Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden (1990), take place in scene 1 of Act 3, after Roberto has been tied up by Paulina and threatened with being tortured the same way as she had been, and then shot. In response to Paulinaà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s threats, Roberto begins confessing the brutality of his actions and his motives. This confession may be true; however, Gerardo has advised Roberto to indulge Paulina, to confess as this would save his life. Whatever the case, the extract is important because it portrays how a man can slide into brutality, without initially meaning to. Second, the extract is important because it helps expose the iniquities of dictatorial military governments. Finally, it is also important because it gives us an idea of Roberto’s character and personality. In this extract we clearly see the stages by which a respectable doctor became a brutal sadistic torturer. Though Roberto’s brother told him that helping the torturers could be a way to â€Å"pay the communists back for what they did to [his] dad,† Roberto stresses that he accepted the job for â€Å"humanitarian reasons.† Firstly, he wanted to help the prisoners who â€Å"were dying† from the tortures as â€Å"someone to help care for them, someone they could trust.† Later on, however, Roberto became involved in more â€Å"delicate operations† and was asked to â€Å"sit in on sessions where [his] role was to determine if the prisoners could take that much torture.† This indicates that he was there while the prisoners were tortured, watching these brutal scenes. Roberto thought this † was a way of saving people’s lives,† as he â€Å"ordered them to stop or the prisoner would die;† however, watching brutalized him, and slowly the â€Å"virtue [he] was feeling turned into excitement.† Soon, â€Å"brutalization took over [his] life† and he began â€Å"to truly like what [he] was doing,† so much so that, from an observer, he became a participant. Torture became a â€Å"game† for him, a game that was â€Å"partly morbid, partly scientific,† as he tortured women to find out things like â€Å"How much can this woman take? More than the other one? How’s her sex? Does her sex dry up when you put the current through her? Can she have an orgasm under those circumstances?† By the end, Roberto had become a sadist totally obsessed with â€Å"carry[ing] out all [his] fantasies† of sexually torturing women who were â€Å"entirely in his power,† women with whom he could do â€Å"whatever [he] want[ed].† So, stage by stage, we see in the example of Roberto how men can slide from positions of respectability and motives of kindness and compassion to becoming human monsters, men who delight in the sufferings of others. The tragedy of Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s slide from being a humanitarian to being a torturer is emphasized by the style of his speech, which reveals that he is an intelligent, educated, insightful man. Firstly we see how Roberto’s diction indicates his intelligence and level of education. Words such as â€Å"brutalization† and â€Å"morbid,† and phrases such as â€Å"he lost his capacity for speech,† â€Å"humanitarian reasons† and â€Å"install a totalitarian dictatorship† clearly manifest his ability to speak articulately and in a high register. We also see how analytically capable Roberto is, as he does not just describe his own actions but explains why they occurred, carefully dissecting his his motives for working with the torturers, not to â€Å"pay the communists back† but â€Å"for humanitarian reasons.† He can organize his account in clear, logical stages, with phrases like â€Å"It was slowly, almost without realizing how,† â€Å"At first,† â€Å"But afterwards,† â€Å"By the time,† â€Å"I began to,† and â€Å"It became.† Additionally, even in the circumstances in which he is giving this confession, in fear of his life, Roberto uses figurative language, suggesting that he has good rhetorical abilities. He uses euphemism, for example, in calling torture sessions â€Å"delicate operations,† and he uses metaphors when he refers to his brutalization as â€Å"the mask of virtue fell off,† and to his descent into sadistic torture as â€Å"the swamp.† So, we see how Roberto’s use of language clearly reveals his high level of education and intelligence, and this makes us even more horrified at how such a sophisticated man could have become a brutal torturer of women. More than exposing the degeneration of individual men, exemplified in Roberto, however, this extract also exposes the iniquities of military dictatorships, like the Pinochet regime in Chile, which Dorfman himself had to flee from. We see how military governments divided families: though Roberto became a doctor devoted to saving lives, his brother, determined to â€Å"pay the communists back for what they did to [their] father,† took another path, joining the military dictatorship and becoming a â€Å"member of the secret services.à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Ã¢â‚¬  We also are given the impression of how military dictatorships can convince people to support them by manipulating their sufferings under previous governments, promising some kind of compensation, as Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s brother joined the dictatorship to â€Å"pay the communists back for what they didà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to his father à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½the day the peasants took over his land at Las Toltecas.† Such governments also persuade people to support them, as Roberto did, by deceit and lies, getting Roberto involved in torture by saying the prisoners needed â€Å"someone they could help care for them,† but actually slowing criminalizing Roberto as a torturer. The fact that â€Å"they† have had such an enormous influence on Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s personality shows just how psychologically manipulative such regimes can be. Finally, the fact that, throughout his speech, Roberto refers to the government only as â€Å"they† evokes the way in which such governments work in the shadows, secretly and anonymously, to torture and terrorize. Thus this extract does not only show how Roberto and men like him deteriorate when they become involved in torture; it also shows how dictatorial regimes can manipulate such men, facilitating and enabling this deterioration to occur. In conclusion, this extract is very important as, whether Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s confession is true or feigned, it reveals how even the best of men may slide into such brutality and how military governments can create vile monsters out of exemplary human beings. Through the details of Robertoà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s confession, Dorfman is inviting his audience to consider how a man becomes sub-human. If a respectable doctor, a benefactor to the community, could turn into such a monster because of the effects of such a regime, then what would happen to the rest of society? Dorfman tries to make the reader consider that this incident that has turned Roberto’s life into a monster might happen to anybody in our society; especially in a switch of regime.

A Dream Within a Dream

A dream within a dream 1. Good morning today I will be talking about the poem a dream within a dream written by Edgar Allen Poe, first published in 1827. The poem is a two stanza lyric poem. The poet asks himself if a person can determine the difference between reality and fantasy by asking † is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream†. The poet is reflecting his feelings of the time and exaggerating his confusion as he is watching the important things in his life slip away as if they were grains of sand held in his hand, finally he comes to the conclusion that all the things in his life is part of a dream. . Poe uses the form of poetry called a lyric poem. A lyric poem is a form of poetry which can be categorized into other forms of poetry such as ballads and odes. Lyric poems are used to express deep feelings and thoughts. Because the poet has used the form of a lyric poem emphasizes the fact that the narrator is going through difficult times and is conflicte d by confusing emotions. 3. It begins at the moment of parting—a clean kiss on the forehead that shows the passion between them had been stopped. His beloved has accused him of living in a dream, with his head stuck in the clouds.Presumably making him far from marriageable material. 4. His joy in the love they shared was not returned so his hope has, as he says, â€Å"flown away†. But he wonders if his love has really gone and asks what really exists in his life. The continuous rhyme has a strange sweetness, with couplets and triplets sending us tumbling effortlessly through the lines. The repetition of the word dream throughout the poem gives the poem a glaze like effect because we delve deeper into the different emotions and thoughts of Poe's mind. . In the second stanza we are moved from a civil society to an unruly sea side, the water and waves are used to represent the tides of thoughts, feelings and reactions that flow endlessly in and out of our mind each day. 6 . The two stanzas appear to be completely different but they are connected through the aspect of the end of love and time. The grains of sand symbolize an hourglass which shows the route of time and as the sand keeps flowing the time disappears and at the same time the narrators loves also disappearing. 7. And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand-How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep† this is a metaphor used in the second stanza where Poe compares the few grains of sand in his hand to the few important things in life he has left. He says that even though there are few left they can slip away from our minds into the forgotten. He wants to know why he can't hold onto the things that he believes to be so dear to him. It relates to life in the way that it is so easy to forget things that are important to us. 8.

BASEL Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BASEL - Essay Example The Accord outlines a set of standards for establishing minimum capital requirements for banking organizations. It encouraged banks to classify their experiences into broad categories reflecting similar types of borrowers. As an example, all exposures to corporate borrowers are subject to all capital requirements. However, with the advances in risk management practices, technology and banking markets, the 1998 Accord’s approach to measuring capital requirements has become less meaningful. This is why the BASEL have been updated into BASEL II, a consultative document that is believed to provide improved sensitivity to the risks that banks actually face and accommodate improvements in internal processes, more advanced risk measurement techniques and increasing use of sophisticated risk management practices. (Saidenberg, M. and Schuermann, 2005) More accommodating as it appears, the New Accord still has factors which have been pointed out by organizations such as the JCIF (2006) and the BIS (2001) itself that must be considered for determining requirements for market risks and capital standards. The most prominent issue is the improvements of the credit rating process. According to BASEL II, banks are encouraged to implement the internal ratings approach to determine credit capital requirements by using probability of default for borrower rating and loss given default for facility rating. This becomes problematic considering that banks have historically attributed ratings to transactions without separating the two risk factors. Compounding the problem is that banks have tended to rate customers using one or two ratings alone but the Accord specifies that borrowers should be evenly distributed across a minimum number of grades. Banks will find it necessary to re-engineer their internal credit rating system. The Internal Ratings Based approach specifies that credit risk measurement involves

Interactive illustration in print media targeting children's Thesis

Interactive illustration in print media targeting children's market(under12) - Thesis Example Against the back drop of this information, it won’t be an exaggeration to state that the increasing sophistication of the digital market has captured a major share of the children’s segment, thus indirectly driving them away from the conventional medium of reading i.e. the print media. Furthermore, the development of internet, and the growing affordability as well as ease of home computing has led to a further growth in increasing the attractiveness of the interactive digital media. Children today, have a wide variety of options at their disposal in terms of reading and learning, with internet and interactive digital media forming a huge chunk of their modern childhood activities. Considering the immense potential and popularity of the interactive digital media, and the fact that it has now penetrated educational settings, the significance of interactive print media seems to have taken a back seat. However, the importance and credibility of the print media in revolution izing the social and educational experiences of young readers cannot be completely written off. It is on account of this very reason that educators, researchers, content producers as well as policy makers are now showing an increased interest and concern regarding the dominance of interactive digital media and its likely impact on the invasive experience and understanding of essential social concepts of children. They have stressed that the revival of the print media is necessary as it has an immense potential to stimulate the intellectual, emotional as well as physical development of children. The unique characteristics that the print media offers can go a long way in helping children in shaping their understanding of the world around them. It can also help in the development of a well designed interactive print media can help in engendering a sense of true learning among the young readers. This paper on interactive illustration in print media throws light on various aspects of the print media and its likely impact on the young readers. In the process it traces the roots of this medium and charts its evolution into a highly interactive medium which is specifically designed to stimulate a keen sense of understanding and growth among the target audience, i.e. young children (Schumm, 2006; Wooten, 2009). History of illustration in print media targeting children The market for children’s books was virtually non-existent in the olden times. Most of the picture books prior to the sixteenth or seventeenth century were mainly designed and targeted at the adult audience. Children were not given due importance as an independent market segment and hence there were rarely any books targeted specifically at them, although a privileged few i.e. mostly children from rich upper classes of the society were exposed to and /or had access to illuminated manuscripts (Pope, 2010; Cullinan, Person, 2005). Figure: An example of an illuminated manuscript for children According to Aries, the artists during the tenth and the eleventh centuries hardly displayed any interest in illustrating for children, as they did not consider them an important segment of readers. He

Cost of Dying and effects of healthcare delivery system Thesis

Cost of Dying and effects of healthcare delivery system - Thesis Example These can mostly be achieved by designing long-term care facilities or homes to suit their mental and physical requirements. Hospice care is another major facility which caters to the dying during their last few months of life when they are in any terminal or chronic illness and when curative treatment is not feasible. However hospice care has not been accepted by all the people in their dying days. Barriers exist which prevent their opting for this facility. The phenomena of interest in this study lie in the care for the dying and various situations including the budgets allocated in present day circumstances for the terminal patients. The budgets involved in caring for the dying are now booming so much that finances are increasingly being channeled into it. A comparison of the total health expenditures in relationship to GDP shows an immense difference in the increase in the US when considered against other countries (See Appendix B). The intention of hospice care is to provide int ensive care for the dying in their last days. A good team of doctors and nurses, drugs and the latest technology together have made the terminal care expensive. However, in spite of the arrangements, people are opting to spend their last days in nursing homes rather than in hospice care. This paper intends to demonstrate the underutilization of hospice care, why there is resistance to hospice care from physicians and families, and how hospice care can be integrated into the continuity of care. Dr.Cicely Saunders founded the modern hospice concept (Biskupiak, 2005). The study aims to search for the various literature available on the cost of dying and the services of the healthcare system for the dying in the terminal stages. It would be interesting to explore how much of the invested amount is actually availed of during the dying phase. Statistics show that much of this amount is not

Corporate Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Corporate - Research Paper Example Established in 1985 as an energy company in Houston, Texas, Enron Corporation, in a move to diversify along its business, created SPEs (Special Purpose Entities). In this spree, the much needed amount for the creation of such vehicles was received from the internal employees of the company itself. Adding to the woes, Enron started selling the energy commodities by acting as a broker and profited by the difference between the prices of sellers and buyers, as it had entered into separate contracts with them (AACSB 2002). â€Å"Enron was fond of another procedure known as mark-to-market, which allowed it to increase the value of present assets held by the company by estimating future market prices. Since Enron dominated the energy trading business, the prices by which it marked-to-market were largely subjective- that is, determined by Enron itself in accordance with the earnings it wanted to report.† Defying the laws further, Arthur Anderson, with an intention to show loyalty to the company, provided consultancy to the Corporation and presented misleading and faulty audit data of the Corporation to the stakeholders and investors (Rittenberg et al, 2009, p. 427). The results were graver than imagined. It left Enron bankrupt, due to losses running into billions (debt- $3 billion and losses- $638 million). Apart from financial losses, it also suffered blemishes on its reputation and delisting of its shares and stock. Employees also suffered the loss of their jobs. Data is valuable only if it is in the right hands and used in the right sense. Information contained in data is sensitive and can ruin the fate of the organization handling the data. Thus, data analysis suffers from reliability, validity, authentication and verification. Enron Corporation acted against the transparency and responsibility of being an ethical organization for its investors and invited lethal damage to its