Wednesday, October 30, 2019
International human rights Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
International human rights - Research Paper Example The crisis has led to the need for humanitarian assistance by 3.8 million people who have been affected by the violence in South Sudan. The affected people mainly live in the Upper Nile Region, Jonglei, Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, and Lakes regions of South Sudan. This is the greatest human rights problem due to the large number of people affected by the crisis and the level of violence meted on innocent, vulnerable members of the community. Over 10,000 people have been killed in a crisis, and over five million people depend on humanitarian assistance between within and without the country in displacement campsii. The other reason for the crisis to be the greatest humanitarian crisis is that the violence has caused a threat of famine in South Sudan. Scholars, policy makers, and human rights organizations believe that the problem in South Sudan needs immediate attention by the United Nations, IGAD, regional organizations, and other international bodies to provide humanitarian aid and come together to solve the problem. The problem is caused by recent developments after the independence of South Sudan with the national government led by Salva Kiir unwilling to democratize and to take fewer measures to deliver basic services to the peopleiii. The result of this was the lack end of a common enemy anymore for SPLM, Khartoum, and their efforts for independence and self-determination. However, after achieving independence, splits in SPLM led to the differences and subsequent sacking of the vice president, Riek Machar among other elected leaders to silence dissent in SPLM resulting in violence and killings. United Nations, IGAD, European Union, United Kingdom, and neighboring countries are working on the South Sudan problem through taking efforts to ensure the differences between Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir
Monday, October 28, 2019
Theories On Discourse Ideology English Language Essay
Theories On Discourse Ideology English Language Essay INTRODUCTION       Language, that makes us the Crown of Creatures, empowers us with an expressive medium which we exploit to communicate, understand, interpret, negate, acknowledge, appreciate, influence, persuade, dominate, control, etc. Metaphorically speaking, language helps us to caress and comfort our feelings, excite and thrill our spirit, rattle our nerves, kill our desire, and so on. Language is a variegated phenomenon. It can emotionally move and affect us as powerfully as physical actions. This is the power of language. 1.1 What is Discourse?       The term discourse has been derived from French word discours meaning talk. In linguistics, discourse is a sequence of utterances. Grammarians define discourse as large pieces of speech and writing: stretches of language longer than a sentence.       Language is used to mean something and to do something, and this meaning and doing is determined by the context of its usage. As discourse is dialogic in nature, the things which make it different from ordinary language use are context, creation, reception and interpretation. It should not be confused with either of the Chomskys or Saussures categories. It is neither performance or parole which is concerned with language in its actual utterances, nor competence or languewhere language is a code system and a system of communicative conventions. Although it contains both the elements, it goes beyond the distinction of performance or parole and competence or langue; it is the study of language use. If language is speech act and social behavior, discourse is a form of social practice. Foucault defines discourse as ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them. Discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the nature of the body, unconscious and conscious mind and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern. (Weedon, 1987) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ a form of power that circulates in the social field and can attach to strategies of domination as well as those of resistance. (Diamond Quinby, 1988)       In other words, discourse is a string of utterances concerned with the production of meaning. Discourse is a socially organized way of speaking. According to Foucault, discourse constructs the topic. It governs what can and cannot be said about the topic.       Apart from governing the topic, it is also used to influence people to change ideas into practice (be it personal or others ideas), and to regulate the conduct of others. As discourse is concerned with the production of meaning, the utterances have a relation to common sense assumptions. Cultural hegemony is maintained through common sense assumptions which become universal ideologies through language or in other words discourse. Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides. (Rita Mae Brown, Starting from Scratch, 1998) 1.2 What is Ideology?       Ideologies are those ideas, values, attitudes, and (general or cultural) ways of thinking that shape our belief systems and mind sets about what is /isnt correct, and how it must be. Ideologies, be they religious or political or social, maintain power structures and social hierarchies and remain dominant and prevalent in the society through rhetorical discourse or hidden power in discourse.       The main purpose of ideology is not only to change the existing structures, but also to maintain already existing set of ideals. Ideas, beliefs, and attitudes which maintain status quo become dominant or prevalent ideologies of the society. These ideologies are so powerful that they ignore and sideline those ideas which are against its very existence through a normative thought process and politics of the language.    Ideologies when become shared experiences start making sense. People start making sense of their lives while observing them. In other words, they are no more false beliefs and ideas, rather a true and lived experience. THEORIES ON DISCOURSE IDEOLOGY       The social theory has contributed in many ways to explore the role of language in exercising, maintaining and changing power. Firstly, the work in the theory of ideology talks about ideology as a mechanism of power without using coercive means and language as a locus of ideology which is significant in exercising power. Secondly, Michel Foucaults work ascribes central role to discourse in the development of power structures of forms. Thirdly, Jurgen Habermas theory of communicative action which challenges Marxist focus on economics or alienated labor- is considered as the sole determining factor of oppression. He argues that key to liberation is rather to be found in language and communication between people. 2.1 Marx and Ideology       Karl Max, a social thinker of 19th century, talked of ideology in terms of an instrument of social production. He gave economic base and superstructure model of society, where base denotes the relation of production and superstructure denotes the dominant ideology. Base shapes the superstructure of any society, while the superstructure maintains and legitimates the base.       According to Marx, bourgeoisie create and reinforce particular ways of thinking, in other words, particular ideology which in turn reinforce the structure of the society, thus maintaining status quo and existing hierarchies of status and power. Fig. 1: Marxs Base Superstructure Model of Society       According to Karl Marx, social ideologies not only cause status quo or hegemony in the society, but also a conditioning where false consciousness created by the ruling class is justified. This conditioning makes us think that the way our society operates is for the best, and lower class justifies its own lower position in society.  Michel Foucault in The Order of Discourse       In The Order of Discourse, Foucault argues that the discourse is controlled by certain functions, actions and rules. In particular, certain topics are prohibited and who speaks is limited. Reason is valued and madness is ignored. It is also controlled by what we choose to comment on and by the will to truth. [T]he highest truth no longer resided in what discourse was or did, but in what is said: a day came when truth was displaced by from the ritualized, efficacious, and just act of enunciation, towards the utterance itself, its meaning, its form, its object, its relation to its reference. (1462) In every society, the production of discourse is at once controlled, selected, organized and redistributed by a certain number of procedures whose role is to ward off its powers and dangers, to gain mastery over its chance events, to evade its ponderous, formidable materiality (p.210).       Foucault also talks about procedures of exclusion and procedures of inclusion. He states that prohibition of including or discussing certain topics very soon reveal [discourses] link with desire and with power (p.211).       At another place he says that discourse is not simply that which translates struggles or systems of domination, but is the thing for which and by which there is struggle; discourse is the power which is to be seized (p.211).       In Weedons (1987) in interpretation of Foucault is: A dynamic of control between discourses and the subjects, constituted by discourses, who are their agents. Power is exercised within discourses in the ways in which they constitute and govern individual subjects.       Foucaults focus is upon questions of how some discourses have shaped and created meaning systems that have gained the status and currency of truth, and dominate how we define and organize both ourselves and our social world, whilst other alternative discourses are marginalised and subjugated, yet potentially offer sites where hegemonic practices can be contested, challenged and resisted.       Foucault developed the concept of the discursive field as part of his attempt to understand the relationship between language, social institutions, subjectivity and power. Discursive fields, such as the law or the family, contain a number of competing and contradictory discourses with varying degrees of power to give meaning to and organize social institutions and processes. They also offer a range of modes of subjectivity (Weedon, 1987). It follows then that, if relations of power are dispersed and fragmented throughout the social field, so must resistance to power be (Diamond Quinby, 1988).       Foucault argues though, in The Order of Discourse, that the will to truth is the major system of exclusion that forges discourse and which tends to exert a sort of pressure and something like a power of constraint on other discourses, and goes on further to ask the question what is at stake in the will to truth, in the will to utter this true discourse, if not desire and power? (1970, cited in Shapiro 1984, p. 113-4).       Thus, there are both discourses that constrain the production of knowledge, dissent and difference and some that enable new knowledges and difference(s). The questions that arise within this framework, are to do with how some discourses maintain their authority, how some voices get heard whilst others are silenced, who benefits and how that is, questions addressing issues of power/ empowerment/ disempowerment.  2.3 Louis Althussers view of Ideology       Louis Althusser builds on the work of Jacques Lacan to understand the way ideology functions in society. He thus moves away from the earlier Marxist understanding of ideology. In the earlier model, ideology was believed to create what was termed false consciousness, a false understanding of the way the world functioned (for example, the suppression of the fact that the products we purchase on the open market are, in fact, the result of the exploitation of laborers). Althusser revised Marxs view of ideology, which he described as: thought as an imaginary construction whose status is exactly like the theoretical status of the dream among writers before Freud.      He saw human individuals being constituted as subjects through ideology. Consciousness and agency are experienced, but are the products of ideology speaking through the subject. Above all, ideology is an imaginary construction that represents the real world. However, it is so real to us that we never question it.       Althusser posits a series of hypotheses that he explores to clarify his understanding of ideology: Ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence (Lenin 109).       The traditional way of thinking of ideology led Marxists to show how ideologies are false by pointing to the real world hidden by ideology (for example, the real economic base for ideology). According to Althusser, by contrast, ideology does not reflect the real world but represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to the real world; the thing ideology (mis)represents is itself already at one remove from the real. In this, Althusser follows the Lacanian understanding of the imaginary order, which is itself at one step removed from the Lacanian Real. In other words, we are always within ideology because of our reliance on language to establish our reality; different ideologies are but different representations of our social and imaginary reality not a representation of the Real itself.  Ideology has a material existence (Lenin 112).       Althusser contends that ideology has a material existence because an ideology always exists in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices (Lenin 112). Ideology always manifests itself through actions, which are inserted into practices (Lenin 114), for example, rituals, conventional behavior, and so on. It is our performance of our relation to others and to social institutions that continually instantiates us as subjects. Judith Butlers understanding of performativity could be said to be strongly influenced by this way of thinking about ideology.  all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects (Lenin 115).       According to Althusser, the main purpose of ideology is in constituting concrete individuals as subjects (Lenin 116). So pervasive is ideology in its constitution of subjects that it forms our very reality and thus appears to us as true or obvious. Althusser gives the example of the hello on a street: the rituals of ideological recognition [] guarantee for us that we are indeed concrete, individual, distinguishable and (naturally) irreplaceable subjects (Lenin 117). Through interpellation, individuals are turned into subjects (which are always ideological).       Althussers example is the hail from a police officer: Hey, you there!' (Lenin 118): Assuming that the theoretical scene I have imagined takes place in the street, the hailed individual will turn round. By this mere one-hundred-and-eighty-degree physical conversion, he becomes a subject (Lenin 118). The very fact that we do not recognize this interaction as ideological speaks to the power of ideology: what thus seems to take place outside ideology (to be precise, in the street), in reality takes place in ideology [.] That is why those who are in ideology believe themselves by definition outside ideology: one of the effects of ideology is the practical denegation of the ideological character of ideology by ideology: ideology never says, I am ideological. (Lenin 118) individuals are always-already subjects (Lenin 119).       Although he presents his example of interpellation in a temporal form (I am interpellated and thus I become a subject, I enter ideology), Althusser makes it clear that the becoming-subject happens even before we are born. This proposition might seem paradoxical (Lenin 119), Althusser admits; nevertheless, That an individual is always-already a subject, even before he is born, is [] the plain reality, accessible to everyone and not a paradox at all (Lenin 119). Even before the child is born, it is certain in advance that it will bear its Fathers Name, and will therefore have an identity and be irreplaceable. Before its birth, the child is therefore always-already a subject, appointed as a subject in and by the specific familial ideological configuration in which it is expected once it has been conceived (Lenin119). Althusser thus once again invokes Lacans ideas, in this case Lacans understanding of the Name-of-the-Father.       Most subjects accept their ideological self-constitution as reality or nature and thus rarely run afoul of the repressive State apparatus, which is designed to punish anyone who rejects the dominant ideology. Hegemony is thus reliant less on such repressive State apparatuses as the police than it is on those Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) by which ideology is inculcated in all subjects. (See the next module for an explanation of ISAs.) As Althusser puts it, the individual is interpellated as a (free) subject in order that he shall submit freely to the commandments of the Subject, i.e. in order that he shall (freely) accept his subjection, i.e. in order that he shall make the gestures and actions of his subjection all by himself' (Lenin 123). Louis Althussers ISA      Althusser proposed a materialistic conception of ideology, which made use of a special type of discourse: the lacunar discourse. A number of propositions, which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are true. In this way, the essence of the lacunar discourse is what is not told (but is suggested).      For Althusser, beliefs and ideas are the products of social practices, not the reverse. What is ultimately important for Althusser are not the subjective beliefs held in the minds of human individuals, but rather the material institutions, rituals and discourses that produce these beliefs.      Althusser identified the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) as the method by which organizations propagate ideology primarily. Violence or threat of violence is secondary. ISAs for Althusser were religious, educational, family, cultural institutions. This is in contrast to the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA), by which compliance can be forced and includes the army, police, government, prisons. Force or threat of force is primary, while ideology is secondary. For example, arrest imprisonment, corporal punishment, etc. 2.4 Discourse as Social Practice       Social relations of power and domination are sustained through ideology. To Fairclough, ideologies construct realities which give meaning to discursive practices. Through power relations implicit in orders of discourse, discourse becomes invested ideologically. Hence the discursive practices, loaded with ideologies not only produce, but also reproduce or transform social identities, social relations and systems of knowledge and belief.  2.4.1 Fairclough and Ideology:       There are two ways of exercising power: through coercion and through consent. According to Fairclough, Ideology is the key mechanism of rule by consent, and discourse is a favored vehicle of ideology. It functions to establish, sustain or change domination or power relations in the society. For Fairclough, ideologies are constructions of reality which are built into various dimensions of the forms and meanings of discursive practices. Through power relations implicit in orders of discourse, discourse becomes invested ideologically. Through being ideologically invested, discourse is a mode of producing, reproducing or transforming social identities, social relations, and systems of knowledge and belief.       Fairclough (1992) makes three claims about ideology, based in part on the French Marxist philosopher, Althusser: Ideology has a material basis in the social practices of institutions. As a form of social practice, discourse practices are material forms of ideology. Ideology interpellates subjects. It works by constituting people as subjects within the framework of ideology. Patriarchal ideology interpellates individuals as more powerful men or less powerful women. Racist ideology interpellates groups as ourselves and the Other (see Hall 1997 The Spectacle of the Other). Ideology operates through powerful ideological state apparatuses. Althusser contrasts what he terms the repressive agencies of the police, the military, prisons and the courts, with the ideological state apparatuses of the mass media, education and popular culture. In Faircloughs theory, all of these give rise to institutional and societal orders of discourse (the societal order of discourse is a condensation of the institutional orders of discourse). 2.4.2 Fairclough and Discourse       Discourse involves two kinds of social conditions: social conditions of production and social conditions of interpretation. These social conditions are naturalized through the ideological functioning of the practices of dominant class. Fairclough describes underlying conventions of discourse which in fact determines discourse in terms of what Foucault refers to as orders of discourse. To Fairclough, these orders of discourse embody particular ideologies.       Fairclough refers to the three dimensions of discourse. They are discursive practice (discourse practice), social practice (socio-cultural practice), and text. Social practice includes discourse which not only reflects reality, but also effect social structures which play active role in social change. Different subject positions determine different discoursal rights and obligations of individuals. Discourse practice refers to the production and reception of messages. Participants indulged in discourse construct their social identities and relations by knowing how to act in certain situations. For this participants draw on what Fairclough refers to as members resources (MR). This include internalized knowledge of social structure and social practices; knowledge about production and interpretation of discourse types; and detailed knowledge of particular linguistics and textual structuring devices. Text is the record of a communicative event. It can be written, spoken or visual. While analyzing text in terms of ideologies embedded in it, two things are very important: firstly, representation of ideological facts and beliefs and construction of participant identities (writer and reader), and secondly, textual function which frames the message. 3.How Ideologies are Embedded in Language       Language produces, maintains and changes social relations of power. It also contributes to the domination of some people by others. Power is exercised through language in conversations and other forms of text or talk. When people interact linguistically, the conventional talk embodies common sense assumptions where power structures are treated as legitimized. According to Fairclough, these assumptions are ideologies which are closely linked to power and language. Power relations determine the conventional ideological assumptions, which in turn legitimize existing social relations and unequal power. Language, a social behavior, relies on common sense assumptions. The exercise of power in modern society is increasingly achieved through ideology, and more particularly through the ideological working of the language. (Fairclough, 1989) Further he says, Ideology is the prime means of manufacturing consent. 3.1 Memory Resources       Ideological assumptions are mere common sense assumptions, and contribute to sustain existing power relations. To Fairclough, these common sense assumptions are memory resources (MR). when sender encodes a message, the receiver not only decodes it, but also interpret it by comparing and contrasting features of utterances with representations stored in long term memory. Fairclough refers to these prototypes as member resources: grammatical forms, structures, shapes of words, sequence of events, systems of meaning, sounds, etc. Interaction between interpreted utterance and MR results in comprehension. According to Fairclough, understanding how language, power, and ideology are interrelated requires attention to the processes of production and comprehension because MR/ representations/ prototypes are socially determined and ideologically shaped. They are so automatic, natural, legitimate and common sense assumptions that they remain in disguise. The sociologist Harold Garfinkel, describes the familiar common sense world of everyday life as a world which is built entirely upon assumptions and expectations which control both the action of members of society and their interpretation of the action of others. Such assumptions and expectations are implicit, back grounded, taken for granted, not things that people are consciously aware of and rarely explicit. Effectiveness of ideology depends to a considerable degree on it being merged with this common sense background to discourse and other forms of social action. 3.2 Language Ideologies in Text       Language ideologies are not just ways of explaining language and language use for economic reasons, but are the language ideas of the dominant groups in society. They may equally be inter-changed with discourses about language. Ideologies are not untrue indeed, like stereotypes, there may be a degree of truth in them.       Ideology is to study its effects on discourse forms and meanings and how discursive structures may in turn contribute to the formation and transformation of ideologies. However, ideologies are also at play when language users engage in the ongoing construction of context as subjective, as well as group sensitive, interpretations of social situations.       While talking about ideologies embedded in text, we can say that this genre of discourse is a level of language use which is super-ordinate to sentences and texts. Text is not something having a beginning and an end. It involves exchange of meanings. Text are created by speakers and writers who share societys beliefs concerning what is right and what is wrong or about the way things should be for the best in society. When they want to maintain their belief systems or ideologies, they take the help of language. These ideologies remain implicit in the text as they seem natural or common sense. The ideologically loaded language of the text grants it the ideological power. Such langue has judgmental value and meaning as well. Many ideologically loaded words have their judgemental value because their meaning is rational. They exist as binary pairs: master/mistress, housewife/working mother, middle class/working class, freedom fighter/terrorist, hero/coward, etc. So me linguists maintain that all language all meaning is an ideological construct.       Following are few texts which are all related to social problems for one and social beliefs for the other. In other words, they contain social ideologies which are neutralized in the society. CONCLUSION    Long-range social changes are driven by changes in ideology. But at a local level, change in actual discourse practices can be cumulative in effect. Both discourse and ideology are based on the relationship between power and knowledge. We tend to think of knowledge as empowering ourselves (Sarup, 1993).       Besides this, knowledge is the ability to exercise power over others. So, power is both positive (productive in creating identities), and negative (destroy identities). In productive power, one is not reduced to one dimension as in ideologies and power is not held by one person or group for good. Rather, it exists as a circuit, something which is exercised by everyone in different situations. As where there is power there is always resistance, power can be challenged.       We might not say certain things in certain situations, but by breaking the rules, we can re-define the limits of discourse. Hence, redefining the limits of discourse is something productive about power.
Friday, October 25, 2019
Working Women, the Government, and Politics Essay -- Political Science
Working Women, the Government, and Politics Working women in America are in a difficult and complex state. Women in the workforce are encouraged to compete "like men," which conflicts with the demand for their time during "the second shift". Complete dedication is expected both in the workplace and in the home, and little support is provided by the opposite sex and the government. If the government acquired a larger responsibility for working families, it could implement several policies that have already proven to alleviate the burden on working women and promote gender equality in other industrialized nations. In recent decades, there has been a visible influx of women in the workforce-many of whom are also mothers. In 1975, forty-seven percent of all American mothers with children under the age eighteen worked for pay, and by the year 2000, this number climbed to seventy-three percent. However, the largest jump in employment occurred in women with very small children; in 1975 thirty-four percent of mothers with children age three and under were employed outside the home, and in 2000, this rate grew to sixty-one percent (Hochschild, XXIV). This growth in numbers can be explained by several factors, but the most substantial is that, in most families, a wife's salary is no longer an option. Even though women may be sharing the financial burden with their spouses, men have not taken the same steps to share the domestic burden with their partners. This is what accounts for a women's "second shift." Women are expected to fulfill the demands of work and home on their own time. The household chores take a toll on working women with or without children. The hours married women spend performing domestic tasks, hours most men ... ... such policies, women cannot pursue their right to earn a living in the same way a man could. Earning a living is not a "benefit," equal opportunity for employment is not a "benefit"- but a "right." In our capitalist culture, "the one right of paramount importance to all human beings" is the right to earn a living, and in accordance with the law, any obstruction to a fundamental right must be remedied by the government (Woolf, 101). Works Cited Blair-Loy, Mary. Competing Devotions: Career and Family among Women Executives. (Massachusetts: Harvard UP) 2003. Gornick, Janet C. and Marcia K. Meyers. Families That Work: Policies for Reconciling Parenthood and Employment. (New York: Russell Sage Foundation) 2003. Hochschild Russell, Arlie. The Second Shift. (New York: Penguin Group) 2003. Woolf, Virginia. Three Guineas. (New York: Harcourt, Inc.) 1938.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Organizational Behavior-Syllabus Essay
I. Course Information Intelligence and technical knowledge will only take you so far in your work and private lives. My goal is to introduce you to behavior in organization (and of organizations) in a way that stresses you personal behavioral skill development. In other words, the course should help you assess your strengths and weaknesses and will stress how you can enhance and improve your management skills. To that end, the course stresses a mix of assessment tests for each chapter to give you a personal point of departure for learning and skill development, along with basic theory and cases and role plays to examine examples of situations and skills that we are studying. This is a hands-on course. I expect students to come to class prepared to learn and to participate! Course Objectives: 1) To provide students with knowledge and understanding of the basic principles of organizational behavior (i.e. human behavior in organizations). 2) The course includes both theoretical and practical aspects of OB and is designed to offer introductory knowledge, skills, and perspectives in OB that can be useful for students’ professional and academic careers. II. Course Learning Outcomes: On completion of this course, students should be able to: 1ï ¼Å½ Understand the basic principles of organizational behavior (i.e. human behavior in organizations). 2ï ¼Å½ Be equipped with introductory knowledge, skills, and perspectives in OB that can be useful for students’ professional and academic careers. Teaching and Learning Activities: 1. Lecture 2. In class exercises, small group discussion 3. Team Presentations 4. Final Exam III. Assessment In addition to attendance and engagement in classroom discussion, all items discussed in class including all materials assigned as ‘Required’ reading may be used to assess students’ progress in the class. The methods of assessment include the following: Personal Journal A skills-based OB course centers upon assisting you to assess your strengths and weaknesses, developing a learning plan to redress these and regular reflection about how you can apply the skills and concepts learned outside the classroom. Keeping a journal is the best way to facilitate this. To ensure you get off to a timely start, I shall ask for some specific assignments that constitute part of the journal to be handed in for credit. Examples include the self- assessment of strengths and weaknesses based upon the online assessment (class 2), and other individual exercises in the textbook. You can fulfill the first assignment online at http://www.passovoy.com/assessment/sal/quick.html. You are required to complete a minimum of 8 assessments. In some cases, you will be surprised by what you learn about yourself – both positive and negative. Each student is required to write a maximum two-page single-spaced typed write-up regarding what you learned about yourself. Final Exam A written in-class exam will be given on May 14, 2012. The format of the exam is a combination of multiple-choice and/true-false questions, and are based on lecture and text materials. Many questions are applied and require you to analyze and synthesize OB concepts. Please prepare early for the exams and come to class with any questions or concerns you may have prior to the exam date. Do not feel uncomfortable asking questions. Other students will also benefit from the discussion. Top Five Take-Aways This assignment provides a final opportunity for you to synthesize and share your learning with the class. Reflect on your learning in this class and write up a list of your â€Å"Top Five Take-Aways†from the course. Explain why you chose each concept, how you have utilized it in your own life, and how you think it will help you in your future role as a leader. There is no set length of the paper. That depends on your learning. You are required to turn in a hard copy. Single-spacing, please. Obviously you will not be graded on whether your choice of a learning point is valid or not. Your learning is your learning. Your grade will be based on how well you explain that concept’s application to your life. Your presentation in class will be fairly informal. Each member of the class will have about a minute or so to share a point or two about your most important learning from the course. It is simply an opportunity to reflect on your learning with your peers. Sometimes hear ing what is important to other people can also contribute to your own learning. Group Project Learning to work effectively in groups is a critical work skill. On day one, you will be asked to form groups (final membership to be handed into me by the third meeting. With your group, you will have two assignments. The first is to develop a team learning notebook, recording team responses to case discussion questions throughout the semester. The team learning notebook will be collected during the mid-point of the course (6th week), as well as the end of the course (12th week) . The second assignment is to conduct a 20 minutes presentation on a topic of your choice related to the topic on the day selected by your group. Further information will be given in class and sign up is on a first-come first –serve basis. If any group member expresses displeasure with group process and contributions of others shall used a peer evaluation form. Each individual’s contribution will be identified on the peer evaluation form I will provide and that will be confidential (i.e., your group members will not see your evaluation of their participation). All group members should participate equally to obtain full credit for the assignment. For example, if the assignment receives a grade of 8.5 out of 10 and your group gives you 100% participation rate, then you will receive the total 8.5 points. If your group gives you less than 100% participation, your grade will be adjusted accordingly. Evaluation of your peers should help you maintain an appropriate level of participation from all of your group members. IV.Course Policies Academic Dishonesty: Assignments found to have been plagiarized or an exam in which cheating is found to have occurred will receive a grade of ‘zero’.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Helen Dunmore tells the story of the Siege of Leningrad by showing the trials and tribulations of one family Essay
I think that Helen Dunmore has been successful in the telling the story through the Levin family. She clearly depicts the trials and tribulations, yet Dunmore could’ve done justice by letting the audience know more about the major events of the progress of the Siege. The Germans surround the city cutting off the food supply and escape routes. Over six thousand people were killed in Leningrad during the winter, mainly from starvation. Throughout the novel, Anna and her family have been very well off. They all live together in safety, none of them are in prison or forced to be in the world war and have the skills needed for survival. We are told that they had an apartment which was very large and â€Å"desired by many†and that people would kill to live in such a large place. They own a burzhuika, have wood and food and are have money and their possessions. Anna, the central character of the novel is a believable mixture of vulnerability and strength already having a very busy lifestyle. Dunmore portrays Anna’s selfless maternal qualities towards Kolya and her father. We learn that instead of chasing her ambitions of art in college that she feels responsibility towards her 5 year old brother, her job at the nursery and other commitments which show that she is very hard working. She sustains her family financially and physically. Due to food shortages, Anna returns to the Dacha, to collect food for the future. This shows that she is realistic about the tough future. When Anna is at the dacha, she manages to cull out a good quantity of potatoes and put them into her bag. We can tell from her behaviour that she is a hard working character. On her way back from the dacha, Anna is stopped and questioned by the militia. She bribes the militia-man by offering him some of her potatoes and onions. Also Anna goes out daily during the Siege to provide for the family. She spends hours, weak from hunger, queuing for bread, negotiating with store owners and digging out scraps of wood to light a fire to make sure her family don’t freeze to death which is very common on the streets of Leningrad. She also has to fight for what she has and be resilient and not trust anyone. When she refuses to lend her chisel to a woman, she is nearly attacked as they falsely accuse Anna of stealing their wood. On her way back she is questioned lies about what is in her bag, this puts her at the mercy of the robber as he is well fed and Anna dares not to try and attack him. He takes the wood from her knowing that it is precious. She wildly chases any rumours of any sausage deliveries and travels far and wide to provide food for the family. We learn of all the people who wait in these queues, their morale, health and their desperation. Anna goes to the black market to try and buy a burzhuika to keep everybody warm. We learn of how everyone is feeling the cold and are suffering from chest infections and pneumonia. Also how everyone is starting to lose energy and stay indoors to conserve heat as each day you get colder and hungrier. Mikhail, Anna’s father tries to help out and volunteers to fight in the People’s Volunteers. Through his character we meet the old lady on the farm who is not able to move and be evacuated like her family and has only the animals and farm jobs to keep her busy. We see how the siege has destroyed her and she is just waiting for the Germans to take over. Also, after Mikhail gets injured, we see Andrei with him and taking him to the hospital as well as the other wounded volunteers in the truck and some who die on the journey. Mikhail is a testament to the way Stalinism was crushing people. He is unable to accept the changing times, the rejection of what were in his eyes, good stories. He is under the iron fist of the Soviet state and is breaking down. After he returns from the hospital he has changed so much physically and mentally that even his own children couldn’t even recognise him. He has been affected greatly by the horrors of the war he has fought in and by Vera’s death. Even though there are certain characters such as Andrei and Marina who are not actualAndrei is a very patriotic Siberian and is a very committed doctor who is scarred from the experiences at the Luga Line. He seems generous and kind-hearted towards his patients feels he is unequipped to help some of them on the front line. He is a doctor who works with method and will only speak about things which he has personally experienced. Andrei and Anna are drawn together through their similar experiences. Both have been on the Luga Line and have shared similar traumas of seeing death. Both on their return are slightly scarred by this and it has changed their characters slightly. Andrei is able to comfort Anna as he is more used to seeing death as he is a doctor urging her to not â€Å"think about it.†They therefore share a unique understanding of each other. They are also brought together by their physical/sexual desire. He informs the family of the current situation at the hospital, that the numbers of casualties are rising and more and more are dying each day. The Germans bombed the warehouses which contained a lot of the food which the Leningraders needed for the winter. Food became scarce and by comparing a â€Å"bag of flour†to â€Å"days of life†shows how the extent to which the family have bare the pain of â€Å"shelling and bombing†The value of food has gone so high, people wish each other good luck as food has become so scarce people will do anything for it. Kolya is Anna’s 5 year old baby brother. She takes care of him as she is much older and as it is her responsibility to look after him after her mother’s death. Kolya is very lazy and stubborn which irritates Anna, â€Å"She had made him lazy†The cause of his laziness is that Anna will do it all for him. He is so caught up in his own games; he has no interest in helping Anna such as the time when she was showing him how to plant crops and has a very short attention span. He is a representation of the life of a child in a war situation. He is innocent in the fact that he doesn’t know the consequences of war as he plays with his toy soldiers. Anna feels responsible to what happens to him during the siege, he becomes skinny, he is constantly cold and hungry, has no energy and lacks motivation and enthusiasm to do anything anymore. He is quite a dependant and selfish character. He relies on everything from Anna and forces her to buy the burzhuika and for him to get extra bread from everyone else’s ration. When Marina asks to live permanently with the family at the start of the siege, Anna inwardly rejects another demand on her as she does not want another person to look after and also the fact that she hardly likes Marina. This shows how she in a sense is a bit like her mother due to her conscious hatred to Marina. Marina brings food and money which is very useful in the siege and uses Anna’s need to befriend the family and get close to her. She looks after Kolya and Mikhail while Anna is out getting food for the family. We learn of her love towards Mikhail, motivating him to get up and walk around and by staying with him just after he has died. Also she shows her love to Kolya by helping make the fort and keeping him busy by playing with him. She helped Anna in preparing the food and making decisions. She too has been affected by starvation, we are told that her ring can no longer fit her, that her fingers are so thin and bony. She gives the family some hope and motivation. Also the deaths of the two lovers, Mikhail and Marina once again show the story of the Siege through the family. We see their suffering, to provide for their family and we see that for some close family members of the citizens that death gave way to victory. This shows the losses that all had to face, losing loved ones and not being able to bury them as the ground is too hard and no one has the energy to do so. Overall, I believe that showing the trials and tribulations of Anna and her family have given us a good idea of how the siege was affecting the citizens and that Dunmore has been successful. We see through all the characters the hardships faced, whether it was the young children or the old women and that the Siege affected all and that wealth did not matter. The novel ends on an optimistic note, with the remaining members of the family walking outside in the summer’s which shows new life and some hope.
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