Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee Essay Example for Free

Age of Iron by J.M. Coetzee Essay The extract from the prose Age of Iron written by J.M. Coetzee is about the depiction of different generations conflicting with one another. This extract is set up as an old wise woman a one-way conversation during the 1990s. This extract illustrates the young boy being forced in listening to the old wise womans opinion about the cons of the apartheid, more specifically being the war. Throughout the prose, the young boy refuses to listen to the voice of authority and shows the old wise woman that with stubbornness and self-determination, young children do not accept what they are told from authority. With the portrayal of the two generations conflicting, the extract suggests that the immense amount of influence of authority can play a major role on younger generations leading them to choose the wrong path. This prose is shown as a one-way conversation and is during the time period of the 1990s which is also known as the South African Apartheid. With the Apartheid regime, the tone of the extract is in a depressed mood because of their struggle to freedom. The old wise womans opinions are demonstrated through her stream of consciousness and moves from quick dialogue with the young boy to descriptions showing the vivid imagery of the war. The depressed plot of this extract shows the social activism of the younger generation and the minorities in South Africa fighting for their own rights. The old womans advice is however being ignored from the young boy who refuses; due to his stubbornness and goes onto the wrong path putting himself into great danger. The setting of this prose most likely takes place in the old womans house because of the depiction that the old woman do[esnt] have bandages in the house. This shows that the young boy illustrates the dramatic beginning by making splashing noises indicating that it was rainy day outside and he needed to go inside somewhere dry. Since the young boy went inside the old womans house without knocking, this shows that there is a family connection between the old woman and the boy however not a strong connection because of the one-way dialogue throughout the prose. However, they do have family connection where the boy visits often because she notices the bandage [is] off and with surprise [she] noticed that the stitches were still in. This line depicts that she cares for the boy and that there is a family connection between the two characters because of the connection of the boy being able to go into her house and the fact that he has visited before with a bandage on. The prose then continues into short dialogue, demonstrating that the narrator is represented as a motherly figure because of the tone of caring in the dialogue such as when did you leave the hospital and you must keep that cut covered, otherwise it will get infected The protagonist in this prose is represented as a mother figure because of the consecutive questions she asks the boy about his cut and exaggerates that it will leave a memento on his forehead for the rest of his life. The protagonist is shown as a hen that loses its chicks because in the prose, the young boy that steps into the protagonists house isnt blood-related to the old woman however, this line depicts that the old woman will still treat him as her own son because of the theme nature vs. nurture. The old woman also recommends to the young boy to go [see] a doctor soon, or a clinic to have the stitches taken out. This quotation also initiates the spark of the young boy choosing the wrong path in life, leading him into great danger because he cleverly moves away from the topic by saying that he must rest [his] arm and his head is not sore. By saying this to the old woman, she immediately thinks that he is running away from someone and by being silent, she starts to show her caring and loving for the boy by telling him advice. Since she asked the young boy with care and love if he was running away from someone, and with no reply, the old woman got worried and starts to explain to the young boy again that he is too young for this kind of thing. The old woman starts to tell explain to the young boy that it is not a good thing to die and that even though he is fighting for his own rights during the war, he should be careful because [they are] throwing away [their] lives before [they] know what life can [really] be. It is also indicated in the prose, that she is an old person because she says so herself when she is explaining to the young boy. She also talks about Bheki, her son who died at a young age because he fought in the war however when she explained to the young boy that war isnt a good thing to participate; he didnt understand because he asked after she had explained about the cons of war. The vivid imagery is brought out into that particular paragraph because she illustrates the war as an age of chivalry where men [hack] other men to death. However her strong opinion against the war didnt work on the young boy because he wasnt influenced at all because his desires were very strong about war. In the prose, the young boy has rebelled against the voice of authority (old woman_ by not paying attention to her when she was talking as she explained through dialogue and imagery that war isnt something to be proud about. However, the young boys desire grew and he became more passionate about the war showing that all of the immense influencing she did was a waste of time. Consequently, she gets furious when he asks where is Bheki. This shows that the young boy wasnt paying attention to the old woman and shows that he is also immature. This specific quotation indicates that the young boy isnt mature because he didnt understand her hint when she said that I told Bheki so [Ill] tell you again. This being the turning point of the prose, the old woman changes her voice of tone from soft and sweet into more of a demanding voice by telling him to sit down. As he follows her orders, she starts to explain that Bheki is actually in a box in a hole with earth heaped on top of him. She says this with great pain and as she quickly brushes that off her shoulders, she then changes her way of explaining to the boy into a more childish way. She starts to use basic terms for the young boy to understand as her diction goes from complex to simple. Her voice changes immediately and the old woman start to explain to the boy as if he was a little child who was learning to ride a bike. As the conclusion starts to approach, her mood also becomes more furious because she knows that compassions is the most important thing and pushes that war is a struggle and pain. With her great influence upon the young boy, he threw off [the] talk and chooses the path of war as a sign of discipline. In the prose Age of Iron the influence of authority is shown throughout the prose. With the old woman trying to lure the young boy out from war is not successful as all the young boys listen to discipline and nothing else. However with him refusing the talk which had weighed down the generation of his grandparents and his generation of his parents; he decided to choose the wrong path leading him into a great deal of danger. Even though, the old wise woman knew what she was talking about and had heard about past experiences through memory and sense-perception, her influence upon the boy was very significant however with the two generations conflicting, the immense amount of influence of the old wise woman wasnt successful which lead the young boy in choosing the wrong path.

Less Civil Liberties in Exchange for Stable Government :: Politics Government

Over the past eight years, the economy of the United States has taken a huge downfall. The unemployment rates are through the roof, the percentage of people in debt has dramatically increased, and the number of foreclosed homes is ridiculous. What if there was a way that we could stop this madness that the government agreed with? The only cost would be to give up your civil liberties. The unemployment rates are the highest anyone has ever seen. Companies can no longer afford to have so many employees, so they have to fire their employees. Some businesses are even going bankrupt. Bankruptcy has led to an even greater number of people being unemployed. Other businesses like Ford, Chrysler, and GM have been given a bailout plan so that they can produce cars that no one can afford. They have still lost a significant amount of employees, but their businesses are still running. These unemployment rates have been one of the main sources of our current struggling economy. Due to the fact that unemployment rates are so high, many people can no longer pay their bills. This leads to people taking loans from banks. The interest on these loans causes you to pay back more than you borrowed. This causes people to fall deeper into debt. Another source of debt is credit cards. Many people use credit cards because they don’t have the money to make their purchase when they want to.Credit cards also collect interest and the television that cost two hundred dollars at Best Buy has now cost you almost four hundred dollars. Eventually people can not pay back their loans or credit card debt which leads to more problems in our struggling economy. Some people have even refinanced their homes so that their mortage would be less. In the long run it has cost them even more money. When you can no longer pay for your home, the government can forclose your home. When your home is forclosed, the government can auction your house off and you no longer have a place to live. Now, you have a unemployeed debtor living on the streets. There must be some way to prevent this from happening. Wait, there is.

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Summary McDonald’s announced last week that calories of all its food will start showing on in-store menu boards. The question is why McDonald’s did this so fast. (DM) Even it is part of President Obama’s health-care law in next two years. (EMP) In this transparency age, Companies that are open and honest get rewarded for it, even if they are not perfect. Those that try to hide negative things will be slammed. (SRB) Nowadays, consumer wants companies which is honest and open, it means the band names are much important than the quality and price of their products.It is important that corporations show the details of their products such as where they made, how to made, what material is used. Customers view the companies being transparency and honest. Regarding to McDonald’s decision making, it show their product details can let their customers consider whether these foods are unhealthy. Customers can choose the foods base on their favorite, calories and the t aste of foods. McDonald’s demonstrate their social responsibility to people and being more popular. As some small companies easier to afford human personality, they were benefit in the court of public opinion.McDonald’s is one of the company haven’t get this concept once; they try to avoid publicity and disclosure. But they try to make public themselves nowadays. Before they implement this policy, they lack of transparency. So, they provoke a lot of online blogs and postings form anti-McDonald’s activists. They publicize McDonald’s good is a main reason why children obese. After they make public their calories, more people reduce to talk about their rumor. According to the article â€Å"McDonald's Enters the Age of Transparency† Posted by: Larry Popelka on September 18, 2012 from Bloomberg Business week.The McDonald’s announced last week that calories of all its food will start showing on in-store menu boards. in this case, it involve three management theories ; concepts. First, in view of the management environment concept, there are a changing of environment which McDonald's need to respond. Consumer wants companies which is honest and open in this transparency age. It is important that corporations show the details of their products such as where they made, how to made, what material is used. Second, is the social responsibility concept. McDonald’s increase their transparency.In order to, they clarify the rumor from public. The rumor include their products is the main reason why most of children have child abuse problem. They append the food label on the food packing. The aims of it is hope the public understand the element of the food. Finally, based on the decision making concept, the anti-McDonald's groups whose publicize its goods is a main reason why children obese is the threats of McDonald's, so they need to respond to it by analyzing options, and making determinations about specific courses of action. By following concept, these are the implications of McDonald's on management aspects.

African American Humanities - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1410 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/09/11 Category Literature Essay Type Analytical essay Level High school Topics: Africa Essay America Essay Influence Essay Did you like this example? African American Humanities Introduction American literature drew much of its influence from their culture and history. For instance, the African American literature that is, short stories, poems and novels talk much about the Africans Americans’ culture, social inequality, slavery, racism, their sufferings and frustrations. These themes were incorporated through oral forms like rap, blues, gospel music, spirituals, or sermons. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "African American Humanities" essay for you Create order There were efforts by the Western world to rid off African Americans of the brutal sufferings they faced through slavery, racism, and pogroms. The African Americans were subjected to alienation, disesteem, and rejection to ensure that they never reached to the knowledge of their identity. It is through this paradoxical status of the African Americans that the African American writers, for instance James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and among others, were in a position to forge their identity based on the travails and the torments they experienced.   W Du Bois once stated that African American literature was part of their campaign for political emancipation (Thornton, 734). Jazz music, for instance, emanated from the tunes composed during this time as they celebrated their hard labor. It was the only time they could celebrate and enjoy since they lived in difficult times of slavery. After the abolition of slavery, jazz music developed from these e arly tunes and constituted the message of difficult times they experienced during slavery. Another problem that dominated the African Americans was the racial prejudice. It is the attempt of advocating for equal rights and abolition of racial discrimination that African-American writers developed their themes around. The African American literary works like the songs and poems have powerful imagery, sublime themes and special vocabulary that is attributed to the significant contribution to the world culture. The double-consciousness of the African Americans prompted the African American writers to discover their true self through various ways. For instance, James Baldwin escaped to Europe just to discover his self that could not be realized in America due to the existing social conditions that subordinated self-determination of the African-Americans. The Negroes encountered difficulties in identifying their ethnicity and cultural orientation because they belong to two races. The rejection of the â€Å"racial uplift† during the Harlem Renaissance by the African American writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, and Claude McKay led to the celebration of the African Americans’ color and vividness through cultural essays, poetry, and drama in the African-American fiction (Thornton, 736). What are some of the ways that African American historical experience is reflected in the works of poems, short stories, and novels? The historical experience of African-American is reflected in the African American performance in poems, short stories, and novels. The performances helped the African Americans to have a clear understanding of both their past and present through reconstructing and perpetuating their experiences of a mythic past. The performances were carried out in ritualistic and historic continuum. According to Gale (11), rituals, pure celebration, educating the audience on the meaning of the stories formed part of the performance of th e story telling, and creation of the story telling stage. This was represented in the story telling performance as a black church. The juxtaposition of the acts and voices in terms of response and call in the storytelling performance is said to connect with â€Å"a continuum of African to African-American performance† (Gale 11). The African-American literature used the oral traditions, religion, theatre, and folkways to illustrate the transition of the â€Å"African sacred to secular performance† (Gale 12). This was reflected in the storytelling performance through weaving or collage of story in efforts to relay meaning and recognition. The use of specific symbolic patterns of words and actions in the story telling performance exemplifies the recording and telling the history of African Americans, and acknowledging and coping with their present worldview of duality for cultural survival. The African American literature is characterized by creation and sharing of var ious forms of art like the folklore, autobiography, and spirituals and blues. The literature exemplifies the African cultural philosophy that is rich in symbolic acts and texts, as well as its own grammatical, ordinal, and ritual structure. Gale (12) that symbol systems of Africa were evident in black performances during events like Southern burial markers and religion, Pinkster, in carnivals, indicate it in the linguistic dozens, in the religious witness, susus, and secret orders, and jubilees. The symbols in the African-American literature encoded a circular philosophy of life, correlative conception of divinity, and community creativity. The symbols also encoded conception of the empowering and ordering force of rituals. The memories of the old world were brought into the new world through the performance of pan-African poetics. Why were African American poets drawn to musical models such as jazz and blues as a source of inspiration in their writing? The African American po ets collaborated with musicians as well as composers in the creation of choral works, tone poems, opera, jazz, and other forms of songs. Te reasons behind the connection of jazz and poetry can be explained in terms of seeking connection between the values in the jazz lyrics and the definitions in the traditional poetry. A number of people rate songs in terms of its lyrics, that is, poetry. The creation of the song, â€Å"Strange Fruit† by Billy Holiday, was derived from Lewis Allen’s original poetic work. According to Hayden Carruth, who is a poet, indicates that poetry and jazz connection is a twentieth century spontaneous improvisation of personal and conventional determined style. He states that Jazz is a random, open-ended, indeterminate and improvised poem. It is also important to note that the twentieth African American poets collaborated with musical models such as jazz because Jazz is significant in the American culture through its influence in the poetic dictions. Musical models also set the mood for the poetic themes. Poetry is embedded in musical lyrics. This connection of jazz and music originated from the church services that were conducted by plantation blacks. The electric nature of Jazz talk inspired the writing of the African American poets because the jazz was â€Å"highly electric† and combined well with jargons of prostitution, gambling, dance, music, gambling, and larceny. The incorporation of jazz and blues as an inspiration for the writings by African American literary works was because these forms of music reflected the spirit of complicated experience of the Negroes, the African spirit (Benston 339). How did Amiri Baraka and Ralph Ellison use elements from jazz and blues as a base for their literary styles? Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) used elements of jazz music in the recording of a number of his poems. An example of Amiri Baraka’s poetic jazz combination was the infamous â€Å"Black Dada Nihili smus† that was described to be didactic, apocalyptic, and brutal work of the 1965. Amiri Baraka’s literary work was characterized by overwhelming rhythms, strong imagistic sense, and sophisticated hard message. Amiri Baraka indicated that the poetry was a form of music (Wallenstein 613). Ralph Ellison in his literary works incorporated Euro-American structures, the blues, the chanted sermon, the folktale and other vernacular forms. The backbone of the literary works by Ellison and Baraka was the collaboration with black music, especially, the blues to bring about the Afro-American cultural matrix. The African spirit in the blues prompted them to use jazz and blues as a basis for their literary styles (Benston, 339). How were the political changes taking place in the 1960s and 1970s reflected in the poetry of the Black Panther Party? The political changes of the 1960s and 1970s were reflected in the poetry of the Black Panther Party because the literary works were inspired by revolution concept. The poetry was tailored towards the themes of redefinition, war and rage influenced by Malcolm X. The African-American poetry of the 1960s insulted, and sought for compensation of the historical injustices that meted on them by the whites. The poems were constructed in free verse, to create a difference between the Whites and Negros. The Black Panther poetry served as an educational entertainment art in print, on stage, as well as in the community (Jennings 110). References Gale, Jackson. â€Å"The Way We do: A Preliminary Investigation of the African Roots of African-American Performance.† Black American Literature Forum, 25.1 (Spring, 1991): 11-22 Jennings, Regina. â€Å"Poetry of the Black Panther Party: Metaphors of Militancy.† Journal of Black Studies, 29.1 (Sep., 1998): 106-129. Thornton, Jerome E. â€Å"The Paradoxical Journey of the African American in African American Fiction.† New Literary History, 21.3 (Spring, 1990): 733-745. Wallenstein, Barry. â€Å"Poetry and Jazz: A Twentieth-Century Wedding.† Black American Literature Forum, 25.3 (Autumn,1991): 595-620