Free Essays on Picasso

Picasso was arguably the most influential artist of the twentieth century. He had some degree of influence in all styles of painting which were used during his time, and was known and respected by almost every art enthusiast on the face of the planet. Pablo Picasso, born Pablo Ruiz y Blasco, came into the world on the 25th of October 1881 in the southern Spanish town of Malaga. Pablo was an artist from early in his life – he was a child prodigy. He began his career as a classical painter. He painted things such as portraits and landscapes. But this style didn’t satisfy Picasso, he was a free man and wanted to express himself and ultimately leave a lasting mark on art as we know it. Picasso turned his attention to cubes. He invented Cubism – a radical art form which used harsh lines and corners to display a picture instead of the usual soft curves (see enclosed picture no. 1). Picasso won a lot of fame for his Cubist paintings, but was criticized for it also. He designed and painted the drop curtain and some giant cubist figures for a ballet in 1917. When the audience saw the huge distorted images on stage, they were angry, they thought the ballet was a joke at their expense. Cubism lived on despite this. Other artists mimicked Picasso’s Cubism, and it took hold. Picasso had only just begun his one-man art revolution. In the late 1920s, Picasso fixed himself upon an even more revolutionary art form – Surrealism. Surrealism emphasized the role of the unconscious mind in creative activity. Surrealists aimed at creating art from dream, visions, and irrational impulses. Their paintings shocked the world – particularly Picasso’s – it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. Picasso saw his newly found art form as a kind of â€Å"painted literature† or sign language. He took advantage of this fact and also the fact that he was extremely famous, to make a few political statements, statements that would go down in hist... Free Essays on Picasso Free Essays on Picasso Picasso was arguably the most influential artist of the twentieth century. He had some degree of influence in all styles of painting which were used during his time, and was known and respected by almost every art enthusiast on the face of the planet. Pablo Picasso, born Pablo Ruiz y Blasco, came into the world on the 25th of October 1881 in the southern Spanish town of Malaga. Pablo was an artist from early in his life – he was a child prodigy. He began his career as a classical painter. He painted things such as portraits and landscapes. But this style didn’t satisfy Picasso, he was a free man and wanted to express himself and ultimately leave a lasting mark on art as we know it. Picasso turned his attention to cubes. He invented Cubism – a radical art form which used harsh lines and corners to display a picture instead of the usual soft curves (see enclosed picture no. 1). Picasso won a lot of fame for his Cubist paintings, but was criticized for it also. He designed and painted the drop curtain and some giant cubist figures for a ballet in 1917. When the audience saw the huge distorted images on stage, they were angry, they thought the ballet was a joke at their expense. Cubism lived on despite this. Other artists mimicked Picasso’s Cubism, and it took hold. Picasso had only just begun his one-man art revolution. In the late 1920s, Picasso fixed himself upon an even more revolutionary art form – Surrealism. Surrealism emphasized the role of the unconscious mind in creative activity. Surrealists aimed at creating art from dream, visions, and irrational impulses. Their paintings shocked the world – particularly Picasso’s – it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. Picasso saw his newly found art form as a kind of â€Å"painted literature† or sign language. He took advantage of this fact and also the fact that he was extremely famous, to make a few political statements, statements that would go down in hist... Free Essays on Picasso Picasso Pablo Picasso was one of the most interesting artists of his times, and by far was one of the most influential people in art history. Picasso was a man of many different abilities and attributes, which he contributed to the art community in numerous ways. First, Picasso was an extraordinary man for his sheer ability and length of his career as an artist. Also, early in Picasso’s life he was deemed a prodigy with the potential to be one of the greatest ever (Richardson 28). Pablo was born October twenty-fifth, 1881, and lived to be ninety-one years of age. Pablo was born in the small town of Malaga, Spain, where he only spent a fraction of his life and much smaller amount of time painting. The fact that he was able to live such a long life is an accomplishment in it self. Life expectancy in today’s society is only seventy some years of age, and he was born in a day and age where men were not expected to live for nearly half of that. Picasso was able to contribute to the art community all the up until his death in 1973. Along with that, Picasso also lived through two world wars, an American depression, and the rise and fall of two nazi regimes, which consequently lead to one of his greatest works (Stien 30). Not only did he have to survive life in general; he had to survive the struggles and hardships of war and famine. Picasso’s ability to survive makes him a special person, without even seeing a piece of his art. In correlation with Picas so’s li! fe span, his origin is also just as extraordinary. When born in 1881, he did not take his father’s name as every normal person does. Instead of taking the name of Ruiz, his father, he chose to take his mother’s maiden name, Picasso (Martin) Pablo’s reasoning behind this was that his father’s name was too common, and for a boy of his ability he needed a more exotic name, like Picasso. He believed that to be a painter you could not have a common name, you m... Free Essays on Picasso Perhaps the most radical painting of the twentieth-century, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, hangs unobtrusively at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This large canvas, measuring 96" x 92", was to revolutionize modern painting by charting a new way of depicting reality. In 1907 its painter, Pablo Picasso, broke all of the rules that the "artistically correct" learned at the art academies: he disposed of three-dimensional perspective, abandoned harmonious proportion, used distortion, and borrowed from the art of primitive cultures. In fact, the painting was such a revolutionary statement that when the painting was first viewed by some French critics, the painter Derain even suggested to Picasso that he would one day commit suicide for the shame that he had brought on the art establishment. Originally Les Demoiselles was going to be an allegory of venereal disease, entitled "The Wages of Sin." In the study for the painting, Picasso sketched a sailor carousing in a brothel amongst prostitutes and a young medical student holding a skull, a symbol for mortality. But the subsequent painting is quite different from the original sketch: only the women appear. And these women are not the traditional nudes that viewers had become so accustomed to in the 1880's when Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec had begun to capture them in the moment of the "parade," whereby prostitutes announced their wares and services to their clients. Nor are these women feminine and beautiful as Ingres’ Venus Anadyomene. Then who are these women in this brothel in Barcelona's Avignon Street and why do they appear the way they do? Perhaps the answers to this question lies in Picasso's fear of women in general. Their flesh is not depicted as being soft and inviting but sharp and knifelike. In fact, their flesh suggests castration and fear of women. As Robert Hughes implies, "No painter put his anxiety about impotence and castration more plainly than Picasso did in Les Demoi... Free Essays on Picasso Perhaps the most radical painting of the twentieth-century, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, hangs unobtrusively at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This large canvas, measuring 96" x 92", was to revolutionize modern painting by charting a new way of depicting reality. In 1907 its painter, Pablo Picasso, broke all of the rules that the "artistically correct" learned at the art academies: he disposed of three-dimensional perspective, abandoned harmonious proportion, used distortion, and borrowed from the art of primitive cultures. In fact, the painting was such a revolutionary statement that when the painting was first viewed by some French critics, the painter Derain even suggested to Picasso that he would one day commit suicide for the shame that he had brought on the art establishment. Originally Les Demoiselles was going to be an allegory of venereal disease, entitled "The Wages of Sin." In the study for the painting, Picasso sketched a sailor carousing in a brothel amongst prostitutes and a young medical student holding a skull, a symbol for mortality. But the subsequent painting is quite different from the original sketch: only the women appear. And these women are not the traditional nudes that viewers had become so accustomed to in the 1880's when Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec had begun to capture them in the moment of the "parade," whereby prostitutes announced their wares and services to their clients. Nor are these women feminine and beautiful as Ingres’ Venus Anadyomene. Then who are these women in this brothel in Barcelona's Avignon Street and why do they appear the way they do? Perhaps the answers to this question lies in Picasso's fear of women in general. Their flesh is not depicted as being soft and inviting but sharp and knifelike. In fact, their flesh suggests castration and fear of women. As Robert Hughes implies, "No painter put his anxiety about impotence and castration more plainly than Picasso did in Les Demoi...

Quipu - South Americas Undeciphered Writing System

Quipu - South Americas Undeciphered Writing System Quipu is the Spanish form of the Inca (Quechua language) word khipu (also spelled quipo), a unique form of ancient communication and information storage used by the Inca Empire, their competition and their predecessors in South America. Scholars believe that quipus record information in the same way as a cuneiform tablet or a painted symbol on papyrus do. But rather than using painted or impressed symbols to convey a message, the ideas in quipus are expressed by colors and knot patterns, cord twist directions and directionality, in cotton and wool threads. The first western report of quipus was from the Spanish conquistadors including Francisco Pizarro and the clerics who attended him. According to Spanish records, quipus were kept and maintained by specialists (called quipucamayocs or khipukamayuq), and shamans who trained for years to master the intricacies of the multi-layered codes. This was not a technology shared by everyone in the Inca community. According to 16th-century historians such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, quipus  were carried throughout the empire by relay riders, called chasquis, who brought the coded information along the Inca road system, keeping the Inca rulers up to date with the news around their far-flung empire. The Spanish destroyed thousands of quipus in the 16th century. An estimated 600 remain today, stored in museums, found in recent excavations, or preserved in local Andean communities. Quipu Meaning Although the process of deciphering the quipu system is still just beginning, scholars surmise (at least) that information is stored in cord color, cord length, knot type, knot location, and cord twist direction. Quipu cords are often plaited in combined colors like a barber pole; cords sometimes have single threads of distinctively dyed cotton or wool woven in. Cords are connected mostly from a single horizontal strand, but on some elaborate examples, multiple subsidiary cords lead off from the horizontal base in vertical or oblique directions. What information is stored in a quipu? Based on historical reports, they were certainly used for administrative tracking of tributes and records of the production levels of farmers and artisans throughout the Inca empire. Some quipu may have represented maps of the pilgrimage road network known as the ceque system and/or they may have been mnemonic devices to help oral historians remember ancient legends or the genealogical relationships so important to Inca society. American anthropologist Frank Salomon has noted that the physicality of quipus seems to suggest that the medium was exceptionally strong in encoding discrete categories, hierarchy, numbers, and grouping. Whether quipus have narratives embedded in them as well, the likelihood that well ever be able to translate story-telling quipus is very small. Evidence for the Quipu Use Archaeological evidence indicates that quipus have been in use in South America at least since ~AD 770, and they continue to be used by Andean pastoralists today. The following is a brief description of evidence supporting quipu use throughout Andean history. Caral-Supe culture (possible, ca 2500 BC). The oldest possible quipu comes from the Caral-Supe civilization, a preceramic (Archaic) culture in South America made up of at least 18 villages and enormous pyramidal architecture. In 2005, researchers reported a collection of strings twisted around small sticks from a context dated to approximately 4,000-4,500 years ago. Further information has not been published to date, and the interpretation of this as a quipu is somewhat controversial.Middle Horizon Wari (AD 600-1000). The strongest evidence for the  pre-Inca use of quipu record keeping is from the Middle Horizon Wari (or Huari) empire, an early urban and perhaps state level Andean society centered at the capital city of Huari, Peru. The competing and contemporary Tiwanaku state also had a cord device called a chino, but little information is available about its technology or characteristics to date.Late Horizon Inca (1450-1532). The best-known and largest number of surviving quipus are dated to the Inca period (1450-Spanish conquest in 1532). These are known both from the archaeological record and from historical reports- hundreds are in museums around the world, with data on 450 of them residing in the Khipu Database Project at Harvard University. Quipu Usage After the Spanish Arrival At first, the Spanish encouraged the use of quipu for various colonial enterprises, from recording the amount of collected tribute to keeping track of sins in the confessional. The converted Inca peasant was supposed to bring a quipu to the priest to confess his sins and read those sins during that confession. That stopped when the priests realized that most of the people couldnt actually use a quipu in that manner: the converts had to return to the quipu specialists to obtain a quipu and a list of sins that corresponded to the knots. After that, the Spanish worked to suppress the use of the quipu. After the suppression, much Inca information was stored in written versions of the Quechua and Spanish  languages, but quipu use continued in local, intracommunity records. The historian  Garcilaso de la Vega based his reports of the downfall of the last Inca king Atahualpa on both quipu and Spanish sources. It might have been at the same time that quipu technology began to spread outside of the quipucamayocs and Inca rulers: some Andean herders today still use quipu to keep track of their llama and alpaca herds. Salomon also found that in some provinces, local governments use historical quipu as patrimonial symbols of their past, although they do not claim competence in reading them. Administrative Uses: Santa River Valley Census Archaeologists Michael Medrano and Gary Urton compared six quipus said to have been recovered from a burial in the Santa River Valley of coastal Peru, to data from a Spanish colonial administrative census conducted in 1670. Medrano and Urton found striking pattern similarities between the quipu and census, leading them to argue that they hold some of the same data. The Spanish census reported information about the Recuay Indians who lived in several settlements near what is today the town of San Pedro de Corongo. The census was split into administrative units (pachacas) which usually coincided with Incan clan group or ayllu. The census lists 132 people by name, each of whom paid taxes to the colonial government. At the end of the census, a statement said the tribute assessment was to be read out to the natives and entered into a quipu. The six quipus were in the collection of the Peruvian-Italian quipu scholar Carlos Radicati de Primeglio at the time of his death in 1990. Together the six quipus contain a total of 133 six-cord color-coded groups. Medrano and Urton suggest that each cord group represents a person on the census, containing information about each individual. What the Quipu Say The Santa River cord groups are patterned, by color banding, knot direction, and ply: and Medrano and Urton believe that it is possible that the name, moiety affiliation, ayllu, and amount of tax owed or paid by an individual taxpayer could well be stored among those different cord characteristics. They believe they have so far identified the way the moiety is coded into the cord group, as well as the amount of tribute paid or owed by each individual. Not every individual paid the same tribute. And they have identified possible ways that proper names might have been recorded as well. The implications of the research are that Medrano and Urban have identified evidence supporting the contention that quipu store a great deal of information about the rural Inca societies, including not just the amount of tribute paid, but family connections, social status, and language. Inca Quipu Characteristics Quipus made during the Inca Empire are decorated in at least 52 different colors, either as a single solid color, twisted into two-color barber poles, or as an unpatterned mottled group of colors. They have three kinds of knots, a single/overhand knot, a long knot of multiple twists of the overhand style, and an elaborate figure-of-eight knot. The knots are tied in tiered clusters, which have been identified as recording the numbers of objects in a base-10 system. German archaeologist Max Uhle interviewed a shepherd in 1894, who told him that the figure-of-eight knots on his quipu stood for 100 animals, the long knots were 10s and single overhand knots represented a single animal. Inca quipus were made from strings of spun and plied threads of cotton or camelid (alpaca and llama) wool fibers. They were typically arranged in only one organized form: primary cord and pendant. The surviving single primary cords are of widely variable length but are typically about a half centimeter (about two-tenths of an inch) in diameter. The number of pendant cords varies between two and 1,500: the average in the Harvard database is 84. In about 25 percent of the quipus, the pendant cords have subsidiary pendant cords. One sample from Chile contained six levels. Some quipus were recently found in an Inca-period archaeological site  right next to plant remains of chili peppers, black beans, and peanuts (Urton and Chu 2015). Examining the quipus, Urton and Chu think they have discovered a recurring pattern of a number- 15- that may represent the amount of tax due to the empire on each of these foodstuffs. This is the first time that archaeology has been able to explicitly connect quipus to accounting practices. Wari Quipu Characteristics American archaeologist Gary Urton (2014) collected data on 17 quipus which date to the Wari period, several of which have been radiocarbon-dated. The oldest so far is dated to cal AD 777-981, from a collection stored in the American Museum of Natural History. Wari quipus are made of cords of white cotton, which were then wrapped with elaborately dyed threads made from the wool of camelids (alpaca and llama). Knot styles found incorporated in the cords are simple overhand knots, and they are predominantly plied in a Z-twist  fashion. The Wari quipus are organized in two main formats: primary cord and pendant, and loop and branch. The primary cord of a quipu is a long horizontal cord, from which hangs a number of thinner cords. Some of those descending cords also have pendants, called subsidiary cords. The loop and branch type has an elliptical loop for a primary cord; pendant cords descend from it in series of loops and branches. Researcher Urton believes that the main organizational counting system may have been base 5 (that of the Inca quipus has been determined to be base 10) or the Wari may not have used such a representation. Sources Hyland, Sabine. Ply, Markedness, and Redundancy: New Evidence for How Andean Quipus Encoded Information. American Anthropologist 116.3 (2014): 643-48. Print.Kenney, Amanda. Encoding Authority: Navigating the Uses of Khipu in Colonial Peru. Traversea 3 (2013). Print.Medrano, Manuel, and Gary Urton. Toward the Decipherment of a Set of Mid-Colonial Khipus from the Santa Valley, Coastal Peru. Ethnohistory 65.1 (2018): 1-23. Print.Pilgaonkar, Sneha. The Khipu-Based Numeration System. ArcXiv arXiv:1405.6093 (2014). Print.Saez-Rodrà ­guez, Alberto. An Ethnomathematics Exercise for Analyzing a Khipu Sample from Pachacamac (Perà º). Revista Latinoamericana de Ethnomatemtica 5.1 (2012): 62-88. Print.Salomon, Frank. The Twisting Paths of Recall: Khipu (Andean Cord Notation) as Artifact. Writing as Material Practice: Substance, Surface and Medium. Eds. Piquette, Kathryn E. and Ruth D. Whitehouse. London: Ubiquity Press, 2013. 15-44. Print.Tun, Molly, and Miguel Angel Diaz Sotelo. Recovering An dean Historical Memory and Mathematics. Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatemtica 8.1 (2015): 67-86. Print. Urton, Gary. From Middle Horizon Cord-Keeping to the Rise of Inka Khipus in the Central Andes. Antiquity 88.339 (2014): 205-21. Print.Urton, Gary, and Alejandro Chu. Accounting in the Kings Storehouse: The Inkawasi Khipu Archive. Latin American Antiquity 26.4 (2015): 512-29. Print.

Similar and differences between poems. Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Essay

Similar and differences between poems. Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot - Essay Example This essay examines the similarities and differences of the two poems. Elliot’s and Tennyson’s works of art are in the same way dramatic monologue poems. Both poems center on an aged character that lacks confidence and contentment in life. Ulysses, the narrator of the latter writer’s poem reveals his sorrowful feelings to an unknown listener after returning from his explorations. Similarly, Elliot’s work has only one narrator named â€Å"J. Alfred Prufrock.† He, like Ulysses, is an aging unselfconfident man who talks about his unexciting life. Yesterday is in no way different from today. As mentioned by Prufrock, his life is uneventful as ‘time passes by carefully’ (line 75). Thus, the two poems suggest a lonely theme as Prufrock believes his useless life and Ulysses years to do more explorations. Additionally, both poems bring up the word â€Å"water.† Elliot includes the word in the line, â€Å"When the wind blows the water white and black† (line 128) as the narrator describes how mermaids’ comb their beautiful hair that intimidates him for he is bald. Moreover, Ulysses mentioning how he wants to go back to the water reveals his wanting to travel more. The two displeased speakers don’t fail to remember death as well. Elliot presents Prufrock’s grief by saying he has seen the â€Å"eternal Footman† (line 85). The footman pertains to the person who helps the soul of a dead person to go to another dimension or afterlife. Tennyson, in the same instance, reflects death on Ulysses. The speaker who is a traveler wants to sail away from death to have the chance to explore and have more adventures. Tennyson and Elliot both use Allusion on their works. In Prufrock’s speech, he mentions â€Å"work and days† (line 29) which is exactly the title of the Greek poet Hesiod. Another allusion used is â€Å"dying fall† (line 52). The expression was popularized by Shakespeare as it was used in his work â€Å"Twelfth Night.† The words and phrases â€Å"prophet†

Individual Income Taxes - Tax-Deductible Losses Research Paper

Individual Income Taxes - Tax-Deductible Losses - Research Paper Example Casualty loss is not deductible if the damage or destruction is caused by accidental breaking like glassware, fire that was set willingly and finally a car accident is neglected or willingly act caused it. Keeping adequate records is one of the most important things a taxpayer can avoid a potential IRS audit doesn’t result in any assessment of additional tax, penalties and interests. This method helps you defend yourself against IRS audit. According to the United States internal revenue code, there are certain losses that are considered for tax purposes. This means that the loss can’t be compensated by Insurance and it must be sustained during the taxable year. If the losses are casualty or theft of personal, family, the loss must result from an event that is identifiable, and damaging or unusual nature. Losses incurred in a business or a profit-seeking activity are deductible whether if not they are due to casualty or theft (Pratt & Kulsurd, 2012). Under the current tax laws a casualty loss deduction is allowed if the extent of the loss is not reimbursed by insurance. This law was enacted because of the natural causes that frequently happen and the insurance companies are not fully equipped and able to pay for the massive damages caused. The tax-deductible losses have been modified for years, allowing losses under the tax code. In the 1880s deductions were allowed for losses related to fire and shipwrecks. In the 1990s it covered natural disasters and other casualties and theft. The federal government has responded in so much losses by offering aid to help cover by removing debris and rebuilding areas hit hardest Some people are covered by insurance but the insurance doesn’t cover the entire loss fully, if a tax payer doesn’t have insurance, he/she can be compensate by the federal income tax return for the casualty loss related to disaster.

Compare and contrast the poems Essay Example for Free

Compare and contrast the poems Essay The poem leaves us either reassured that in the midst of all evil there can be some good or depressed and in despair because in the family life of the Belson commandant lurks an evil which could ruin their lives any time. Night of the Scorpion The title denotes power and control from the scorpion as one night the scorpion ruled and controlled everything that happened. The title uses Night to give a sense of dark times and that something fatal may occur. The poem is very other. It has an Indian location which is where scorpions can be found as it is one of the warmer regions of the world. The poem is in free verse with the last three lines sectioned off. It is of narrative style and contains a very memorable heart. The weather was desperate and it was lashing with rain. In fact the monsoon conditions had affected the scorpion and all that it wanted to do was to shelter from the torrent. However it was disturbed by the poets mother who was probably searching for rice to feed her family. She was stung and the poison from the tail entered her bloodstream like a foreign invader defiling the enemy territory. Many neighbours arrived and the author compares this to a swarm of flies. I would compare it to students who clamour around desperate fro entertainment around a schoolyard fight or would be helpers around an accident victim. The neighbours like the helpers all had their suggestions many of their ideas involving the power, rituals and beliefs of religion. The scorpion is thought to be evil when in reality it is only trying to protect itself. The people believed that the victim and the scorpion were still linked. This bond meant that when the scorpion moved the poison inside the mother moved around her blood invading and conquering. Many prayers were said for the victim. The neighbours also felt that out of this tragic accident some good would emerge. The poison would burn away her sins and cleanse and purify her body of excessive ambition and lustful or adulterous thoughts or acts. Neighbours believed that her suffering was paying the price of evil to God and reducing the amount of evil in the world. The victims husband was willing to try any one idea or a combination and mixture of the suggestions. He was usually not one to believe in religion but usually based his opinions on logic and facts. Yet even he set fire to the affected site and watched the flame feeding on her toe. A holy man was allowed to perform sacred rites and after twenty hours the victim recovers only to rejoice in the fact that it was her and not her children. The mothers wishes were a superb example of the unconditional love most mothers feel for their children. Comparisons and Differences. Both poems are about creatures who are simply concerned with their own survival. With the vultures it is the need for food that causes them to be scavenges and with the scorpion its wish not to be squashed causes it to flash its diabolic tail. Both poems give information on cultures that are not familiar to us. The main difference is the message given by the poets In vultures the readers can chose there own position with regards to good and evil whereas the second message denotes the helplessness that sometimes death will occur and at other times the victim will survive. In the scorpion it is possible for both the victim and the scorpion to survive whereas the vultures will die if they dont eat prey and the prey is already dead. Death is a necessary evil for the vultures. Cultural Background I think that Night of the Scorpion best captures cultural background because it mentions religion and family life from another culture. For example mud baked walls and candles and lanterns and the Holy man performing his rights to tame the poison with an incantation. Whereas vultures is set in the middle of nowhere, somewhere like the deserted plains of Africa. It isnt something that would be found happening in a village. Scorpion is a true story of the poets family and it comes across through the detail and building of atmosphere the poem contains brought about by the phrase ten hours of steady rain had driven him to crawl beneath a sack of rice. As he was there at the time his thoughts and feelings are brought across very well in his writing. The poem shows compassion when the mother only said Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children. Conclusion I prefer vultures as I like the way in which evil is contained in good. This is shown in the phrase in the very germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil. The evil is described in phrases such as picked the eyes of a swollen corpse, ate the things in its bowel and fumes of human roast. The good however is conjured up by inclined affectionately and tender offspring. I feel it is more of a poem compared to Night of the Scorpion because Scorpion is a very much narrative style of writing. It is too narrative for my liking.

Plath’s Daddy Essays: Language in Plath’s Daddy :: Plath Daddy Essays

Language in Plath’s Daddy The speaker of "Daddy" might be seen as our collective inner child, the voice of a world that has "fallen a long way." There is an implied gain in the poem -- of catharsis, liberation -- but "Daddy" is fundamentally a poem about loss. The speaker has finally and irrevocably disabused herself of the notion of a "recovered" childhood, the dream of "the waters off beautiful Nauset." There is no going "back, back, back" to some illusory idyllic existence, no way to make whole that "pretty red heart": the first oppressor in this poem is the unrealized past ("You died before I had time--"). The poem exemplifies this in its form, the nursery-rhyme sound, the ooh, ooh, ooh of the end rhymes, so jarring in contrast with its substance, its images of stark brutality. Childhood and innocence are corrupted herein by the inescapable internalization of "wars, wars, wars." Conventional images have undergone a desecration: "Not God but a swastika"; not father but devil; not husband but vampire. Langu age, rather than a means of connection, has become an obstacle, confining the self ("The tongue stuck in my jaw. / It stuck in a barb wire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich . . . ") Language, as a conveyor of images, is itself the subject of this poem -- the "foot" in line three is as much metrical as it is metaphorical, one could argue. Plath's "Colossus," her apprenticeship in the Western poetic tradition, with this poem is junked in the "freakish Atlantic," just another thrown off oppressor. The language of this world has conveyed the speaker to a place of horrors: "obscene," it is "An engine, an engine / Chuffing me off like a Jew. / A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen." In this sense, Plath's appropriation of Holocaust imagery, much castigated, must be seen as subsequent to that imagery's appropriation of her -- and, by extension, of us all. Plath demonstrates in this poem that the horrors of history are fundamentally personal, that human history is simply personal! history writ large, that the brutalities of the age inform every childhood, that the notion of innocence is a sham, a game of cowboys and Indians, to use a less highly charged analogy, against a backdrop of the Trail of Tears.

Is Banning Books Constitutional? Essay

The Catcher in the Rye. The Scarlet Letter. Huckleberry Finn. Harry Potter. The Diary of Anne Frank. Animal Farm. To Kill a Mockingbird. The Da Vinci Code. The Grapes of Wrath. These literary classics have been vital to the education of many, especially children and adolescents (Banned Books). These great novels both teach important values and educate children about world affairs and classic themes. Unfortunately, each of these novels has been banned at one point in time. In a country where freedom is so adamantly advocated, it is a wonder that an issue like censorship would even come up, that such a controversy would sink its claws into the minds of states’ boards of education across the nation. Censorship is a needless restriction placed on developing minds that need the morals and values that banned books can give. Many of these classic stories have been banned because of sexual references, racial slurs, religious intolerance, or supposed witchcraft promotion. Although some may consider these books controversial or inappropriate, many English classes have required their students to read these books (About banned). It should be believed that even controversial books could ultimately boost, not deter, our educational wealth. Book banning should be opposed for three main reasons: education should be open to everyone, citizens should have access to the press, and, lastly, parents should monitor what their own children read and not what other children can obtain. For these reasons, I conclude that the government should play no role in what books any age group can obtain. At first glance, the debate over banning books appears unimportant. Nevertheless, this debate has divided our nation into those who favor censoring books to protect their impressionable adolescents, and those who argue that education should be open for everybody without interference from the government in restricting the publishing and accessing of these books. The author, Micah Issitt, argues that censoring books violates the First Amendment, stating, â€Å"Citizens must be free to seek out any media, regardless of content, that they deem appropriate for entertainment, information, or education.† (Kelly) All citizens should have the choice to read whatever they want, but should not have the right to dictate what others may read. If a person considers a book inappropriate or offensive, then he or she does not have to read it, but to someone else, that same book may be exactly what he or she needs to move beyond ignorance and into the world of the informed and educated. By being exposed to new ideas and information through reading and various styles of expression, young adults have the opportunity to learn tolerance, acceptance and respect for others. He or she learns to form his or her own opinion and learns how to understand the world a little more. In a country such as the United States, it is the right of the people to respectfully share their views through the spoken or written. It is also the right of the people to listen and acknowledge such views. It is not only immoral to oppose certain books and prevent children and young adults from reading them, but it can be construed as unconstitutional. If anyone had the right to challenge â€Å"inappropriate† books, it would be the parents of the â€Å"susceptible† children being protected. Parents are the only adults responsible for what kinds of book their children digest. Only they can know what may be suitable and what their children can handle. â€Å"Even though not every book will be right for every reader, the ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values,† states Barbara Jones, director of the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom. â€Å"Protecting one of our most fundamental rights- the free dom to read- means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves, what they and their families read.† So, how is it that boards of education are the ones making decisions on books? Which ones should be censored? What right do they have to do so? The boards are not the ones who should be held accountable for what books children and adolescents absorb; this is primarily the responsibility of parents. Many conservative groups make the argument that the books that have been banned have material that is inappropriate, immoral or contradicting the beliefs they have ingrained in their children and/or their society. Book-banning cases usually concern the protection of children and their innocence, but all that is happening is sheltering parents trying to avoid an awkward confrontation with their child about uncomfortable matters. It is not only selfish, but also harmful to the overall education of their children. The touchy subjects of banned books contain issues that are part of everyday life, and for a group to attempt to censor this subject from younger society is almost absurd; these issues are not monstrous and the censorship of them not only shows prejudice but lack of respect. Others would say that it is the government’s duty to regulate these books. It is the exact opposite of the government’s role- the private lives of U.S. citizens and the books they read should be regulated and controlled at his or her own digression. (Banned books) Topics that seem socially outlawed in public have been banned because their immoral content may have a negative affect on younger children. In these books, authors do not promote or encourage bad behaviors; they prepare their readers for some of the real world’s challenges. Even though these books center around scary topics, they are educating children on real-life matters that they will be exposed to once they venture into the world themselves. With the knowledge that some of these books have to offer, children can learn how not to act and what can be the consequences if they do misbehave. Banning books not only hinders a child’s educational development but also leaves them unaware of the true state of the world. This learning experience could be a turn-around with the help of a parent and pass a positive affect on to the child. Books do not simply impart general information; they heavily influence a child, the future generation. Without regular access to books, both adults and children could not form sound opinions, only narrow-minded ones. Both advocates and opposers of book banning agree, â€Å"Books are powerful instruments.† (Kelly) Any person should remain free to select his or her reading material. This personal issue of selecting reading material has no relation to the government. On the contrary, government and school board action interferes with the individual education, a primary American value. Ultimately, children can learn personal responsibility in determining which books to regard and which to discard. In the future, these children will become well-educated adults who can benefit the American society. â€Å"Banned Books and Censorship–A Closer Look at Book Banning.† BooksAtoZ. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jul 2012. . Kelly, Melissa. â€Å"Censorship and Book Banning in America.† About.com. New York Times, n.d. Web. 15 Jul 2012. . â€Å"About Banned & Challenged Books.† American Library Association. ALA, n.d. Web. 15 Jul 2012. . â€Å"Banned and Challenged Classics.† American Library Association. ALA, n.d. Web. 19 Jul 2012. .