Role of Set Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Role of Set Design - Essay Example that the design has the ability to suggest the style and tone of the entire production, create the mood and atmosphere of the action, give an idea of the specific time and place that the action occurs and offer creative possibilities for the movement and grouping of the actors. This paper will therefore discuss the role of set design in the Le Jour se Leve film production basing on the remarks made by Bazin. In this film, Bazin identifies different components of set design that were used in Le Jour se Leve. Bazin identifies that film is impeccable in that its representation of symbolism does not take precedence over its realism, instead the one complements the other. Carnà © uses set design appropriately to analyze various specific items and materials that comprise the architecture and furniture that were used. Bazin also brings out a considerate analysis of the relationship between imagery and pragmatism. However, the constructed sets that Bazin prefers rather than the definite locations controverts his remarks concerning complementary balance. Consequently, Bazin points out that since it is often used in close ups, role of glass was apparent. He argues that the glass had three main qualities. The principles are its transparency which develops faith in the audience, its deceptiveness that separates the audience from the actor and its drama that is brought up by the ignorance of the transparent glass by the audience. This is so since ignoring the glass would lead to its breakage and disaster. The balance created between transparency and deceit denotes not only the connection between the different characters in the play but also between the structure of the plot of the film and the audience. For example, Valentin controls Francois at various instances, she even tells him that he is the father of the child after all the other men had been involved with her. Bazin identifies that the film uses flashbacks and manipulates the viewers. This film thus generates a proper

Families that work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Families that work - Essay Example The policy failures are attributed to a false dichotomy in terms of minimal public commitment and participation in care giving. Notably, US working families policies are based on privately based and market driven labour market demands, instead of citizen-based social policy frameworks. This has then made US to have the highest wage-gap between working males and females, in addition to having the highest family poverty levels compared to European nations and other English-speaking countries families. Overall, Gornick &Meyers argues that US has a rather pathetic parental and maternal employment structures coupled with a relatively restricted cash allotment to families (2005). Consequently, this has made American working parents especially mothers to face competing responsibilities, which not only leaves them reprimanded in their workplaces but also overburdened and drained at home. Gornick & Meyers also take issue of how childcare in US is mostly privately driven and left entirely to w omen, which is something that makes US to have a smaller portion of working mothers operating part-time and with high working hours (2005). Although the US has elevated maternal employment levels compared to Scandinavian nations, Canada and some continental European nations, there is minimal policy to shore up mothers in their labor-market commitment. Gornick &Meyers observes that even existing legal frameworks such as Pregnancy Discrimination Act or the Temporary Disability Insurance Act does not enforce provisions such as maternal or parental paid-leave (2005). There is low level and even lack of policy frameworks, which can enable mothers to take a couple of days off from their work after birth without sacrificing their job security or paycheques. Consequently, working mothers are faced with job interruptions, forgone earnings, and reduced career opportunities. Moreover, families experience extremely high out of pocket child-care expenditures, parents spending extensive hours at work, in addition to experiencing stressful adjustments to job schedules. Even though the US has progressive policies on work gender equality such as fathers being given leave rights, Gornick &Meyers observe that the nation has no provision that allows fathers to spend a considerable amount of time with the mother and child during the first year of the child birth without having to sacrifice their wages (2005). There are no provisions, which will ensure that both new working mother and father are allowed to work part-time without shifting employers or even losing their health benefits until the child goes to elementary school. Gornick &Meyers also tackle the fact that the US lacks provisions that will ensure that childcare expenses are offered to working parents at a much lower cost (2005). They observe that working family’s earnings do not balance the requirement of care, especially in meeting the needs of modern families. This is attributed to the failure of the traditional American employment-forcing outcomes identified by the lack of options for employees in deciding labor-market wages, granting of health insurance only via employment, and a labor structure,

The Rise of Trump and the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism

The Rise of Trump and the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism Tweet Storm: The Rise of Trump and the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism The opening event for The College of New Jerseys Womens History Month 2017 was a talk given by Dr. Jessie Daniels titled Tweet Storm: The Rise of Trump, the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism, the Real Threat to Building Just and Sustainable Communities. The talk took place in The College of New Jerseys Library Atrium on March 8, 2017 and began with Dr. Janet Gray introducing Daniels by detailing her impressive academic history. Dr. Daniels is a professor of sociology at Hunter College and at the Graduate Center at CUNY who specializes in critical social psychology. She is internationally recognized as an expert in the expression of racism on the internet and the author of two books, White Lies and Cyber Racism, which were the basis of her talk. Daniels opened her talk by first recognizing that the material she would be covering, while important, could be triggering to some members of the audience and promised to not have the anti-semitic and racist imagery on display for longer than necessary. She then goes on to explain how she views white nationalism as a serious, growing threat to developing just and sustainable communities and that she will be discussing these ideas in the context of the most recent U.S. election. Daniels uses her two books, which were accidently written on either side of the internet (Daniels), to examine the growth and change in the white supremacy movement and system in the United States due to the drastic increase in availability of the internet in the late 1990s. White Lies focuses on white supremacists printed publications (Daniels) and is a quantitative analysis of 400 publications from five different white supremacist organizations (Daniels). From her analysis, Daniels first argues that white su premacy is gendered both in regards to the supposed positive attributes of whites and the supposed negative attributes of non-whites. Her second argument is that the rhetoric of white supremacy is similar to the popular political rhetoric around race in general. While this may be extremely apparent to us today, when White Lies was published in 1997 these observations and analysis were novel both in academia and in social justice communities. In her second book, Cyber Racism, Daniels revisits the five groups explored in White Lies to see if had they made this transition; did they make it across the internet on to doing white supremacy digitally (Daniels). She did a quantitative content analysis of Stormfrontà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦andà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a quasi-experimental in-depth interview designà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦based on web usability studies (Daniels). One of her major findings is white supremacists use of cloaked sites, which she defines as sites that intentionally disguised authorship in order to conceal a political agenda (Daniels), and that racism is changing due to the digital revolution. While this is not surprising, her second finding that students are willing to consider information given on these cloaked sites if asked but are usually deterred by the unprofessional look to the sites is terrifying in its implications. Daniels argues that the goal of white supremacists is to challenge these moral and political victories, like the abolition of slavery, to say lets debate that again (Daniels). This gives white supremacy legitimacy as a reasonable position to hold that can be debated and has caused the United States to be a haven for white supremacy. Our class has spent a significant amount of time talking about white privilege especially in connection to current events such as the Womens March last January and the continuing rise in police brutality against people of color. I believe Daniels second book Cyber Racism and its conclusions could have added another dimension to those discussions since we did not explicitly touch on white supremacy in any of them. Daniels argument that racism has drastically changed due to the digital revolution directly connects to my short presentation on Native Feminism on our second day of class. During that presentation, I included a quote from Sydne Rain which included the line The tone-deafness of all these angry white supremacists around me. Their lack of care.. The use of white supremacists in the quote portrays the new white supremacy described by Daniels in her second book. White supremacy is now much more cloaked than it has been in the past which has led to many average people holding bel iefs that are characterized as white supremacists beliefs. Rain touches upon several realities directly caused by historic and current white supremacy but the average person would not label many of these realities as white supremacy because they only recognize the pre-internet version of the system. This talk also spoke to a topic we have only briefly covered in class but will go more in-depth with in the near future: cyber feminism. Cyber feminism was coined in the 1990s as a way to describe how feminists were critiquing, theorizing about, and using the internet for feminist work. Daniels directly, but probably not purposely, addressed this idea when discussing the revolution of the internet: Then one day I went to bed and when I woke up everyone had the internet. While Daniels never mentions cyber feminism in her talk, her description of how she became interesting in using the internet as a tool for research on racism, white supremacy, and how the internet affected the effect of white supremacy on young adults was essentially the definition of cyber feminism. I believe this talk will inform the classroom discussion on cyber feminism when we reach the topic especially since at least half the class attended the talk. Overall, I found the talk to be informative and enjoyable and the speaker to be conscientious and willing to address complex issues that do not have easy answers. I was glad Daniels took the first few minutes of her talk to recognize that the images she would be showing could be triggering for some members of the audience and to promise to only have them on the screen for as long as she needed. The fact that she took time to do this and followed through on her promise, especially in reference to the anti-semitic images with the recent attacks and threats on Jewish communities, told me she was extremely conscientious and aware of what she was presenting. It was during the questioning part of the event after the talk where she showed how willing she was to address complex issues. I asked a rather difficult question about where she thinks the future of white supremacy is going, both in the short and long term, and how she thinks changing demographics of the United States would affect th is. She did not dismiss my question and answered it to the best of her ability in my opinion. Daniels argument about how students analyze online sources, especially cloaked sites, has been one of the largest take-aways for me. On a personal level, I wonder if I am guilty of dismissing a cloaked site simply due to graphics and if I would recognize these sites for what they are if they did have more professional designs. On a professional level as a teacher, I wonder how my students are interacting with these cloaked sites. Ultimately, this event left me concerned and wondering how I could address these topics with my own students. Work Cited Daniels, Jessica. Tweet Storm: The Rise of Trump, the Mainstreaming of White Nationalism, the Real Threat to Building Just and Sustainable Communities. Womens History Month 2017, The College of New Jersey, 8 March 2017, The College of New Jersey Library, Ewing, NJ, Lecture. hokte (sydnerain). And it makes me so, so fucking angry to type this. The tone-deafness of all these angry white supremacists around me. Their lack of care. 22 January 2017, 8:45 PM. Tweet.

A Comparison of Fahrenheit 451 and Dover Beach Essay -- Ray Bradburys

Fahrenheit 451 is a well-written book that tells a story of a dream world and one man who wakes up from that dream. Montag, the protagonist of the story, brings home a book of poetry one day and begins to read the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold to his wife and her guests. Many critics think that Bradbury picked this poem because it paralleled life in his book. The poem Dover Beach can be compared to Fahrenheit 451 because both pieces of writing talk about themes of true love, fantasy and allover hopelessness. One of the ways Fahrenheit 451 can be related to Arnold’s Dover Beach is by connecting the absense of true love in both of them. Throughout the book, Montag slowly realizes that he does not truly love his wife Mildred. In the beginning, Montag believes that he truly loves Mildred. However, as the book goes on, he meets Clarisse, and begins to change his way of thought. He slowly begins to wake up from the dream world that he is living in. As he begins to know Clarisse, he slowly realizes that Mildred does not share the same deep passion for life that he does. At the beginning of the Sieve and the Sand, Montag frantically reads books to gain more knowledge. Mildred complains and kicks the books around, showing that her and her husband are growing apart. At the end of the book, Montag is talking to Granger, and says "... Even if she dies, I realized a moment ago, I don't think I'll feel sad (155)". This shows that Montag does not care for his wife as much as he th ought he did before. In the poem, Arnold states "†¦a land of dreams ...hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light". The world in Arnold’s poem is a land of dreaming. While people are dreaming of true love and joy, there is none in the real world that you live in once you wake up from the dream. Once the â€Å"confused alarms of struggle and flight† wake you up, you realize that the world is really void of love and happiness. The world in Arnold's poem is a world parallel to that of Bradbury's: Both are worlds that do not contain love or light, as much as people in them would like to believe otherwise. Both Fahrenheit 451 and Dover Beach are pieces of writing that deal with lands of fantasy. The true world that Bradbury lived in while writing Fahrenheit 451 was one of real books that peop... ...e, because the laws of the universe don't let it out. Similarly, the hopelessness of the human race is shown through the fact that it goes through its life cycles, yet humans know what they're doing and try to fix it. Even though it does not work, that is their cry for help, just as the Sea of Faith cries out to be released from its tides. Writers often use other works in their books to back up what their writing is trying to prove. Ray Bradbury uses the ideas in the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold to support the idea that his book shows the absence of true love, the existence of fantasy worlds, and the reality of hopelessness. Both the book and the poem show that the world is a land of fantasy where things are not always as they appear, and that as much as they want to do something, the nature of people can hold us back from doing things. Both Dover Beach and Fahrenheit 451 show worlds of beings that are trapped in a cage and forced to live a certain way, as much as they don't want to. As much as human beings today don't believe this can happen, if we give into the natural way of humans, we may just follow the same path that Bradbury's people did.

The Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace

Most people would think that wars are launched because a country needs more territory, or because a country's borders are threatened, or because of appeasement. The real reason for war is that countries begin to feel that their honor is threatened; they feel that other nations are not giving them the worth and dignity they deserve, and so they take to the battlefield. On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace, Dr. Kagan is a classical scholar who hopes to get politicians and statesmen to understand history so as not to repeat it. He reminds that this was the intention of Thucydides of ancient Greece who wrote a history of the Peloponnesian Wars for â€Å"those who wish to have a clear understanding both of events in the past and of those in the future which will, in all human likelihood, happen again in the same or a similar way. † His book starts with the Peloponnesian War of the fifth century B. C. – -the subject of a four-volume history Kagan finished in 1987–and ends with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. He also analyzes the Second Punic War of 218 to 201 B. C. World War I, and World War II. War usually arrives over long distances and long stretches of time. For instance, in 226 B. C. Rome was by far the most powerful state in the Western world, but it concluded a treaty with Carthage which was expanding its influence in what is now Spain. The treaty sought to preserve the peace. Eight years later, after many twisting and turnings and concessions by Rome, it led to war. Rome limited the expansion of Carthage to the area south of the Ebro River, and it looked like an order delivered by Rome, not a concession. Actually, Kagan writes, â€Å"†¦ it was an attempt at appeasement in a moment of weakness and fear, the effect of which was to neither soothe nor deter but to inflame and encourage the Carthaginians. † The aftermath included events, which almost destroyed Rome's fortunes: Hannibal's arrival at the head of a powerful army in Italy itself and the beginning of the 18-year Second Punic War. Two wars, the First Opium War 1839-42 and the Second Opium War 1856- 60, waged by Britain against China to enforce the opening of Chinese ports to trade in opium. Opium from British India paid for Britain' s imports from China, such as porcelain, silk, and, above all, tea. The First Opium War, between Britain and China, resulted in the cession of Hong Kong to Britain and the opening of five treaty ports. Other European states were also subsequently given concessions. The Second Opium War followed between Britain and France in alliance against China, when there was further Chinese resistance to the opium trade. China was forced to give the European states greater trading privileges, at the expense of its people. 839-42 and 1856-60, two wars between China and Western countries. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in the 19th cent British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying at Guangzhou (Canton) a large quantity of opium confiscated from British merchants. Great Britain, which had been looking to end China's restrictions on foreign trade, responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China, unable to withstand modern arms, was defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (1843). These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be open to British trade and residence; in addition Hong Kong was ceded to the British. Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges, and the Western domination of China's treaty ports began. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British-registered ship, the Arrow, in Guangzhou. British and French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin (1858), to which France, Russia, and the United States were also party. China agreed to open 11 more ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, sanction Christian missionary activity, and legalize the import of opium. China's subsequent attempt to block the entry of diplomats into Beijing as well as Britain's determination to enforce the new treaty terms led to a renewal of the war in 1859. This time the British and French occupied Beijing and burned the imperial summer palace (Yuan ming yuan). The Beijing conventions of 1860, by which China was forced to reaffirm the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin and make additional concessions, concluded the hostilities. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is a dangerous and volatile situation that has attracted American attention for some decades. The conflict is a sensitive subject that produces strong emotions in people. This conflict deals with Jewish nationalism, distribution of resources, and politics. About a hundred years ago, Jews underwent a drastic change in their view of themselves. At first a few, and then more, began to call themselves Zionists. Zionism is a term that in its broadest and early sense meant simply the â€Å"return† of Jews to their ancestral homeland. That homeland was called Zion (or Israel) and its heart was Jerusalem, known as the â€Å"City of Zion. Early Zionists were simply pious, nonpolitical, religious Jews who thought they could best practice their faith in the Land of Zion. Some went primarily to pray, to study their religious books, and to await the arrival of the Messiah. Politics played an influential role in their thinking. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, Zionism came to have a political meaning: that Jews were not just a religious or ethnic group but were a nation of people who should have their own state. Today Zionism is the term for Jewish nationalism. Not all Jews agree upon what Zionism is, but to a point there is agreement, it is upon three things: there should be a Jewish state; it should be permanent, independent, and secure; and Jews who are threatened anywhere in the world should be able to go there to be safe. All other issues-the boundaries of the state, the nature of government, relations with the Palestinians, relations with American Jews, religious law-are in dispute. It is important to understand the Palestinian views . Keep in mind two points. First, people respond to the circumstances in which they live. If one is rich, one sees problems one way; if one is unemployed, one sees it a second way; if one owns a small shop, one sees it a third way. One must understand the circumstances in which Palestinians live if we are to understand their positions and actions. Second, there are about five million Palestinians. Like Americans, they disagree on political issues. They also change their minds as new circumstances develop. It is wrong to think Palestinians have a common view that remains unchanged. Their view changed considerably over the years. They view that the Israelis are taking the land rightfully theirs, and are being â€Å"bullied† by Israelis. They are the ones who had their land taken away from them and are left with no where to live. In 1948, there were approximately 860,000 Palestinians inside today's Israel. About 700,000 were driven out or fled during the fighting that followed the declaration of Israeli statehood. The Palestinian population of Jerusalem went from 75,000 to 3,500; of Jaffa from 70,000 to 3,600; of Haifa from 71,000 to 2,900; of Lydda-Ramle from 35,000 to 2,000; of Tiberias from 5,300 to zero. All refugees lost their property (about 800,000 acres were taken for Israeli use. ). The 160,000 Palestinians still in Israel in 1949 when the fighting stopped lost another 250,000 acres. The Palestinians in Israel were left without resources or strong leaders. When the Likud Party took power in 1977, it intensified colonization, pouring some $1 billion into settlement building over the next seven years. Today, land taken from the Palestinians and earmarked for military purposes or Jewish settlements amounts to more than 52% of the most fertile areas of the West Bank and 40% of the Gaza Strip. Only a very small percentage of this land was sold willingly by Palestinians. Most of it was confiscated, and is held to be for Jews only-not-just Jews from Israel, but Jews from anywhere in the world. Many newly arrived immigrants from the United States and Russia are given heavily financed housing in the settlements built on seized Palestinian land. 1990, according to Israeli estimates, will divert 83% of the water from the West Bank to Jewish settlements and Israel. The indigenous Palestinians will get only 17% of their own water. This taking of natural resources from the Palestinians, are the reasons for the rise in conflict. To a large extent Jews and Palestinians are geographically concentrated. Most Jews live in Israel and most Palestinians live in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. There are exceptions of course. Many Jews live in the new ring of suburbs around East Jerusalem and in the new settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. And many Arabs live inside of Israel, particularly in Galilee, including Nazareth, and in the Negev Desert in the South. The first comprehensive peace talks between Israel and delegations representing the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states began in October 1991. After Likud lost the parliamentary election of June 1992, Labor party leader Yitzhak Rabin formed a new government. Rabin took a more conciliatory line toward the Palestinians and imposed strict limits on new Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. In 1993, after decades of violent conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, leaders from each side agreed to the signing of an historic peace treaty. Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin met in the United States on September 13 to witness the signing of the treaty, which paved the way for limited Palestinian self-rule in Israeli-occupied territories. The Gaza-Jericho Agreement was signed in Cairo on May 4, 1994, and applies to the Gaza Strip and to a defined area of about 65 square kilometers including Jericho and its environs. The Gaza-Jericho agreement addresses four main issues-security arrangements, civil affairs, legal matters, and economic relations. The document includes agreement to a withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza and Jericho, a transfer of authority from the Israeli Civil Administration to a Palestinian Authority, the structure and composition of the Palestinian Authority is a Palestinian police force, and relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. After intensive diplomatic efforts by the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Yasser Arafat agreed on September 29, 1996 to go to Washington the following week to seek ways out of a war that has put the entire Israeli-Palestinian peace in jeopardy. Despite the historical tensions of the Middle East, recent issues have arisen to intensify the conflict. Angry Palestinians protested Israel's decision to open an archeological site, the issue becoming one more in a growing number of Middle East tensions. The Muslim crowd feared the excavation of an ancient tunnel, right beside the foundations of Jerusalem's al Aqsa Mosque compound, would undermine what is the third-holiest shrine in Islam after Mecca and Medina. The tunnel excavation dispute is only the latest indication of rising tension between Arabs and Israelis. And the latest death count is 76 (as of October 1, 1996). In conclusion, this is an issue that deals with politics, uneven distribution of resources, and nationalism, and will take a great effort to come to an agreement. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a â€Å"battle† that has a long history that will continue till a mutual understanding and agreement is settled. Until the Israelis and the Palestinians can settle their differences and cooperate with each other, the â€Å"battle† will continue on. â€Å"No new taxes. This is a quote that most all of us remember from the1992 presidential election. Along with it we remember that there were new taxes during that presidents term in office. There are a myriad of promises made and things done in a presidential election year that have questionable motives as to whether they are done in the best interest of the people or in the interests of the presidential candidate. These hidden interests are one of the biggest problems w ith the political aspects of government in modern society. One of the prime examples of this is the Vietnam War. Although South Vietnam asked for our help, which we had previously promised, the entire conflict was managed in order to meet personal political agendas and to remain politically correct in the world's eyes rather than to bring a quick and decisive end to the conflict. This can be seen in the selective bombing of Hanoi throughout the course of the Vietnam War. Politically this strategy looked very good. However, militarily it was ludicrous. War is the one arena in which politicians have no place. War is the military's sole purpose. Therefore, the U. S. Military should be allowed to conduct any war, conflict, or police action that it has been committed to without political interference or control because of the problems and hidden interests which are always present when dealing with polite United States involvement in the Vietnam War actually began in 1950 when the U. S. began to subsidize the French Army in South Vietnam. This involvement continued to escalate throughout the 1950's and into the early 1960's. On August 4, 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred in which American Naval Vessels in South Vietnamese waters were fired upon by North Vietnam. On August 5, 1964 President Johnson requested a resolution expressing the determination of the United Sates in supporting freedom and in protecting peace in southeast Asia (Johnson). On August 7, 1964, in response to the presidential request, Congress authorized President Johnson to take all necessary measures to repel any attack and to prevent aggression against the U. S. n southeast Asia (United States). The selective bombing of North Vietnam began immediately in response to this resolution. In March of the following year U. S. troops began to arrive. Although the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution specifically stated that we had no military, political, or territorial ambitions in southeast Asia, the interests back home were quite a different story (Johnson). The political involvement in Vietnam was about much more than just promised aid to a weak country in order to prevent the spread of communism. It was about money. After all, wars require equipment, guns, tools and machinery. Most of which was produced in the United States. It was about proving America's commitment to stop communism. Or rather to confine communism in its present boundaries But most of all it was about politics. The presidential political involvement in Vietnam had little to do with Vietnam at all. It was about China for Eisenhower, about Russia for Kennedy, about Washington D. C. for Johnson, and about himself for Nixon (Post). The last two of which were the major players in America's involvement in regards to U. S. Troops being used (Wittman). The military involvement in Vietnam is directly related to the political management of the military throughout the war. The military controlled by the politicians. The micro management of the military by the White House for political gain is the primary reason for both the length and cost, both monetary and human, of the Vietnam War (Pelland). One of the largest problems was the lack of a clear objective in the war and the support to accomplish it. The predominant military opinion of the military's role in Vietnam in respect to the political involvement is seen in the following quote by General Colin Powell, â€Å"If you're going to put into something then you owe the armed forces, you owe the American People, you owe just you're own desire to succeed, a clear statement of what political objective you're trying to achieve and then you put the sufficient force to that objective so that you know when you've accomplished it. The politicians dictated the war in Vietnam, it was a limited war, the military was never allowed to fight the war in the manner that they thought that they needed to, in order to win it (Baker). To conclude on the Vietnam War, the political management of the war made it unwinnable. The military was at the mercy of politicians who knew very little about what needed to be done militarily in order to win the war. There is an enormous difference between political judgment and military judgment. This difference is the primary reason for the outcome of the Vietnam War (Schwarzkopf). The United States policy of Vietnamization was a good idea, but the time was not ripe for it to best be used. Nearly all experts in South Vietnam as incapable of handling a combined threat rated Saigon's military strength. True, Vietnamization was not what led to the total withdrawl of troops from Vietnam, but the opinions pressed by Laird had somewhat of an affect on our agreeing to sign a cease-fire agreement. Also, if we had used Vietnamization's program of building up South Vietnam's armed forces more extensively, South Vietnam might still be in existence today. The Gulf War in the Middle East was almost the exact opposite in respect to the political influence on the war. In respect to the military objective of the war the two are relatively similar. The objective was to liberate a weaker country from their aggressor. The United Nation's resolution was explicit in its wording regarding military force in the Persian Gulf. The resolution specifically stated â€Å"by all means necessary. â€Å"(Schwarzkopf). The President was very aware of the problems with political management of warfare throughout the war. He was very determined to let the military call the shots about how the war was conducted. He made a specific effort to prevent the suggestion that civilians were going to try to run the war (Baker). Painful lessons had been learned in the Vietnam War, which was still fresh on the minds of many of those involved in this war (Baker). The military was given full control to use force as they saw fit. Many of the top military leaders had also been involved in the Vietnam War. These men exhibited a very strong never again attitude throughout the planning stages of this war. General Schwarzkopf made the following statement about the proposed bombing of Iraq in regards to the limited bombing in Vietnam, â€Å"I had no doubt we would bomb Iraq if I was going to be the Military Commander. † He went on to say that it would be absolutely stupid to go into a military campaign against his, Iraq's, forces who had a tremendous advantage on us on the ground, numbers wise. It would be ludicrous not to fight the war in the air as much, if not more, than on the ground (Schwarzkopf). The result of the Gulf War in which the military was given control, as we know, was a quick, decisive victory. There were many other factors involved in this than just the military being given control, particularly in contrast to Vietnam, but the military having control played a major part in this victory. In conclusion, although there are some major differences between the two conflicts one fact can be seen very clearly. That is the fact that the military is best suited for conducting wars. Politicians are not. It is not the place of a politicians to be involved in the decision making process in regards to war or military strategy. The White House has significant control in military matters. That control should be used to help the military in achieving its goals, as it was in the Gulf War where George Bush said specifically to let the military do its job. The only alternative to this is to use political influence in the same way that it was used in Vietnam. If we do not learn from these lessons that are so obvious in the differences between these two conflicts then we are condemned to repeat the same mistakes. Lets just pray that it does not take the death of another 58,000 of America's men to learn that the politician's place is not in war but in peace (Roush).

From Boy to a Man: Soucouyant

Living in the past is a challenge, especially when your past is racing in front of your future. The narrator from Souycouyant written by world famous author, David Chariandy, seems to have taken the role from child to caretaker when his mother, Adele, had been diagnosed with dementia. Upon facing reality, the narrator chased and followed his dreams in the begginging of the novel, but in the end, learned that you can never escape where you came from. The narrator had foreseen the future when he had left Adele along with his brother and father, but then returned feeling regret and guilt. By doing so, the narrator turned from a boy to a man when taking on the responsibilities a child should never have to bear. At the age of seven, the narrator found it hard to cope with, let alone, understand what dementia even was. â€Å"I don’t know what scientists called it; it was hard to understand, some sort of memory loss syndrome† (Chariandy 18). During the beginning of the novel, the young boy had been going through many struggles and was seen as a target for racism and discrimination. â€Å"Get off the bus; you don’t deserve to be here† (Chariandy 12). (EXPLAINATION, WHO SAID THIS, AND WHAT SITUATION? Coming to Canada was meant for a brighter future, FOR WHO? as the family had planned out there lives. But, in the hindsight of these terrible events, reality had taken over their dreams. The narrator did not have the chance of going to TO WHERE? because his father and brother both left the family in their own ways. â€Å" Father had died not long af ter being laid off at work, and my brother left quietly because it was who he was† (Chariandy 16). Adele and her son were both alone and it was up to the boy to take care of her. It seemed as if the opposite of everything that was planned for the family had turned up. Instead of the mother taking care of the son, the son was taking care of the mother. In addition, it was hard for a seven year old to do this when her mother did not even know her own name. â€Å"Adida, Adida is me† (Chariandy 31). Moving to Canada was done in hopes of more prosperous chances, but instead, the narrator and Adele are facing the exact opposite and seeing their dreams come to an end. As the years passed by, the narrator had grown old and tired of Adele. He wanted to move on in search of becoming an engineer and repairing vehicles. â€Å"Mother, I can’t stay with you for long. I am going to become and engineer you know† (Chariandy 89). The narrator had left, leaving Adele all alone. It was as if this related to the title of the story. A Soucouyant is a vampire who sucks the blood out of humans. Comparing this to the novel, Adele has had all of her loved ones â€Å"sucked† away from her, including her own memory. From being trapped in a house with nowhere to go, the young boy had escaped the shadow placed around him by his mother and instead, left her, showing how the protagonist was persistent in his journey to moving forward. After leaving, he lived in a city called Scarborough in a small apartment. Becoming an engineer was impossible, as he had no education or money to get started. He worked at the local restaurant cleaning dishes and unloading the delivery truck CHANGE TO DELIVERY TRUCK(S). â€Å"Inside I was dead, and on the outside, I was hurt from all the work I’ve bin doing just to pay for rent† (Chariandy 129). The narrator felt regret by leaving his mother. Knowing that she cannot take care of herself, the narrator, now a teen, made a plan to work until he got enough money to return back to Adele and get her the aid she really needs. Leaving Adele perceived the narrator to be moving on forward, but returning back to her shows the real growth from a boy to man. Now a fully grown man, the narrator had retuned back to Adele but felt weary and out of place. â€Å"I don’t know if mother has been hurt by my absence, or if she’s even noticed it. I don’t know what meaning there can be between us now† (Chariandy, 144). By coming back home to his mother, the narrator had taken a huge step forward into his growth because he had left his mother because he felt that he was not growing, but returned back because he is now grown. With the money he had received from the countless hours of work he had done, the narrator hired a nurse to look after Adele. â€Å" Mother, I have found a nurse named Meera who will be taking care of you when I’m off at work† (Chariandy 156). Taking on the responsibilities of a Father, the protagonist is now able to help Adele while moving on with his own life. â€Å"With the scrapes of money left over, I will be able to go to school and get a degree in engineering† (Chariandy 171). Furthermore, it seems that the tragic events that happened to the narrator all made up at the end of the novel. He enrolled in an engineering class while Meera was doing her job of taking care of Adele. The opposite had happened from dreams verse reality to reality facing their dreams. Without a father, the narrator took on the role of one and took care of his mother and had taken the steps towards getting the job he had dreamt of. In the beginning, the protagonist was immature and knew little, but as he got older and learned more, he grew as a man by taking on the huge obstacles that were in his way. The growth of the narrator is evident throughout the novel. From coping with his mother’s dementia, leaving, and then coming back to help her, the protagonist dealt with responsibilities that he should never have to face. Not only did the narrator grow to help his mother, throughout his journey he had learned that the tragic events of his fathers and brothers passing were not meant to be disappointments, rather to be an alarm to start growing. As David Brinkley once said, â€Å"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him†.