W.E.B Dubois View of Equality vs Frederick Douglass View of Equality

Equality W. E. B. Dubois had a better idea of equality than Frederick Douglass. Both of these civil rights leaders have lived and experienced a remarkable different life. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery. His mother was a slave and his father was a slave owner. W. E. B Dubois was born free and his parents were free African Americans. Douglass and Dubois education upbringing was a totally different experience. Douglass lived in the slave times. It was illegal to a slave to read and write. Any slave caught reading or writing would be severely punished or even killed.Slave owners felt that if they learn they will soon rebel and start to fight back. Douglass even grew up not even knowing his own age. His master’s wife is what started off his education with the alphabet behind the master’s back. Through little poor children, He exchanged food for book lessons with the children. He became self-taught in gradually teaching himself to read and write. Which is how he wen t form slave to free man. Dubois lived in the time after slavery was abolished. It was legal to learn how to read and write. Even with the Jim Crown laws separating blacks and whites.Dubois excelled in his studies becoming valedictorian of his senior class. His education navigated his way of life. No matter how he thought, planned, or reviewed any part of advocacy. They both had different up bringing that shaped them in there life of civil rights and how to go about solving a problem that they faced. Even in the very different upbringings they both became civil rights leaders fighting for the equality of African Americans. But both Douglass and Dubois had a very different way about getting the rights for African Americans. F.Douglass was an advocate and an abolitionist for all black people. He expressed excitement in learning how to making anyone see that blacks are equal to every race. He just wanted to be â€Å" treated as equal in the eyes of the white race† (Douglass pg. 3). He taught slaves to read in the south when it was nearly impossible for them to teach themselves. â€Å" The work of instructing my dear fellow slaves was the sweetest engagement with which I was ever blessed† (Douglass, Narrative Of Frederick Douglass pg. 431). This was his idea of independence from his teachings of independence.He went after every right in order to speak up for those slaves that didn’t have a voice. Education was one of his beliefs that helped him. Telling his story to the world, born a slave but now a free man. He fought for African Americans not are viewed as â€Å"property† or â€Å"slaves† but as equal to whites and must receive fair treatment. Douglass also in his speeches liberated what Americans in this economy would have done with blacks. In his speech â€Å"what the blacks want† he states, â€Å"I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us!Your doing with us has already played the mischief. † (Douglass). Society’s â€Å"America† has already put us in a category. Race we are not superior or equal to no other. Economically we don’t have the means to live out what we strive for. Education wise we have none, we are not sufficient enough to read or write for us to have a better life. Douglass in this speech stresses to leave us alone we are cable of doing bad or good on our own. His would view principle of self-ownership, which he understood to include both the racial and equality.In his other speech â€Å"What to the slave is the fourth of July† Douglass pointed out that slaves plow, plant, and reaping mourns of loss, and using all kinds of mechanicals tools. Proof that they deserved the fuel range of natural rights. In the political â€Å"Thought Of Frederick Douglass† he dived into his study of abolitionism. Douglass states â€Å"robust conception of mutual responsibility† and the ideas of universal self – ownership, natu ral rights, limited government, and an ethos of self-independent living (Douglass pg. 3).Douglass advocated for his equal rights amongst other races, and for equality with the slaves. While Dubois believed hard work, education, equality, race, and economics success was the key to success. Dubois was determined to learn all he could about the world and use that knowledge to help fight against segregation and discrimination. He plunged himself into historical, economic, and philosophical studies of being black in America hoping to elude a cure for the race problem in America. He founded The Niagara Movement to accommodate Booker T. Washington â€Å"Atlanta Compromise†.Washington suggested â€Å"African American shouldn’t agitate for social and political equality in return for the opportunity to acquire vocational training and participate in the economic development of the new south† He believed through hard work and earned respect, African Americans would gain the esteem of white and eventually receive full citizenship. Meaning slaves should endure being ridiculed, beaten, demeaned, and disrespected then eventually receive equal rights to slaves. Dubois Niagara Movement â€Å"manifesto† in his words â€Å" We want full manhood suffrage and we want it now†¦ we are men! We want to be treated as mean.And we shall win. † The movement became the forerunner of the N. A. A. C. P. Dubois believed in a true higher education and voting fights for blacks. In those times slaves didn’t have a right to vote. He believed through education blacks can be equal to whites. The most of his free time he devoted to teaching slaves to read and write. He understood how the international perspective and practical oppressions of social justice. Discrimination was based off ignorance. He became convinced that if each race could learn and understand each other’s truths, there would be no reason to fear or hate each other’s race.H e also felt that through education African Americans could prevail and succeed. Not through violence and protests of people demanding their rights as people of America. Dubois concluded that after slavery ended â€Å"African Americans were still viewed as less intelligent, civilized, cultivated, and more prone to violence and crime then white students† (Dubois, Narrative of F. Douglass pg. 3). In order for there to be equality amongst people he started programs to reduce, eliminate color prejudice. W. E. B Dubois wrote a speech titled The Talented Tenth. Black men will rise and become more then there stereotypes. Education and work are the levers to uplift a people. Work alone will not do it unless inspired by the right ideals and guided by intelligence. Education must not simply teach work†¦ it must teach life† (Dubois pg. 15). In conclusion Dubois fought for equal rights of African American people through his teachings, speeches, programs, and lessons. His goal w as to make black as equal to whites through education. Not through violence or arguments we can obtain free social justice as righted African American people. But through education we can obtain social equality and be equal to other races.

buy custom Waiting for Superman essay

buy custom Waiting for Superman essay Davis Guggenheim, in the documentary Waiting for Superman, brings to light the corrupted and broken educational system of America. He says that the educational system is heading downhill, causing more harm than good, or suppressing growth, which it should enable anyway. In this documentary, he uses the Superman figure as the Superhero, or someone that should come along and save the educational system and the country at large from stunted growth and subsequent collapse. Waiting for Superman, released in 2010, is a documentary that sets out to unveil the causes of problems in the current educational system, and how it is producing children who are less educated. Moreover, it foresees an even worse scenario with the lapse of time if superman does not save the occasion. Therefore, Guggenheim explains that some of the factors, that affect childrens education, range from broken homes, availability of good education, and jobless or single parents. To make it clear, he concentrates on five children and their desperate families, who experience these challenges first-hand. He brings you even closer to what they experience through personal interviews with the children and their families, and makes an evaluation of how these factors directly affect their educational performances. The children on the spotlight are Bianca, a child in kindergarten and the first grade student, Francisco, who have both applied to Harlem Success Academy. The other children on observ ation are fifth grade students Daisy and Anthony; and an eighth grade student, Emily, who is at Silicon Valley. Anthony of Washington D.C does not live with his mother or father. Instead, his grandmother, Gloria, is the only guardian he knows. Ms. Gloria explains explicitly in the documentary there was no choice of a better school for her grandson. She loves him so much and she would do anything for him, even take him to the best school if she could. It is only unfortunate that there is no choice-option of a better school in the neighborhood. Bianca, on the other hand, has very big dreams. She wants to be a doctor, or a nurse. However, the challenge is that the parents are struggling so much financially My dad is struggling because he doesnt have a job, and my mom is also trying to get a job. Essentially, this cuts off her parents ability to take her to a private school. Firstly, after having a critical look at the theme of this documentary, it has become clear that the major issue, or the matter of concern, is the quality of education that the students get at school. Do the students get relevant knowledge that is necessary to develop skills for a good career? Guggenheim explains in the documentary that this is most unlikely because of overcrowding in public schools, which does not allow for a more interpersonal relationship between teachers and their students. Secondly, the system does facilitate teachers professional growth. On the contrary, it retains teachers who perform poorly. Consequently, these less performing teachers migrate from one school to another in a scene known as Lemon Dance. From the documentary, a student asks their teacher, are you just going to sit there or are you going to teach us? This is just a snap shot of what the students go through, once the teachers are sure that they cannot lose their job under whatever circumstance. Therefore, whether they teach their students or not, it does not really matter. They will still receive payment, and cannot be fired, as the educational system dictates. Moreover, in the 1990s charter schools emerged. In more often situations, these schools produce excellent results, and are the reasons why most people flock and apply for opportunities to have their children go to charter schools. The secret behind these schools excellent results is that they are run independently from other district schools, and not by the rules that govern other educational institutions. The teachers in these schools are more determined to give results, and spend extra time with their students as opposed to public schools. The charter schools are very attractive to most parents who want their children to excel. However, in schools like KIPP schools, Harlem Success Academy, and The SEED School of Washington they cannot take too many students. The available slots are very few, and the applicants for them are very many. In that case, as is evident in the documentary, the schools have to run a public lottery for the available positions. In conclusion, I certainly agree with Guggenheims idea that lack of development, or economic stagnation is not to blame entirely on the teachers, but on the education system and the curriculum. In the 1970s, the current education system gave great results. However, times have changed. Economic needs and other aspects of the global market, as technologies have changed and the educational syllabus has remained constant. It is, therefore, important for school program to be in synchrony with economic demands. Additionally, in my opinion, education should start right from home. Parents ought to push their children a little bit, especially when the children do not show much interest in education. For example, Francisco does not like to go to school. I think this is because he does not get mentorship about the importance of education from home. Buy custom "Waiting for Superman" essay

Death Explored in The Story of an Hour essays

Death Explored in The Story of an Hour essays Death is the natural phenomena that every human will experience. Because of its unique characteristics and consequence, humans instinctively fear it. Death is so powerful and unstoppable that no one can really resist it. In Kate Chopins short story The Story of An Hour, the protagonist sits on the chair and feels that there [is] something coming to her and she [is] waiting for it (9th paragraph). The something in fact refers to death, not freedom. Firstly, the author mentions in the first sentence that Mrs. Mallards physical body is not healthy. Mrs. Mallard has a heart trouble [and] great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death. This suggests that Mrs. Mallard is vulnerable to shocks so that her sister has to be very careful about anything that may hurt her or else her heart may fail. This reveals that Mrs. Mallards heart trouble is considerably severe. In addition, Mrs. Mallards body is revealing unhealthy signals. In the fourth paragraph, she [sinks], pressed down by a physical exhaustion that [haunts] her body and [seems] to reach into her soul; this shows that she is exhausted both physically and mentally. Furthermore, the author describes that now there [is] a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze [is] fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It [is] not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought. The description reveals that Mrs. Mallard is experiencing a short period of pathological shock because of the oxygen lack in her brain result from her severe heart disease. She may not even notice these serious symptoms because she is still immersed into the joy from her husbands death. Some readers may think that the thing that is coming to Mrs. Mallard when she is resting on the chair is the freedom that she is waiting for after y...

Abolitionism in William Blakes Works

Abolitionism in William Blake's Works William Blake’s Abolitionism â€Å"I know my Execution is not like Any Body Else I do not intend it should be so.† William Blake is arguably one of the most eccentric and enigmatic artists of the Romantic era. His ideas about religion, art and society are often considered anachronistic. In general, Blake’s vision is different from other Romantic era artists because of his lower-class background, his personal spirituality, and his interest in the visual arts. However, he does have similar opinions about the important issues of the time, especially concerning the French Revolution, abolitionism and the visionary imagination. In approaching Romantic literature with a global prospective, it is important to consider Blake’s unique contribution and influence, as well as his divisions. His oeuvre converges in fundamental ways with the literary art and the limitations of his time, including views on gender and racial equality. In this paper, I will focus on his ideas concerning slavery and the unique ways in which he expresses his abolitionism through an investigation of his poetry and art. I will examine the presentation of slavery and abolitionism through a close-reading of the poems â€Å"The Little Black Boy†, from Songs of Innocence, and â€Å"Visions†, from Visions of the Daughter of Albion. The literary analysis will incorporate analysis about various works of art by Blake, including the illustrations of these poems. The two poems demonstrate, through their abolitionist message, the oppressive forces of conventional religion and British moral and social expectations, and that they have corrupted natural relations between human beings. I will exhibit that although his poetry is highly progressive for its day, it still relays the underlying belief of his time that women and racial others are inferior. Blake is successful in exposing the problems of the conventional religion of Britain, but his highly spiritual and mythological vision makes his message less effective in causing any real change within society. Blake is worthy of academic attention and there is indeed an overwhelming amount of criticism on his works. I have learned a great deal from David Erdman’s article â€Å"Blake’s Vision of Slavery†, which outlines abolitionism in Visions. Saree Makdisi indicates the necessity of reevaluating the history of the Romantic-era when considering Blake’s works. Susan Fox also indicates Blake’s anachronistic role within the era, but argues that he exhibits the limitations of his time in utilizing women as metaphors for failure in his works. Anne Mellor indicates the argument of Visions, in terms of the human form and Blake’s spiritual beliefs, as a criticism of British morality for destroying the vitality of a true spiritual union. My analysis of abolitionism within the two poems will assert that Blake’s portrayal of slavery is linked to his larger program of addressing the injustice and false spirituality of power relations in British society. â€Å"The Little Black Boy† indicates Blake’s beliefs concerning the power of parents over children and racial inferiority, while Visions illustrates his ideas about gender equality and sexual relations. Despite his progressive opinions about equal relationships and abolitionism, Blake exhibits many of the divisions and limitations of his time. His greatest limitation is the complex mythological system that renders his artistic message politically ineffective. In the collection Songs of Innocence and Experience, Blake explores and depicts an â€Å"age when God is fully manifest in man† and feels the spiritual and psychological comfort of God’s protection and love (Matlak, 274). The poetry is highly profound in its promotion of an equal society based on love and freedom, not simply childlike naivety. This book of poetry, like many of his others, is illuminated with several works of art. Blake is unique in this practice because his artwork does not simply serve as supplements to the verse; they amplify, complicate and, at times, contradict the poetry. This challenges notions of reading, interpreting and the relationship between the written and visual arts. His artwork is highly original, and often considered anachronistic, within the English artistic tradition. He chose to use uncommon mediums, notably relief etchings for producing his illuminated books of poetry. Blake also painted in watercolor, a medium which rejected the he avy and traditional method of using expensive oil paints. This medium creates artwork that emphasizes light, pure color and lightness, while also rejecting the orthodox artistic notions of the English Academy and encouraging all classes to produce artistic works. The poem â€Å"The Little Black Boy†, from Songs of Innocence, portrays the simple spirituality of a child who believes in God’s promise of love, while also indicating the spiritual equality of humanity. The boy sings of the lessons his mother has taught him about the perfect afterlife he will enjoy. In this heaven, he will experience pure joy, but also equality with the white English boy. This simply constructed, childlike verse holds many layers of meaning. The poem poignantly asserts the spiritual equality of all humans, alluding to the Christian argument against slavery of his time. â€Å"The Little Black Boy† indicates the spiritual dignity and equality of the boy, therefore, valorizes him. Blake does this in multiple ways, most importantly through the assertion of the religious belief in heaven as a utopia where everyone is equal. The boy is taught that when in heaven he will be released from the oppression and subjugation encoded in his black body, become equal with the white English boy and be loved by God. His spiritual education provides the basis for the boy’s hope, while also promoting the notion of the equal spiritual union in heaven. Blake also promotes the boy’s dignity by referencing his mother and his education through her. The boy’s loving relationship with his mother (lines 7, 21) illustrates his youth and innocence, but also portrays him as more human and endearing. The boy learns diligently and quickly from his mother, who represents the voice of age and wisdom. Blake emphasizes learning as a significant part of childhood throughout his iconography and artwork. The title page of Songs of Innocence portrays two children reading a book lying on a woman’s lap, presumably their mother. The idyllic and bucolic scene indicates the spiritual growth of the children, which is in the hands of the older members of society. This illustration also exemplifies Blake’s vision of positive womanhood as natural and motherly, which was initiated in Songs of Innocence. Mellor and Matlak describe this iconography, â€Å"In Blake’s aesthetic world, the female is identified with nature, the physical body or matter, and the realm of the domestic. Blake’s positive females give birth, raise children, and offer sexual delight and supportive compassion to Blake’s males† (Matlak, 274). Another example of this scene of children learning is â€Å"Age Teaching Youth†, which portrays two children learning from an older figure through reading and verbal instruction. These two works illustrate the poem’s message that learning as an integral aspect of childhood and that children learn from the adults around them. The construction of the figures is similar to the second illustration of â€Å"The Little Black Boy†. Both compositions portray an adult figure sitting and addressing the small children at their feet. This construction emphasizes the authority of the adults, but also the eagerness and attentiveness of the children. They are willing to accept the ideas of the words of the adults. Blake’s promotion of the boy’s equality in â€Å"The Little Black Boy† has many complications and problems. Most importantly, the boy’s resignation to earthly subjugation and racism, as a result of his acquired belief in conventional religion, is problematic because of it is an acceptance of racial discrimination on earth and indicates that there is no need for real social change. The poem focuses on God’s light and heat, symbolizing Divine love, using the racial images of blackness and shadows. The third stanza portrays this clearly, â€Å"And we are put on earth a little space, / That we may learn to bear the beams of love, / And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face / Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove† (lines 13-16). Blake indicates the boy’s spiritual goodness, along the same racial lines, by associating his soul with whiteness; â€Å"And I am black, but O! my soul is white† (line 2). This imagery exhibits the comm on tendency of Blake’s time to associate physical darkness with intellectual depravity. Blake argues against the discrimination the boy suffers on earth, claiming that he will experience a spiritual union with God in the afterlife, where all humans are equal. This vision is highly problematic because despite Blake’s efforts to promote the equality of the little boy, the subjugation he experiences on earth seems to be justified or appeased by the idyllic vision of future equality in heaven. The boy resigns himself to the subjugation he experiences on earth as a result of his mother’s teachings. He believes in his corporeal inferiority, as it is taught to him, stating in lines three and four, â€Å"White as an angel is the English child: / But I am black as if bereav’d of light†. The boy focuses on the afterlife and hopes for a union with God, believing that he will be loved then. The last lines of the poem state, â€Å"To lean in joy upon our fathers knee. / And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair, / And be like him and he will then love me† (lines 26-28). Note the use of the word â€Å"then† to emphasize that he is not loved by God in this life. Blake presents a complicated argument for racial equality that seems to appease the injustice experienced on earth. By illustrating the boy’s belief and hope for the afterlife, Blake indicates the oppressiveness of conventional religion. English Christianity colludes in the subjugation of the boy, through the mother’s instruction, to accept his inferiority on earth. Indeed, Blake presents the oppressive morality and society institution of the conventional religion, but also the adult’s role in continuing the oppression through the education of the youth and promotion of the conventional ideas. The second illustration to â€Å"The Little Black Boy† illustrates this in a subtle, but important way. The Christ-like figure’s garment looks like stone. The heavy, flat and severe cloak is associated with Blake’s iconography with rationality and conventional religion. Another important message of the illustration is the use of light, an important motif throughout the poem. The sun is a prominent part of the composition’s background, but does not give off a g reat deal of light. In fact, the sun seems to be setting, as darkness creeps into the picture field. This seems to suggest a limitation in the heat and light of God portrayed in the poem, contrasting with the optimism of the verse. Finally, the composition portrays black boy standing behind the white child, who actually touches the God figure. This important placement, along with the fading sun, indicates the subordination of the black boy even in the afterlife. This is not explicitly explained within the composition, but one possible explanation is the oppressiveness of conventional religion. â€Å"The Little Black Boy† indicates some of the limitations of Blake’s time concerning race and racial equality. Although Blake compellingly illustrates the spiritual equality of the afterlife, this is inherently limited because it seems to offer a justification or acquiescence to the racial injustices of English society, including the slave trade and slavery. The vision of an equalized spiritual utopia, and the criticism of conventional English religion, eclipses the abolitionist message of the poem. In representing this vision and the maladies of organized religion, Blake portrays his mystical view of human relations; they are ideally mutual spiritual relationships, while social standards and customs create unnatural power relationships that are oppressive and damaging. In â€Å"The Little Black Boy† this is demonstrated through the control that white, English society have over black populations, the influence that the mother has over her child which causes h im to believe he is inferior and, finally, the conventional God who dominates over the children in the second illustration. Blake’s important poem, Visions, also demonstrates his ideas about power relations and unnatural relationships. This poem describes Oothoon’s victimization by Bromion’s rape, and Theotormon’s belief that she is defiled and unacceptable, despite his love for her. Oothoon is enslaved by her condition as an exploited woman, while Bromion is trapped by his violent act, and Theotormon by the social constructions he abides by. The poem begins, â€Å"Enslav’d, the Daughters of Albion weep a trembling lamentation†, immediately connecting slavery with the subjugation of women in English society. This is influenced from Mary Wollstonecraft’s argument in A Vindication of the Rights of Women that women in England have the same political and civil status as slaves. Visions complexly portrays the repercussions of society and religion’s warped control over human interactions, addressing several different power relations, including the dominanc e of men over women, master over slave and organized religion over society. David Erdman states, â€Å"†¦love and slavery prove to be the two poles of the poem’s axis† (Erdman, 242). This poem promotes a more equal treatment of women by indicating Oothoon’s sadness and extreme despair. She grieves, â€Å"Are both alike: a night of sighs, a morning of fresh tears† (Plate 2, line 39). Her exploitation is obviously condemned in an interesting way because this oppression connects her to horrors of the institution of slavery, including sexual abuse and emotional despair. Blake presents quasi-feminist and abolitionist arguments against the sexual and economic exploitation of humans, because it distorts freedom and natural relationships. Institutionalized subjugation and enslavement does not simply destroy the victimized, such as Oothoon, but the entire society because it warps all human interactions. Bromion becomes enslaved by his violent act, while Theotormon is enslaved by his jealousy and inability to love Oothoon after she has been defiled. He is trapped by the standards of conventional religion and morality, specifically the notions of marriage. The frontpiece to Visions of the Daughters of Albion serves as a dramatic visual representation of the poem’s portrayal of mental and physical bondage. Oothoon is shackled to Bromion, facing opposite directions from one another. Bromion faces out towards the sea with a look of horror, while Oothoon directs herself towards Theotormon, bending downwards in despair and resignation. Lukacher states that, â€Å"her jealous and inhibited lover cowers and withdraws into himself on the cavernous ledge about the enchained figures† (105). Theotormon’s body language indicates his self-entrapment and despair because the social restrictions he believes in prohibit him from being with the woman he loves. This composition utilizes Michelangelo-esque nudes and opposing body languages to contain and reduce the complex drama of the poem. The landscape also conveys the bleak tone of the literary work. The entrance to the grotto frames the figures and the background including a blea k sea, clouds and a darkened sun. Visions clearly argues against the subjugation of women and the institutions that promote economic and physical exploitation on human beings, most significantly slavery and marriage. Blake promotes, instead, love as a equal spiritual and physical union. This notion of free love rejects the standards of Christian marriage in England, promoting an equal union between man and woman. The composition, Circle of the Lustful, exemplifies this notion well. This illustration portrays Virgil standing over the fainted Dante. Dante envisions his Paolo and Francesca released from purgatory and re-united together in the luminous orb. A whirling vortex of punished lovers rushes out of the river of purgatory. Blake liberates the lovers, freeing them from the sin that society condemns them for. The figures are mostly androgynous, indicating Blake’s vision of the ideal human form as containing both the male and female genders. This composition promotes free love, asserting the goodness of spiri tual love, while also overturning Dante’s tradition that imposes strict moral and sexual codes on society. Blake’s work, like Visions and Circle of the Lustful, deals with subjugation and exploitation as distortions of power and human relations. Blake condemned those who abused and exploited others through the misuse of power. His portrayals of this exploitation prompted Saree Makdisi to promote the reevaluation of his time. A specific example of Blake’s condemnation of the powerful is The Ghost of a Flea, a composition that portrays the profane spirit of this powerful man as a reptile-like creature. The comet indicates a supernatural event and the dramatic, stage-like setting emphasize the evilness of this creature. Although this composition is a specific condemnation of English industrialists, it demonstrates Blake’s view of the powerful that exploit and subject the rest of society. Blake’s mythological vision asserts their impending punishment. Visions condemns the mental and physical bondage promoted by the institutions of slavery and marriage. The poem is not, however, highly effective in promoting any real change. In a similar manner as â€Å"The Little Black Boy†, Visions addresses too many issues to be efficacious in directly promoting the feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft or the abolitionist cause. The poem is also rendered ineffective because the definition of slavery is blurred and turned into a multifarious term that applies any lack of freedom. In fact, the poem seems to deal more with spiritual and mental enslavement than with the political and economic practices of the slave trade and slavery. Blake concerns himself most greatly with the condemnation of the sexual limitations and moral codes of conventional religion. Susan Fox claims that Blake’s feminist agenda in Visions is ineffective because Oothoon lacks real assertiveness. â€Å"No woman in any Blake poem has both the will and the power to ini tiate her own salvation – not even the strongest and most independent of his women, Oothoon† (Fox, 513). Blake presents gender and sexuality in a similar way as many artists of his time; although he promotes the dignity and worth of women, the representation ultimately affirms feminine inferiority and lack of agency. Visions’ large and far-reaching messages about slavery, power relations, sexuality and religion addresses many issue in a liberal and progressive way, but these multifarious and complex issues render the poem unable to directly confront any one issue to prompting real change. Blake is most successful in directly promoting abolitionism through the illustrations of actual events and atrocities of the slave trade, such as A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to the Gallows. These etchings are politically subversive in a direct and real sense, because they specifically address the institution of slavery’s violation of human dignity. These images are clear criticisms of the atrocities committed by the slave trade, calling for real political action. These illustrations, however, are very simple artistic constructions that portray one figure’s suffering, asserting their humanity and dignity. Although they are not artistically complex or important, they do serve to directly promote the abolitionist cause during his time. In conclusion, abolitionism is not the main concern of â€Å"The Little Black Boy† or Visions. Slavery is the starting point of the poems, which is used to condemn the abuse of power and conventional religion. The other social ills addressed in the poems, such as gender and racial inequality, are similarly presented as aspects of the larger spiritual program. Although these aspects are highly progressive in promoting human equality, they include the underlying belief of racial and gender inferiority, common throughout the Romantic era. Blake’s overarching concern for his poetry and artistic illustrations is the portrayal of ideal mystical vision of natural, vital and equal human relationships. Makdisi states, â€Å"Blake must be seen to be trying to rescue against all odds the possibility of a political aesthetic of immortal joy, which we can understand as an affirmation of joyous unity and collective freedom. This amounts to a refusal of the very logic of domination, of warrior power over others† (Makdisi, The Impossible History, 258). The spiritual attention distinguishes the theme of slavery in Blake’s poetry from direct and bold abolitionist poetry of the Romantic era, such as the works by Hannah More and Ann Yearsley. â€Å"The Little Black Boy† and Visions are concerned with promoting the esoteric mythological vision, not with the instigation of real social change. The mystical investigation of bondage and slavery in these poems offers interesting artistic portrayals of human relationships and spirituality. Bibliography: Erdman, David V. Blakes Vision of Slavery. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 15 (1952): 242-252. JSTOR. 1 Dec. 2007. Fox, Susan. The Female as Metaphor in William Blakes Poetry. Poetic Form in Blakes Milton. Comp. Susan Fox. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1976. 507-519. Lukacher, Brian. Visionary History Painting: Blake and His Contemporaries. Nineteenth Century Art: a Critical History. Ed. Stephan F. Eisenman. London: Thames Hudson Ltd., 2007. 102-119. Makdisi, Saree. William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s. Chicago: The University of Chicago P, 2003. Makdisi, Saree. Romantic Imperialism. New York City: Cambridge UP, 1998. Mellor, Anne K. Blakes Human Form Divine. Berkeley: The University of California P, 1974. Townsend, Joyce H. Willaim Blake: the Painter At Work. Ed. Joyce H. Townsend. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003.   www.blakearchive.org

Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation - Essay Example Being an artist also takes the skill to evaluate one’s self in relationship to the creative moment, to be able to channel that something from deep inside into the piece so that the work is something more than just ‘pretty’. In deciding to be an artist, the pathway towards artistic achievement is far beyond the imaginings of the experience, even for the artist. Technique evolves through the experience of working with a medium. One learns through the educational venue, through working with materials, and through exploring with the raw substances that will go into creating the piece of work. One of the surprises in working with the materials that I have chosen for my body of work is that it takes so much longer to assemble a work than I had ever imagined. Despite that fact that it took someone like Seurat two years to paint Grande Jatte, I was surprised at how long different types of detailed work took to complete (Elkins74). One of the mediums that I used was to ass emble work using a colour palette developed from magazine clippings and weaving. The piece that I created, a scene of one boy carrying another on his back, took me a long length of time because of the limits on the colour palette and because of the intricacy of the work. While I expected that the intricacy of the work would take a great deal of time, it was unexpected that it would take so long to sort through the colour availability in order to successfully construct the image. In order to work on the piece, I had to construct a frame of mind in which deep concentration and meticulous, detailed work could be achieved from the placement of the magazine shreds. As well, it took a great deal of time to work adapt two paintings into one piece of work. The intention is to awaken the spirit of the integration of the Caribbean and British cultures through putting together imagery of The London Bridge in England and the Kissing Bridge in the Caribbean. The symbolism of the bridge between c ultures is made literal by the integration of the images of two bridges from differing culture in order to create a symbolic union. The Kissing Bridge in the Caribbean is a common sight where weddings are held, thus it extends the interpretive platform that I labeled â€Å"Culture Marriage†, in order to express the interlaced iconic imagery that were used to connect both cultures. My work is highly textural, the use of fabrics and weaving techniques creating a visual complexity that comes together to support the language that I have created through the discourse within my work. Because I have chosen to work with textiles, I was invited to integrate my work into an event of a free-range exhibition of the work of fashion students at our university. I used this event as a preliminary experiment towards the eventuality of my own exhibition. I found that people were attracted to my work because of the textural elements that were involved in creating the work. Because of the tactil e element, some people wanted to reach out to the work and touch it to experience it from more than just the sense of sight. This type of â€Å"sensory art experience† allows for the viewer to experience the art on many levels, although it is more preferable if viewers do not disturb the pieces (Hinz 63). The type of communication that I intend with the work is partially through the textural elements, conveying the multiple layers of culture and the way in which culture has a variety of dimensions. This surprising

Does Alcohol dependancy lead to depression Essay

Does Alcohol dependancy lead to depression - Essay Example cancers, unintentional injuries, and violence.† (Mokdad, Marks, Stroup & Gerberding 2000) Professional health care practitioners are constantly vigilant on monitoring alcohol dependents, especially if it exists in conjunction with other illnesses, like depression. The negative effects that alcoholism causes cannot be undermined. This paper is written to present a review of literature on the topic: does alcohol dependency lead to depression? Given the research question, the purpose of the study is to explore four scholarly researches made on the topic identifying methodologies, findings and general consensus. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services define alcoholism, also known as â€Å"alcohol dependence,† as â€Å"a disease that includes four symptoms: craving: a strong need, or compulsion, to drink; loss of control: The inability to limit one’s drinking on any given occasion; physical dependence: Withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety, occur when alcohol use is stopped after a period of heavy drinking; and tolerance: The need to drink greater amounts of alcohol in order to â€Å"get high.† (2001, 1) â€Å"The American Medical Association and the World Health Organization have both recognized addiction (including alcoholism) as an illness, not a lack of willpower†. (Dossey, Keegan, & Guzzetta, 2000, 514). Definitely, this is a fact that pervades people from all walks of life depending on diverse factors. According to Dossey, et.al. (2000), â€Å"although there are many types of addictions to various substances, alcohol addiction is the most prevalent in the United States, afflicting at least 11 million people†. (514) There are a multitude of scholarly researches written on alcoholism and diverse concerns related to it. Through secondary sources from books, journals and electronic references, appropriate materials would enable one to proffer a comprehensive and objective view of the topic. A study conducted by Dr. Achal

Research paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Research paper - Assignment Example those with the disease in question and those individuals without the underlying medical condition who differ from the other group on at least a testable parameter. An example is patients who have pneumonia infiltrates on x-ray while the control group without pneumonia does not. When conducting a screening or a diagnostic test, there are two obvious errors that is the test can fail to identify persons who do not have condition or it could as well falsely classify a person as having the pathological condition when they do not actually have it. It is important to note that if you adjust some threshold value in an effort of reducing one type of error, the other type of error increases. In explaining the phenomenon better, the sensitivity and specificity concepts are used in determining the accuracy of a test. According to Donner-Banzhoff (2011), the sensitivity also referred to as the recall or true positive rate measures the actual proportion of true positives correctly identified as suffering from the disease. Thus, sensitivity will refer to the probability that the test will turn out as positive in patients known to be suffering from the condition. A test can either have a high or low sensitivity. Highly sensitive tests have  lesser negative results and a re very accurate and useful in ruling out a certain disease being tested in a population (Smith et al., 2011). An example is when a test is 96 percent sensitive, then 96 percent of the patients with the pathological condition will provide true positive results while the other 4 percent will provide false negative results. Highly sensitive tests are important when ruling out dangerous pathological conditions such as lumbar puncture for subarachnoid hemorrhage. On the other hand, specificity also referred to as true negative rate determines the proportion of negatives that is the proportion of healthy persons who are identified correctly as not suffering