Oedipus the King: Oedipus And The Gods :: essays research papers fc

In Ancient Greece the existence of gods and fate prevailed. In the Greek tragedy King Oedipus by the playwright Sophocles these topics are heavily involved. We receive a clear insight into their roles in the play such as they both control man's actions and that challenging their authority leads to a fall. The concepts of the gods and fate were created to explain things. In Ancient Greece there was a lot that was not understood; science was in its infancy and everything that happened could be explained by the will of the gods or fate. The gods were the height of power; they supposedly existed since the beginning of time. They were immortal, omnipresent and omnipotent. However, the different gods had different personalities. In this sense they were anthropomorphic. Having such mastery of the world would enable them to control man's behavior, as is shown in King Oedipus. The idea of fate has existed for a long time and exists even today. Fate revolves around the idea that people's lives are predetermined and that no matter what is done it cannot be changed. With the gods it was used to explain events that seemed strange. Sophocles expands on this idea by introducing Oedipus' fate. The thought of fate is strong considering no matter how hard he struggles he still receives what was predetermined. As a baby he survived the elements on Mount Cithaeron. As Oedipus was destined to live, it shows the dominance of fate. Having fate play such a large part of the play is certainly an insight into the Greek's idea that fate controls us no matter how hard we struggle against it. In the play the dominance of the gods is shown again and again. In the second stasimon after Tiresias leaves the chorus chants "Zeus and Apollo know, they know, the great masters of all the dark and depth of human life", reasserting the belief in the god's power. At the very opening of the play, the priest who converses with Oedipus says ". . . You cannot equal the gods, your children know that. . . ", proving again the Greek belief that the gods are the height of power. However, it is not only the people that revere the gods. After Oedipus blinds himself, Creon takes control of Thebes. When Oedipus asks to be banished, Creon replies "Not I. Only the gods can give you that", again acknowledging the higher authority of the gods.

Of Mice and Men Commentary

â€Å"Of Mice and Men† is a novel written by the 1962 Nobel Prize winner, John Steinbeck. It is an emotional tale of the extraordinary friendship between George and Lennie, who are traveling workers in the harsh depression years of the 1930s. George is a caring person whose love to Lennie is just like a father-son relationship, where Lennie, a mentally challenged man whose strength lies in body rather than brain, appears to be very dependent on George. â€Å"Of Mice and Men† teaches a universal theme about the nature of human beings that a person whose power exists over another turns corrupt.Steinbeck exploits the theme of power and control in his novel through the extensive use of sexism, racial discrimination, and the power of the strong over the weak. Sexism is the belief that one sex is superior over the other. In â€Å"Of Mice and Men†, Steinbeck undoubtedly shows that the power is centered on the majority sex, which is the males, against the minority, the f emales, where in this novel is â€Å"Curley's wife†. By simply keeping the character nameless and using the expression â€Å"Curley's wife† to identify her is a clear example of referring to her as an object without any respect rather than a person. Curley's wife† shows how women during the early 1900s were inferior under the men. She is merely the spouse of Curley as far as all the men in the ranch are concerned. â€Å"They are only forced to relate to her through Curley; if they fear him or want no trouble, the men will stay away from her. George, for example, has set goals in his mind that he is committed to, thus he will stay away from her in order not to get into any trouble. On the other hand, if they do not fear anyone, they can enjoy their time with the intention of forming a physical relationship with her.Lennie, whose childish mind cannot comprehend why he should stay away from Curley's wife, falls into the trap and gets severe consequences for doing s o. â€Å"She is simply a person living in the ranch with the purpose of only to obey Curley with no voice to complain to. All the men including Curley may go to the â€Å"cathouse† and enjoy their time; Curley's wife on the other hand, may not dare to do the same, along with Crooks. During the 1900s, racial discrimination was widely used throughout America, a land that is filled with various ethnic groups. Steinbeck portrays the cruel racist manner that is used throughout on the stable buck, Crooks.He lives a separate, isolated life under everyone in the ranch, and is incapable to protest, merely because he is black. He is terribly labeled with the epithet of a â€Å"nigger† from everyone else. Steinbeck portrays him as an unfortunate man for being born black with no power at all and may not do anything about it. He is not allowed to enter any white man's room, and to slightly raise his own degraded dignity, does the same, not allowing any white man to his room; altho ugh he only says so, it is not necessarily true as we later on see that George and candy enter.Crooks is a person where all the sorrows and miseries of another can be thrown on him because he is powerless to object. As soon as Curley's wife feels insulted from him and Candy, she threatens him verbally, using her superior social status as a white woman, â€Å"Well you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung out in a tree so easy it ain't even funny†. Although most people in the ranch appear to want friendship, they all live with hidden fear of each other.The years of the great depression left everyone trying to look stronger and better than the other, or otherwise the strong will get rid of them; the killing of Candy's dog is a great symbol for that which makes it clear. Candy's dog is ought to get shot and killed, even though it has spent its lifetime with Candy, because it is now old and useless. The stronger, in this case man (Carlson), mercilessly shoots Candy 's dog, who knew nothing of his grief fate. Candy then sees his reflection upon the killing of his dog, that he will soon get too old and therefore useless, which will then have him left alone.This pushes him into desperately asking George to permit him to join with him and Lennie for the pursuit of their own dream ranch, â€Å"Tha's three hundred an' fifty bucks I'd put in, I ain't much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some†. On the contrary, Curley is a man who takes advantage of his authority and power to oppress and mock others to make himself seem stronger and even more powerful. He uses his power and gender to boss around with workers of his ranch and his wife, respectively. However, when he chose to do so towards Lennie, Lennie reacts angrily and smashes his hand.Through the intense use of sexism, racial discrimination, and the power of the strong over the weak, Steinbeck successfully exploits the theme of power and control. Whether it is mentally, physically, or money wise, power seems to be moving from one person to another depending on the situation. Perhaps it really is the roots of evil; that occurs as a result of someone realizing his power over others, and then uses it for his own personal desires, while taking advantage of others. In other words, as the Arabic proverb professes, a person's power and freedom is corrupt when it limits the power and freedom of another.

Key pieces of legislations promotion Essay

Places a duty for schools to produce a Disability Equality Scheme (DES) and an Access Plan. Schools must encourage participation in all aspects of school life and eliminate harassment and unlawful discrimination Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 Ensure to develop the good relationship between organizations and people. Human Rights Act 1998 Set out the rights of the individuals and guide them how to take action against the authorities if these rights are effected Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 Makes it unlawful for educational providers to discriminate against pupils with a special educational need or a disability Children Act 1989 Sets out the duty of local authorities (including schools) to provide services according to the needs of children and to ensure their safety and welfare Education Act 1996 Sets out the school’s responsibilities towards children with special educational needs. The Act also requires schools to provide additional resources, equipment and / or additional support to meet their needs Children Act 2004 Sets out the duty to provide effective and accessible services for all children and underpins the Every Child Matters outcomes Equality Act 2010 Sets out the legal responsibilities of public bodies, including schools, to provide equality of opportunity for all citizens. This brings together nine equality laws Table B: Code of Practice about promotion of equality and valuing of diversity Code of Practice Purposes The special educational needs code of practice 2001 This code outlines the statutory guidance for policy and the procedures and responsibilities

Renaissance of Filmmaking: French New Wave

Maybe the period right after the world war was the most revolutionary period in film history with the Italians having their neo-realism and the French having their new wave. French new wave was set miles apart from the traditional French cinema. It was bold, young, strong, sharp, and innovative and honestly a New Wave in every sense. In the ass's some French film critics led this informal movement, which would in turn, inspire and change the way the world viewed cinema.It can be called the renaissance of film-making. The directors of French New Wave were not set into any McCollum. Each had their own style, specialty and a thirst to make something unique. From the movies made during this era some may be forgotten but many are still viewed and highly recommended. The tides of this new wave reached to shores of all big film industries across the world. The direction styles were distinctive. The director did not follow a pre-determined script.A lot of work was done impulsively. The locat ions weren't artificially created. All real locations were used: the directors believed that it would help maintain the authenticity of the story. The same was the reason to use natural lighting instead of artificial lighting. The sounds in the films were natural and direct unlike the mainstream indirect sounds. All these factors contributed to making French New Wave movies extremely real-like.Not Just this, the language was kept colloquial-no heavy dialogues, no larger-than life emotions venting through the words-everything was kept as day-to-day as possible. To add on to this colloquialism the actors were almost always non-professionals, which meant that their body language wouldn't be conditioned, their expressions would be real and their ordinary appearance would make the characters look authentic. All these actors also resulted in the fact that the director did not need a horde of man force and could work conveniently with a select few people.The low budgets that these films we re given suited the directors Just fine because they anyway needed very basic things for their films: Real locations did not cost anything, no need for artificial lighting and non-professional actors did not need to be paid handsomely. The two much captioned adjectives that could be used for French New Wave could be Free and Original. Free in a way that nothing about the New Wave movies was confined to a form or a single method. Freestyle direction, camera handling, storytelling methods, etc were the identifying traits of French new wave.The fact that many scenes did not use a stationary camera and instead used a handheld camera sets it apart. When it came to French new wave nothing was set in stone. The director acted on his intuition. Discontinuity of scenes is a major aspect of French new wave. It is very simple to notice it in any movie that belongs to it. The same went with the sound part of French New Wave films. The fact that these directors used direct sound sometimes gave t he films a very documentary feel and also to add that there wasn't a particular ay of narrating the story.The 1960 French new wave film, ‘Breathless' came and it did have a lot of elements which made it a very characteristic French New Wave film. The bold scenes of sexual appeal or the selfishness of who are supposedly lovers is very unprecedented. A simple story and yet with so much complexity- not in the plot- but in the way it's made, it's bold, vibrant and innovative. Even though now such movies are common, in the ass's it was a revolution. French new wave might not be a formal and pre-planned movement but It happened at the right place and at the eight time and its effect to this day are seen all round the world.The fact that the Indian Art-film industry holds a lot of influence from the French new wave is a good example as any. The stories of French new wave films were all different but what set them apart from the rest of the world was their difference in storytelling, even though this difference was not uniform in the French New Wave films. It has inspired a lot of big directors to make films which were the mark of excellence and will keep doing so. It showed that any story of any kind can always break rules and be shown in a different style.

History of economics summary of obama's speech Essay

History of economics summary of obama's speech - Essay Example The country maintained its figure by beating at the moon, but here has come up new challenges with varying difficulties to test ‘whether this nation would endure’ (remember Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address). As Craighill reports in Washington Post, 84 percent of speech-watchers responded positively to Obama’s speech. With regard to investment policy, Obama said that he would propose a new investment budget which aims at innovations in clean energy technologies and heavy reliance on nuclear power in order to meet the challenge of exceeding dependency on fossil fuel (McGreal). The most potential aspect of Indian as well as Chinese model of investment he finds is their genuine concern in education especially in math and science. â€Å"Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree† he reminded. He also reminds the Republicans who are skeptical about huge investments that â€Å"cutting the d eficit by gutting our investment in education and innovation is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine†. Obama intended to ensure the Republican support as he said they were at the moment to determine ‘if government’s growth is left unchecked and unchallenged’.

Specific Background Information in Relation to AIDS Research Paper

Specific Background Information in Relation to AIDS - Research Paper Example Specifically with Australia, it is officially known that â€Å"from the start of the epidemic until the end of 2009, there have been 29,395 diagnoses of HIV and 10,446 diagnoses of AIDS. Australia has recorded 6,776 AIDS deaths† (AVERT, 2010). In terms of AIDS, the country has recorded downward infection rates since 2005 from 234 to 90 in 2009. However with new HIV infections, there has been rising new prevalence and infection rate since the same period of time. This is an alarming situation. The graph below represents data on new HIV and AIDS infection rates for Australia for a decade from 1999 to 2009. Source: AVERT (2010). Australia HIV & AIDS Statistics From the graph, it can be seen that the new infections of HIV generally rise whiles that of AIDS generally decrease. The truth however is that all people having HIV will eventually contract AIDS and so if there is something to be worried about most, it should be the new HIV, which unfortunately keeps going up. Statement of Problem The present problem for which a strategy needs to be developed is the seemingly low level of awareness on the risk factors associated with the HIV disease and how the key risks associated with the disease can be prevented or minimized. Lately, there is a globally low trend on the campaign against HIV because of the general downward infection rates recorded of late. AVERT (2010) notes that â€Å"the number of deaths probably peaked around 2004, and due to the expansion of antiretroviral therapy, declined by 19 percent between 2004 and 2009.† Because of this trend, governments, non-governmental agencies and other organized bodies that formally championed the campaign on HIV all seem to have coiled back into their shells. It is said to note that there continue to be low budgets allocated to HIV awareness programs because of the general assurance that the infection rate of HIV is going down. One very important factor that stakeholders who seem to be relaxing on their effo rts seem to be forgetting is the fact that low infection rates is not equal to zero infection rate. It is not as if HIV no longer affects new casualties. Sight must not even be lost of the fact that HIV continues to remain a non-curative disease and a disease that is still rated as an epidemic. Presently, there is no continent or country that has a zero infection rate. For this reason, there is a major problem of reduced awareness and thus the need to strategies means of uplifting the once vibrant campaign against HIV and AIDS infections in the country. Questions Motivating Research for Devising the Strategy The conduct of this research shall pivot around a number of questions. These questions are worth stating because they are going to serve as delimitations to the researcher in defining the kind of information to look out for and which information to leave out of the research. The questions are again worth stating because they will guide the researcher in knowing exactly what the research work seeks to achieve and scope that the research work may not deal with. The questions that are going to guide the conduct of the research and device of the strategy are therefore given as followers: 1. What is the global infection rate of

Men and Women in Contemporary America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Men and Women in Contemporary America - Essay Example The paper will also look at those roles that have not changed and how it is affecting both male and females. Over the years, gender roles have changed tremendously. Long time ago it was the men who were tasked with the responsibility of fending for their families. Women were never allowed to engage in any economic activities. This has, however, changed due to the rise in the cost of living. Men have now been forced to allow their wives to work so that they can help fend for their families. Some women have even gone further and claimed high managerial positions. Being head of an organization, they have to give out orders to their subordinates. Some of their subordinates happen to be men. This has forced men to accept that women can take up leadership positions in various organizations (Sudha 65). The need for two incomes in a family has forced women to engage in economic activities so that they can be able to compliment the income of their husbands. This has forced women to abandon so me of their traditional duties which included taking care of the children, taking care of the home and making sure that everything is in order. When they take up the role of complimenting their husband’s income they are forced to employ, house helps who have now had to play some of the roles of a wife. Cleaning the house, taking care of children and preparing meals are some of these chores. Women have recently left their traditional roles and are now actively involved in economic activities so as to support their incomes. Sometimes women find themselves as the sole bread winners of the family. This has had an effect on their husbands who have to be left at home to take care of children and perform household chores. When the woman is the breadwinner the man is usually forced to take up some of the roles that were traditionally played by women. They are forced to stay back at home and take care of the family. When women are breadwinners in their families, they are forced to aba ndon some of the activities they used to perform. They are forced to let their husbands to play some the duties they used to perform with the help of a housewife. They will take up the responsibility of providing for their families. This is never an easy task, however, but they are usually left with no other alternatives (Das and Vijay 78). Long time ago women were never allowed to go to school. However, this has become something of the past. The government has made sure that every boy and girl attends school. This is because school equips us with vital skills that vital skills that we can be able to use in the future. School happens to be one of the places where competition is embraced. There are also various levels of education in our educational system. Some women are more educated than men (Wayne 92). That is they are highly qualified when it comes to sourcing for jobs. This has had an effect on men’s egos. They are, therefore, forced to be competitive so as to keep up wi th men. Recent research has shown that women are highly educated than men. It is high time that men stepped up their game and ensured they are able to compete with women academically. Research has shown that men fear women who are usually highly educated than them. Women who are more learned than men are usually open to numerous job opportunities. This has enabled them to quit some of their traditional roles. As they say, education is the key to success. These women who are more