Personal Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Personal Knowledge - Essay Example This then directs me to the investigation of epistemology itself, how do people react and pay attention to music, how do listeners perceive sound out of it It seems that, they need to cling to certain metaphors, to 'mentality'; they will feel stuck if they can't perceive a green garden, and a blued-sky or something relevant to that. Using implicit consideration that a year ago I attended an opera which featured a well known singer, say understanding how to play music persuasively so far not being proficient to amply illustrate my 'knowledge' of it, I came to react like 'our musical bands are poor and irrational'. They played music over their pa systems whose frequencies are mostly consistent with their power fields, and are in fact upsetting for persons that are not accustomed to it. Various frequencies create various emotions. I know sometimes music genres - rock and pop - in fact make me ill if I am rendering to them for considerable period of time. I had left that opera. It so gives me the impression that something is off-center with this particular situation - either widely heard music is beyond phase with, or completely hearing-impaired to, listener's anticipation or the listeners had plunged into a sort of easy listening habit. Exemptions allowable on both of these choices, I think 'clued-up music' is in general easy-to-get-to the population, given this public is equipped maintaining an ultimate preliminary shock, since there certainly exists an interval between the overall styles, methods and artistic grounds of the melody we are caused to experience in our routine life and those of this era's. Music skills can only be unintelligibly known, that is to say, they can come what may understood perfectly and even if our faith may comprehend the relation of their elements we have convolution in telling these relations through our aptitude to communicate, i.e. 'clear-cut language' (Michael Polanyi 1998). It is irrefutable that these day's erudite music isn't that much easy to discern and comprehend, comprising the extensive demands for music, not to point out that of the more genres, and the relatively scanty interest of the music listeners. Moreover, it is usually worded as excessively difficult and tightly-packed without rationalisation. Is this a symptom of our times Without a doubt, our times are those of a 'speedy being', spilling over with every day concerns, that does not nurse anything that adds more trouble to its maze-like pace. According to Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), "music is not simply a language. Every piece is resembling a hard rock, with myriad ruts and sliced with depictions on the surface and underneath, which people make sense of and understand in a thousand diverse ways, none of them being the most excellent nor the truest". And, he continued, "The actual disaster will be if, as new composers rummage around for diverse and probably more 'classical' forms of look and production, the confused voices of an previous originality are covered up" (Arnold Whittall). This made me absolutely lay down my arms on that widely-established idea that music is a worldwide language, understood at once and perceivable by every person. Furthermore, I'd say that it is incorrect to consider that music is for all and sundry or, in other words, that a 'music composition' is always made up with consensus in mentality, every person gathering a similar accepting from hearing it. I take from this that the 'positive reception' of a

International Financial Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

International Financial Management - Essay Example Companies engage in foreign direct investment due to various reasons, but mainly to generate profit and secondly to hedge risk. Sometimes the companies would have huge cash surplus and fear that due to unfavourable movement in the exchange rate the dollar value of the cash surplus would decrease (Bajaj, 2001). The companies would park their extra cash in various foreign countries in the form of foreign direct investment. Generally the FDI are long term in nature but a company looking for quick gain can resort to short term borrowing. The research endeavours to create an international financial management report on FDI for Infosys. Infosys, a software giant in India is contemplating to conduct a FDI in another international country. The target firm chosen is Apple and the target market chosen is USA. The choice of the target market and the choice of the target company bear special significance (Bonaccorsi and Daraio, 2009). Apple has a myriad of products and service starting from elec tronic gadgets to the creation of operating systems. Apple has experienced one of the highest rises in the price of shares and apart from that the company is in an excellent growth trajectory. Infosys wants to cash in from the excellent growth opportunity of Apply by investing directly in it its path breaking technologies. Apart from this USA has a strong track record of FDI. These are two motivating factors behind the choice of Apple and America for FDI. Infosys wishes to follow a joint venture Greenfield with Apple. The joint venture Greenfield will help to create new products in USA. 2. Literature review The factors affecting the global flow of foreign direct investment in USA or as a matter of fact any country is many and varied. Although in the present context, only 4 important factors are considered which are transportations costs, market imperfections, strategic behaviour, product life cycle and location specific advantage. 2.1 Transportations Costs The diagram given below is an indication of the transportation cost at present in USA. The cost of transportation is shown as cumulative of the average costs incurred by travelling both by air and road. The cost of transportation is major issues but only for those products which have a low value to weight ratio. In the present case the value to weight ratio is assumed to be very high (Clark and Mathur, 2013). This is because of the reason that the target products (electronic gadgets) are negligible in terms of weights. So the cost of transportation will not pose as a serious threat. Fig 1: Transportation cost over the last 10 years Source: (Mintzberg and Waters, 2011) 2.2 Market imperfections Over the last 50 years almost 56% of the foreign companies that took part in the FDI considered market imperfections to be the single most important factor. Whenever there are impediments in both exporting and sale of know-how through licensing then FDI takes place. Barriers to export include quotas, complete bans, tari ffs and other restrictions that hinder the free flow of product between two nations. Most of the foreign countries in the world do not share a mutual bilateral trade between themselves that facilitates the flow of goods and services (Das, Quelch and Swartz, 2000). During 2000 to 2012 phases some of the emerging nations resorted to FDI with USA since international groups like NATO ordered restrictions on establishing trade relations with different countries. Thus these countries like China, Japan, Korea,

The Discipline of Nursing Professional Boundaries

The Discipline of Nursing Professional Boundaries As professionals in health care, the nurses aim is to have a therapeutic relationship with the patient, where boundaries of the relationship are strictly safe and within the code of ethics. Such boundaries are called professional boundaries that are defined as the spaces between the nurses power and the clients vulnerability. Establishing these boundaries provide the nurse with authority to allow a confidential and professional therapeutic relationship with the patient (The National Council of State Boards of Nursing 2010, p. 25). To avoid breaches and infringement, these boundaries must be maintained throughout clinical practices and placements. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council, also known as ANMC, (cited in Kralik van Loon 2008, p. 76) define professional boundaries as the limit of a relationship between a nurse and an individual or between a nurse and any significant other persons, which facilitates safe and therapeutic practice and results in safe and effective care. In regards to nursing, the ANMC (cited in Levett-Jones Bourgeois, 2009, p. 103) advocates that professional boundaries are related to the responsibility, performance, morals and actions from the nurse and must be maintained when working with vulnerable individuals. To ensure a professional environment between the nurse and patient, a code of conduct, as well as a set of policies and ethics, are put in place. Daly, Speedy Jackson (2006, p. 131) states that nursing ethics can be defined broadly as the examination of all kinds of ethical (and bioethical) issues from the perspective of nursing theory and practice. The most important organizations in Australia that create policies for nurses and other health care professionals to abide by, are the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC), the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). The policies, as spoken by the ANMC, is generated and expected for nurses to uphold both within and outside of professional domains in order to ensure the good standing of the nursing profession (ANMC 2008, p.1). If the organizations code isnt followed, it will establish a breaching of boundaries and professional misconduct, which is defined as the unethical, immoral and improper actions outside of the nurses practice (ANMC 2008, p.2). The continuum of professional behaviors is an evaluation tool for nurses to assess the interaction between the client and the nurse. Seen in this continuum, the zone in the middle is called the zone of helpfulness where it verifies if the behavior towards the patient, demonstrated by the nurse, is safe and professional. Breaching of boundaries can be on either side of the zone of helpfulness where on the left hand side is under-involvement and towards the right hand side is over-involvement. Both ends of the continuum generally involve violating and breaching the borders of a therapeutic relationship and are harmful and damaging to both the nurse and the patient (Oregon Sate Board of Nursing 2010, p.12). Under-involvement is mostly seen when the patient is feeling neglected and isolated. Predominantly, when the nurse abandons the patient, there is a lack of care, which in turn, may be able to increase health risks for the patient. For example, ignoring the patient during two-hourly bed turns could cause bedsores on the patients body or paying no attention to the patients strict diet could cause food allergies. Disregarding the patient is detrimental to their health and may also be damaging to the nurse (National Council of State Boards of Nursing 2010 p. 25). Boundary violations are on the over-involvement side of the continuum and are breaches that, at times, intend to harm the patient and sometimes occur when the nurses needs are met instead of the patients. An example of such violations can include the nurse providing personal information or feelings to the patient, accepting a gift from the patient or engaging in a sexual relationship with the patient. As health care providers, patients are more susceptible to boundary violations because of vulnerability, high dependency on the nurse and low stability on their mental and emotional state (Nurse Together 2011). Vulnerable individuals are most important when working with professional boundaries. In the health care profession, vulnerable individuals are usually those that have an extended length of stay or treatment, but can also be those that are of old age, have a high dependency on the nurse, have past trauma or injuries, a high severity of illness and/or a low stability on their emotional and mental state. (Holden Schenthal 2007, p. 28) There are many different strategies for a nurse to utilize during clinical placements. The American Nurses Association (cited in Holden, KV Schenthal, SJ, 2007 p. 25) says that when acting within ones role as a professional, the nurse should recognize and maintain boundaries that establish appropriate limits to relationships. For vulnerable individuals, Nurse Together (2011) advocates that boundaries can be maintained by many tools such as using an approachable and professional tone and by having a clear distinction of the professional relationship and the role of the nurse and as the patient. The tone of the nurse can be interpreted in many different ways, thus has the ability to breach the professional boundary between the nurse and the patient. If the nurse is talking with an interested, over-friendly and flirtatious tone, it can be interpreted it as becoming over-involved with the patient as it is engaging in a sexual relationship with the patient. The nurse should always act in the best interest of the client and be cognizant of their feelings and behavior. Nurses should always be aware of the patient and their culture. For example, a patient with different beliefs may view an action in a different manner, which therefore has the ability to become a potential catalyst to an unprofessional relationship (Oregon State Board of Nursing 200 p.14). Therefore, to maintain professional boundaries with vulnerable individuals, nurses should keep within the zone of helpfulness by having a clear distinction that the relationship with the patient is kept professional and the nurse is the health care worker, not the patient. As a nurse, there are boundaries that must be conserved to have a professional therapeutic relationship with the vulnerable patient throughout clinical placements and/or clinical practices. Organizations such as ANMC and AHPRA generate policies to enable the nurse to take care of a patient at an optimal level and not be over or under involved. If, however, there is a violation of these boundaries, it is considered as professional misconduct. Maintaining these boundaries is important for risk management, quality assurance, client satisfaction and agency resource utilization (Clark et. al, cited in Kralik van Loon 2007, p. 76).

I Love You From the Bottom of My Brain: The Neurobiology Behind Love :: Biology Essays Research Papers

I Love You From the Bottom of My Brain: The Neurobiology Behind Love You're at a typical weekend party. You spot someone across the room. They look over in your direction. "Wow, they're so beautiful," you think. You want desperately to go over and talk to them, but at the very thought of it, your heart starts racing and your palms begin to sweat. Looking over at them again, you see that amazingly enough they are coming over to you. Even before speaking to them, you feel like you have just fallen in love. Is this feeling really love at first sight? Or is it merely the release of hormones in the brain? What causes the feeling of being in love? How can we know for sure if we really are in love? Love is one of the strongest and most elusive emotions. Nearly every person seeks to experience the feeling of being in love. And once it is achieved, one's life is forever changed. Yet, most people would have extreme difficulty describing what exactly love is, how they know for sure that they are in love, or why love is so universally important. Understanding the neurobiology behind love might help to give us a more clear perspective on social bonding and raises the question of whether love is nothing more than the release of certain chemicals. The hormone oxytocin plays a significant role in many animals' instinct to love and form social bonds. In fact, it has been called jokingly, "the cuddle hormone." (1) Oxytocin is a small protein composed of nine amino acids. It is produced in the hypothalamus and is released by the pituitary gland. (2) Oxytocin is also produced in the ovaries of women and the testes of men. However, the hormone's most well known function is specific to females. (3) First, it plays an integral role in the delivery of a baby. When a woman goes into labor, oxytocin levels increase. This stimulates contraction in the smooth muscle of the uterine walls, thereby facilitating delivery. Secondly, oxytocin plays a role in milk letdown in nursing mothers. Milk is initially released into small sacs, called alveoli, which are surrounded by smooth muscle cells. Oxytocin stimulates contractions of this smooth muscle, causing the milk to be released to the mouth of a nursing baby. (3) Lastly, and most importantly, oxytocin causes the formation of maternal behavior.

Mass Media Effects and Messages Essay

Where would society be without mass media? How would our society evolve with electronic communication? These are important questions. They demand investigation into how our world functions on a daily basis. The answers to these questions tell us how we think, act and feel every day. Without mass media and without mass communication, society would look much different. Every generation had its own leap in technology which dramatically changed the course of human existence. With each technological leap, communication and mass media evolved with it. When broadcast radio became mainstream, households across America gained access to live news and entertainment. When computers became the main source of filing and storing information, government, media, and the general public had a new resource for communication. As technology grew, so did society’s demand and with each new image, debate, journal entry or story, came a new challenge for the media industry. Media and society have a symbiotic relationship. There is the idea that media drives society’s conversation. Can it also be true that society drives the media? Mass media is very powerful. The industry has its finger on the pulse of the world. Twenty-four hour news cycles, readily-accessible entertainment and social media have all greatly affected the psychology of society. There is no better example of this than of body image. In 1991, a study was performed to investigate what young girls and teenagers thought the ideal woman is. This study showed that girls believed the perfect woman is five feet, seven inches tall, 100 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. (Groesz, Levine & Murnen, 2001) This image may evoke the prototypical Barbie doll. This, of course, is an almost unattainable stature  for most women. How did this philosophy develop and where did adolescent girls attain that image? Is it possible this idea of the ideal woman was perpetuated by peer pressure or school? Yes. However, some of the most egregious purveyors of body image is mass media. This study, performed almost 24 years ago, shows that this has been an evolving problem that continues to go unaddressed. In fact, it can be said that it has gotten worse with the â€Å"age of information†. Today, images of celebrities, pseudo-celebrities and models plague the internet. Photoshopping, airbrushing and other image manipulation methods can seemingly erase any flaw on the human body. It would be obvious to many people that this sort of perversion of the truth would be immensely unethical, but it goes unaddressed or unnoticed to the general population. Magazines sell these images to target markets to which they use to advertise their products. The health, fitness, and cosmetic industries, in turn, stand to profit from portraying what the perfect person should look like. (Groesz, Levine & Murnen, 2001) Mass media also has a great influence on sexuality. Television shows, films and reality television depict a world that is often in direct opposition to reality. In 2005, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that seven out of ten television shows depict racy or sexual content. This is almost double the sexual content that was shown only seven years earlier in 1998. (Shiver Jr., 2005) Mass media has a hand in popularizing both phenomenon, but can the chicken or egg theory be applied here? Did society already believe Barbie to be the epitome of perfection? Does the progression of social attitudes make sexual content more acceptable? If the media simply giving society what it wants? Or is the media brainwashing society into its beliefs? Professor Marissa Wagner Oehlhof of Bowling Green University is an instructor in the psychology department and teaches classes on human sexuality. She contributes much of the peer pressure on adolescents to friends, family, but also the media. (Kin g, 2012) â€Å"We live in a sex-saturated society,† she says. Ms. Oehlhof believes the media can affect society. â€Å"People aren’t running out and having sex because TV or radio told them, but rather this media affects our attitude†¦It desensitizes us to what we think and hear, makes it seem more common than it is, like it’s no big  deal.† (King, 2012) If mass media can contribute to society’s psychology about ideas itself, can it also influence politics? New ways of communicating and information-seeking are constructed every day. The wireless world changes everything. Mary Cate Cary of the US News and World Report shows fives way mass media is changing the political atmosphere. First, it is acknowledged that constituents are selective in how they access information. White House Communications Director, Dan Pfeiffer says, â€Å"With the Internet, with YouTube, with TiVo, with cable TV, people are selective viewers now. [They] approach their news consumption the way they approach their iPod: You download the songs you like and listen to them when you want to listen to them.† (Cary, 2010) This kind of technology and society’s embrace of it controls how the media approaches its job. It can also contribute to how politicians and the government create their agenda. Cary also claims the ability to share images and information changes the dynamic of the political atmosphere. She cites President Barack Obama’s penchant for using social media to communicate his message to the masses. (Cary, 2010) Cary also addresses the ability to instantly show approval or disapproval of messages or campaigns through â€Å"thumbing†, â€Å"liking† or â€Å"retweeting†; the capability of connecting with like-minded people; and even making donations to causes. (Cary, 2012) She also points to the American Red Cross, which was able to raise over $8 million for relief efforts for the earthquake in Haiti. (Cary, 2012) All of these examples are ways mass media can change the paradigm for politics. There is also the claim that mass media is biased towards on polit ical party or the other. It is not out of the realm of reality that many newspapers or cable news programs are much more apologetic or favorable to respective political sides. Some even openly admit it. But how much does that sway a vote? Fox News, widely considered to be conservative-leaning, began in 1996 when Rupert Murdoch launched his channel in the United States. A study showed concluded that, in conjunction with the popularity of Fox News, the 2000 Presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, could have tipped the election in Bush’s favor by half a percentage point. (Duflo, 2008) Printed media was shown to be no different. In a study conducted by Yale University researches, gave free subscriptions of newspapers to people living in the Washington D.C. area. Half the participants received a copy of the Washington Post, a Democratic-leaning  publications and the other half were given a copy of the Washington Times, which is historically conservative. Having access to the news through each of these publications upped the likelihood of potential voters by 3.5%. (Duflo, 2008) The study concluded that despite readers of the Washington Post being 11% more likely to vote Democrat, 7% of Washington Times readers were also likely to vote against the Republicans, showing that many voters do not let what they read effect how they cast ballots. (Duflo, 2008) While society may thirst for more and more information, it is also being proven that society has the ability to think critically in regards to that information. However, it does raise a new question. Is it ethical for news organizations to attempt to influence voters? After all, many cable news programs, radio broadcasts and publications are admittedly biased. This admittance shines light on the fact that the information being fed to society is not factual or being delivered in a way that may show favorability to one person or another. It can also shy people away from certain networks o r newspapers that are notoriously biased. A person may automatically dismiss a story from a publication they know to be left or right-leaning. Even though the world may never be free from bias, there are protections put in place to ensure that society will be free from oppressive thought, unethical reporting and intellectual theft. When the Founding Fathers first drafted the Constitution, they reflected on their own experiences in Great Britain. An imperial leader deciding what is best for his people, based soley on his own agenda was something they fought against. The First Amendment ensures no government of the United States oppresses its people’s freedom to think for themselves. It protects United States citizens from the government imparting its own beliefs. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. This protection means all people are fee to think, speak and believe how they feel necessary, without government intervention. It is a very important line of the Constitution and a standard to which all other rights, freedoms and protections are borne. The Founders knew that without a free society, there could be no United States of America. Other laws that ensure legal and ethical behavior in media are copyright law and libel. Copyright laws protect intellectual property and creative works. (Vivian, 2011) These laws stretch from books and publications to music, catch phrases, and logos. Copyright laws ensure that proper credit is given to the creator and that profits cannot be made from someone else’s work. It is easy to see how this can be applied to media as lifting work from another party for ratings or financial gain is not just unethical, but also illegal. Libel laws also protect people from being defamed or attacked in ways that can harm a person’s reputation. (Vivian, 2011) False attacks on a person can lead to lawsuits or damages being incurred on the attacking party. Libel laws make sure that accountability is being addressed when going after a particular subject. Almost every right and protection comes with some amount of responsibility. The first amendment does not protect a person from inciting riots, viciously and falsely attacking another person or business or using someone else’s work to better their own. As technology continues to develop, it is even more important to ensure that these regulations on press, media and speech are instilled. Mass media can seem both tangible and intangible. Images, press releases, books, publications, and entertainment are all very visible things. However, media is also fluid, evolving and significantly hinges on the intangibles and the unpredictable forces in our society. With each day that technology grows, the media is already in catch-up mode. When hard-back books became e-books, marketing techniques and accessibility had to change. When music was now played on invisible things files instead of discs, the music industry had to deploy new ways of making albums interesting. The products are all very solid objects, however, the road there is often shrouded in mystery. As a result, mass media and society live and breathe together. Without each other, neither exists. Media affects our society every day, whether it is  through self-image, politics or interests. Society itself puts a demand on media to deliver all of these products. Does the tail wag the dog? That would then force us to decide who is the tail and who is the dog. Cary, M. 2010. 5 Ways New Media Are Changing Politics. The US News & World Report. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/02/04/5-ways-new-media-are-changing-politics Accessed on October 18, 2014 Duflo, E. 2008. Does the mass-media have political influence? Vox. http://www.voxeu.org/article/does-mass-media-influence-voters-evidence-us Accessed on October 18, 2014. Groesz, L., Levine, M., Murnen, S. March 2001. The Effect of experimental Presentation of Thin Media Images on Body Satisfaction: A Meta-Analytic Review. Department of Psychology. Kenyon College. King, D. 2012. Peers, mass media exposure can influence attitudes on sexual activity. The Big News. http://www.bgnews.com/in_focus/peers-mass-media-exposure-can-influence-attitudes-on-sexual-activity/article_cf259f12-6291-11e1-8406-001871e3ce6c.html Accessed on October 18, 2014. Shiver Jr., J. 2005. Television Awash in Sex, Study Says. Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2005/nov/10/business/fi-tvsex10 Accessed on O ctober 18, 2014. Vivian, J. 2011. The Media of Mass Communication. Tenth Edition. Chapter 16. Pg. 425-436.

John Keats “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” Essay

â€Å"On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer† by John Keats is a poem widely recognised by critics as a pivotal moment in his development as a poet; this work is evidence of his complete mastery of the sonnet form (of which he wrote 64 in total). This poem was a key evolutionary process which would help him construct the development of his own poetic legacy: the Great Odes. Keats was enthralled by the sonnet form because it presented a challenge: to concentrate thought provoking philosophy concisely enough to fit into fourteen lines. He restlessly experimented with both verse and meter, and though he worked with Petrarchan structures he found them to be unsuitable for the English tongue, and began to favour the Shakespearian form instead. Never the less, Keats achieves technical perfection in this Petrarchan structured poem. The first part of a Petrarchan sonnet, the Octet (eight lines), usually serves as a question or presents a problem to be then followed by an answer or a solution in the Sestet (six lines). However, Keats subverts this traditional structure to instead aid a before and after response; in this case the Octet ponders his travels and knowledge before Chapman’s Homer, while the Sestet then contrasts his enlightening experience of finally reading it. This poem is a brilliant testimony of the profound effect of poetry on Keats – it was composed in a vivid, ephemeral moment of crucial inspiration during the ardent elation he experienced straight after reading Chapman’s Homer, and so powerful was this stimulation that the whole poem was finished in day. Keats establishes his utter admiration for Chapman and Homer in the opening lines; Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been The initial exclamatory statement asserts gallantly that he is a scholar of high art and literature. He immediately introduces the central and recurring metaphors of exploration and discovery – the idea of travelling and cluster  of locations: travell’d, realms, states, kingdoms, islands all emphasise the diversity of experiences brought by the power of art and imagination. The phrase â€Å"Realms of Gold† symbolises the world of imagination. Keats believes that art can open the mind to new worlds and experiences. The word choice of â€Å"gold† shows just how rich and rare these experiences are, and also alludes to the search for gold of the Spanish conquistadors, linking to his reference to Cortez in the Sestet. This also reflects his hunger to be exposed to more and greater works. The repetition of the â€Å"l† sounds in â€Å"travelled†, â€Å"realms†, and â€Å"gold† emphasises the idea and ties the words together. The frequent and insistent use of first person narrative also reinforces the extent of Keats own personal knowledge; how well travelled and widely versed he is, and therefore we understand his epiphany upon reading Chapman’s Homer is well informed and trustworthy. The fourth line moves away from those who enjoy art, to those who actually create it; â€Å"Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.† The high, even sacred function that poets fulfil is indicated by their being the servants of a god, Apollo, and having sworn to follow him (with the suggestion that they have consecrated their lives to him). â€Å"Fealty† indicates their dedication to Apollo and consequently their calling – the creation of poetry. Keats continues on to expand on those who create art rather than those who appreciate it, narrowing down to one particular poet who rules the realm of poetry, and who was his main inspiration to rise above other dedicated poets; â€Å"Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow’d Homer ruled his demesne; Yet never did I breathe its pure serene† Again, the metaphor of travel and discovery is expanded. Keats is reinforcing the vastness of Homer’s legacy and his admiration – not only was it rich, but prolific, a trait which he very much wanted to emulate. To emphasise the extent of Homers genius and his literary accomplishments, Keats modifies â€Å"expanse† (which means extensive) with an adjective which also means  Ã¢â‚¬Å"extensive†, â€Å"wide†, to reinforce how limitless his intellect was. â€Å"Deep-browed† also refers to Homers intellect – we still use â€Å"deep† as a colloquialism today e.g. â€Å"deep thoughts† â€Å"deep thinker†. To Keats, Homer is majestic as he â€Å"rules† with complete authority over the world of literature. By breathing in the â€Å"pure serene† he shows that art, to him, is a necessity, an essential part of his life that he cannot live without, like oxygen. He also makes it part of himself; absorbing it shows the extent to which he is devoted to art – he literally lives and breathes it. His use of an adjective in place of a noun â€Å"pure serene† is evidence that he struggled within the restrictions of our language, which would eventually prompt him to move onto Shakespearian formed sonnets. The line â€Å"Yet never did I breathe its pure serene† also contrasts with following and last line of the Octet; â€Å"Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:† These lines contrast Keats’s knowledge of Homer’s reputation with his experience of the genius of Homers poetry in Chapman’s translation. â€Å"Out loud and bold† reinforces the vitality of the epiphany achieved and is contradictory to the previous calm â€Å"serene† mood that Keats was previously in. We associate the words â€Å"pure† and â€Å"serene† with something neutral, peaceful and relaxing – these words apply both to the original poetry of Homer and the translation by Chapman. â€Å"Serene† also conveys Keats spiritual fulfilment, as previously he was in emotional turmoil and distress. This last line of the Octet â€Å"Till I heard†¦Ã¢â‚¬  prepares us for the Volta and brings the Octet to a swelling crescendo; until this moment, he has felt excluded from entry to a new world of enlightenment and truth. The Sestet begins with â€Å"Then†, seamlessly transitioning from the Volta and preparing us for the impact of reading Chapman’s Homer. There is also particular emphasis in all things visual in this section; â€Å"Then I felt like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star’d at the Pacific – and all his men The emphasis on all things visual – â€Å"watcher†, â€Å"eagle eyes†, â€Å"star’d† – reinforces the power and strength of Keats’s imagination and devotion to his poetry; he is easily able to relate his epiphany to the experience of discovering uncharted waters, or being the first to spy a new planet. The relentless excitement and pure awe-inspiring experience that Keats is undergoing is only comparable to discovering something fresh, new, and undiscovered, just as he feels he has discovered a whole new world of knowledge so vast that it includes the heavens – â€Å"new planet†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The use of the two separate metaphors is interesting, as Keats appears to favour the explorer metaphor over the astronomy metaphor. â€Å"†¦ I felt like some watcher of the skies When a new plant swims into his ken†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This metaphor alludes to the fairly recent discovery of the planet Uranus, which is a wholly visual experience and seemingly perfect for the elation Keats is trying to convey. â€Å"Swims† alludes to the upcoming ocean metaphor. However, to Keats, this outer space knowledge has not been acquired actively enough, and he quickly abandons the astronomy metaphor in favour of the explorer metaphor. This is more satisfying, as this discovery was made actively and on earth rather than in space: the discovery of a new planet will never be truly satisfying as it will always be out of reach and therefore we will only ever have basic, rudimentary knowledge. â€Å"†¦ like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star’d at the Pacific†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This is also a very visual experience, and Keats emphasises Cortez’s eyes by calling them â€Å"eagle eyes†. This suggests that Cortez’s eyes are keen, observing strongly and are paying close attention to detail, just as Keats thoroughly observed all of Chapman’s Homer, so much so that he felt as though he was breathing it in and literally surviving though it. The fact that Cortez is said to â€Å"Stare† also reinforces how entrancing and enthralling the sight of the ocean was for him, just as Keats was hypnotised  by Chapman’s Homer. By deliberately choosing the discovery of an ocean over a planet, Keats emphases his view point that we only have access to a finite, limited bank of knowledge. The sea is also a method of transportation, just as Chapman’s Homer is the vehicle for Keats’s own discovery. The last two lines reflect the shock and awe of Cortez and his men upon discovering the ocean, similar to Keats’s current amazement; â€Å"Look’d at each other with a wild surmise Silent, upon a peak in Darien.† The discovery of the ocean is so surprising and unexpected that Cortez’s men, as well as himself, as shocked into silence and dumb-stuck speechless. â€Å"Surmise† implies that they were confused, unsure, but alongside â€Å"wild† Keats word choice conveys that their shock was excitement induced, their reactions are feral, natural and almost untamed in nature. The imagery of Cortez and his men standing â€Å"silent† and in awe is a stark contrast to the previous booming, â€Å"loud and bold voice† in the Volta which prompted Keats’s epiphany. This represents the come down from the white hot excitement upon first reading Chapman’s Homer, to the quiet, pensive, yet still dumb-stuck speechlessness Keats would later on experience. Again, Keats is conveying that the English language is limiting and reluctant to allow you to fully express and communicate the impact of profound moments such as this. This shows frustration with Keats medium of choice. Keats has created an uplifting and thought provoking sonnet which encourages and inspires us to seek beyond the knowledge we have already gained, and to always aspire for more. This sonnet is so technically praised because not only is the content inspiring, but his appreciation of verse form and meter have been demonstrated faultlessly through out to create a satisfying piece of art in a mere fourteen lines. The error Keats made in mentioning Cortez as the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean indeed does not detract from the overall meaning of the poem – names are almost irrelevant, it is the actions and accomplishments that are so potent in his work. What is important is  human truth, not historical accuracy, and Keats has once again created a work of enormous ambition that reflects the importance of knowledge and discovery, no matter how big or small.

Women and Education essays

Women and Education essays Women and Education: Granting women and men equal access to education in light of the Fourteenth Amendments pledge of equal protection. Though taken for granted by many, co-sex educational institutions for higher learning are really just recent occurrences. For the most part, colleges and universities, particularly elite ones, taught either men or women. The reasons for this separation date back to early American history, when a womans place was seen as in the home. In addition, education was seen, though ridiculously, as having detrimental effects on the woman. Some of these ludicrous, yet back then scientific beliefs, included that womens brains were smaller than mens were therefore, making them less capable of academic learning. It was also said that if women utilized their brains at the time of their adolescent years, then their reproductive organs would not develop correctly causing possible sterility. Motherhood has always been seen as a strong link for women to their personal identities. Therefore, the greatest oppression would be to threaten its existence. Having to be a mother is a role traditionally defined by society for women; Most women long for children, even against considerable odds, even when marriage has become a light-minded undertaking, and in direst poverty; women continue to seek to be mothers. This is just one of the avenues that was taken advantage of in order to continue the intolerable oppression of preventing women from educating themselves and enlightening their lives. Women have had to prove that they are equals of men. They have had to prove that they are as intelligent, competent, brave, and as morally responsible. With this incentive Womens Liberation was born and with it women were secured many rights, among them are: the right to vote, to educate themselves, and to have and spend their own money and properties...