All Quiet on the Western Front Essay -- English Literature

All Quiet on the Western Front The 19th century view of war expressed that it was the most honorable and glorious event that a man could participate in. This romantic viewpoint was quick to change after World War I. In addition, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front further illustrated the ghastly nature of war. His descriptive writing portrays the graphic details of reality, leaving the readers of the 20th century in shock. Since Remarque was the first author of his time to reveal these lifelike affairs, his novel helped change their perspective of war, forcing them to not want any part of it. In his novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque utilizes the main character Paul to symbolize the people of the 20th century. Along with his peers, Paul is encouraged by adults to fight in the war, especially by his teacher, Kantorek. Paul knows nothing about war before he enlists and is quickly disgusted to realize his mistake. Remarque writes, â€Å"Naturally we couldn’t blame Kantorek for this. Where would the world be if one brought every man to book? There were thousands of Kantoreks, all of whom were convinced that they were acting for the best – in a way that cost them nothing† (12). Here, Kantorek symbolizes all the elders who pushed naà ¯ve teenagers to enlist because they felt that war was glorious and romantic. The adolescents that followed their directions had trust in them because of their authority. However, the ones who professed enlisting were not the ones who did the actual fighting – they did not witness the cruelness nor live the brutal, soldier life. Remarque continues, â€Å"The first bombardment showed us our mistake†¦We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously ... ...rred in the 19th and 20th centuries. Our modern technology has played a large part in changing our viewpoint of war. Movies have started to display the gruesomeness of war as well as video games allowing users to partake in war-like violence. Our current war is even being shown live on the news channels, demonstrating the violence. Therefore, the people of the 21st century have become desensitized to the realities of war. Thus, the readers of the 21st century have already been introduced to the issues that Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front communicates. Along with technology, the fact that the United States is so honest and open with war has allowed children to become familiarized with this subject at an early age. Consequently, the effect on Remarque’s readers in the 21st century is quite different from the effect on the 20th century readers.

Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Shakespeare’s Caliban :: Tempest essays

Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Shakespeare’s Caliban â€Å"Caliban...takes shape beneath the arc of wonder that moves throughout the play between â€Å"creatures† and â€Å"mankind,† between animate beings in general and their realization in the form of humanity. Is he man or fish? creature or person?" (Lupton, 3). â€Å"Although in The Tempest the word creature appears nowhere in conjunction with Caliban himself, his character is everywhere hedged in and held up by the politic-theological category of the creaturely" (Lupton, 3). "A freckled whelp, hag-born " (1.2.285). "Legged like a man, and his fins like arms! " (2.2.31-32). "I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed monster" (2.2.146-147). "A howling monster, a drunken monster" (2.2.179). "This is as strange thing as e’er I looked on" (5.1.292-293). "He is as disproportioned in his manners /As in his shape" (5.1.294-295). He is a poetic paradigm. When performed properly, he can take an audience from tears of laughter to tears of sorrow within a few paragraphs. Caliban is an actor’s dream, a scholar’s vision. Sighted as being both the missing link, but also portrayed in adaptations as more human than Prospero, Caliban is commentary, character and caricature. However, there is a question that plagues authors, directors, actors, and stressed out, indignant English professors: What is Caliban? Many books, articles, updates, adaptations, and arguments tackle this question. Together we will confront these demons, I will lead you down a path, present arguments, ideas, my own bias, but in the end leave you to answer the daunting question of Shakespeare’s man-monster: Four pictures taken from different productions and different collections of The Tempest illustrate how diverse Caliban is. Each one has a unique view of who or, more precisely, what Caliban is. They progress in an order, from pure beast, through something less to someone almost resembling a man. The pictures lead us on a progression from something entirely bestial to something else entirely. The first image demonstrates the best description of Caliban, a creature that slightly resembles a man and slightly does not. Throughout Shakespeare's text, no character refers to Caliban as a man. The other characters describe him as the indescribable. As Alonso says, "This is a strange thing as e'er I / looked on (5.1.292-293)." One of the most common terms used in The Tempest to acknowledge Caliban is moon-calf. The Oxford English Dictionary defines moon-calf as "A misshapen birth, a monstrosity.

The Death of Christen :: Personal Narrative Writing

The Death of Christen It snowed for three straight days after my grandmother died. I wouldn't think the two facts were related but for the fact that the roads were all closed on the second day of the blizzard, and we were stuck at the wake all night long, like someone or something was trying to keep us there. It was weird, spending the night with dead people. I wasn't alone, of course. There was my family, and then there were the Szerniaks and their dead father, and the corpse of some creepy guy named William Manfred III who had apparently been abandoned at his own wake because his family couldn't make it through the snow. I went in to visit him once, but it was just too creepy in there by myself. My own dead relatives were bad enough, thanks. I finished off another piece of cold, greasy fried chicken from the fast food place next door and looked up. My uncle was still snoring in the corner, my cousin was still trying to look up my skirt (the perv) and my dad was still just sitting there in front of the coffin, candlelight tracing shapes around his eyes, swallowing the few tears he had left to cry. My mother wasn't there...she was stranded like us, although she had it slightly better. While we were here with a bunch of corpses, she was at least stuck in an office with hot coffee and her computer and stuff. She was probably having a blast. I wasn't. After a few more minutes of boredom, I decided to get up, stretch my legs and look for some sort of entertainment. There was a television in a small lounge near the bathroom, but it was currently being used as a smoking room by some nervous Szerniaks. I wasn't in the mood for watery eyes and a hacking cough, so I avoided the low-tar menthol-flavored fog bank and went and traced my name on the ice that had formed on the inside of the outside glass door, watching the world swirl around outside as I tried to avoid getting slush on my shoes. That's how I met Christen. "Can I sit here?" she asked, sliding down the wall and landing with a thump on the floor across from me, knees drawn up tight because I was taking up most of the hallway.

Was the Iraqi Use of Military Force in the First Gulf War Justified?

Was the Iraqi use of military force in The First Gulf War justified? In the end of Cold War, a new problem for the international community emerged. In the summer 1990 Iraq launched an invasion of Kuwait. Since the establishment of the United Nations, the international law has played a significant role in relations between states and the survival of the fittest has no longer been a legitimate reason for aggression. Hence, as Iraq has been a UN member a since 1945, its government must have advocated its use of military force somehow. Thus Saddam Hussein took an advantage of ongoing disputes with his neighbour.The purpose of this essay is to prove that the economic frictions between Iraq and Kuwait could not serve as a justification for the Iraqi invasion. Firstly, this paper will examine financial quarrels between the two countries. Secondly, a dispute over price of oil will be discussed. Financial issues between Iraq and Kuwait have their roots in the Iraq-Iran war. The eight years of fighting have caused economic instability in Iraq. The local government was suddenly forced to deal with destroyed infrastructure, depleted oil reserves, and mainly, with the third largest debt in the world that accounted for $80billion (CIA, 2007).In short, local economy got in a dire situation and in order to keep the country going, Iraqi leaders needed to obtain extra money as soon as possible. As a result, Saddam Hussein urged Kuwait to write off the whole Iraqi debt and in addition, provide Baghdad with another $10billion. As Kuwait belonged to Iraq’s biggest creditors, the amount of Iraqi debt was definitely not negligible. In fact, Iraq owed Gulf States approximately $40billion at the time (Freedman & Karsh, 1993).Hussein decided to advocate his daring demand by claiming that without Iran-Iraq war, Gulf States would have been forced to pay larger sums in order to protect themselves from Iran and its Islamic revolution. Accordingly, in the Iraqi point of view, Baghdad deserved to be compensated for the war expenditures. Iraqi former foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, elaborated on this topic with pan-Arabic rhetoric. In his memorandum to the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Aziz argued that despite the division into states, all Arabs still remained one country and what belonged to one, belonged to all.Therefore, according to Aziz, financial support provided to Iraq by Gulf States should not have been regarded as debt, but as aid (Salinger & Laurent, 1991). However, since the establishment of the United Nations, the principle of the pan-Arabism has not been legitimate. On the basis of Article 2, paragraph 1 of the UN Charter, all states are sovereign. This means they have full authority over their own territory and cannot be forced into a decision they do not want to make. It seems logical that no country would voluntarily forget a huge debt and render another $10 billion for no service in return.For this reason, Kuwait considered the Iraqi far re aching demand as bullying (Mylroie, 1993; Salinger & Laurent, 1991; Bulloch & Morris, 1991). Moreover, there was possibility that if Kuwait had fulfilled the Iraqi request, more Iraqi demands for additional money would have followed (Mylroie, 1993; Karsh & Rautsi, 1991). Hence, Kuwaiti government refused to negotiate with Iraq for most of the time and ignored the Iraqi insistence. Nevertheless, when the situation got more escalated, delegates of both parties finally met at a congress in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Here, at last, Kuwait made a concession and offered Saddam Hussein and his cabinet a cancellation of Iraqi debt and a loan of $500million (Musallam, 1996). However, Saddam Hussein did not accept this offer and immediately the next day, on August 1st 1990, sent Iraqi troops on the Kuwaiti border. According to Baran and Rubin (1993), Kuwaiti government perceived the meeting in Jeddah as a starting point for bargaining and perhaps even further concessions. Iraq, on the other hand, c ame only to deliver an ultimatum. This essay will now examine this financial dispute between Iraq and Kuwait in terms of international law.As the law stands, a war must be fought for a just cause. Among other things, it mainly means that a war should be waged only as a last resort, when all possible peaceful options have failed (O’Brien, 1981). With application of this rule to the frictions discussed above, it is plausible to argue that Saddam Hussein and his government did not try to solve the dispute by all peaceful options. On the one hand, they were urging Kuwait to negotiate in the beginning. On the other, when Kuwait finally offered a concession, Iraqi government rebuffed it and immediately launched an invasion of Kuwait.Clearly, this time it was Hussein’s turn to make a concession to Kuwait. Even if afterwards the bilateral negotiations would have failed, there would have been still other peaceful ways how to solve the problem, such as for example good offices, conciliation, arbitration or judicial settlement. Meanwhile, none of these were employed. From this, one can see that Iraq should not have advocated its invasion to Kuwait with an argument that Kuwait ignored all his financial needs. As the Iraqi demand was very daring, Hussein should have tried much more to bargain and make a compromise.The second pressing economic problem was the oil price. Since Iraqi oil industry accounted for 95% of country’s foreign currency earnings (CIA, 2007), petroleum was very important for Saddam Hussein, especially in the post-war years. In order to raise extra revenues necessary for the reconstruction of the country, Iraqi government needed the oil price to grow as much as possible. However, a constraint in the Iraqi plan became once again Kuwait. The Gulf State was producing more oil than Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quotas allowed and this overproduction led to a slump of oil prices.Whereas in January 1990 a barrel of petroleum cost $20. 5, two months later it was only $18 (Freedman & Karsh, 1993). For this reason, Saddam Hussein was losing a prospect of future revenues. Consequently, Iraq demanded Kuwait to reduce its quotas in exporting oil so that the prices could grow again. This request was completely ignored from the Kuwaiti side. In fact, instead of abiding the oil limits to make more space for increased Iraqi production, Kuwait continued to far exceed them by $0. 6 million barrels a day (Salinger & Laurent, 1991).It was as if Kuwait kicked into the hornets’ nest. Iraqi foreign minister immediately declared that Kuwait was utterly and knowingly trying to bring Baghdad to its knees† (Salinger & Laurent, 1991, 37). On a meeting of Arab monarch in the spring 1990, Saddam Hussein even escalated the situation further by aggressively stating that â€Å"war doesn’t mean just tanks, artillery of ships. It can take subtler and more insidious forms, such as the overproduction of oil, economic damage and pressure to enslave a nation† (Salinger & Laurent, 1991: 31).In this way, he directly accused Kuwaiti leaders of waging a war against Iraq. Even though Kuwait never publicly acknowledged being in an economic war with Hussein’s regime, from a leaked letter between a Kuwaiti statesman and the Kuwaiti king, it became clear that a part of the Iraqi accusations was justifiable. The letter showed that Kuwait was, indeed, purposely taking an advantage of the dire economic situation in Iraq in order to put pressure on Hussein’s regime (Salinger & Laurent, 1991). But still, it was OPEC’s rules and OPEC quotas that Kuwait did not adhere to.Therefore, it was OPEC’s responsibility to deal with the problem, not Hussein’s. A lack of consensus among OPEC members about how to deal with the overproduction led to lengthy negotiations and no tangible result for a long time. At last, a few days before the invasion at an OPEC meeting, Kuwait finally agreed to abide the quotas. Nonetheless, it did not change the Iraq’s violent intention. This suggests that Hussein used his argument about the economic war only as a pretext for annexation of Kuwaiti territory.Furthermore, looking at these frictions around the oil price in terms of international law again, according to the Article 2, paragraph 3 of the UN Charter, all members must in their international relations refrain from the threat or use of force. However, there is one exception to this rule and that is self-defence. Saddam Hussein was probably well aware of the right of self-defence. Therefore, he tried to make himself look insecure and claimed that Kuwait was waging an economic war and that he was only protecting his country.Nevertheless, in the article 51 of UN Charter, it is clearly stated that a UN member has a right to self-defence â€Å"if an armed attacks occurs†. Armed is a very important word in the discussed case, because Kuwait did no t use army to intimidate Iraq and so Saddam Hussein could not justify his invasion in Kuwait with an argument of waging economic war as well. Based on the previous discussion, it can be concluded that Iraqi use of military force in The First Gulf War was not justified. In regard to the financial disputes and the issues of oil price, none of these can serve as an argument for invasion.In the first case, Saddam Hussein should have put in a more effort to make a compromise with Kuwait. In the second one, OPEC had a responsibility to solve the problem, not the Iraqi government. Moreover, as the international law stands, both Iraqi arguments were not legitimate. In general, Saddam Hussein only confirmed Aristotle’s idea, according to which tyrants are trying to make themselves look insecure but this is only because they want to obtain what is justly not theirs. Reference List: Aristotle. (1995) Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Baran, A &Rubin, B. (1993) Iraq’s Road to War. London: Macmillan Press Bulloch, J & Morris, H. (1991) Saddam War: The Origins of the Kuwaiti conflict and the International Response. London: Faber and Faber Central Intelligence Agency. (2007) Iraq Economic Data (1989-2003). Retrieved 16 August 2012 from: https://www. cia. gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/chap2_annxD. html The Charter of United Nations. Retrieved 16 August 2012 from: http://www. un. org/en/documents/charter/ Freedman,L & Karsh, E. 1993) The Gulf Conflict. London: Faber and Faber Karsh, E & Rautsi, I. (1991) Why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, Vol. 33 Issue 1, pages 18-30. Mussalam, M. (1996) The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. London: British Academic Press Mylroie, L. (1993) Why Saddam Hussein invaded Iraq. Orbis, Vol. 37 Issue 1. O‘Brien, W. (1981) The Conduct of Just and Limited War. New York: Praeger Salinger, P & Laurent, E. (1991) Secret Dossier: The Hidden Agenda behind the Gulf War. New Yor k: Penguin Books.

Electra complex in “The House on Zapote Street”

Our parents are the best treasure that we could have in our life. They are the reason why we exist in this beautiful creation of God, our world. From the moment of our conception until our age of adolescence we are still under the supervision of our parents. But when the right time comes and that we are already in the right age, and we are ready to engage ourselves with relationships, we must be given the independency from them.Electra complex termed by Carl Jung refers to a girl or woman who falls in love with her father and becomes jealous of her mother and or the girl daughter and the father has an intimate relationship towards each other. â€Å"House on Zapote Street†, a short story written by one of the famous Filipino writer Nick Joaquin emphasized this concept. This concept under psychological theory then took an immense role in the story wherein it serves as the main reason of all the unhappy moments of the major character.The story revolves in the character of Dr. Leo nardo Quitangon, Lydia Cabading and her father, Pablo Cabading. The role of Electra complex in the story is a contrast of the real concept since it is the father whom we can vividly seen the said fixation. Pablo Cabading being the father of Lydia suffers Electra complex in which he became very zealous over looking to her.He even threatened to arrest young men who stared at her on the street, or pressed too close against her. The dictation he made towards Lydia had already trespass her personal life which negatively affects her. Thus, this story shows how Pablo Cabading had been affected Carl Jung’s concept of Electra complex and this is because of the closeness or intimate relationship he had with his daughter, Lydia.

Wuthering Heights in Relation to Bronte’s Life

Wuthering Heights Relation to Emily Bronte’s life Characterization: 1. Hindley- Bronte used the character of Hindley to represent her brother. Emily Bronte’s brother drank himself to death just as Hindley did. 2. Edgar- When Catherine died, Edgar became exceedingly private and quiet. Edgar represents Emily Bronte’s own father. When Bronte’s mother died, her father followed the same pattern that Edgar did by secluding himself and becoming very quiet. 3. Catherine- Emily Bronte personifies her dislike for women’s position in society through Catherine’s love for Heathcliff.Because women are not listened to, Bronte represents herself as a man, Heathcliff, in order to be listened to. 4. Catherine’ Cold- Emily Bronte caught a cold at her brother’s funeral. Setting: †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Emily lived in an isolated area called Haworth in the West Riding area of Yorkshire. Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange both reflect the isolated area where she lived. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Because they were isolated socially by there geographical location, Emily and her siblings created fictional worlds.Emily and her sister Anne created Gondal which is a land of moors, and the world is reflected in moors surrounding the two houses. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wuthering Heights literally means stormy heights. Emily’s life had many hardships or â€Å"storms† throughout her life, such as, her brother’s alcoholism and some of her family dying from tuberculosis. †¢   Ã‚  Ã‚   Emily was home schooled because she easily became homesick when away at normal schools. This can be seen through young Catherine because Catherine is home schooled and not aloud to see the outside world without her father’s supervision.Mood: I. Tragic A. Death in Wuthering Heights B. Death during Emily’s lifetime C. Tuberculosis-caused death of characters D. Tuberculosis-caused death of family E. Drunkeness of Hindley Earnshaw F. Drunkeness of Bronte’s brother II. Isolated 1. Cathy and her father 2. Bronte and her father 3. Characters and their reading 4. Emily and her reading Tone: 1. Defiant tone: Book: Catherine is naughty, does not behave. She is against society â€Å"They both promised fair to grow up as rude as savages†¦ † (46, chapter 6). She also believed she could do what she wanted. †¦ if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother’s power† (82, chapter 9). Life: Emily was persistent in her goals and beliefs. She and her sisters attempted to open a school, but it failed because of isolation. Before setting the school up she attended an academy to finish studying French and German. In addition, the three sisters published their works under false names because women writers were discriminated against during the time. 2. Humorous tone: Book: Both Catherine and Cathy have a â€Å"humorous tone† in some scenes.The two have the tendency to not take everything seriously all of the time. â€Å"Her spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going-singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same† (42, chapter 5). Cathy has a joyful mood in many instances; the first talking about the Crags. Life: Emily had two imaginary worlds, although she broke off from the first when she was 13 (Angria) The second one, Gondal, she kept on with until she died. 3. Dark, depressing tone: Both Emily’s life and the novel are filled with the â€Å"dark† tone.Death is consistent and parallels with one another. Structure: Symbolism: The cold dark kitchen that is described at the beginning of the book is a symbol of the hatred Emily had for the woman’s â€Å"station† that is symbolized by a kitchen. Heathcliffs starving of himself symbolizes his hunger for life, and in his case his life is Catherine. This relates to Bronte through her own hunger for greater expe riences, love, and happiness. She was also anorexic, so heathcliffs physical starvation relates to her own.

127 Hours Film Review Essay

His pain, his desire to be free and his desperation was shared with the viewers in such a way that it’s somehow disturbing. His delusions were able to reach the minds of those who watched the movie, particularly myself. In the technical aspect, it used natsot or the natural sound in most of the scenes. James Franco played Aron, an engineer who likes or rather whose hobby is to climb and hike on mountains. He is the protagonist and at the same time, the victim in the film. The antagonist here is the situation itself. It is the reason why he is in such troublesome circumstance which won’t allow him to be free. If not for his determination to live, he would not make it out alive though the process is excruciating and gruesome at some point. What strikes me the most in this film is that the director managed to make the film worth watching in 1 and a half hour with only one setting or location and focusing on one character only. Not many films can pull something like this. In regards to the content, it showed that in order to survive, you have to sacrifice something and do unimaginable things. This surprised me because it was not normal and people don’t do those kind of things. With James Franco’s acting, it made the movie a sure hit and suitable to be awarded in Oscars which it really did. The content fulfilled the expectations of the eyes, mind and soul of the movie goers. If I were the film maker, the ending would have been a sad one since I’m a fan of tragic endings. But if I do that, it will disappoint the viewers so I would make it a little less tragic. The end would be that Aron, after decapitating his arm, would not find any source of water which will make him more tired and more desperate in search of water. His long walks will continue until he finds himself in the middle of nowhere. Slowly, his body begins to collapse. He can no longer see straight due to the loss of blood. He then looks at the sky, the sun raised high, camera focused on his face. Until then, he will encounter other hikers whom will help him. At that time, he will close his eyes slowly, leaving the audience thinking whether he survived that day. Before credits roll, his picture with his family after the incident will be shown, revealing that he did survived.