Incidents of a slave girl essays

Incidents of a slave girl essays In Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl" Linda Brent reveals the unique brutalities that were inflected on enslaved women that would make one believe that it was best to be dead then to be a slave. "Incidents" discussed the economics of slavery; the quest for freedom; pain and suffering (physical and emotional) community support and family loyalty; resistance and the issue of literacy. It also includes moral conflict between slavery and Christianity; color prejudice; racism; the bond of motherhood, family loyalty; abandonment and the distrust between the blacks slaves and their slave owners. Linda mentions how a black slave was almost beaten to death, because he was arguing with his wife. I was moved on that, because I thought the slave's owners did not care much for the slaves and then for him to protect the female slave for her husband because he had children by her, got me confused. Is the slave owner showing that he cares or was he just protecting his property? I did not like that William was severely reprimanded by his father for answering to his mistress instead of his father when being summoned by the both of them. William was perplexed about whom he was supposed to go to and he had to learn the hard way. I think William should have been warned about whom he should go to first, but that would be too much like right. I felt emotionally drained in regards to the daily torments Linda had to endure in the Flint household. Not only did she have to avoid the pursuit of Dr. Flint, she also was exposed tot he jealous rage of Mrs. Flint, who instead of trying to protect Linda, sees her as responsible for arousing her husbands' lust. Linda was between a rock and a hard place, between her lustful, master and his emotionally insecure wife. Another form of punishment was tying a rope around a person's body, hanging him over a fire, which a piece of fat dripped on their bare flesh. This is just another e...

Sit vs. Set

Sit vs. Set Sit vs. Set Sit vs. Set By Maeve Maddox Like many of our shortest English words, sit and set have lengthy entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. Some of the definitions overlap. Some are interchangeable. The most common uses of sit and set are similar to those of lay and lie. â€Å"To sit† is to be seated. â€Å"To set† is to place something somewhere. In these contexts, sit is intransitive and set takes an object. Mixing up sit and set is not as common as mixing up lay and lie because the principal parts of sit and set are completely different: sit, sat, (have) sat, sitting set, set, (have) set, setting However, because sit and set have so many additional uses, efforts to state a hard and fast rule as to when to use one and when the other are futile. That fact doesn’t stop people from trying. I read a comment asserting that â€Å"animate objects sit, whereas inanimate objects set, and that’s that!† If â€Å"that were that,† the following statements would represent standard usage, but they don’t. The flowers were setting on the table and the men’s tuxes were draped over chairs. We were surprised by the beautiful gift-wrapped package setting on our bed. Both â€Å"flowers† and â€Å"package† are inanimate objects, but sitting is the verb called for in both statements. The meanings of sit listed in the OED include this one:   a. Of things: To have place or location; to be situated. Ex. There were a dozen eggs still sitting on the front porch and the dustbin sat at the back of the house where the binmen had left it. The flowers were sitting on the table and the package was sitting on the bed. The expressions â€Å"to sit well† and â€Å"to set well† have differing meanings. A certain plan may not sit well with voters. Here, â€Å"to sit well† means something like â€Å"to please† or â€Å"be agreeable to.† A jacket may be said to set well on the shoulders. The OED definition for this sense of to set is, To have a certain set or hang; to sit (well or ill, tightly or loosely, etc.). In texts written about clothing, you will also see â€Å"to sit well† used in the same sense: Just because you can squeeze yourself into a garment doesn’t mean it sits well. Trousers with a wider waistband sit well. When speaking of clothing, â€Å"to set well† and â€Å"to sit well† seem to be interchangeable. In the matter of liking or not liking legislation, â€Å"to sit well† or â€Å"not to sit well† is the way to go. In speaking of an object that has been placed somewhere, the choice is â€Å"sitting.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 "Home" Idioms and Expressions50 Idioms About Fruits and Vegetables13 Theatrical Terms in Popular Usage

Dashboard and Executive Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dashboard and Executive Summary - Essay Example In this respect, the sales departments are charged with the responsibility of determining the effectiveness of the products of the company and the company rating among the consumers/customers. The sales design management team of Coca-Cola collected the following data from the survey on different variables that measure the performance of the organization in this competitive industry. The data collected measures the rating of the company services and products over the last four year. Besides, these information also measure the variations in the performance of Coca-Cola using key performance indicators (KPI) such as sales volume, market share and profitability index. Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 Sales Volume 20% 17% 16.3% 14.1% Profitability 23% 22% 11% 19% Market share 51% 50.2% 48% 48.6% Production cost 12% 12% 17% 19.2% No. of new customers 5% 7% 2% 3.1% From the above company performance dash board, it is evidenced that although the company is performing averagely in the industry, the s urvey indicates inconsistency in the industrial outcome over the last four years. Although Coca-Cola still has the dominant share and control of the soft drink and non-alcoholic drinks industry, the market share is slightly declining following the economic liberalization that allows room for other competitors to join the industry with diversity of products (Hays 12). This gives the consumers arrange of differentiated products to choose from. The entry of new firms in the market over the last decade has resulted into a continuous decline in the market share dominance of Coca-Cola. This was led to the slight decline in the market dominance from 51% in 2009 to 48.6% in 2012. Owing to the global economic and financial contagion of 2008-2009, the cost of production has been on the rise from 2009-2012. This because, the economic stability is yet to be realized globally, thereby making firms (including Coca-Cola) to invest more resource factoring in the expansionary inflationary pressure o n the production and raw materials that are essential for the entire process. The rise in the cost of production has negatively impacted on the sales and profitability index of the company. Over the last four years, as demonstrated above, the profitability index of Coca-Cola has significantly dropped. From 2009 to 2011, the records on the dash board indicate that the company profits have been falling from 23 to 11%. However, the little economic recovery in the last quarter of 2011 and 2012 resulted into a boom in the profitability index to 19% in 2012 (Hays 56-7). Consequently, the sales volume for the company also decline over-time since 2009 forcing the firm to revert to modern approaches of marketing and popularizing its product. It is revealed that the entry of new firms and the increasing customer base of other competitors such Pepsi-Cola have contributed to this fall in sales and profit margins. The survey also involved the customer survey on the variables such as satisfaction , likelihood of re-purchase, quality, pricing, design, and recommending Coca-Cola products to others. The outcome of the survey is as tabulated and dashed below. Year 2009 2010 2011 2011 Customer Satisfaction 72% 75% 81% 73% Re-purchase likelihood 67% 67% 69% 67% Recommending Coca to others 65% 71% 78% 56% Product Quality and Pricing 87% 70% 76% 72% The above dash board shows the customers’ level of satisfaction with the services and quality of products of Coca-Cola. Regarding the

Child Care from a Licensed Center Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Child Care from a Licensed Center - Essay Example All of these institutions are looking after the children ´s welfare. To obtain a license to operate the child center has to be located in a safe place. It needs to have clean facilities: kitchen, bathroom, play area, instructional area, equipment, and toys. The personnel involved should meet the minimum requirements to care for the children and the children have to have a balanced and nutritional diet.  For the baby sitter there are no particular guidelines. She or he may be a family member, a neighbor, a friend, or someone who recommended the babysitter. The babysitter does not have to have a degree. The babysitter does not have to have a clean place or supply a nutritional diet. In many cases, if the payment is made to the baby sitter to include meals, she or he will buy what they think will be sufficient depending on their budget. In the case where the parents supply the meals in addition to the babysitter payments, it may usually a brown bag depending on the parent ´s budge t.  I prefer to have my nephews and nieces to be cared by a licensed child care center because the probabilities of being safe are greater than if they are taken care of non-specialized personnel. The nutritional factor carries weight in their formative years and in their healthy development. There have been instances where safety is an issue, however, with the constant supervision of qualified personnel the odds are less.  I have had the experience of having my nephews and nieces cared for at a licensed child care center.

The origin of species Essay Example for Free

The origin of species Essay John Keats is also poet from the 19th century just the same as Charles Darwin. Keats has the artistic, colorful approach to life. Keats writes expressively and in short punchy sentences that are full of meaning and conciseness. MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, These are only a couple of phrases that can be used to describe Keatss approach to life. Both of these quotes are from his poem, Ode to a Nightingale, that was written in 1884 and published in 1888. It is obvious throughout this poem, that Keats is thinking carefully about the words that he is using and the way in which he can produce this text as being heart felt and sympathetic as possible. Keats writes as though he is in a dream time and is trying to find a way out. Throughout the poem, you start to get a feeling that he is going to commit suicide or do something terrible that will affect his life forever if he goes through with it. This is seen in the following two quotes. Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness,- Keats also uses the form of writing that involves the adventurous type of writing. Keats does this in the way that he can capture his readers in a way that makes it exciting for us to read as a reader. This is done through many lines including all of the beginning, ending and the body of the poem. But on the viewless wings of Poesy, Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: Already with thee! tender is the night, And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne, Throughout the poem, Keats, makes reference to the fact that he is planning to commit suicide. This comes up too many times to let fly by. The fact that Keats makes reference to this is a problem in itself. This problem is that he is a famous writer and very well known for his pieces. It would be a shame for him to now be known as a suicidal freak who couldnt handle the pressure of his family and his work. That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim: Keats also writes similar to Charles Darwin in the way that they both leave the paragraphs with you thinking of what is going to happen next and makes you get the feeling of should I keep reading. Keats does this in nearly all of his paragraphs and they are all successful. Chapter 1 Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. Chapter 2 To thy high requiem become a sod. Chapter 3 The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves Chapter 4 Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways. Chapter 5 Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow. Chapter 6 And with thee fade away into the forest dim: Chapter 7 Singest of summer in full-throated ease. Chapter 8 Fled is that music:-Do I wake or sleep? John Keats and Charles Darwin both have different styles of writing. Charles Darwin writes in the logical, scientific, rational way and Keats writes with the colorful, artistic and romantic style of writing. Although they both write in their own styles, they can relate their writing to the same thing in the same way. Artistical and Scientifical writing are both styles of writing and they can both be used in the same piece at exactly the same time. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE John Keats section.

The Portrayal of Women in James Joyces Dubliners Essays -- Dubliners

In Dubliners, women are victims indeed. They are victims of home, of the recognized virtues by society, of classes of life, of religious doctrines, and of women themselves. In this essay, we are going to analyze the portrayal of women in Dubliners in terms of the aforementioned aspects, namely home, the recognized virtues by society, classes of life, religious doctrines and women themselves. The selection above is provided to make student aware of focus of the essay.   The complete essay begins below. "My mind rejects the whole present social order and Christianity – home, the recognized virtues, classes of life, and religious doctrines†¦. My mother was slowly killed, I think, by my father’s ill-treatment, by years of trouble, and by my cynical frankness of conduct. When I looked on her face as she lay in her coffin – a face gray and wasted with cancer – I understood that I was looking on the face of a victim and I cursed the system which had made her a victim." (Letters, II, 48) In Dubliners, women are victims indeed. They are victims of home, of the recognized virtues by society, of classes of life, of religious doctrines, and of women themselves. In this essay, we are going to analyze the portrayal of women in Dubliners in terms of the aforementioned aspects, namely home, the recognized virtues by society, classes of life, religious doctrines and women themselves. Women are victims of home. They suffer being confined to their homes. They are somehow isolated from the external world. They have little, if not no at all, freedom. Their chief roles are to be good wives to the menfolk, to be good mothers to their children, and to look after their families well. They are not expected to take care of those affairs out... ... by masculine authority by virtue of the fact that they are inferior to and should be subservient to men. Worse still, women are often discriminated by society, which is largely monopolized by men. Sex discriminations find their way to home, the workplace and even the public life by and large. Furthermore, they are victimized by religious orthodoxy as well as their own acts and psychology. But anyway, who is to blame for the sufferings of women – the circumstance or women themselves? Works Cited: Benstock, Bernard. Critical Essays on James Joyce. G.K. Hall & Co. Boston, Massachusetts: 1985. Joyce, James. Dubliners. Washington Square Press. New York, New York: 1998. Selected Joyce Letters. Ed. Richard Ellmann. New York: Viking Compass, 1975. Seidel, Michael. James Joyce: A Short Introduction. Blackwell Publishers, Inc. Oxford, UK: 2002.

Linguistic culture

When I finished read Laura Bohannan’s essay â€Å"Shakespeare in the Bush† I felt that I was smiling. Can you beat it: Elizabeth Bowen-Smith (who will became Laura Bohannan later), intelligent student of Oxford university, sits on the calabash, drinks beer and explain the story of Hamlet to group of tribesmen. Some of them are a very experienced, old person who knows things. It seems that Laura met very interesting company: they are bilingual (but their English is much worse than their native Tiv language (Tiv-Batu sub-group of the Bantoid branch of the Benue-Congo subdivision of Niger-Congo)), they know only own culture and believe that people in all world are the same. This concept of â€Å"universal understanding† brought her audience to idea that this young European girl (because all whites should be Europeans) do not remember this history exactly. She made a lot of mistakes and some details of Hamlet history were so strange for Tiv traditions that they were even fain to acknowledge that Europe is really another world. Bohannan told about Hamlet in very simple words and Tiv understood Hamlet plot, but very generally. Different cultural backgrounds not only make the Tiv and Bohannan have very different interpretations of Hamlet status (â€Å"son of chief†) or the general ideas of life and death. But the Tiv people interpreted several specific aspects of the story much differently than the modern Western culture. Almost from the beginning of Bohannan’s tale, tribe members interrupted to question and disagree with her about most of the key elements in the story. There was the appearance of Hamlet’s father’s ghost, Claudius’ marriage to Gertrude, the fact that Hamlet couldn’t marry Ophelia, Hamlet’s madness, Polonius’ death, Ophelia’s drowning death and the poison for after the final duel. The ghost of Hamlet’s father appeared in the castle to inform Hamlet of the truth about his death. The most of modern people could easily explain what is a ghost. The Tiv thought otherwise. The tribesmen scoffed at the notion that Hamlet's father is a ghost because they don't believe that any individual part of human personality survives after death. Tiv culture believes in witches and witchcraft, and then Hamlet’s father image must have been a zombie sent by witches as an omen. I like this passage from Bohannan’s essay: â€Å"The old men muttered: such omens were matters for chiefs and elders, not for youngsters; no good could come of going behind a chief's back; clearly Horatio was not a man who knew things† (Bohannan). It seems that witches and their magic power were reality for Tiv people. You know that their religious beliefs were centered around the concept of akombo, defined as magical forces and their emblems. Between concepts of â€Å"ghost† and â€Å"akombo† we have intercultural gap. These words cannot be translated to other language without loosing some sense. Any translation is approximation only. For full understanding people should be members of certain society. Let’s go on. In the story of Hamlet, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, marries Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. This marriage was only two months after Claudius’ brother, the King, was killed. The modern Western culture feels that this marriage was incestuous. It also took place too soon after the death of her husband. The Tiv, however, found no problem with it. It was a custom for the natives for the brother of a deceased man to marry his wife. This way, the fields could be taken care of and the farms could be managed. Another detail: one of the younger Tiv men asked Laura who had married the other wives of the â€Å"dead chief† (King). When she told that the King had only one wife they were surprised. â€Å"But a chief must have many wives! How else can he brew beer and prepare food for all his guests?† (Bohannan). Laura explanation about European tradition to have only one wife and to use servants for homework (and especially mentioning taxes) makes Tiv men to adduce an argument: â€Å"It was better for a chief to have many wives and sons who would help him hoe his farms and feed his people; then everyone loved the chief who gave much and took nothing† (Bohannan). As you remember, in the Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet could not marry his true love, Ophelia, because he was royalty and she a commoner. The Tiv disagreed with this also. They felt that the marriage should be permitted because since Hamlet was royalty, then he could shower Ophelia’s father, Polonius, with gifts and money. This seemed to be very rational to the Tiv, although it seems to be an odd to the modern Western culture. Since Hamlet was not permitted to marry Ophelia, he went mad. In the western tradition the positive imaging of love madness appeared probably in troubadours’ songs, probably in more ancient times. But for African tribe it was impossible to attribute madness to unhappy love affair. The Tiv felt that Hamlet’s madness was attributed to more serious cause – to witchcraft. They said her that â€Å"only witchcraft can make anyone mad, unless, of course, one sees the beings that lurk in the forest† (Bohannan). Laura did the best to explain relations between Hamlet, his uncle and his mother. These episodes of the play were absolutely unclear for Tiv people. They had several arguments for their position. Hamlet scolded his mother for her sin but man should never scold his mother. Hamlet wanted to kill Claudius who killed his father but nobody can kill or attempt to kill his elders (in Tiv traditions). Tiv men said Hamlet should have contacted his father’s friends to avenge the murder of King but do not try and avenge the murder himself. I found no Tiv reactions (and no explanation by Laura) to the moment when Hamlet went to kill Claudius but found him praying. He did not kill him because he believed that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudius’s soul to heaven. We know that Tiv do not believe in the beyond. So this motive should not be clear for them. Laura missed this episode. May be she felt that she had no chances to explain this for her audience? She also did not tell about Hamlet’s words about Polonius’ murder â€Å"Heaven hath pleased it so / To punish me with this, and this with me† (Hamlet, III.iv.157–158) and about Polonius’ body â€Å"The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body† (Hamlet IV.ii.25–26). When Hamlet killed Polonius, Ophelia’s father, she was so distraught after hearing about this that she committed suicide by drowning herself. The Tiv were strongly opposed to this. They felt that only witches could make someone drown because water alone cannot hurt someone. â€Å"It is merely something one drinks and bathes in† (Bohannan). They understood that Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, killed her to sell her to the witches because he ran out of money. Also, at Ophelia’s funeral, Laertes jumped into her grave to say his last goodbye. Hamlet then jumped into the grave to say his last goodbye, also. The Tiv thought that Laertes was trying to steal the body so he could sell it to the witches. Since Hamlet jumped in, then he saved Ophelia’s body from being sold. They felt that Laertes wanted to kill Hamlet because he prevented him from selling Ophelia’s body. And I like Tiv explanation very much: â€Å"Hamlet prevented him, because the chief's heir, like a chief, does not wish any other man to grow rich and powerful.† (Bohannan) About understanding the duel between Hamlet and Laertes. King Claudius gave Laertes a poisoned rapier (probably Laura translated it as â€Å"machete†) so that Hamlet would die even if he was just scratched by the sword. Laertes has his sword poisoned in an effort to do Hamlet in once and for all. Claudius wanted Hamlet dead because he knew the truth about his father’s death. Just in case Hamlet survived the battle, a glass of poisoned wine was waiting for the victor. The wine unfortunately fell into the wrong hands, and Hamlet’s mother drank it and died. The modern Western culture believes that the wine was intended for Hamlet in case he survived the duel. The Tiv believe otherwise. They felt that the wine was intended for the victor of the match, either Hamlet or Laertes. They thought that it would be used to kill Hamlet because he knew true about the murder of his father, or it would be used to kill Laertes so no one would know about the conspiracy between him and Claudius to kill Hamlet. I think that the main point of Bohannan’s essay was to illustrate that different cultures interpret things differently. What we accept is influenced by our own cultural and linguistic values. Both interpretations of Hamlet are correct according to the cultural values of the two different cultures. (May be Tiv opinion is more correct because they proposed for Laura to tell them some more stories of her country. They said â€Å"We, who are elders, will instruct you in their true meaning, so that when you return to your own land your elders will see that you have not been sitting in the bush, but among those who know things and who have taught you wisdom.† (Bohannan)) It seems that the author intentions is not a matter. If our interpretation is different than that of the author, but the story still influenced our life, then that is all that matters. Word is just symbol and everyone can understand it how he can. But if you want to communicate with other people you should learn their culture and to speak their language. References: Bohannan, Laura (1971), from Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, eds. James P. Spradley and David W. McCurdy Boston: Little Brown and Company. Ethnographic Atlas of the Center of Social Anthropology and Computing. University of Kent at Canterbury William Shakespeare. Hamlet The Oxford Shakespeare.1914