Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Important Role of Prayer in Homers Odyssey :: Homer Odyssey Essays

The Important Role of Prayer in the Odyssey What is the significance of supplication or absence of petition in the Odyssey? I think petition and the scarcity in that department is significant in understanding this scholarly piece. In the start of the Odyssey supplication is by all accounts a quite regular thing, particularly during the hours of difficulty. Telemakhos supplicated various occasions that the divine beings would assist him with disposing of the admirers. While is supplication was not addressed promptly, he was determined what he needed to do to discover his dad and dispose of the admirers. For whatever length of time that Telemakhos followed Athena and did what she stated, she was with him and helped him. She would camouflage herself to help and ensure Telemakhos as he started his excursion. Penelope was the following case of petition. She supplicated that the divine beings would facilitate her torment and secure her child. A higher being, perhaps a holy messenger was sent to her to disclose to her that things would be alright and to facilitate her psyche. She was additionally typically placed into a profound rest. When Telemakhos and Penelope implored, their petitions were heard and generally replied, perhaps not in the way that they wished, however the manner in which the divine beings felt would make Telemakhos a legend next to his dad and give Penelope her fantasy about having her significant other once more. Odysseus then again was an alternate story, he didn't implore or simply didn't specify supplicating during his season of difficulty. For what reason would he not implore? I trust Odysseus didn't supplicate in light of pride. I don't believe that he could relinquish his pride enough to supplicate. I feel that he put stock in the divine beings and confided in them, however I think as a legend, he needed to get things done all alone. He needed to have the option to state that he did it similarly as he told the Kyklops in book IX: 'Kyklops, if at any point mortal man ask how you were humiliated and blinded, reveal to him Odysseus, thief of urban communities, took your eye: Laertes; child, whose home's on Ithaka!' 1 Despite the fact that supplication was an approach to complete things, it was anything but a strategy utilized by all the characters in the Odyssey. Each character was extraordinary. Telemakhos was a kid and required assistance from a higher being so as to overcome the admirers. Penelope was a lady who was solid disapproved, however not sufficiently able to dispose of the admirers.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Medical Care in the United States

Clinical Care in the United States Paper ECO/372 Principles of Macroeconomics 26 September 2012 Mr. James Geffert The Medical Care in the United States Paper composed by Team C will distinguish the foundation, approach, and effect of paid clinical consideration. The correlation of Great Britain and Canada, the general social insurance spending plan is itself a roof; in contrast to the United States. The Medicare Payroll charge on venture salary producing results in 2012 will be extended to incorporate unmerited pay. The new medicinal services bill is another endeavor at making social insurance work for the residents of the United States.The Senate worked for a considerable length of time over the bill, and arrived at a finish of what the bill will incorporate. The Senate Health Bill will give inclusion to 94% of Americans with clinical protection. The medicinal services bill is arranged decline the government shortfall by $127 billion of every ten years, and decreases the shortage by $777 billion of every twenty years. In the United States before the 1920’s a great many people were treated in their home for diseases. Just a couple of organizations had offered medical coverage to workers; the vast majority paid out of their pocket. The specialists didn't have huge measure of data about infections and their treatments.The cutting edge innovation and information on the maladies got important to bring patients into emergency clinics; thinking about them appropriately. This clinical expense of care was high and individuals couldn't manage the cost of it! The Great Depression exacerbated it for clinical consideration in America. One of the primary human services projects to help individuals with clinical costs originated from Baylor emergency clinics in Dallas; changed over to Blue Cross. The expense of care kept on ascending because of medication, science, and emergency clinics making progresses in their capacity to fix the wiped out. More individuals were go ing to emergency clinics and specialists for care.The Blue Shield was and protection covering administrations just specialists performed. This protection began developing quickly in the late 1930’s as a manner for specialists to guarantee they got remuneration for work performed. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield were having more safety net providers started entering the social insurance advertise once they saw the achievement. During World War II because of the lack in labor, more bosses started to offer medical coverage as an advantage. This advantage got standard for businesses and the administration urges boss to do as such through assessment incentives.The charge motivating forces were working most all different nations and beginning national human services frameworks. The administration pays for and manages clinical consideration administrations for its kin across the nation. Right now no rich country neglects to give an exhaustive medicinal services framework for its kin that are free or cheap. The United States have approximately 50 million Americans, 16 percent of the populace; no medical coverage. Most of the populace that fall into this class is the moderately poor and most range in age from eighteen to thirty-four.The Studies have demonstrated this number has expanded significantly since the 1970’s. Research by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds â€Å"those without medical coverage kick the bucket more youthful or work less because of incessant wellbeing conditions, and face industrious individual money related issues welcomed on by illnesses;† distributed by Jeff Madrick in 2012. He likewise found that a Harvard Medical School study discovered somewhere in the range of 45,000 passings a year are related with absence of health care coverage. The static clinical data thought that it was hard to carry on with a typical solid existence without infection and sickness; without access to legitimate clinical coverage.For numerous individ uals are compelled to utilize an open medical clinic for treatment as a last response to a medical problem generally do so past the point of no return. The expenses for a dismissed physical issue or an ailment are cosmically high. The details are 17 percent of the Gross Domestic Product for human services is being paid by one out of each six American. This number is a lot higher than some other well off country by a long shot and our social insurance framework isn't quantifiably better and regularly extensively more terrible. The medicinal services change is fundamentally two Acts in which President Obama marked into law in 2010.The two acts show restraint Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. The laws can possibly guarantee numerous Americans that can't manage the cost of social insurance might be qualified for Medicaid benefits. The laws likewise guaranteed that people with prior ailments have a superior chance to get cli nical protection through their boss. Enterprises will get motivations for expanding their qualification necessities on prior ailments. The demonstrations will be subsidized by expanding charges on people that have a yearly salary of over $200,000.The government will burden people that have endeavored to guarantee no money related assistance from the legislature. The administration will guarantee people pay is sufficient to pay for their own clinical consideration. These demonstrations likewise express any individual doesn't have clinical protection with their manager will be required to acquire an affirmed private gathering protection strategy. The person without inclusion will be punished. The main people will be absolved from this demonstration are those people that are individuals in a strict group and are excluded by the Internal Revenue Service, or are in a money related hardship and have applied to be exempt.These acts are required to produce full results by 2014. At that poin t all people will be required to follow the standards and guideline of these demonstrations by that time span or take care of punishments. There are numerous contentions over the Obama’s organization proposition for medicinal services change. Republicans and the Democrats are continually differing over each other’s thoughts. The Obama organization recommend that there a particular zones that should be tended to a managed with regards to clinical consideration. A couple of regions are cost, counteraction and treatment of constant conditions, and furthermore a deficiency of specialists and nurses.There is likewise numerous other key focuses that was tended to in the clinical change proposition. The particular territories that were referenced should have been tended to, for example, cost the organization felt the expense of protection ought to be moderate so everybody can have clinical protection for themselves just as their entire family. The deficiencies of specialists and medical caretakers the Obama organization accepts our nation needs more specialists or attendants to give care to all individuals in the whole nation and just as the specialists and medical caretakers to acknowledge a wide range of insurances.Prevention and treatment of ceaseless conditions were not generally secured by protection because of interminable agony since that is regularly a previous physical issue. On the off chance that an individual had a previous physical issue their protection had the alternative to deny inclusion to the patient. The discussion must guarantee the entirety of the regions should have been tended to and furthermore endorsed so the people are influenced by these predetermined territories. On account of the Obama organization people can bear the cost of their clinical protection, can get treatment for their constant torments, and more specialists and medical caretakers are available.In July 2010 Obama relegated Donald M. Berwick as chairman for Medica re and Medicaid. His thought during the ideal opportunity for clinical consideration was no unnecessary passings, redistributing social insurance to all who are wiped out and keep an eye on the individuals who are less lucky. Social insurance and clinical consideration is significant. The working people with families, who are not in the white collar class, require moderate medicinal services. As indicated by the Heritage Foundation, â€Å"President Obama care puts the social insurance framework off kilter and will grow the job of the government in each segment of Americans’ human services. President Obama care is the continuous medicinal services change. The social insurance change ensures U. S. residents that might not have protection or not gave medical coverage through their boss. It additionally requires U. S. occupants to have medical coverage whether through their managers or private separate insurance agencies. This change is emotional, particularly to the individuals who don't have human services and don't need to pay it. It is said that all U. S. residents are commanded to have protection and pay protection regardless of whether they are not utilizing it.Even organizations will be ordered to give reasonable protection whether it is a huge organization or private venture. Such procedures are so imperative to American residents since it is such a major change, for any person, in any situation. In England and Canada the wellbeing framework is financed by general tax collection income, including a little legal protection duty, and private installments. The Medicare gives access to sponsored clinical administrations, financed pharmaceuticals, and free emergency clinic treatment as an open patient. President Obama recommended to Congress minor changes in accordance with Medicare, he implied it.His proposed plan to Medicare and Medicaid will tidy up the human services framework and spare $321 billion more than 10 years. The arrangement didn’t recognize any proposition to in a general sense tackle Medicare's drawn out basic issues. President Obama's spending proposition infers Medicare cost decrease has been actualized in an earlier year's social insurance law. The arrangement appears to spare now and pay in the later years. Congress will have a major influence in future arranging assessing seniors will pay twice a portion of their social insurance costs cash based by 2030. REFERENCES:Obama Deficit Plan May Rely on Inflated Health Care Savings, National Journal; 9/24/2011, p7-7, 1p, Sanger-Katz, Margot New York Review of Books, Jeff Madrick, 2012; recovered 09/22/2012; http://www. nybooks. com/articles/documents/2012/jun/21/obama-and-medicinal services straight-story/http://www. merriam-webster. com The Heritage Foundation. (2012). Recovered from http://www. legacy. organization/issues/human services/obamacare Healthcare Czar in Obamacare. (2010, June). Understanding Protection and Affordable Care Act , (), 17-18. Recover ed from http://www. cchfreedom. organization/pr/ObamaCareCzar. pdf

Monday, August 10, 2020

The Future of Human Work is Imagination, Creativity, and Strategy

The Future  of  Human Work is Imagination,  Creativity, and  Strategy Technology has come a long way since primitive humans first discovered they could use sharp stones to cut and split things.Today, it is impossible to live without technology.Some of the technological advancements we are seeing today seemed farfetched a just a few decades ago.Algorithms and AI systems  that  respond to our inquiries  on  websites and  social media, drones  that  deliver items we ordered online,  AI systems that give free legal advice, and  cars that drive themselves  are wonderful examples of the high level of technological advancement that human beings have achieved.All these technologies have  made  people a lot more productive and brought about unimaginable levels of convenience.Despite all the benefits technological advancement has brought, automation of jobs through robots and intelligent systems also poses a huge threat: mass unemployment.If all vehicles become autonomous, what will the millions of people who work as drivers do to earn a living?If robots start s erving us at fast food restaurants, how will the millions who work within the fast food industry earn a living? If automation takes over the work done by bankers, factory workers, doctors, lawyers, and millions of other people, what will humans do for work?The thought of technology taking all our jobs might seem like something that is decades away, but it is a lot closer than you think.According to a  report by the McKinsey Global Institute, between 39 and 73 million jobs will have been displaced by advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and automation by 2030, which is less than one and a half decades from now.Yet another report found that  more than half of the jobs available today can be theoretically automated  using technologies that are in existence today.Of course, just because these jobs can be feasibly automated does not mean that  they will all  be automated.There are several other factors that influence whether automation will be adopted and the pace and extent of automation, such as labor-market dynamics, the costs of developing and implementing automated solutions, the benefits of automation, governmental regulations,  as well as social acceptance.However, this still shows that there is a  huge possibility that automation will take away a significant number of jobs in coming years.WHY THE INCREASED CONCERN? The debate about machines and automation taking away people’s jobs is not a new one.  It has existed for as long as there has been technological innovation.All major technological advancements have displaced millions away from their jobs, yet there has not been any increase in unemployment.The introduction of the tractor and other farm machinery  in the  United States reduced the share of agriculture in total employment from  60% in 1850 to less than 5% in 1970.Automation in manufacturing reduced the percentage of the US workforce working in manufacturing from  26% in 1960 to less than 10% today.The percentage of the Chinese workforce working in  agriculture reduced by over 30% between 1990 and 2015.Despite mechanization and automation taking all these jobs, both the United States and China did not experience an increase in unemployment during these periods.If anything, employment grew as new industries and jobs emerged to absorb workers who had been displaced by automation.Looking back at history, it would seem the fears about technology taking people’s jobs are unfounded.So, why is there increasing concern  that the recent advances in technology will actually lead to mass unemployment?The answer lies in the nature of  today’s  technological advancement.There are two types of human abilities â€" physical and cognitive. In the past, machines and automation displaced people from jobs that required raw physical abilities.No skills are needed for these jobs. Anyone can be a farmhand or a laborer in a factory as long as they are physically strong to do the work.As machines took these jobs, the displaced workers t ook the new service jobs that emerged.These new jobs required cognitive abilities, something that machines did not have.The current advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, however, have brought about a new era of automation.Today’s technology can perform activities that require cognitive abilities  such as sensing emotions, analyzing information and making decisions, activities that were previously considered to be a purely human domain.The current automation age does not simply threaten to take over physical, low skill jobs. It threatens majority of jobs, including high skill jobs.Today, drivers, doctors, bankers and financial analysts, lawyers,  and a ton of other jobs that require mental skills are facing the threat of automation.If machines become better than humans in both physical and cognitive abilities, then we simply have no competitive edge over them, which makes the current threat of automation such a major concern.WILL THERE BE MASS UNEMPLOY MENT DUE TO AUTOMATION?Now robots and automation are threatening to take even jobs that were previously considered to be the preserve of human beings,  are we about to see a huge number of people becoming jobless as automation gains increasing adoption?To answer this question, we need to once again look back at history.When the first ATM machine was introduced 50 years ago, it was assumed that it would lead to the unemployment of human bank tellers.After all, if a machine could dispense cash and take deposits, what role did a human teller have to play?The funny thing is that since the first ATM  machine was installed, the number of human tellers employed in banks has more than doubled. How did this happen?When ATM machines were first introduced, the number of tellers employed by banks went down as expected. About one third of human tellers employed in banks lost their jobs.This created another effect that people had not thought much about.With fewer tellers per branch, banks realize d that it had become a lot cheaper to open a bank branch. As a result, the number of branches operated by each bank increased.More bank branches created a need for more tellers. However, these tellers were not doing the same routine work.With ATMs handling the routine tasks of dispensing cash and taking deposits, tellers went from cash handling tasks and started performing tasks like solving customer problems, forging relationships  with customers  and selling new products to customers.In other words, their job description went from routine work (which a machine could do better) to more cognitively demanding tasks.This is a great example of what will happen in the near future.The increasing adoption  of automation will take away routine jobs with tasks that can easily be easily translated into an algorithm, freeing people to do other tasks that require creativity and imagination, something computers are yet to master.Therefore, instead of automation leading to unemployment, it will merely lead to a shift in the nature of work.Physical jobs in predictable environments are the most susceptible to automation.These include  activities such as preparing fast food, operating machinery, sorting products in a warehouse, and so on. On the other hand, physical jobs in unpredictable environments have little risk of automation. These include jobs such as nursing, elder care, child care, plumbing, and so on.Additionally, routine but mentally demanding jobs â€" such as data collection and processing â€" are highly susceptible to automation.People who work in fields like back-office transaction processing, paralegal work, mortgage origination, accounting, and so on might soon be replaced by machines and software programs.Jobs that require creativity, imagination, strategy and emotional connection,  on the other hand,  have little risk of automation since humans are still far much better at these skills compared to machines.THE FUTURE OF WORKMachines will take up mindless, ro utine and repetitive tasks and free up people to explore, experiment and engage in other interesting activities that require creativity and imagination, thereby ushering in the  imagination age  and the  imagination economy.Coined by Rita J. King, the  term  imagination age  refers to  the next theoretical step of evolution where the key creators of economic value will be creativity and imagination.Already, the transition into the imagination economy has begun, driven by the rise of digital platforms like YouTube,  Flickr,  Medium, and so on, as well as technological trends such as virtual reality, which demand creativity and user generated content.So, what skills will people require to thrive in the imagination economy?The most in-demand skills in the imagination economy will be soft skills, which are a lot more difficult for machines to master.These skills include managing others, oral and written communication and applying expertise.Jobs of the future will also require more socia l and emotional skills as well as critical thinking, creativity and collaboration.According to a  research conducted by the Foundation for Young Australians, jobs of the future will require workers with 70% more transferable and non-industry specific soft skills.Another  report by McKinsey Global Institute, published in November 2017,  states that by 2030, up to 14% of the global workforce (between 75 and 375 million workers) will have to retrain and learn new skills that will allow them to adapt to the new jobs that will emerge due to automation.Yet another  report by the World Economic Forum  reports that more than half of the jobs that will be done by students who are currently in elementary school have not been invented yet.While it is impossible to predict with absolute certainty what jobs of the future will look like, below are some skills that will help you thrive in the coming economy.CreativityCreativity is the ability to come up with new ideas and to come up with solutions by finding connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena.While machines are better than humans at analyzing information and making calculations, they are poor at coming up with new, abstract ideas and thinking outside the confines of well-defined rules.This means that highly creative people will be less likely to lose their jobs to automation.Critical ThinkingMachines may be better than humans at several things, but we are yet to get to a point where we can trust them to do the critical thinking for us.As such, people with high critical thinking skills will still be in demand in jobs of the future.These people will be need to constantly analyze situations, consider multiple solutions and make up decisions while taking into account the various implications of their decisions in an increasingly complex world.People SkillsAs machines take over manual and technical jobs, people will need to work together and collaborate on a whole new level in order to come up with solutions for gl obal problems, such as climate change, poverty, inequality, pollution, and overpopulation.For this collaboration to  be effective, there will be a need for strong people skills, the ability to work with others, manage others and build an emotional connection.In addition, machines have no empathy. They don’t know how to express sentiment.This will increase the need for highly emotionally intelligent people who excel at interpersonal interaction and who have great listening skills, empathy, responsiveness and self-awareness.Mental Flexibility  And  Complex Problem SolvingAs we march into a new world driven by an over-reliance on technology, we will face complex problems we have never experienced before.Solving these complex problems will require the mental flexibility to adapt to the new world and think in new, unconventional ways in order to come up with solutions.In addition, the world will continue changing rapidly. What works today might be absolute by tomorrow.People will need the mental flexibility to adapt to the constantly changing world and remain on top of the situation.  People who can display this mental flexibility and complex problem solving abilities will be in high demand in the imagination economy.STEM  SkillsSkills in science, technology, engineering,  and mathematics fields may be in high demand right now, but they will be in even higher demand in future.Even as automation takes up existing jobs, there will be need for further innovation and technological progress.This innovation and progress will be driven by people with advanced skills in STEM fields.SMAC  SkillsApart from STEM skills, the world is also shifting towards SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) technologies.Today, virtually every business has a social media presence.More and more people are using mobile devices to access online services.The number of people using  mobile devices to access the internet has already surpassed those  accessing on desktop.The increased usage o f the internet is generating huge amounts of data, creating the need for analytics to make use of this data.Cloud computing is driving new business models, such as  SaaS  (software as a service),  PaaS  (platform as a service) and  IaaS  (infrastructure as a service).As we move into the future, these technologies will become even more important, leading to increased demand for people skilled in social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies.Interdisciplinary KnowledgeAutomation will change the nature of traditional careers as we know them.Instead of being proficient in a specific field, jobs of the future will require you to have knowledge in multiple  disciplines.You will need to pull information from diverse fields and use it to come up with out of the box solutions to future problems.THE NEED FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORMAs we march towards the future, there will be need for educational reforms in order to prepare students for the future workplace.One of the problems of education as w e know it today is that it was designed for the industrial age, yet we left the industrial age a long time ago.We are currently living in the information age and we have already started the transition into the imagination age.The focus on content knowledge and grades has grown obsolete.  The current education system was designed for routine and fixed procedure.Currently, we are taught how to do something once and then we spend the rest of our lives doing it.While this model worked before, it will not work in the future.Schools should now start focusing on skills that will allow young people to survive in the economy of the 21st  century, whose economic value will be driven by imagination and creativity.One of the problems with current  line  of thought is that majority of people believe that  imagination and creativity are innate skills. That these skills cannot be learnt.You are either born with it or not. In addition, majority of people believe that imagination and creativity are only important for those whose jobs are officially creative, such as designers and artists.Both these lines of thought are totally wrong. Like any other skills, creativity and imagination can be learnt. These skills are also important for people across all professional backgrounds.Scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors, writers, lawyers, corporate leaders and all other professions have a lot to gain by being creative and imaginative.To enhance creativity and imagination skills, schools should place more emphasis on multi-disciplinary thinking.Students should be taught to  view problems from different angles and contexts (link to article on “How You Define Problems Determines Whether You Solve It), as well as how to make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas and fields.Students should also be encouraged to take part in the active creation of information, rather than simply being passive consumers.They should be encouraged to conduct experiments and use the knowledge gained from these experiments to actively solve problems.Other ways of enhancing creativity and imagination skills among students is to have them take part in imagination-enabling activities, such as creative writing, arts, reading and watching creative books and films, and self-reflection.RETRAINING DISPLACED WORKERS  As businesses deploy more robots and automate business processes, it is inevitable that a significant number of workers will get displaced from their jobs.However,  this does not mean  that we will see growth of huge companies with the CEO as the only employee. Deployment of these robots and algorithms will also create new jobs that will need a human workforce.For instance, the use  of drones by the air force decreased the number of pilots hired by the air force.At the same time, the number of drone pilots  to fly these drones  and analysts required to make sense of the data produced by drones increased significantly.The same will happen in business.However, employees will need to relearn different skills in order to take up these emerging jobs.Workers who work in process based roles (which are highly susceptible to automation) will need to learn skills that allow them to work alongside machines or to be in charge of these machines.Even employees who are in positions that are not facing a lot of threat from automation should expand their skills to help them prepare for the increasingly unpredictable future of work.Fortunately, there are numerous online classes, workshops, seminars and community college classes that workers can take advantage of to gain these important skills.Companies and organizations in industries that are highly susceptible to automation should also provide opportunities for retraining and re-skilling for workers whose roles are most likely to be displaced by automation.WRAPPING UPThe rapid technological advancements will lead to a lot of jobs being taken up by machines, robots and artificially intelligent systems.However, th is will not lead to a massive loss of jobs for humans. Instead, it will change the nature of work.By taking up manual and process based jobs that are based on repetitive tasks, automation will free up humans so that they can focus on jobs that require creativity, imagination and strategy.Automation will also lead to the creation of new jobs that will absorb the workforce displaced by automation.Automation will also lead to work becoming more meaningful.Since jobs of the future will require people to apply their intelligence, creativity and imagination, people are more likely to find more their jobs more meaningful and to experience job satisfaction, which will make people generally happier than they are today.All in all, while it is impossible to accurately predict the future of work, I can confidently say that it holds exciting possibilities.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Early Feminism In The Scarlet Letter - 1421 Words

Nathaniel Hawthorne highlights the habitual societal conflict of surfacing gender equality ideology throughout The Scarlet Letter. The typical female role in society during the mid-seventeenth century was to be a caretaker. Hester Prynne’s sentence for breaking this stereotype through adultery is to wear a large, red letter A on her chest. Hawthorne uses Hester’s character to add characteristics of early feminism. For example, Hester not only takes on the so called male and female role put in place by society at some point throughout the story, but she also challenges societal views of women. To fully understand the situation women were going through, you must be familiar with the historical context. The story takes place in a Puritan†¦show more content†¦Throughout past times, women have been assumed to be inferior to men. They were refused human rights such as education. Some civilizations view women as a surmised evil. Others believe women were to birth, at tend worship, and agree with their husband. Nonetheless, the promoting of women’s rights in regards to political, economic, and social tolerance prevailed within society. Such feminists anticipated to fight for their power. One intent for the protest of inequality could have possibly resulted from the strict regulations of society put in place by the government. These regulations had a direct impact on the conformity of women. Women were directed to avoid self-loving reasoning, which led to the questioning of political and societal leaders. â€Å"It was an age in which the human intellect had taken a more active and a wider range than for many centuries before† (Hawthorne 154). This quote emphasizes the uprising of change in peoples’ minds regarding abuse towards women. Hester serves as the face of the crowd that thinks freely. She is unsatisfied with the destiny a puritan society has in place for. She demonstrates this by challenging the female role and attempt ing to reconstruct the patriarchal society she lives in. The other women that live in the town are shocked by Hester’s actions. This shows how they are afraid that if other women start acting out, the society structureShow MoreRelatedHester As A Strong Female Character And The Scarlet Letter1572 Words   |  7 Pagesand The Scarlet Letter as a Feminist Novel In The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a question arises: Is The Scarlet Letter a feminist novel? First, what is feminism? Feminism is â€Å"the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men†. Feminism is really about a woman’s strength since the act of feminism causes a woman to go against traditional views and be ridiculed for that. What does feminism have to do with The Scarlet Letter? 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Hawthorne grew up with â€Å"his mother became overly protective and pushed him toward relatively isolatedRead MoreScarlet Letter Feminist Novel Essay769 Words   |  4 PagesIs The Scarlet Letter a feminist novel? Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter is about a woman living in Boston during the 1630s. Her name is Hester Prynne and she has committed the crime of adultery and is caught when she is found to be pregnant. The book picks up when she is having a scarlet A placed on her breast for â€Å"adultery† and after the child is already born. After 7 more years, it picks up and the readers can see what she goes through and how she and the townspeople around herRead MoreHester Pyrnne As An Early Feminist Of Nathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter1890 Words   |  8 PagesTOPIC: Hester Pyrnne as an Early Feminist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†. Most people identify Feminism as an anti-male movement hell-bent on making women the dominant gender, but this is not the case. In this novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne executes these ideas by overcoming her public humiliation and rising up against the predetermined ideas that her Puritan town holds for her. She is a perfect example of what a feminist should be, which is a real treat considering the timeRead MoreFeminist Criticism : The Scarlet Letter 1324 Words   |  6 PagesAndrea Rhoden English IV Almack 1st six weeks The Scarlet Letter:Feminism Feminist criticism is a form of literary criticism that uncovers the common mistreatment of women in literature. For centuries, women have been viewed as the minorities, unable to control and protect themselves. In history, women have had little to no voice in the world, what little bit of a voice they have is only obtained through marriage. Men are so dominant that they are able to get away with crimes far easier than womenRead MoreFeminism in The Scarlett Letter Essay601 Words   |  3 Pagesexamples of these strong individuals that help innovate society forward. Because Puritan society greatly suppressed many women, feminism is quite impossible at that time. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne explores the life of Hester Prynne, a young puritan woman involved in an affair. Throughout the book, Hester Prynne expresses her potential to become an early feminist and at times is, however her love for Arthur Dimmesdale holds her back from attaining her full feminist potential

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Whom Should You Better Pay to Write an Essay

Writing an essay is never easy. Even for those who have a natural flair to it there comes a time when they are completely at a loss: what to write? Where to get the necessary information? How to cram all your thoughts into a hundred words limit? A very good answer to all these questions is to contact a professional writing service and place an order. This solution, however, may just as easily lead to even more unpleasant problems if you are not careful enough when choosing a writing agency to place an order with. Who Is the Best to Pay to Write My Essay Lets be frank most writing services dont differ very much from one another. In fact, the differences are so minute that you may feel that you are dealing with a legion of clones and rip-offs instead of independent organizations. ThePensters, however, is very much different from the majority of writing companies out there. And we base this statement not on some vague promises of superior quality and careful choice of authors the things you cannot check until you actually place an order but on the very structure of our company. Choose Whom You Pay to Do Your Essay We do business differently from most other writing agencies, firstly because ThePensters does not represent a unified agency with constant employees whom we assign to this or that case. Instead we offer a service that gives the client a possibility to choose the person who will work on the task, after carefully examining detailed information about available writers: feedback from their customers, number of papers written, their topics, sizes, marks given by the customers, work samples and so on and so forth. You may place an order and ask for a specific writer, or describe the paper you need and leave it for perusal of all authors available at the moment. They are free to choose as well: you may always be sure that only the people who are well-versed in the subject in question will leave their bids. All you have to do is to study these bids and choose the writer that represents the price/quality ratio necessary for this order. Who Is Paid to Write Essays at ThePensters? Dealing with other agencies you are never sure whether the person assigned to your order is really up to the task. We at ThePensters, however, take pains to choose only the best, the most professional and the most reliable people to become our writers. They pass a special exam and are only then allowed to work on actual orders for actual clients. We are very particular about people using plagiarism if a person is caught at this, he can never again work for ThePensters, and our writers are paid well enough to try and keep their places. In other words, when placing an order with us you not only know who is writing your paper, but also can be sure that your essay will be completely original and plagiarism-free.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The Importance of Literature to Humanity Free Essays

â€Å"Literature speaks the language of the imagination, and the study of literature is supposed to train and improve the imagination† (Frye 134). According to Northrop Frye the imagination is the combination between emotions and intellect in every individual. The more an individual is exposed to literature the better that person is at expanding their imagination, which he calls the educated imagination. We will write a custom essay sample on The Importance of Literature to Humanity or any similar topic only for you Order Now Having an educated imagination helps one to think for themselves and create their own ideas and opinions. The educated imagination is a necessity of life in a political world, the study of literature is not an â€Å"elegant accomplishment† but a means of entry into a â€Å"free society† (Frye 147). With an educated imagination one is able to distinguish between moral and aesthetic truth, this is extremely important when it comes to politics. Politicians or simply people in a higher authority often use rhetoric language to manipulate and brainwash people with lies. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury shows the negative effects rhetoric language can have on those with an uneducated imagination and that without literature society produces a world filled with ignorance. The absence of books in Fahrenheit 451 creates darkness within the society. In literature darkness is a symbol of ignorance, evil, falsehood, oblivion, despair and the unknown. Light on the other hand represents goodness, life, knowledge, fame and hope. During the entire novel the author constantly relates to darkness and night, â€Å"In the late afternoon it rained and the entire world was dark and grey† (Bradbury19). Books represent light; it provides people with knowledge, exposes truths and educates the mind. In this society books are illegal and the job of a fireman is to burn any house that contains books in it. Due to the burning of these books there is a lack of light in this society, just utter darkness. Because of the ignorance within the civilization the politicians are able to manipulate and convince the population that books and everything else that causes one to think is evil. This way they are able to easily influence and lead the population. Those that have been exposed to books realize that they are living in darkness and that their only way to get out of the darkness is through books, †Maybe these books can get us half out the cave† (Bradbury 74). All the darkness within the society has blinded the people into being unaware as to what is going on around them. The population is unconsciously being brainwashed and forced to conform without even knowing it. â€Å"We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal† (Bradbury 58). Watching television became the major replacement for literature. This is because watching television does not require one to think but influences their thoughts which later influences their actions. The subconscious believes television is real. Watching television physically damages the brain and reduces intelligence. It also switches brain activity from the left side of the brain which is responsible for logic and critical analysis to the right side of the brain that is responsible for emotional responses. This allows each viewer to be heavily influenced and brainwashed by what they see and hear on TV. By restricting the population from literature and replacing it with televisions, they are decreasing the intelligence within the population making it easier to have full control over the society. Without the education one receives from books these people are simply sheep in a herd following their Sheppard. â€Å"The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that cannot read them† Mark Twain. The society is afraid of being inferior to those who read and understand. All books have meaning. Reading gives people time to think and reflect on not only the text, but their lives as well, â€Å"So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life† (83), books reveal the truth about the world. By burning books the firemen are destroying knowledge and promoting ignorance. This is the reason for all the ignorance and darkness within the society. Due to the lack of literature the people have an uneducated imagination and are therefore unable to see past the governments’ use of rhetoric. the first thing our imaginations have to do for us, as soon as we can handle words well enough to read and write and talk, is to fight to protect us from falling into the illusions that society threatens us with† (Frye 60). Those who are caught reading books are exterminated or taken away to reduce the chances of them spreading their wisdom to others. Those that read are smarter and are seen as a threat to society. These individuals are able to see past society’s use of rhetoric, â€Å"We can see here how the ordinary use of hetoric, which attempts to make society presentable, is becoming hypocritical and disguising the reality it presents beyond the level of social safety† (Frye 61). The rhetoric use of language in this society is to persuade the population into believing that being intellectual is a sin, and books are the cause of this sin, â€Å"So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach mans mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well read man? Me? † (Bradbury 58). Those that did read were able to oppose the use of eloquence. Clarisse was considered abnormal and a threat because she thought about things and often asked why, â€Å"She didn’t want to know how a thing was done, but why. That can be embarrassing. You ask why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed, if you keep at it. The poor girl’s better off dead† (Bradbury 60). Once again rhetoric language is used to justify the death of Clarisse and criticize the use of imagination. The main character Montag is a fireman who also reads books and is smart enough to see the flaws in his society. For this he is considered a burden and wanted by police. Those that read are able to see that there is more to life than pleasure and titillation. â€Å"Forgive a child who is afraid of the dark, the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light† -Plato. The people in this novel are afraid of the light. They are afraid of literature and the truth, knowledge, and all goodness that comes with it. Due to the lack of literature in this society, the population is ignorant and unable to think individually. Because of the ignorance within the population the government has full control over their lives. Each individual deserves the right to live imaginative and free lives. â€Å"The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then, is to produce, out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the society we want to live in† (Frye 60). Without literature the imagination becomes limited and people are unable to vision the society they want to live in. As the world becomes more modern and grows further, away from literature, society beings to look more like Fahrenheit 451 where citizens are nothing but a sheep in a herd. How to cite The Importance of Literature to Humanity, Essays

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Legislation and Prostitution Argumentative Persuas Essay Example For Students

Legislation and Prostitution Argumentative Persuas Essay ive Essays Legislation and Prostitution Pornography is yet one of the most popular topics of todays society. Questions are being brought up about how pornography has had an effect on our everyday life styles. Pornography provokes violence through its explicates of obscenity through the literature and the media. Technology has been manipulated by these pornographic materials , and this isnt fair to the public. How do we put a stop to this? The law officials are trying to restate some of the laws that refer to the pornographic field, but it has become a great deal of struggling. The struggle is due to the avoidance of the invading each of the individuals constitutional rights granted to them, that is the freedom of speech and press. This topic has been hard to do research on because it is a really complicated subject to understand. This topic has really been neglected in the past so it is now come to overpower the people and haunt them in every way. One way in which the legal system has tried to regulate against pornography was by decreasing the amount of publications of obscenity illustrated of pornography through censorship. In the case of Mutual Film Corporation. Verses Industrial Communication, in 1915, the case had to do with Ohio state censorship, and the attorneys for this film declared that through pre-censorship there will be a violation of rights. this provoked the state supreme court to decide that movies were not entitled to share the same protection of constitutional rights as other media areas. Now the court decided to make clear that when films are being previewed before distribution bans cannot be made unless on grounds of constitution. The American Law Institute is made up of professional lawyers, professors, and judges. These professionals are mutually investigating the field of pornography. the plan on putting restrictions for pornography. To avoid any criminal charges against pornographic publishers, lawyers advise their clients to avoid any published material containing or regarding obscene material. Some liberals feel that the reason that the law opposes pornography is because the case becomes more emotional rather than logical. There was a time where the law did put its foot down. This is when James Joyce, for example, had his novel (Ulysses) which was full of obscenity was banned from the United States and then it was approved and published in Paris, France. This goes to show that there is to an extent some sort of power of government over the pornographic publishers demands. I feel that this proves that the system can work its way around this trash. Pornography has expanded through books, magazines, films. movies, billboards, and new through the computer internet. This makes profanity an easy access for those children under age. Computers have become childrens specialty. This has turned into a major concern for thoughsands of parents, guardians, and so on. When the law is concerned, there have been some standards set for nudity, books, magazines, and also miscellaneous. No nudity that is involintary is permissable, and it should only be used when appropriate in a setting. As for books and magazines , they contain very explicite material that will lead to trouble , but they may not be protected by the law. There was a case against record with the Supreme Court of Nebraska , but the case wasnt successful. It is hard to take away these rights because our constitution is very strong , making this situation and many others an obstacle to struggle through. In fact, we do want to put a stop on pornography even if it costs us our rights. Doing so, this will reduce a significant amount of harrassment and violence. As a result, society will change for the bettter and be at ease. .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 , .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .postImageUrl , .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 , .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6:hover , .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6:visited , .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6:active { border:0!important; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6:active , .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6 .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uc1ccfa5267c913423236d5166532dfe6:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Essay On The Constitution .

Monday, March 23, 2020

Samantha Srinivasan Essays - Friedrich Nietzsche,

Samantha Srinivasan Philosophy 101-01 Prof. Evans Dec. 16, 1998 Paper Assignment: Topic #3 Nietzsche is known as a philosopher who was very poetic in his writings. He used a real Persian prophet named Zarathustra, as his character within his philosophy. The way Plato used Socrates, Nietzsche used Zarathustra's mouth to speak his philosophy. An example, how Nietzsche uses Zarathustra in his book is in the chapter entitled ? On the Tree on the Mountain.? Within this chapter, the story represents certain aspects that are important to Zarathustra (Nietzsche). The chapter begins, with Zarathustra noticing that a youth was avoiding him, but later encounters him in the mountains. The chapter further continues, with the fact that Zarathustra finally speaks to the youth and asks him why he is afraid. Zarathustra continues talking to the youth by telling him a parable about a tree that is waiting for something on the mountainside. The youth tries to confine with Zarathustra, and Zarathustra advises him to not give up his hope and freedom in life. This chapter clearly relates to the notion of the overman. In Zarathustra's Prologue, when Zarathustra speaks to a crowd of people in a town who are waiting for a tightrope performance. He speaks to the people of the overman as the meaning of the earth. Zarathustra quotes,? Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth!? Therefore, in this chapter of ? On the Tree on the Mountainside ? Zarathustra compares a tree waiting something from the earth because he speaks about how the tree keeps growing from the earth taller and taller each day. He also states that surely the tree is waiting for the first lighting, which signfly as waiting for the overman by giving your whole self. Zarathustra also stated how he beseeched his brothers and sisters to remain faithful to the earth, and to not believe those who speak of otherworldly hopes. In other words he is saying that the most dreadful thing is to go against the overman which then doesn't make meaning of the earth. So in essence the youth represents those individuals who are at the break of being missed lead into a false dead God. Therefore, the tree also represents those individuals who are waiting for that special unfalsed God ,but they didn't know what it was. Zarathustra advised the youth no matter what happens he should not lose his sense of freedom and hope because if he loses his determination than he was a lost soul. The youth also tells that Zarathustra that he is correct because he has longed and waited for something not knowing what it is. So Zarathustra's advice means that yes we are searching for something, and our answer is in the earth, the overman. This chapter explains how Zarathustra was determined to bring the overman to everyone, and also explaining to the people that we are like the TREE who waits. Samantha Srinivasan Philosophy 101-01 Prof. Evans Dec. 16, 1998 Paper Assignment: Topic #3 Nietzsche is known as a philosopher who was very poetic in his writings. He used a real Persian prophet named Zarathustra, as his character within his philosophy. The way Plato used Socrates, Nietzsche used Zarathustra's mouth to speak his philosophy. An example, how Nietzsche uses Zarathustra in his book is in the chapter entitled ? On the Tree on the Mountain.? Within this chapter, the story represents certain aspects that are important to Zarathustra (Nietzsche). The chapter begins, with Zarathustra noticing that a youth was avoiding him, but later encounters him in the mountains. The chapter further continues, with the fact that Zarathustra finally speaks to the youth and asks him why he is afraid. Zarathustra continues talking to the youth by telling him a parable about a tree that is waiting for something on the mountainside. The youth tries to confine with Zarathustra, and Zarathustra advises him to not give up his hope and freedom in life. This chapter clearly relates to the notion of the overman. In Zarathustra's Prologue, when Zarathustra speaks to a crowd of people in a town who are waiting for a tightrope performance. He speaks to the people of the overman as the meaning of the earth. Zarathustra quotes,? Let your will say: the overman shall be

Friday, March 6, 2020

Why It’s Okay To Use “Um” and “Like” When You Talkâ€Really

Why It’s Okay To Use â€Å"Um† and â€Å"Like† When You Talk- Really Yes, you should never use filler words like â€Å"um† and â€Å"like† in your writing. But sometimes, in conversation, you might find you need to buy yourself a bit of time to gather your thoughts and figure out what it is you’re trying to say. It’s true that most job interview advice blogs will tell you to avoid using them at all costs, because they  can make you sound unintelligent or unprepared. But filler words are a natural part of the way people speak these days, so if you can utilize them economically and well in your conversation, you just might be able to get the best of both worlds. You’ll have the time to formulate your sentences and keep your speech clean and less muddled, but you won’t get carried away with your constant â€Å"umm†ing and â€Å"like†-ing.Filler words are used for the following reasons.They Show That You’re ThinkingIf you need another few seconds to formulate your sentence, you can throw in an â€Å"errr† or a â€Å"basically†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ and then continue on from there. It helps you not be interrupted. And helps you say precisely what you’d like to say once you say it.They  Soften What You’re Going to SayIf you’re going to say something a little harsh,   temper it with a few conversational filler words to keep it casual. Just to make sure your friend or colleague doesn’t think you’re being cold or cruel. i.e. â€Å"You have a little, like, something in your teeth?†They Can Strengthen or  Weaken What You’re SayingFiller words can change the tone of a sentence, either to qualify your statement and make it weaker, or to add extra emphasis and authority. Depending on the word, you can make what you’re saying sound like a stab in the dark, or a definitive conclusion.They Help You StallYou grabbed the mic; it’s your turn to talk and you have something super important to say. The stakes are high. T rouble is, you haven’t quite figured out what that is yet. A few ummms and weeeellls†¦. might just give you the time you need to strategize.They Make Your Listener Feel IncludedThrowing in a little â€Å"you know?† at the end of what you’re saying doesn’t have to make you sound like a Valley girl. It could just be a friendly way of making sure whomever you’re talking to is still with you and feels included.So you see, filler words, when used in moderation, can actually be a conversational asset. Just don’t get too carried away and you can feel free to use these natural bits of speech as you see fit.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

The Role of the Faith in social change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Role of the Faith in social change - Essay Example These problems are then addressed by faith. They believe that the problems in a society can be addressed by the implementation of religious values. They were of the view that the government is responsible for all the problems in the society and if these matters are addressed by a religious will the all the health issues, poverty issues, wealth distribution issues and welfare issues can be resolved by the religious teachings. Thus, it depicts that the faith can bring change in the society but the potential outcomes of involving faith in daily resolution of problems would be waging a war against the secular community in the society. The church cannot be utilized as a place where activities on social issues are carried out daily. Church is an important part of the society which promotes equality, justice, peace, hope and love among the people. A Church brings people on common grounds, through which they can work for the betterment of the society, keeping in mind that religious teachings can solve the problems (Stalling, 2010). The observers of the religious change believe that it is an ongoing process which is continually evolving along with globalization. The institutions of faith are developing themselves again so that the religious values do not clash with the secular values of the modern society. The national public religion in the society is often connected with the micro and macro level processes. This process helps in developing spirituality among the individuals, who seek religious guidance for the solution of their problems. The Americans are more focused towards the religion and concentrate primarily on the supernatural forces which can help in changing the course of problems which bring about social changes. They believe that deviating from the religious instructions is the main cause of the issues which they are facing in their daily lives (Stalling, 2010). Religion in Unites

Monday, February 3, 2020

The Vietnam War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Vietnam War - Essay Example This semi-autobiography of the author is his exploration of his past as he travels through his home land, Vietnam, which also helps him in accepting his identity and hence provides the hope for a better future. The reason that the writer needed to go on this journey was because his transsexual sister had committed suicide under the pressure of not being able to identify her existence. This had triggered the author to look for his own identity. So, he goes on a trip to his homeland Vietnam travelling through various places that had held meaning to him during his childhood. He hopes to see the same Vietnam that he had left years ago, looking for his dear friend the one he trusted so much. However, as he travels through the land he is confused and surprised to see the way things had changed. This book is remarkable in the way Pham explains the changes, his feelings and the confusion of an out of place Vietnamese American. The main theme that is easy to pick up from this book is that of the confusion that exists for the second generation of refugees. â€Å"I tell them I’m Vietnamese American. They shriek, ‘Viet-kieu!’ It sounds like a disease. The news travels down the procession and the excitement subsides. Half of the group peels away, losing interest since I am not a real foreigner† (Pham, A. page no. 125). I think the identity of a person is very important for him and the way a person’s identity is created through his nation, his name, his family and through people associated with him. When a person has to move away from his nation, his family, his friends a part of his identity is lost. Creating a new identity is not easy especially when the new place happens to be so different from where they come from. This results in the constant dilemma that the writer also faces. â€Å"In this Vietnamese much, I am too American. Too refined, too removed from my que, my birth village. The sight of my roots repulses me. And this shames me deeply† (Pham, A. page no. 183). When people like the writer himself go back to their roots it is more of a displeasure to see that what they had left does not exist anymore. The roots they can associate themselves with does not exist anymore. This does not just further confuses them about their identity but forces them to rethink about their identity. â€Å"They smashed all the alley homes a long time ago. New homes are built right against the back of all the street-front houses. No more alley. But what about the people who used to live there? The Vo family? Gone. All gone†¦.Come. Meet the new people and some of the old ones who are still here. I want to leave . This place is empty.† (Pham A. page no. 101). Pham explains the feeling of seeing everything that should remind him of his roots and yet does not connect to him. His words are a solace to all those who have gone through the same phase. Seeing things change so drastically does leave the feeling of emptiness , it is difficult to accept the changes, even though had the person been in the same place he would have gone with the flow changing with the changes brought about. But it’s different for somebody like the author whose memory holds a different picture not allowing the person to accept a different picture. It is just not easy to easily accept the change. â€Å"

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Article Analysis: Foreign Bank Penetration to Nordic Market

Article Analysis: Foreign Bank Penetration to Nordic Market ABDULAZEEZ OLUWAFUNMIKE ASMAU ASSIGNMENT: Journals of international financial markets, institutions and money, vol.11 (1); 53-63 by Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Adrian E Tschoegl (2001)‘foreign bank penetration to the newly opened market in the Nordic countries. To explain the aims of the research and how the researcher carried out theses aims. Critically analyse the article from a methodology perspective. (1000 WORDS) Abstract This work is based on the research articles of Lars Engwall, Rolf Marquardt, Torben Pedersen, Adrian E Tschoegl (2001). The authors research is to determine the impact of foreign bank in the newly opened market in some Nordic countries which includes Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The opening of foreign bank in these Nordic country provides them with the opportunity to study the analysis of the foreign bank sector in the case where the sector had a specific start date. Three hypothesis were examined and the result leads to how parent market and the difficulty facing the domestic competition is fully in agreement in the situations of Denmark, for Finland and Norway it’s mixed and indeterminate, and fully disagree in the situation of Sweden. The result were consistently with the Stiglits – Weiss argument that the foreign banks bought entry by accepting worse lending risks. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Tschoegl, A., E. 2001). Introduction This research focuses on how foreign bank gain access to the newly opened market in some Nordic countries. Denmark in 1971 was the first to deregulate its domestic banking markets and the entry of foreign banks. Just one foreign bank entered initially and the number of foreign banks grew slowly over time. Finland opened next (1978) but no foreign banks entered until four years later when further deregulation made entry attractive. Norway (1984) and Sweden (1985) opened after Denmark in more than a decade and a number of banks all entered at once. After falling from its peaks, the number of foreign banks and their share of each countrys banking system assets are recovering. (Lars Engwall, Rolf Marquardt, Torben Pedersen, Tschoegl, A., E. 2001). Foreign bank was developed with the evolution of an economy or a technology in the Nordic countries not until the government removed the barriers. Opening up to foreign bank in Nordic countries exist to the process of deregulation which leads to competitive turbulence. Foreign banking was welcome by the authorities for the competition and also new capabilities which they establish to the domestic market. However, the effect of the entrant on monetary policy, credit control and soundness of the existing domestic banks are the concerns of the authorities. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Adrian E Tschoegl 1999). The objective state to examine the determinant of the evolution of the foreigner market share of the asset of the banking system as a whole, not the survival and success of the individual banks. The three hypotheses related to the determinant of foreign bank sectors was formulated, which they relates the foreign banks’ market share to a time trend, to each host countrys trade balance, and to the banking systems loan loss experience. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and A,. E,Tschoegl 2001). The first variable captures learning and selection, the second proxies for access to business related to the foreign banks’ access to their home markets. And the last captures the effect of a possible crisis-induced lack of competitiveness of the host-country banks. The result shows that in Denmark it is fully in agreement, for Finland and Norway it’s mixed and indeterminate, and fully disagree in the case of Sweden.(Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Tschoegl, A., E. 2001). Literature reviews Foreign direct investment in banking has drawn substantial theoretical and empirical attention over the last two decade and empirical attention. Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Adrian E Tschoegl(2001), Williams (1997) provides a comprehensive survey of the theoretical literature. However, the literature on the market share of the foreign banks is sparse and almost entirely cross-sectional in nature. Some other authors like Walter (1992) argue that bank-oriented financial systems are hostile to new entry, whether that of banks or markets. In line with Walter’s argument, Steinherr and Huveneers (1994) provide evidence that foreign bank penetration of loan markets is lower in countries where a small number of domestic banks dominate the banking sector. Yafeh and Yosha (1995) propose a model in which domestic banks respond to foreign bank entry by increasing the resources that the domestic banks devote to the formation of ties with firms. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and A., E, Tschoegl 2001). Hypotheses The literature reviewed provides the basis for the three hypotheses about the influences of learning, access to parent-country related business, and the effect of impediments to the competitiveness of host-country banks. The foreign banks can be subject both to selection and evolutionary learning (Baldwin and Rafiquzzaman 1995). (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and A., E. Tschoegl 2001). Firstly, the time trend captures a second effect that has a debateable implication for the sign of the variable. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and A., E. Tschoegl 2001). H1: The longer foreign banks have been present, the larger their market share. Second, they expect the foreign banks’ market share of banking system assets in a country to correlate positively with imports to the country and negatively with exports (Heinkel and Levi 1992). (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and A., E. Tschoegl 2001) H2: The market share of foreign banks should wax with a trade deficit and wane with a trade surplus. Lastly, financial crises should correlate positively with an expanded role for the foreign banks. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and A., E. Tschoegl 2001). H3: The foreign banks’ market share should wax when domestic banks are facing loan losses and wane when the domestic banks are less burdened. Methodology and Result OLS regression was use to examine the three hypotheses with time trend, trade balance losses and the financial crisis) the three hypotheses served has an independence variances. Their results shows that in Demark all three independent variables had the correct sign and all were statistically significant at the 5% level and beta coefficients from the regression on the standardized variables shows TIME as the most important variable and TRADE BALANCE having a larger effect than LOSSES. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Tschoegl, A., E. 2001). In Finland country, TIME had the correct sign, but the other two variables had perverse signs. All three variables had a large impact in the sense that a one standard deviation change in the independent variable. As for Norway, TIME was the only important factor. For Sweden, TIME had a negative effect but was not an important factor. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Tschoegl, A., E. 2001). Conclusion In all four Nordic countries, the survival rate among the initial foreign entrants appears low. Absent acquisitions of domestic banks, the foreign banks have not carved out a large role in any of the four Nordic countries. The result is consistent with what they would expect from theory based on the role of relationships in banking and from Steinherr and Huveneer’s (1994) argument and empirical results. The difference is congruent with differences in the elapsed time since opening; to recapitulate, the order of opening to foreign banks was Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. (Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and A., E. Tschoegl 2001). Word count; 1007 Bibliography Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Adrian E Tschoegl (2001) ‘foreign bank penetration to the newly opened market in the Nordic countries, ’Journals of international financial markets, institutions and money, vol.11 (1); 53-63. Engwals, L., Marquardt, R., Pedersen,T. and Adrian E Tschoegl (March, 1999) ‘foreign bank penetration to the newly opened market in the Nordic countries. pg. (1-38) 1 Does the EU Suffer From a Democratic Deficit? | Essay Does the EU Suffer From a Democratic Deficit? | Essay The overall goal of EU integration has been to create an ever closer union in which decision are taken as closely as possible to the citizen (Cini, Michele, Borragan, 2010). However, still the most enthusiastic backers of the EU must accept that it has been more a progression commencing and sustained by elites, than by a popular front for change. The claim that the standard European citizen has virtually no possibility of directly affecting the work of the EU, along with the negative impact of integration on popular support for the EU, has given rise to the term the democratic deficit. Although there is no one single definition, the concept behind the notion of the democratic deficit is that decisions in the EU are insufficiently representative of, or accountable to, the nations and the people of Europe (Lord, C, 2001, p165). It is not merely an additional layer of governance, further removed from the peoples of Europe but as a result of such an organisation, each Member State can n o longer claim to be the source of its own legitimacy (Eriksen, Fossum, 2002, p401). It is important to make a distinction between two different types of theories behind the democratic deficit. The institutional perspective focuses on the institutional power sharing and on institutional reform as a solution to the perceived problems of EU level democracy (Cini, 2010, p378). The socio-psychological viewpoint, however, places much emphasis on the lack of a European civic identity and the absence of a European demos. The classical argument, through a socio-psychological point of view, of cases where it can be said that the EU suffers from a democratic deficit is that the nonexistence of representative and direct democracy within the EU. The set up of the EU results in policy-making being dominated at the European level by executive actors, state based ministers in the Council, and government appointments in the Commission. This does not inevitably lead to democratic deficit; unless, as happens, the decisions taken by the executive departments at the European stage are outside the authority of domestic parliaments. Even with the creation of European Affairs Committees in every national parliament, ministers when conversing and voting in the Council, national representatives when constructing policies in The Council and bureaucrats in the Commission when drafting or implementing legislation, are much more isolated from national parliamentary scrutiny and control than are national cabinet ministers or bureaucrats in the domestic policy-making process (Follesdal, Andreas, Hix, Simon, 2005, p2). As a consequence, governments are able to successfully disregard their parliaments when deciding upon policies at the European level. Therefore, European integration has resulted in a reduction of the influence of national parliaments and an enhancement to the authority of executives. Perhaps the institution to come in for the heaviest criticism from the Eurosceptics is the Commission which is seen as an archetypal undemocratic institution, in that it is a civil service composed of appointed members (Cini 2010, p381), who contain extensive policy-making powers. In spite of its authority over initiating and developing new European laws, the Commission is subject to little direct or even indirect public accountability (McCormick, John, 2008, p124). Appointments have to be accepted by Parliament, but apart from that they are made lacking reference to the electorate. The President of the Commission is selected as an outcome of behind the scenes bargaining and conciliations directed by the leaders of the member states. The commission also stands for the views of the EU in numerous international forums devoid of a mandate from the citizens. Moreover, there are very modest openings for people to take part in or contribute to the deliberations of the Commission and only l imited occasions for the EP to hold it accountable for its decisions; although this has increased, being seen most clearly by the parliaments new powers under the Lisbon Treaty. Secondly and associated to the first aspect, the majority of commentators on the democratic deficit claim that the European Parliament authority is insufficient. The movement of legislative powers from national parliaments to the EU institutions has not been matched by an equivalent degree of democratic accountability and legislative input on the part of the European Parliament (EP) (Cini 2010, p380), the solitary directly elected body at EU level. In the 1980s, many analysts argued that there was a direct trade-off between the powers of the European Parliament and the powers of national parliaments (Follesdal, Hix, p 4), where any addition to the authority of the European Parliament would result in a concomitant decrease in the powers of national parliaments (Holland, 1980). However, by the 1990s, such an argument had departed as academics began to understand European integration as a decline in the authority of parliaments at the national level relative to executive powers. The ans wer, most claimed, was to increase the power of the European Parliament relative to the governments in the Council and the Commission (Williams, S. (1991). One of the key the arguments against the claim that authority has moved to the executive, is that national governments are the most directly accountable politicians in Europe. As Moravcsik claims The democratically elected governments of the Member States, dominate the still largely territorial and intergovernmental structure of the EU (Moravcsik Andre, 2002, p112). According to this argument, the EU is still principally an intergovernmental institution; where the verdicts at the European Council and the Council of Ministers are as accountable to EU general public as the policies of national cabinets. Furthermore the New Lisbon Treaty has increased the national parliaments capacity to contribute along with the European institutions in the work of the EU. A new clause clearly sets out the rights and duties of the national parliaments within the EU. It deals with their right to information, the way they monitor subsidiarity, and for reforming the treaties.The EU can be seen to strength en the state, challenging arguments of a democratic deficit, as the democratically elected national executives play an increasingly dominant role in the EU. Against the claims that the executives are outside the power of elected institutions, the most noteworthy institutional progress in the EU from the 1980s, has been the enlarged influence of the EP in the legislative progression and in the appointment of the Commission. The EP now has veto-power over the choice of the Commission and is progressively more prepared to employ its muscle against heavy lobbying from national governments, as was seen with the Parliaments veto of the first proposed line-up of the Barroso Commission in October 2004 (Follesdal, Hix, p 20). Also, the alterations in the use of the co-decision procedure which started under the Maastricht Treaty of 1996 and has only been increased by the last three treaties, has developed from the idea of merely cooperation first commencing under the SEA in 1986, legislation cannot be passed under the co-decision procedure without majority support in both the Council and the European Parliament (Follesdal, Hix, p 22). The extensio n of the co-decision procedure can be seen in the areas including legal immigration, penal judicial cooperation (Eurojust, crime prevention, alignment of prison standards, offences and penalties), police cooperation (Europol) and some aspects of trade policy and agriculture. It can therefore be argued that the EU has addressed the democratic deficit by significantly increasing the powers of the EP and in giving it a role in almost all lawmaking, in turn weakening the powers of the less representative institutions. Despite the extension of the co-decision procedure under The Lisbon Treaty it remains true that the EP does not possess several of the powers of a real legislature. For one it is unable to increase revenues or initiate novel laws and has a highly restricted ability to keep the Commission accountable for its judgments. While the EP may have the ability to veto national governments selection for the Commission President and the group of the Commissioners, the governments rem ain the agenda-setters with regards to the appointments of the Commission and in any new policy implemented in the EU. The trouble with the institutional approaches to the democratic deficit is that they ignore the equally significant socio-psychological viewpoints of this uncharted occurrence. The bigger dilemma is the connection, or lack of it, between the rising democratic politics inside the EU institutions and the opinions of the public. In spite of the rising influence of the EP, there are no European elections, largely as a result of there being no European demos. EU citizens vote for their governments, who represent them in the Council and nominate Commissioners. EU citizens also elect the EP. Nevertheless, none of the domestic elections neither the EP elections are actually European; elections: they are not fought over the personalities and parties at the European level or the direction of the EU policy agenda (Follesdal, Hix, p 4). State based elections are about national as opposed to European concerns, as parties collude to keep the issue of Europe off the domestic agenda (Hix, S, 1999, p 78). EP elections also tend to be decided on issues unrelated to Europe, as parties and the media treat them as mid-term national contests (Follesdal, Hix, p7), this can be shown recently by the success of many radical fringe parties in the 2009 election as a sign of discontent with the political elite and the failures of many government parties, notably the Labour party in the UK. Protest votes as a way of voicing displeasure with parties in government and increasingly failing turnout at European elections signify that as described of the first EP elections as second-order national contests (Reif K, Schmitt H, 1980, p44), is increasingly relevant. Although many national states have also endured their own form of democratic deficit, the perception remains that the trouble is considerably stronger in the EU, which has given way to a disturbing detachment between the EU institutions and its citizens. Psychologically, the EU is so unlike the national democratic bodies that citizens struggle to identify with it. As a result the institutions often appear distant and mysterious, meaning it is certainly not unexpected that anti-European media are capable of engendering public suspicion and resentment towards the EU. The Lisbon Treaty has attempted to give a more influential voice to its citizens; thanks to the Citizens Initiative, one million citizens from a number of Member States have the possibility to call on the Commission to bring forward new policy proposals. Only time will tell if this policy has the desire effect, but if it would have to be an unexpectedly successful policy for it to make any real impact with regards to voter enthusiasm for the EU. In conclusion, whether there is a democratic deficit depends partly on how the EU is understood. If it viewed as a Federation, or has a desire to turn into one, in that case the necessary links between citizens and the EU institutions are indeed weak. But if it is viewed as a confederation, then the links are unusually strong (McCormick, 2008, p126). indispensable links connecting citizens and EU institutions are certainly too frail; however, if understood as a confederation then the links are remarkably tight; where they are only expected to be indirect with national governments representing their citizens at the central authority. There may well be a persuasive case claim that the EU is not deficient with regards to democratic practices or formal legitimacy, but a question mark does linger over the unions social capacity. Democratic or not, the EU doesnt yet seem to have won over the hearts and minds of its citizens'(Smith, Julia, 2003, p3); meaning that no new constitution will on its own solve the problem of a democratic deficit within the EU. Why Was Marie Antoinette So Hated? Why Was Marie Antoinette So Hated? Assess the arguments raised by Zweig, Fraser, Lever, Dunlop, Amand as to why Marie Antoinette became such a hated figure? The following will assess and discuss the arguments raised by Zweig, Fraser, Lever, Dunlop and Amand as to why Marie Antoinette became such a hated figure in France before, during and after the revolution of 1789. The arguments of these historians will raise common and different factors that contributed to the unpopularity of Louis XVI’s Austrian born wife. The arguments raised by Zweig, Fraser, Lever, Dunlop and Amand could also be used to assess the hatred aimed towards Marie Antoinette and the effect this had upon the stability of the Ancien Regime in France. The factors and arguments that these historians have raised about Marie Antoinette are based around her personal qualities and faults, as well as upon political, social, and economic factors that were arguably outside her direct control. The assessment of the arguments raised will go into greater detail than whether Marie Antoinette became such a hated figure in France just because she was an Austrian and she had advis ed her poorer subjects to eat cakes when they did not have any bread. Above all else the arguments that are assessed will demonstrate whether her position as a hated figure was based upon justifiable reasons, fact or misplaced perceptions of her influence on events and her role within the monarchy. Marie Antoinette’s marriage to Louis XVI had been a diplomatic and dynastic match that had been intended to maintain peace between France and the Habsburg Empire, political motives came ahead of popularity amongst the French people. Like all royal families during the 18th century, the Bourbon dynasty in France did not believe its future depended on its public popularity or whether its Queen was a hated figure. Stefan Zweig argued that the reasons behind Marie Antoinette being a hated figure in France were due to her personal faults, her perceived arrogance and lavishness, combined with a dislike of her husband and declining respect for the monarchy itself. Zweig argued that Marie Antoinette’s emergence as a figure of hatred was strongly related to her being Austrian. As already noted she had been married to Louis XVI to seal the alliance between France and Austria. France had been the enemy of Austria for the best part of three hundred years; a great deal of hatred towards the Habsburgs still persisted in France. It was only natural that hatred should be directed towards Marie Antoinette once she married Louis XVI. Louis XVI himself was not believed to like Austria or Austrians with the exception of his wife. The Queen’s popularity was not helped by the failure to have children at the early stages of her marriage, although that was due to the King’s medical condition, rather than disliking his wife. Throughout her time in France though her Austrian birth did not help her popularity (Zweig, 1932 p.21). Zweig argued that Marie Antoinette inadvertently made herself a hated figure by influencing royal and therefore government policy. Here was a case in which the public perception of her influence was greater than her actual influence. Although that was because previous Queens had virtually influence at all. Louis XVI was more prone to influence from his wife than previous French Kings’ had been by their wives. Interfering in state affairs did not endear the Queen to her subjects, especially those that wanted reform. Marie Antoinette’s interference in politics may have been carried out with good intentions, yet it proved disastrous for the French monarchy. From the start many suspected that Marie Antoinette would only interfere to serve her selfish interests or those of Austria. As opposition to the monarchy increased, the number of people that were prepared to believe that Marie Antoinette’s interventions in government were either inept or directly contrary to Fre nch interests also increased. Marie Antoinette did not intervene in politics as frequently or as successfully as her opponents believed or stated she did. At the end of the day once her children had been born she wished to concentrate on her role as a mother, although her position as Queen meant that she was not able to do so (Zweig, 1932 p. 144). Zweig argued that Marie Antoinette helped to make herself a hated figure due to the lavish lifestyle she led. The Queen enjoyed a luxurious standard of living and liked to appear very wealthy. Marie Antoinette was regarded as being frivolous, fun loving and even uncaring. People grew to hate the displays of wealth and believed she knew little and cared even less about the harsh conditions that the poor had to endure. The Queen did her popularity no favours with allegations and rumours concerning her love life. Respect for her and the monarchy was weakened by such rumours. Her relationship with Fersen was far from discreet with questions raised about the paternity of her children. There were also rumours about affairs with other men including an Archbishop (Zweig, 1932 p. 144). The Queen’s reputation was severely damaged by the ‘Diamond Necklace Affair’, although she did not do anything wrong the verdicts and testimonies heard at the Paris Parlement were disastrous (Zweig, 1932 p. 170). Zweig argued that the faults of Marie Antoinette and the well-publicised rumours or the intrigues of those that disliked her made her hated. However, these factors would not have proved catastrophic if circumstances had been different. Unfortunately for the Queen all circumstances conspired against her. Poor harvests, the failure to reform the economy combined with government insolvency, the return of veterans from the American War of Independence, and finally a weak King proved a recipe for revolution. Zweig contends that these events and factors were critical in turning Marie Antoinette from being unpopular with some of the people into a woman hated by a majority of the people (Zweig, 1932 p. 156). Antonia Fraser put forward the arguments that Marie Antoinette’s decline from popularity to been a figure of hatred were due partly to how she was perceived by the French public and also due to circumstances beyond her control. Fraser argues that the French disliking foreign-born princesses and Queens had been customary before Marie Antoinette married the future Louis XVI. Previous princesses and Queens though had the advantage of maintaining a lower profile than Marie Antoinette did, whilst Louis XIV and Louis XV were more forceful than the indecisive Louis XVI was. The flamboyant Marie Antoinette stood out from her reserved husband; from her arrival in France she attracted both admirers and detractors. Unfortunately for her the ridicule and dislike that some regarded her with turned into being hated by the masses (Fraser, 2001 p. 44). Fraser points out that Marie Antoinette should have taken her mother’s advice to behave impeccably, obey her husband, and give no cause for scandal or rumours. Marie Theresa believed that avoiding scandal was the best way for her daughter to remain popular and not become a hated figure. The Empress also believed that Marie Antoinette could serve Habsburg interests more effectively if she was a popular Queen. The future Queen was also advised not to get too close to her future subjects, least they lose respect for her and the French monarchy. Whilst Marie Antoinette could keep away from her subjects, her knack of getting embroiled in scandal or upsetting people without intending to do so contributed to her becoming a hated figure. Fraser does note that Marie Theresa was partly to blame for some of her daughter’s faults. Marie Antoinette’s ability to be a good and successful Queen was hampered by a lack of education. She did not always know how to act like a Queen should, neither could she deal with complicated political issues. When she arrived in France she was naà ¯ve in many respects about politics and courtly intrigues (Fraser, 2001 p. 46). Marie Antoinette did not keep herself free of scandal and rumour. Such court rumours and tabloid pamphlets turned her innocent activities at court into orgies that never took place and the widespread circulation of them could not be prevented. Pamphlets that originally contained unfounded gossip would later prove more damaging in making her a hated figure. Louis XVI attempted to have such publications banned, although censorship was bypassed by using Dutch and British presses (Fraser, 2001, pp. 134-35). For a time after the birth of her eldest son, Marie Antoinette seemed to have achieved a measure of popularity amongst her subjects. The pamphleteers continued to try to undermine her popularity by spreading rumours about the child’s paternity and later the paternity of her other children. The motives of pamphleteers would change from making profits to attacking the monarchy and making the Queen hated (Fraser, 2001, pp.178-79). The Queen did not help matters by buying the palace at Saint Cloud for the royal family to live in; this showed insensitivity during a time when people were suffering from worsening economic conditions. People were shocked about how much was spent on the palace, the actual amounts spent was high enough yet rumours about its costs dented the Queen’s popularity further. Those that knew how precarious the royal finances were regarded it as unjustified expenses. Others regarded it as being another sign of Marie Antoinette’s power over the King and her pretensions to hold power in her own right. The Queen simply believed that the purchase was needed for her expanding family (Fraser, 2001, p.203). Fraser argues that Marie Antoinette’s reputation never recovered from the Diamond Necklace Affair, in which Cardinal de Rohan had been tricked into buying a necklace supposedly for the Queen. The Parlement in Paris reached verdicts that punished the conspirators, yet their testimonies tarnished Marie Antoinette’s reputation, even though she was cleared of any wrong doing (Fraser, 2001, p.225). Marie Antoinette became a hated figure amongst the nobility due to her being blamed for the monarchy’s financial deficits. Fraser however, argues that the Queen was not to blame for the spending cuts and the reduction in the number of prestigious court positions (Fraser, 2001, p.236). Fraser mentions that a factor that made Marie Antoinette a hated figure was that people had no qualms about expressing their hatred for the Queen, whilst they still felt unable to say things about the King (Fraser, 2001, p.251). The dislike of Marie Antoinette would further increase after Austria, Prussia, and Britain went to war against France. The Queen was still disliked for being foreign, which was coupled with the fear that the armies of Austria and Prussia could restore the monarchy which meant that the republican regime wished to execute her (Fraser, 2001, p.383). Marie Antoinette was executed following a show trial in which the charges against her were almost entirely false. She acquitted herself well; her spirited denials that she had never abused her son met approval in the court, although she had no hope of being acquitted in such a biased trial. Her execution was meant to symbolise that the monarchy would never return (Fraser, 2001, p.425). Evelyne Lever presents Marie Antoinette in largely favourable terms, particularly when putting forward the arguments as to why the Queen became such a hated figure in France. Lever argues that Marie Antoinette inadvertently began the process of being a hated figure by not realising how to behave at the Court of Versailles. Whilst Louis XV was still alive the future Queen had attempted to snub his mistress Madame Du Barry, only to be told by her mother to stop, in order to influence the King. She also set powerful noble families against her by not paying them enough respect (Lever, 2000, pp. 42-43). Lever notes that Marie Antoinette was popular in Paris before she became Queen, for her beauty and her good -humoured nature (Lever, 2000, p.52). Lever argued that a cause of Marie Antoinette becoming a hated figure was that Louis XVI did not have mistresses. In previous reigns the King’s mistresses were frequently detested and blamed for unpopular government decisions. Mistresses were usually scapegoats for the King, if Louis XVI had a mistress then perhaps she would have become hated instead of the Queen. Marie Antoinette was instead detested and used as a scapegoat for her husband’s faults and policies as well as her own actions (Lever, 2000, p.64). Marie Antoinette’s busy social life in the early years of her husband’s reign attracted much attention and criticism. The Queen gave a great deal of scope for gossip and those that wished to spread more malicious rumours had ample opportunities to do so (Lever, 2000, pp.110-11). Marie Antoinette lost respect and gave people cause to hate with her behaviour and attitudes. For instance: gambling was a frequent event, especially in the early years of her being Queen (Lever, 2000, p. 119). Marie Antoinette became a hated figure, especially amongst the poor, due to the amount of money she spent. Lever cites the cost of changing the Trianon Gardens, the expense of dances and fetes, as well as the provision of royal pensions to her closest friends and other hangers on (Lever, 2000, p.121). Marie Antoinette did not choose her friends wisely, nor try to limit the dangers of ignoring powerful families or stopping the spreading of rumours. The Queen did not use her patronage sensibly, for instance: the Comtesse de Polignac’s friends and family were given honours and pensions for doing services to the Queen of France yet doing nothing good for their country (Lever, 2000, p.160). Ian Dunlop presents a more sympathetic view of Marie Antoinette than most historians including the other four whose arguments are assessed here. Dunlop stresses that Marie Antoinette’s faults usually receive more attention than her attributes have done, that she was in fact more capable than her contemporaries often admitted, or historians have given her credit for. Dunlop comments upon the initial popularity of Marie Antoinette in France, particularly in Paris. She was originally regarded as having the qualities that a Queen needed. She was beautiful, loyal to the King and she looked the part. Her expensive clothes and lifestyle were not viewed with horror at that point (Dunlop, 1993, p.146). However, Marie Antoinette’s initial popularity declined for various reasons. Along with Louis XVI, the aristocracy and the higher clergy, Marie Antoinette lived in luxury, whilst many French people faced poverty and harsh living conditions. Although the Queen’s extravagance had not been widely resented at the start of her husband’s reign, it contributed to a growing hatred of Marie Antoinette as economic conditions went from bad to worse to disastrous. Opposition to the monarchy had the chance to be heard with the first gathering of the States General since 1614 in 1789. For the Queen it also coincided with the death of her eldest son. Such was the desperation of the political situation that the royal family gained no sympathy for the loss and faced increasing hostility (Dunlop, 1993 p.254). The monarchy and the French State headed towards bankruptcy due to the failure to achieve economic reforms and the costs of supporting the American War of Independence. The monarchy’s near bankruptcy was coupled with a series of bad harvests, which meant that more French people found it harder to survive. Marie Antoinette still appeared to be excessively privileged and wealthy to the poor that could not afford to feed themselves. The Queen became a h ated figure due to the fact she could still eat as much as she wished. Poverty and jealousy fuelled hatred, not only of Marie Antoinette but also the King, the aristocracy and the higher clergy. The claim that she said the poor should eat cake if they could not afford bread appears to have been made up. However the believe that she said it maximised the number of people that hated her (Dunlop 1993 p.258). Dunlop argues that the belief that Marie Antoinette interfered with how France was ruled contributed to her becoming such a hated figure. Dunlop argues that Marie Antoinette had tried to keep out of politics and concentrate solely on being the Queen consort. When she did become involved it was to protect her family’s interests and in her view those of France. To supporters and detractors of the monarchy the Queen was seen as more capable than her weak and indecisive husband was. Opponents of the crown targeted the Queen, their propaganda greatly contributed to her growth as a hated figure. The desperate poor, especially in Paris, readily accepted that their Austrian Queen was misguiding the King to feather her own nest at their expense. The fact that Marie Antoinette was Austrian reinforced their perceptions that she was an enemy of France and to blame for their plight. After the revolution radicals promoted campaigns against the Queen, they saw her as a danger to change. Her links to the Habsburgs meant that if she lived she could attempt to restore the monarchy with foreign help (Dunlop 1993 p. 385). Amand’s arguments concerning the unpopularity and hatred of Marie Antoinette can be regarded as being more traditional in stance than the others assessed simply because his book first appeared in 1891. Amand’s biography also differs from the other historians mentioned above as he was only writing about the events of 1792 and 1793. Amand argued that the hatred of Marie Antoinette was a significant factor in the fall of the French monarchy as she was hated more than the King. That hatred had been fuelled by years of negative rumours and propaganda against the Queen. The Queen’s weaknesses had contributed to some of those rumours whilst elements of the revolutionary movement were highly skilled in turning the population against her. This was the period in which the hatred of the French masses towards their Queen reached its fatal conclusion. The facts that France was at war with Marie Antoinette’s native Austria further antagonised the revolutionary elements of the French population against her. She was widely regarded as being a traitor, which further intensified her being a hated figure. Marie Antoinette could be stripped of her crown, her wealth, and all her titles, yet she would always remain an Austrian (Amand, 1891). Amand argued that Marie Antoinette became a hated figure due to the wealth and extravagance that she had formally displayed. Revolutionary propaganda portrayed her as been rich, selfish, and uncaring. Her unpopularity was promoted by jealousy and poverty. Hearsay and rumours were more important than fact in making her a hated figure. The Queen arguably made herself a hated figure by attempting to persuade the King to take decisive action. Radicals believed Marie Antoinette alongside her brother-in-laws bore the main responsibility for Louis XVI trying to resist revolutionary change. However the King’s indecisiveness meant that consistent and successful counter-revolutionary policies were never fully implemented. The Queen’s position as a hated figure was increased whenever the King had tried to reverse the revolution. Perhaps the one act that sealed the fate of the monarchy was the attempt to escape France that resulted in the royal family’s capture at Varennes. That failure to escape meant the revolutionary government could accuse the King and Queen of treachery. Hating the Queen was therefore a revolutionary and patriotic duty (Amand, 1891). There are some convincing arguments as to why Marie Antoinette became such a hated figure in France. Her Austrian origins were always going to be a potential banana skin. France and the Habsburgs had a long history of war and rivalry; therefore it was not surprising that members of the royal family, the nobility and the French people did not always trust her. Mistrust of the Queen’s intentions and loyalty to France were frequently played upon by opponents of the monarchy in general as a means of targeting Marie Antoinette to increase her unpopularity. She was an unpopular and later a hated figure as it was believed she was serving Austria’s best interests rather than those of France. Although Marie Antoinette did try to influence French foreign policy to suit the Habsburgs interests, she was as the frequent complaints from Vienna attest, particularly ineffective at doing so. Of course, once the revolutionary France was at war with Austria, it further increased hate towa rds the Queen. Radical elements successfully took advantage of the fear that Marie Antoinette would use her family connections to reverse the revolution. The royal family’s unsuccessful escape bid meant that they were hated even more. Accusations of treachery and duplicity certainly made the Queen a detested figure. Opponents of the monarchy regarded Marie Antoinette as a figure to be hated, as they believed she was a threat to their ambitions of reform or revolution. They used propaganda, such as pamphlets to discredit her. Her private life allowed them to spread many rumours, although with the exception of Fersen these would appear to be unfounded. Perhaps the most damaging rumour was that she said ‘let them eat cake’ when grain was scarce and the cost of bread was too high for the poor. France’s severe financial problems certainly made a contribution to Marie Antoinette becoming a hated figure. Much more than that, these factors acted as a catalyst for revolution. The Queen could not be blamed for the bankruptcy of the Crown or food shortages, but all the factors noted already meant that a majority of the French population saw her as a scapegoat who needed to be punished before their lives would get any better. Her apparent greed, adultery, conservative political outlook, and the belief that she was looking after Austrian interests all combined to make her hated. In Marie Antoinette’s defence it has to be mentioned that she was not the cause of France’s long-term problems and that there was little she could have done to solve them. Louis XVI was a weak and indecisive man, completely unsuited to be a King. The cost of the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence were the main cause of the Crown’s crippling debts and not the Que en’s expenditure. The government was certainly unable to deal with food shortages, yet that was mainly due to the scale of the problem than deliberate neglect. As Queen, Marie Antoinette performed her main duties of being the King’s consort and producing heirs to the throne. After the revolution she attempted to protect her family’s position and later their lives. She acted in a way that the majority of her royal contemporaries did. She was hated as much for what she represented, as opposed to who she was. To conclude, Zweig, Fraser, Lever, Dunlop, and Amand present common and different arguments as to why Marie Antoinette became a hated figure. They all point out the Queen’s personal faults as important causes of her unpopularity. Zweig attempts to explain those faults by the argument that Marie Antoinette was just an ordinary woman that through the accidents of birth and marriage became the Queen of France in a period in which its monarchy faced many problems. Fraser, Dunlop, and Lever attempt to account for the Queen’s failings by pointing out that she was inadequately educated for her roles. Dunlop is sympathetic to Marie Antoinette in that he argues that circumstances conspired against her. Fraser, Lever, and Zweig are more critical of her shortcomings, although also sympathetic to her position. As Amand concentrated on the years 1792-1793 he argued that hatred of Marie Antoinette was promoted by the war against Austria, Prussia, and Britain. She was hated for trying to prevent the revolution destroying her family, even if she could not prevent the end of the monarchy. All the historians argued that Marie Antoinette was hated due to the rumours and propaganda that was spread against her. Before the revolution the government had tried to censor such publications. After the revolution, particularly once the monarchy was abolished, the revolutionary government targeted Marie Antoinette. Ironically enough, Marie Antoinette was a bigger political threat after Louis XVI was executed. Her trial featured all the crimes or errors she had committed since arriving in France, greed, immorality, treachery and being of foreign birth. Bibliography Dunlop I, (1993) Marie Antoinette, Sinclair Stevenson, London Fraser A (2001) Marie Antoinette, Weidenfeld Nicholson, London Lever E (2000) Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France Saint- Amand I (1891) Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty Zweig S, (1933) Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman