THE LAW OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

THE LAW OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK - Essay Example According to the provisions of the common law, employers are required to safeguard the physical and psychological health of their employees. They are also required to provide a safe system of work, safe means of access, plant and equipment, and fellow employees. Furthermore, employees have to be protected from unnecessary risk of injury (Mcilroy, 2000). This duty of care is an implied obligation in a contract of employment. It had been the extant practice to permit employees to claim compensation from their employers if they were injured at the workplace, due to the negligence of the latter. The courts have commenced to grant compensation for psychological injuries caused by employers. In order to succeed in a claim for psychiatric injury, the applicant has to establish genuine psychological damage; presence of a causal link between the psychiatric injury and his employment; and that the psychiatric injury had been foreseeable by the employer (Mcilroy, 2000). Moreover, the applicant must submit expert opinion to establish psychiatric illness, in order to claim compensation. Stress in employment, gradually erodes the health of employees, and reduces self-esteem, confidence, and other abilities. Such employees are less likely to claim compensation from their employers (Mcilroy, 2000). ... The Employment Protection Act 1975 (Employment Protection Act (c. 71), 1975) provides rights related to time off, and these have been included in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Employment Rights Act (c. 18), 1996). A few of these rights provide employees with paid time off and the other rights allow employees to avail themselves of unpaid time off. Specifically, section 50(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, requires the duration of time off and pertinent factors to be of a reasonable nature. This was clearly discernible in the Employment Appellate Tribunal’s decision in Borders Regional Council v Maule, wherein the former stressed that there was to be a balance between the needs of the employer and the rights of the employee (Borders Regional Council v Maule, 1993). Health and Safety at Work It is to be examined, whether the corporate law firm, is in breach of the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act of 1974. In instances involving work related stress an em ployee can initiate legal action against his employer in the County Court or High Court, or apply to an Employment Tribunal. The first ruling regarding negligence arose in Walker v Northumberland County Council. In this case, it was held that it was reasonable to foresee risk of psychiatric injury, if the concerned employee had already undergone a nervous breakdown. All the same, this was not to be construed to imply that an employer could continue to subject an employee to excessive stress, until the latter suffered a stress related injury. In Garratt v London Borough of Camden, the Court of Appeal opined that a significant proportion of the population underwent nervous breakdowns and depression, and that quite a few of these individuals were

African-American women Essay Example for Free

African-American women Essay Firstly however we must address the problems that occur when separating the effects of time and interference. Baddeley and Hitch (1977) conducted a survey whereby they asked rugby players to recall the names of teams they had played against during the previous season. Due to illness and injury some of the players had been unable to play in all the fixtures. This meant for some of the players two games back meant two weeks ago whereas with others two games back meant four or five weeks ago. The findings showed that passage of time was not the main factor that determined how well the teams could be recalled, but it was the number of games that effected recall. In other words forgetting occurred more often where team members had other games interfere with previous fixtures rather than trace decay. If interference is the major cause of forgetting within L. T. M it should be true that people will remember material over a time period providing no interfering material intervenes. It is clearly difficult to set up a condition whereby no participant is immobilized after learning with any opportunity for the occurrence of any new learning. This has led researchers to look at the effect of different types of interfering material on recall. McGeoch and McDonald (1931) asked participants to learn and relearn lists of adjectives and then compared their performance on recall tests after interpolated tasks. Forgetting these adjectives was at its least when participants simply had to rest during the learning and recall and increased when participants were required to learn nonsense syllables in the interval. Rates were even higher when it was adjectives that were learned in the interval and were at there highest when the adjectives learned were similar in meaning to the original list. This shows that forgetting increases as a function of the similarity of the interfering material. Retroactive Interference Proactive Interference Retrieval Failure This is also known as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon and comes about when we think we know something but cannot recall it at that precise moment in time. This is due to the fact that the correct retrieval cues are not available. Sometimes different words related to the original memory can prompt us to remember the memory and these are called interlopers. Brown (1991) has reviewed this phenomenon for the last 25 years and has concluded that people can correctly name the first letter of the target word between 50 and 70 per cent of the time along with being correctly accurate with the number of syllables in the word. The interloper theory (retrieval cue) was investigated by Perfect and Hanley (1992) who found that distinctiveness of the target word and its similarity in meaning play a factor in recall. Tulving was another researcher to investigate retrieval cues and it was his work with Osler (1968) that led to some interesting findings. They presented participants with lists of words, each paired off with a weakly associated cue word e. g. city-dirty. Participants where then tested for free recall (without the cue word) or were cued with the word e. g. dirty. They found that cued recall consistently produced higher levels of recall. To counteract the argument that any semantic association might aid the recall, they gave participants weak semantic associates which were different to that of the original cue words. These cues did not aid in recall and so led them to conclude that specific retrieval cues aid recall if and only if the information is stored at the same time as the information about the membership of the word in a given list. While Tulving stressed the importance of cues at the encoding stage he later admitted that cues not present at this stage could also be helpful under certain circumstances. Context Dependant and State Dependant Learning Research has shown that we remember more if we recall things in the same state as what we learned them in. In other words how we encode material at the time of learning is clearly important. Godden and Baddeley (1975) presented deep-sea divers with lists of words to learn. They learned these on the beach and under 15 feet of water. Recall was then tested in either the same or the opposite environment. Findings showed that recall was significantly better if tested in the same environment. These differences however are only small but it has been suggested that by even simply imagining the original environment can be helpful. Smith (1979) gave participants a list of 80 words to learn while sitting in a distinctive basement room. The following day he tested some of the participants on recall in the basement room and others in a fifth floor room with quite different surroundings. Average recall for the basement group was 18 but for those in the fifth floor room it was only 12. A third group was tested in the fifth floor room but were instructed to imagine themselves in the basement. The average recall for this was 17 words. There is also some evidence to suggest that not only external environment plays a role in recall but also our internal environment i. e. physiological state or mood may play a part. Godwin et al (1969) found that heavy drinkers who learn things in a drunken state are more likely to recall them in a similar state. Eich (1980) has found similar findings with a range of drugs including marijuana. Research into the Role of Emotional Factors in Forgetting Flashbulb Memories Psychologists have often ignored the role of emotion in human cognitive processes but it seems likely that the way we feel has an impact upon the way we remember things and one particular type of memory that seems to be influenced by emotion have been called flashbulb memories. This is a particularly vivid, detailed and long lasting memory of an event that is usually highly significant and emotional and is usually unexpected. It can be a personal event or something that provokes worldwide interest e. g. death of Princess Diana. Research carried out by Brown and Kulik has led them to conclude that the event must be surprising and have real consequences for the persons life. They believe that such an emotional event triggers a neural mechanism that causes details of the scene to be imprinted on the memory. They believe it is a special type of memory because the detail and accuracy with which the event is remembered and the fact that the structural form of the memory is always so similar. They believe six different types of information about the event are stored being i. Where they were ii. What they were doing iii. The person who gave them the news iv. What they felt about it v. What others felt about it vi. What happened in the immediate aftermath However not all psychologists believe that flashbulb memories are special. Neisser (1982) believes that the longitivity of such memories result from frequent rehearsal and reworking of the event rather from neural activity at that precise moment in time. He believed that we recall it clearly due to the fact that we resort to storytelling techniques when telling someone about the event. It is still unclear whether flashbulb memories represent a particular type of memory or whether they are substantially similar to most memories for big events. Repression Another view about the way in which we forget things was put forward by Freud (1915-18) who believed that some memories become inaccessible as a result of repression. He believed that we use an unconscious process that ensures that threatening or anxiety-provoking memories are kept from our conscious awareness. These memories may stay repressed for years and never come to mind or can do in the form of hysterical neurosis. Although it has proved difficult to recreate repression in laboratory circumstances a number of attempts have been made. Levinger and Clark (1961) asked participants to generate associated words with words presented by them. Some of these words were emotionally neutral e. g. tree, window and others were emotionally arousing e. g. angry, quarrel. When asked to recall these associated words results showed that people tended to recall the emotionally neutral ones as opposed to the emotionally provoking ones, which helps to support the idea of repression. However such tests are considered suspect and Holmes (1990) concluded that there is no experimental support for the concept of repression. Recently research has focused upon repressed memories associated with child sexual abuse and whether or not recovered memories are genuine. The main problem with assessing whether or not they are true is that they have no independent, objective corroborative evidence. Williams (1992) found that 38 percent of a group of African-American women who were known to have suffered abuse reported repressed memories about it although it was clear that some of these memories were false. Loftus (1997) conducted an extensive review of studies that led him to believe that even psychologically healthy individuals altered their memory of events based on false suggestions about them. Baddelley concluded that it is important to exercise great caution in interpreting such reports.

The Interrelationship among Self, Others, and Environment Essay

Why do human beings behave the way they do? How do individuals form relationships with others? What components of an individual’s physiological makeup and the surrounding atmosphere affect the formation of judgments about themselves, others’, and every day events? Does one’s membership within a particular group affect his or her thoughts, emotions, and actions towards others? Is aggression the product of biology or environment? Questions such as this form the foundation of social psychology, a field with the primary focus being the systematic study of human cognition, emotion, and actions. Social psychologists seek to understand the way human beings develop thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as, the effect our environment, mainly our interactions with others, has on the formation of these very things. We can divide social psychology into three main categories: self, others, and environment. Each category consists of several additional topics all relating to the broad category under which the subject matter falls. The first category is the self and the primary focus is the exploration of the way individuals form impressions of themselves. Topics relating to the concept of self include self-schemas, self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-awareness, and the acting self. The second category builds upon the foundation of the self and examines the methods individuals use to form impressions of others. Subjects relating to the way human beings think, perceive, and relate to others include attributions, attitudes, behavior, judgments, as well as, prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination. The third category relates to the environment, particularly the relationship to and influence of others on an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and b... ...es with taking into account the role of culture. Culture typically reflects the social norms and customs of the geographic location in which an individual resides; consequently, one’s culture has a profound influence on our conception of self. Human beings conception of self evolves throughout our life and culture provides a high degree of influence on the way we perceive others and ourselves. Independent cultures view the individual as a unique entity whose qualities develop apart from the social environment, while interdependent cultures view individuals as the collective product of his or her social connections and environment. Works Cited Feenstra, J. (2011). Introduction to social psychology. San Diego, California , United State: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. . Retrieved April 19, 2012, from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUPSY301.11.1/sections/fm

Home Schooling And Educating Children At Home

One of the major advantages of homeschooling is that it allows parents to be profoundly involved in the instruction of their kid. Lyman ( 1998 ) and Mayberry ( 1988 ) suggest that parents are interested in homeschooling their kids because of the turning perceptual experience that the school system is unequal in developing kids into high winners and that many schools by and big deliver standardized instruction without respect to the person ‘s endowment and potency. Lyman ( 1998 ) and Mayberry ( 1988 ) write that by supplying their undivided attending to their kids, they are in a better place to acknowledge their kid ‘s possible and promote the kid. In a survey by Lines ( 1991 ) , it was found that about three fourths of the parents who home schooled their kids besides prepared their ain instruction stuffs. Furthermore, in a survey comparing the public presentation of homeschooled kids with the regularly schooled kids, it was found that the former outperformed the latter on many steps ( Ray & A ; Wartes, 1991 as cited in Abell, 2002 ) The 2nd advantage of place schooling is that parents can avoid the disadvantages of modern twenty-four hours public instruction ( Clark, 1994 ) . Clark ( 1994 ) suggests that parents are progressively concerned that many public schools have a batch of offense and other bad pupils can negatively act upon their kids. He suggests that parents feel that because drug usage and force is increasing in many public schools, they are better able to guarantee the safety of their kids by educating them at place. Therefore by homeschooling their kids, parents can guarantee the safety of their kids. Homeschooling is non without its disadvantages and one of the normally quoted disadvantages is that place schooling consumes a batch of clip and the parents do non hold any clip for other activities. For illustration, if a kid has to be homeschooled, one of the parents has to give up work and pass a big portion of the twenty-four hours in learning and tutoring the kid. This may put a major load on the parent and may take to feelings of depression, ennui etc. Furthermore, because the parent may or may non be qualified adequate to learn the kid, he or she may non be in a place to learn every bit good as the instructors in a school where there are different instructors for different topics and are hired by the school based on their makings. The 2nd disadvantage of place schooling is that parents feel that they are paying revenue enhancements and other responsibilities, which go into making public schools, and if they do n't direct their kids to these schools, it would be a waste of the money spent. A related ground is that many parents feel that schools have many installations like research labs and playgrounds that place schooled kids do non hold entree to and hence miss out on several chances to larn and socialise ( Abell, 2002 ) . Another disadvantage of homeschooling is that societal cost of place schooling. Diana Jenkins writes that kids feel the demand to socialise and a major portion of their development is in their ability to interact with other kids of their ain age group. She suggests that kids who are place schooled are non in a place to interact with other kids and frequently feel that they are losing out on a really of import experience. Furthermore, Jenkins besides suggests that a major portion of acquisition is the ability to larn while taking the positions of others into consideration. She suggests that homeschooled kids do non hold the luxury of taking into history other pupils ‘ thoughts and sentiments and hence stop up with cognition that is merely in one way. It appears from the above reappraisal that homeschooling has more disadvantages than advantages and that it may be better for the kids to go to schools than stay at place and survey. However, because many parents feel that public schools have many disadvantages, their concerns can be removed by making better place school partnerships. While traditionally parents have merely dropped their kids at school, and participated in some pupil parent meets, some bookmans have suggested that schools can affect the parents more by back uping them with better instruction resources which they can utilize at place to do place tutoring by them more interesting, and besides ask foring parents to school to take part in synergistic activities with instructors so that instructors can besides profit from some of the cognition that parents have. Another suggestion is that better communicating channels should be created between instructors and parents so that the instructors are cognizant if the kid is tra veling through a hard stage and is underachieving because of that ground, and likewise parents are cognizant if the kid is holding some interaction jobs at school because of some issues at place. This manner the environment at both the school and place can better ( Patrikakau, 2005 ) . Therefore, it is clear from the above the place schooling is popular among many parents because of the feeling among them that public schools have many jobs like offense and make non pay single attending to the pupils like the parents can. However it is besides clear that because parents can non supply many installations like research labs and resort areas and can non assist them with societal interactions with friends and schoolmates, homeschooling may non be a really good thought. It appears that both schools and parents can profit from better coaction between parents and instructors where parents experience safe about their kids and instructors can profit from cognizing more about the pupils from the parents.

The Truman Show Analysis

Everything in my reality—the activities I engage in, the friendships I acquire, the family I love, the beliefs I form (about art, politics, religion, morality, the afterlife)—are predicated upon the assumption that my life is truly and authentically mine to live, not something counterfeit or staged. I am the author that gives meaning to my reality. I am, so to speak, the star of the show. In Peter Weir’s film about the ultimate â€Å"reality† TV show The Truman Show (1998), the ever ominous â€Å"what is real† question begs the assumption that the lives we live are really ours. It is an important text to consider with respect to those other difficult questions we all seem to either explore or avoid: Who am I? Why am I here? What’s it all about? Am I living in a counterfeit world where my choices ultimately bear no significance? If so, is a meaningful life even possible? These are crucial questions that pertain to humanity, ones that The Truman Show seeks not necessarily to answer directly but rather explore through speculation, inquiry and character/plot subtext. They are also questions that lead us to consider how Truman’s awakening into â€Å"the real† is a type of our own awakening, and why opting for reality over appearance is something worth striving for. The great difficulty of the film regards the term â€Å"reality†Ã¢â‚¬â€1). What it means in context of Truman’s world, 2). Christof’s world, 3). The audience-within-the-film’s world, 4). The spectators who watch the film’s world, and 5). The overall statement Weir is making about reality in general. That is five different realities, each which carry delicate nuances about its semantically complex nature. Indeed, spectators are left to question like Truman does when he discovers the fabrication of his existence, â€Å"Was nothing real? † Well, what is real in The Truman Show? Who or what social forces construct his/our reality? Weir seems to intentionally leave open gaps in answers to these types of questions to involve spectators more in the process of constructing the film’s textual meaning. He also seems to posit a â€Å"real world† of some sort beyond Truman’s manufactured one, but is unclear as to what that â€Å"real† one is and why Truman/spectators should want it. The ambiguous challenge of the film therefore inevitably forces us to dive into the precarious realm of metaphysics—the realm where we ponder what reality is like. It is in this realm where Weir asks us to become metaphysicians in order to explore what this nebulous term â€Å"reality† even means. One film theoretician whose ideas can help dissect the subtle nuances of how reality is played with in The Truman Show is Nick Browne. To provide a brief caveat on Browne’s theories, it is pertinent to understand that he explores the ways in which film form (camera angle, mis-en-scene, dialogue, etc. ) relates to film content (theme, moral order, etc. . He views the director as a narrator who invites the spectator into the text to partake of a certain relationship not only between the characters and their beliefs, but also the director and his beliefs. According to Browne, certain narrators have been known to override the traditional meaning of filmic codes (e. g. IMR) by using formal methods to make a statement about the film’s moral order. In what he calls â€Å"the power of the gaze,† the narrator demonstrates that the person who holds the most powerful point-of-view—or gaze—over another character, according to the traditional codes is, in fact, wrong in his/her judgment. Browne therefore emphasizes the narrator’s role as using the conventional language of film â€Å"against itself† in order to make a provocative statement about the film’s content (13). Peter Weir plays the role of what Browne calls the â€Å"narrator-in-the-text,† one who has invited us to ascertain the â€Å"moral order† of the film. The moral order of The Truman Show pertains to the five aforementioned levels of reality and how spectators are to interpret them. Using Browne’s updated version of formalism, the essay will argue how â€Å"Weir† steps into the text using dialogue and camera angle to present the great moral order of the film—the issue of what it means to see reality truly. Aspects of Browne’s â€Å"power of the gaze† will be useful to bolster the fact that although spectators identify with Truman throughout the film, their identification with him cannot help but be predominantly filtered through Christof’s all-powerful, watch-tower gaze; a perspective that Weir-as-narrator-in-the-text is ultimately going to argue, using neo-formalism (e. g. specifically camera angle), as being wrong in judgment. In particular, the essay will provide concrete examples from the film of how Weir uses shifting camera perspectives of how spectators view Truman, whether through Christof’s autocratic gaze (what I will argue as the â€Å"despotic perspective†) or through the omniscient perspective that frees Truman from Christof’s â€Å"intricate network of hidden cameras† (TS). The shifting camera perspectives will create what Browne labels â€Å"the plural subject†Ã¢â‚¬â€the notion that forces/leads/or guides spectators not only to identify with certain characters, but also â€Å"to be at two places at once, where the camera is and ‘with’ the depicted person† (127). As applied and will be argued in this paper, the filmic spectator is the â€Å"plural subject† that is consistently sutured or locked between the â€Å"despotic† and â€Å"omniscient† perspective when viewing Truman, thereby creating a â€Å"double structure of viewer/viewed† (127). These structures inevitably challenge spectators to wrestle with how reality is portrayed in The Truman Show and how the varying lenses of representation regarding â€Å"reality† carry certain implications under the despotic perspective, and likewise under the omniscient one. Understanding how â€Å"Weir† uses these ambiguous camera perspectives (i. e. structures) will help us further see how reality operates according to the film’s five aforementioned realities. They will also help clarify what Browne means when he says â€Å"such structures, which in shaping and presenting the action prompt a manner and indeed a path of reading, convey and are closely allied to the guiding moral commentary of the film† (131-132). Certainly The Truman Show is complex and ambivalent, one that demands a sensitive read. We will therefore begin with a brief plot synopsis of the film, move towards the evidence that shows how Browne’s neo-formalist theories of the â€Å"power of the gaze† and â€Å"plural subject† relate to Weir’s use of â€Å"despotic† and â€Å"omniscient† camera perspectives, and overall tie-in how these ideas pertain to the five levels of reality in the film. The Truman Show depicts the life of Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), the first child legally adopted by a corporation for the purposes of filming his entire life â€Å"recorded on an intricate network of hidden cameras, and broadcast live and unedited twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to an audience around the globe† (TS). Christof (Ed Harris), the show’s creator, lives in a reality governed by â€Å"television ratings† and media hype. He convinces Truman that he inhabits a benign and ordinary world, but little oes he know that everything he does is monitored, controlled and manufactured under the totalitarian gaze of Christof. While the world he occupies is virtually counterfeit and full of actors—even his wife Meryl (Laura Linney) and best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich)—Truman is unaware that his life is being used to entertain humanity in a non-stop reality program. Audiences within the film glue themselves anxiously to the screen wondering â€Å"How will it end? †Ã¢â‚¬â€a slogan captured on buttons, T-shirts and posters purchased by fans of the show. Their reality revolves around watching Truman live out his happy cliched existence in the idyllic hometown of Seahaven until gradually certain events cause him to question the perception of his alleged reality: camera lights fall from the sky, actors fail to follow their cues, backstage set dressings are exposed, etc. These curious events begin to awaken Truman to the constructs that have sought to blind him his entire life. He realizes that something is wrong and goes to great lengths to break free from his contrived world that was invented by Christof and the scheming media. At the climactic end of the film, Truman reaches towards an open door that will lead him into another world, but is cautioned by his Creator not to leave for fear that he will â€Å"not like what [he] finds† (TS). In the end, Truman rejects his counterfeit heaven and chooses an authentic, although unknown and presumably difficult, life as substitute. Using certain aspects from Browne’s theories, let us now consider how Weir-as-narrator-in-the-text carefully crafts the meaning of Truman’s, Christof’s, the audience-within-the-film, and the audience outside the film’s reality. The film opens with Christof talking directly to the camera in Brechtian style to the spectators in the theater. He admits that while Truman’s world â€Å"is in some respects counterfeit,† he assures us that â€Å"there’s nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards†¦It isn’t always Shakespeare but it’s genuine. It’s a life† (TS). Christof suggests here that while Truman has been duped to believe he is living a â€Å"real life† he has chosen for himself, the life he has given Truman is better than what he later calls the â€Å"sick real world†Ã¢â‚¬â€the one outside Truman’s studio. Paradoxically, he claims that there is â€Å"nothing fake about Truman himself† yet in the same breath admits that the reality he occupies is counterfeit. For the Marxist critic, Christof’s philosophy might beg the question of how a person can be â€Å"authentic† or â€Å"real† if human identity is nothing more than a product of the economic environment he/she lives in. In fact, Marx’s statement that â€Å"man’s social existence determines his consciousness† seems to expose the very flaw of Christof’s viewpoint that Truman is somehow a true-man despite living a social sham. Nevertheless, backstage interviews with Truman’s perky wife, Meryl, and best friend, Marlon, are then juxtaposed together that reinforce the paradoxical nature of Christof’s philosophy, â€Å"It’s all true, it’s all real. Nothing here is fake, nothing you see on this show is fake†¦it’s just merely controlled† (TS). Upon the closure of these lines, we immediately cut into Truman’s phony world where Christof’s pervasive surveillance equipment watches his every move. Using Browne’s â€Å"power of the gaze,† we can see how spectators are thus sutured into Christof’s powerful, Big Brother gaze over Truman. In fact, spectators cannot help but see Truman through Christof’s point-of-view throughout the majority of the film since the studio cameras record and reveal everything he does. However, even though we might be forced into Christof’s POV, it is debatable whether â€Å"Weir† is asking spectators to agree with his schemes as morally laudable. For instance, given Christof’s demeanor of totalitarian spectatorship over Truman, the spectator watching The Truman Show the film might feel unsure if whether to trust his perspective; whether he/she is seeing truly through his perspective. After all, Christof’s reality is centered on the fabrication of Truman’s entire reality: his childhood, his job, even his marriage. He even goes as far to manufacture his fears, like his fear of water, which is used to keep Truman from escaping the studio of Seahaven, escaping from his false self. As Kimberly A. Blessing observes, â€Å"Everyone, including his adoring television viewing audience, is complicit in the lie†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (5-6). One possible meaning that we can extract here is that â€Å"Weir† is crafting Christof’s reality in a way that challenges the public’s perception of how the media operates. The media, like Christof, would have us live inside a fictitious world governed by commercial glamour that fuels their sales, ratings, product placement, etc. Just as the creators of Truman’s world commercialize his life with product placement ads, like when Meryl showcases the wonders of a new kitchen utensil to Truman but is really advertising it to the millions of viewers watching, so too is â€Å"Weir† making a satirical commentary on how the creators of media attempt to commercialize our lives by getting us to buy their products. The question becomes, then, whether a person who lies even for an allegedly noble cause can be trusted. How noble are Christof’s intentions anyway if he is deceiving Truman in order to receive higher television ratings? There seems to be no escape from Christof’s questionable morality or autocratic gaze, but it is here that â€Å"Weir† carefully steps into the text and shows us through camera angle and plot progression that Truman and spectators alike can escape from Christof’s duplicitous schemes. No sooner when the camera light falls from the sky and Truman begins to sense something is wrong with his reality that â€Å"Weir† intermediately switches from Christof’s camera perspective (the â€Å"despotic perspective†) to the omniscient perspective when viewing Truman. The omniscient perspective is void of the studio camera’s edges that remind spectators they are sutured into Christof’s POV. Instead, the omniscient perspective is transcendent, clear and fledgling as it frees Truman and spectators from Christof’s gripping surveillance, but it also is transient. Just as it will take the entire film for Truman to realize the extent to which he is being deceived, it will also take the entire film for â€Å"Weir† to gradually overwhelm the despotic perspective with the omniscient one. As a result of these double-shifting, ambivalent camera POV’s, we can see by using what Browne calls the â€Å"plural subject† that â€Å"Weir† is asking us to be at two places at once: where the camera is and from whose perspective we’re seeing Truman from. The difficulty here is that although spectators are implicated into Truman’s life and naturally yearn to identify with him, it is imperative to remember that â€Å"the logic of the framing† and our identification with him has already been subjugated primarily through a liar’s eyes (Braudy & Cohen 127). Consequently, it becomes tricky to discern whether we’re ever actually identifying with the â€Å"real† Truman or just Christof’s deceitful version of him. But of course, this is what the film is about. It is about asking us what it means to see with eyes truly, whether we’re all being duped inside Christof’s matrix so to speak, and whether it is possible to awaken from counterfeit reality to something truly authentic. The presentational structure of the film argues that although we identify with Truman through a liar’s eyes, we do not have to accept that POV as morally commendable, but can reject and feel liberated from it when viewing Truman omnisciently. Because of these presentational structures that Browne argues â€Å"convey a point of view† and are â€Å"fundamental to the exposition to the moral idea† of the film, Truman, like spectators, must achieve awareness of their constructed or controlled-by-another’s kind of existence, and choose to embrace a â€Å"reality† that is not manufactured by another individual or economic system (131-132). In several instances of the film, Truman tries to gain this awareness by escaping from Seahaven. He drives his car to the edge of the forest and sails through a massive typhoon but gets blocked at every turn. Christof, like the media, has trapped Truman inside his false reality and does not want him to leave. Truman even receives help from certain cast-members of the show who try to reveal the truth to him, whether flying over head with signs reading, â€Å"Truman, you’re on television,† or jumping out of present boxes screaming the same. Weir-as-narrator-in-the-text is â€Å"telling us,† as Ken Sanes argues, â€Å"that we too have to take a journey—of mind—and distance ourselves from this media landscape, if we want to secure our freedom† (Sanes). The strategy of despotic/omniscient perspective in particular helps â€Å"Weir† establish these moral orders by focusing on the relationship between Truman and Christof, truth-seeker and pseudo-truth giver, for it seems as though he subverts the traditional IMR codes of who spectators are supposed to identify with. Again, despite seeing the majority of Truman’s life from the despotic perspective, the sparse use of the omniscient one is where â€Å"Weir† is actively engaged in the text and leading us to accept Truman’s final choice of rejecting his manufactured reality as indeed the correct choice. Weir uses the cinematographic apparatus to lead spectators to see the truth about Truman, to become more aware about their own susceptibility to â€Å"false ealities† and in doing so uses the conventional language of the film as Browne would argue â€Å"against itself† by reversing the traditional meaning of form to make a statement about content. He shows through the despotic perspective that although Christof’s version of pampered reality for Truman might hold noble intentions—indeed, Christof is convinced he is actually helping Truman by sheltering him from the â€Å"sick real world†Ã¢â‚¬â€he is in fact wrong in his judgment because reality, even if unknown or â€Å"sick,† must be preferred to some counterfeit version of it.

The Lion and the Lamb essays

The Lion and the Lamb essays Life is full of opposites. For every black there is a white, for every day there is a night. The poetry of Blake is no exception. His poem The Lamb is the opposite of The Tyger. That is, the tyger is the predator, and the lamb the prey of the tyger. The Tyger conjures an image of being powerful, dark, and dangerous while The Lamb brings an image of reassuring peace. Blake uses these opposites to convey his feelings about various world events. At the time The Tyger was written, the Industrial Revolution was under way and Blake was upset by all the social injustice in the world. This explains why there are so many allusions in The Tyger and The Lamb to the Industrial and French Revolutions. Blake used these allusions because he wanted something the readers of his time could relate to and to show how he himself felt about these Revolutions as well. Blakes dislike of the Revolution leaked out blatantly into his poems. What the hammer? What the chain...dare its deadly terrors clasp? This mention of tools and chains alludes to the Industrial Revolution. The factories were the masters, and the people were its slaves, chained and unable to enjoy life. The dark tone of the poem gives an image of the dull and depressing, less than satisfactory conditions of the factories and the harsh lives of those who worked in them. Aside from only the Industrial Revolution, The Tyger draws a link to French Revolution, as the revolutionaries where also known as Tygers. The lamb on the other hand portrays a happier illustration. By the stream er the mead. The image of a field with sheep and a stream appears in dreams and as a sign of hope; for in the days of the industrial revolution, fields and open space were disappearing. In its place, dull and lifeless factories were bein ...

My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essays

My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essays My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essay My Antonia Effects of Landscape Essay Nebraska prairie Is a vehicle for opportunity and opposition. Jim Burden and Antonio Chimeras lives are direct descendants of this dualism that Inhabits the parallel, and decisively creates the adolescently between the two friends. Although only a few miles separated Jim from Antonio, the landscape of the united States made the two strangers. The Nebraska prairie may have been the only medium in which Jim would have ever met Antonio. Jims character represents all that Notations lacks. Their similarity is that both are traveling through foreign lands to start a new life. The deference is that Jims ticket Is paid for. From the beginning of the novel Will Catcher sets up a clear adolescently between the statuses of Jim and Antonio. Antonio Is an Immigrant and speaks an inadequate amount of English. This isolates her and her family from the new life theyre trying to establish. Jim is a citizen and is moving out to a land that has been established by his grandparents. The Chimeras have been uprooted from their homeland to start a new existence from scratch. Jim came from a productive farm in Virginia, while the Shimmered came from an unyielding life In Bohemia. T. T. 2 The expansive plains of Nebraska was instrumental In bringing together these polar classes in that it deposited the two families side by side. Land in My Antonio, is associated with power. On the train to Black Hawk, the conductor makes reference to a family from over the water traveling to the same destination as Jim. His companion, Jake, said you were likely to get diseases from foreigners (10). This reference directly implies that the Shimmered are Indecent, and not of the same caste as Jim; an American citizen. The phrase, over the water Is another way of saying, not from our soil or not an American. This pillories natives from foreigners, and puts a stigma on immigrants as being irregular. The Burdens have been instituted in the united States for many generations. The fact that Jims grandparents speak perfect English represents their establishment in the United States. In turn, the Burdens had secured a life on the farm In Black Hawk for many years. For the Burdens, land has become a metaphor for wealth. They broke the untamed Nebraska prairie long before Jim came to live with them. Their partnership tit work and the land has yielded them a secure livelihood. This establishment has made the Burdens successful. The Nebraska prairie has afforded them a wooden home among a sod community. Their comforts include proper tools, a productive garden, and a variety of provisions. They are able to furnish hired hands which makes the farm more efficient and fruitful. The Burdens abundance Is T. T. 3 evidence of teller progress In refining the land. The Shimmered raw existence in the beginning of the novel is symbolic of the disadvantages a first generation family had to endure. Nebraska) was not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made (17). Mr.. Shimmered became part of this material as the wide open prairie swallowed his life savings and his very existence. Nebraska was a regression from the life the Shimmered held in Eastern Europe. Since teen move to Anoraks In ten late summer teen were delayed in breaking any ground or securing a decent dwelling. The family had been swindled as they had to put their faith into the hands of a stranger, who gave them shoddy real estate. This meant that they would have little sustenance over the long inter. The Chimeras entered a habitat in which they were entirely on their own. The barren landscape of Nebraska was not prejudice in dictating who would endure. By contrast, the land for Jim was a metaphor for opportunity. Since he had entered into a world of prosperity, Jim was able to cultivate his mind. Jim did not contribute to the operation of the farm. His role in life was very clear in that he was to be the further product of his grandparents labor. Jim was the produce of the Nebraska farmland that the Burdens had worked so hard to establish. His toil would e in the classroom to capitalize on what had been handed to him. The act of getting an education is also the method of enhancing ones T. T 4 social standing. Throughout history, manual labor has been in association with the lower class. Living in the country was symbolic of being a part of the lower class because it involved fieldwork and farming; the most toilsome professions. In this case, the Burdens act of moving into town was symbolic of advancing up the class ladder because they physically removed themselves from the field. In this regard, land was a means of establishing a hierarchy. With this shift from pastoral to urban the differences between Jim and Antonio become magnified. Even though, in the country Jims status was clearly distinguished amidst Notations; the move from the country to Black Hawk was the move from raw to refinement. Jims move to the city was an enhancement in his life. He would go too better school and begin preparing himself for a college education. Antonio would work long hours breaking sod and building a better farm, trying to improve the yield from last years harvest. Jim works indoors with a pencil while Antonio works outdoors with a plow. The Burdens retire and the Shimmered begin. Notations act of moving into town illustrates her awareness between the distinctions of living in the country and living in the city. Although, Antonio has begun to see a change in her life for the better; she goes to town to enjoy a laid back existence of working indoors, making friends, and having her fling at the dances (143). Antonio takes this time T. T. 5 seriously because she knows it will be a rare moment in her life that she wont have to struggle. In the same respect, Antonio doesnt take this time seriously because she knows it isnt authentic. It is only temporary because she hasnt paid her dues. Notations life is in strong contrast to Jims, but when Antonio moves to Black Hawk Jim begins to finally understand their differences. Jims role has been rather feminizes as he doesnt work a day of manual labor in his life. Jim has been sheltered by privileges and his families assets. Nations role is emasculated as her skin is tan and she has muscles. She takes on a stereotypical male personification because she has been a provider and bread winner for her family. While the two lived in the country, Jim was naive concerning the roles he and his neighbor Antonio ere developing. Antonio was to be a pioneer and he himself was to be an accomplished student. Antonio sees Jims Tie as moldable, out seen does not see Jim as worthy AT admiration. This is because Antonio romanticizes hard work. She is not ashamed of her robust role because she sees farming as wholesome and honest. Antonio has had an intimate relationship with working the land and, in turn, the land has given back to Antonio the foundation of a better life. Notations world revolves around work and she does not see Jims academic life as one with toil. This is the primary reason he does not find Jim as an eligible suitor. T. T. 6 In the end, Jims opportune life carried him far away from Antonio. Like the prairie converted into farmland, Jim was refined from country school to an alumni of Harvard Law School. Notations relationship with the land is symbolized by her large family as she embodies the fertile earth. Jims act of visiting Antonio at her farm outside of Black Hawk reinstates the power of the Nebraska prairie. It illustrates two distinctly different crops of the same land that have both flourished from the Nebraska soil.