Shocking the Sensibilities in A Modest Proposal Essay -- Swift Modest

Shocking the Sensibilities in A Modest Proposal Two Works Cited Three years after Gulliver's Travels was published, Jonathan Swift wrote "A Modest Proposal," a work grounded in thoughtful satire. Swift describes the destitution that characterized the life of Ireland's poor in the 18th century then renders a brazenly inhumane solution to their problems. He shocks the sensibilities of the readers then leads them to consider the inhumanity of the destitution in the first place. Although he was born in Ireland, Swift considered himself an Englishman first, and the English were his intended audience. Swift used the good reputation afforded him by previous works to expose an otherwise indifferent English public to the circumstances of Irish misery. Unfortunately, many of the English were so predisposed to hatred of the Irish that they would disregard the point of Swift's essay and might go so far as to endorse Swift's proposal. For the people of Ireland, "A Modest Proposal" built upon Swift's earlier Drapier's Letters and made Swift a national hero (Bookshelf). "A Modest Proposal" begins with a description of the state of 18th century Irish life. Ireland was a place where children too often became beggars or thieves to sustain themselves or their families, women had abortions because they could not afford to raise children, few jobs were available to the workforce, and landlords abused poor tenants. As miserable as the picture Swift painted of Irish life was, the brushstrokes of history were even harsher. Actions of the English in the previous century had thrust the Irish people into a state of diaspora; tens of thousands had been ... ...al footnote, not something that pertains to the present. Yet we need only look to poor children huddled on the streets of Brazil, or hear accounts of people who have resorted to using human flesh as sustenance to endure the North Korean famine, to realize that the misery of the world's poor has yet to be tempered by the progress of a modern age. "A Modest Proposal" could have been written yesterday; it might well be written tomorrow. Works Cited Swift, Jonathan. "A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public." 1729. Rpt. in Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston, MA: St. Martin's 1996. 111-117. "Johathan Swift." Bookshelf 1996-1997 Edition 1996. CD-ROM. Redmond, WA: Microsoft, 1996.

Darren Skanson Essay -- essays research papers

Overview From a very early age Darren Skanson had a burning passion for music. His passion grew deeper when realized how much excitement a crowd has when watching a musical performer. In 1989, Darren graduated from Moorhead State University with a BA in music. Darren’s career first began by being a lead guitarist in a heavy metal band. The band, Mata Hari, split up in 1993. Darren then joined Malcolm Watson, who was a classical violinist, at Watson and Company. Darren and Malcolm produced the third CD for Watson and Company. Shortly after the success of producing this CD the duo traveled nationwide performing. Within a year the sales had increased from $100,000 to $250,000. Malcolm wanted to move a little more slowly than Darren in expanding their business to greater heights. Since Darren was ready to move on, he left Watson and Company to form his own company. Darren had a vision to record, produce and sell his own music, as well as the music of other artists. Jennifer, a long time friend of Darren’s was the booking agent for his tour. Jennifer did not share the same vision with Darren so they parted ways and moved on. Trying to perform, handle CEO duties and handling the promotional marketing aspect of his business was getting to be too much for Darren. Business was getting to be complicated. He decided to hire a guy named Andy Harling, who was a classical guitarist to help with the office duties of the company and to suggest/implement ways to make CCM function more efficiently. Darren turned down two performances offered by Jennifer since he was already booked. However, he did not want to lose the business and the chance to get his name out there. Darren sent Andy to perform at the two shows. Andy was very successful and gained the knowledge of how the performances operate. Darren became a little nervous when he realized that Andy could leave him and become his competition. Darren then signed Andy to a contract and launched Andy’s first CD. Over time, Andy’s responsibilities grew with his performances that Darren hired an assistant for him. Recording and productions costs were high for musicians to produce their records/CD’s. Digital then came into existence and cut the costs of production. Music is sorted by labels. Because of the low costs in digital recordings it was possible for sma... ...erent marketing segment and would need to establish their resources and overall marketing clientele. Buyers †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Darren’s buyers are mostly between the ages 40 and 60 years old. Suppliers †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Distribution centers from which he buys his supplies for inventory. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One-stop centers Substitute Products †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Acoustitherapy †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Andrew Thomas Harling †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Music for candles Recommendations †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Darren should get rid of Jennifer and find someone who is more compatible in helping him reach his goal of expanding nationally. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Increase product lines. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hire someone to operate his marketing, promotion, inventory and production costs and issues so that he can devote his time to tours and concerts. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Try signing a contract with an artist of the Independent Label level in order to help increase his branding label. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hire an agent to sign on new artists rather than doing it himself.

Baldwins Insights of History in Notes of a Native Son Essay -- James

Private Insight into Public History James Baldwin had a talent of being able to tell a personal story and relate it to world events. His analysis is a rare capability that one can only acquire over an extensive lifetime. James Baldwin not only has that ability, but also the ability to write as if he is conversing with the reader. One of his most famous essays, â€Å"Notes of a Native Son,† is about his father’s death. It includes the events that happened prior to and following his father’s death. Throughout this essay, he brings his audience into the time in which he wrote and explains what is going on by portraying the senses and emotions of not only himself, but as well as the people involved. This essay has a very personal feeling mixed with public views. Baldwin is able to take one small event or idea and shows its place within the â€Å"bigger picture.† Not only does he illustrate public experiences, but he will also give his own personal opinion about those events. Throughout â€Å"Notes of a Native Son† Baldwin uses the binary of life versus death to expand on the private versus public binary that he also creates. These two binaries show up several times together showing how much they relate to each other. Baldwin makes certain readers understand the states of the issue at once; his essay starts by describing his father’s funeral in the aftermath of the Harlem riots of 1943. Baldwin states, â€Å"As we drove him to the graveyard, the spoils of injustice, anarchy, discountent, and hatred were all around us. It seemed to me that God himself had devised, to mark my father’s end, the most sustained and brutally dissonant of codas† (63). Yet as Baldwin mourned the death of his father, he celebrated the birth of his yo... ...e â€Å"big picture† in the world. Some events may not seem significant, but they are somehow related to other events that are going on in the world. Baldwin also took events that coincidentally happened at the same of his father’s death and analyzed them, giving his own personal opinion. Baldwin also had a constant motif of life versus death throughout his life story and his analysis of events. Baldwin’s creative writing skills show through his style of writing and makes the reader feel as though he is being directly spoken to. He gives the audience the opportunity to feel the emotions that he felt during these events. It is this ability that made James Baldwin the celebrated talent that he became. Works Cited Baldwin, James. â€Å"Notes of a Native Son.† 1955. James Baldwin: Collected Essays. Ed. Toni Morrison. New York: Library of America, 1998. 63-84.

Destiny, Fate and Free Will in Homers Odyssey - Odysseus’s Fulfills Hi

Odysseus’s Fulfills his Destiny in The Odyssey During Odysseus’s journey in The Odyssey, his own guile, the gods’ obstacles and their assistance for him affected his destiny. Odysseus uses his crafty sense of trickery and guile to get out of situations, which allow him to reach his destiny of returning home. Many times in The Odyssey the gods who dislike Odysseus set obstacles to try to stop him from returning home. However, there are gods who favor him and give him assistance to reach his homeland of Ithaca. Odysseus found himself in some dangerous situations during his journey but he was clever enough to think of ways to escape them. For example, when he encountered Polyphemus, Odysseus tricked him when he told the Cyclops his name was "Noman." After Polyphemus believed him and was stabbed in the eye, not knowing any better called out to his friends, "Noman is murdering me by craft. Force there is none" (87). Odysseus’ power over his enemy is once again confirmed by his wit more than by physical force. Although this sense of guile is at his enemy’s expense, there exists a touch of dramatic irony that helps the reader to take part in knowing something that Odysseus’ enemy doesn’t know. To get his way with Calypso, Odysseus flatters her to persuade her to free him from captivity. Odysseus sweet-talks Calypso and then states his destiny when he says, "Powerful goddess, do not be wroth at what I say. Full well I know that heedful Penelope, compared with you, is poor to look upon in height and beauty; for she is human, but you are an immortal, young forever. Yet even so, I wish-yes, every day I long-to travel home and see my day of coming" (49). Odysseus’ day of coming stands for hi... ...other of this Scylla, who bore her a bane to humankind; she will restrain her from a second onset" (116). Odysseus has to stop thinking that fighting always works. It is best to run and take the easy and safe way out when he is fighting a more powerful being than himself. Odysseus’ own guile, the gods’ obstacles, and their assistance for him are all factors that affected his fate during his journey. His guile to make difficult situations seem simple became very handy in escaping the dangerous times and allowed him to move further in his odyssey. The gods who dislike him sent storms or traps in their attempts to cease and stop Odysseus’ journey home. The gods who approve of Odysseus’ return home, for instance Athena, Hermes, and Circe, assisted him in many ways to ease his way home to his home in Ithaca and to fulfill his destiny.

Comparing Ulysses and American Beauty :: comparison compare contrast essays

Ulysses and American Beauty      Ã‚   In the "Nausicaa" chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses, a virginal exhibitionist, Gerty McDowell, flashes her "knickers. . .the wondrous revealment, half-offered like those skirt-dancers" at Leopold Bloom, igniting his sexual fireworks on a beach in Dublin (366). In a film set almost 100 years later in an American suburb, another virginal seductress flips her dance skirt, giving admirers a peek at her panties, and inspires Bloom's modern incarnation, Lester Burnham, into a similar burst of auto-eroticism.    The "metempsychosis" of Leopold Bloom into Lester Burnham isn't the only astonishing similarity between Ulysses and American Beauty. When screenwriter Alan Ball accepted the 2000 Golden Globe and Academy Awards for his screenplay of American Beauty, he owed a substantial debt--albeit universally unnoticed and, as he claimed in a telephone interview, "unintended"--to Joyce's masterpiece, the book chosen just months earlier by the Modern Library editorial board as the "best novel" of the Twentieth Century.    Yes, the ending of American Beauty represents a major departure from the plot of Joyce's novel--but an explicable one in a modern update of the Ulysses saga. Late twentieth-century audiences, who have become desensitized to escalating media violence over the past 100 years and have, in fact, developed an appetite for gore, require a bloody resolution. Despite the ending, we are left with striking reincarnations of Irish urbanites into suburban American personalities.    Consider other parallels: heroes Leopold Bloom and Lester Burnham (same initials, LB) are both middle-aged, middle-class, mediocre, unappreciated admen (Lester describes himself as "a whore for the advertising industry"[49], neither of whom has had sex with their wives in years . Ultimately both Bloom and Lester yearn to regain the past unity and warmth of their homes.    Bloom muses, "I was happier then" and fantasizes he could "somehow reappear reborn" to his marriage bed with wife Molly (728) while Lester tells us, "That's my wife Carolyn. . . . We used to be happy" and vows, "It's never too late to get it back" (2, 5). Both also feel displaced by a growing estrangement from their teenage daughters: Bloom's surviving child, Milly, and Lester's only child, Jane.    To compensate for their non-existent sex lives, both Leopold and Lester turn first to solo sex in the bath (or in Lester's case, the shower) and both enjoy adulterous, guilty dreams of unorthodox sexual practices, often accompanied by flower imagery.

Royal Foolishness in King Lear Essay -- King Lear Essays

The presentation of persistent incompetence of the elite class would seem unlikely in a Shakespearean tragedy. Yes, it in turn led to the expected downfall of almost all principle characters, but there seems to be another element of the play of King Lear – shameful ridicule. The repetition of dishonesty, superficiality, and blatant ignorance serves as an overwhelming theme of the dysfunction of nobility. Indeed, one of the main aspects of King Lear is the representation of royalty’s foolishness. A clear example of the naiveness of the nobility is Regan’s hunger for power and wealth at an extent where she demonstrates little respect towards her own father – also her beneficiary. She insults his age and rudely implies that he no longer deserves the status of king and should pass it on to someone more capable. Ironically, she has the least potential for being an adequate ruler, â€Å"O sir, you are old†¦ You should be ruled and led by some discretion that discerns your state better than yourself† (II.iv.165-169). Her shameless remark touches upon Lear’s own flaws, his d...

Factors That Led to the Growth of the Concept of New Public Management Essay

New Public Management is an attempt to reorient and restructure public bureaucracy in the era of globalisation, liberalisation. Following are the main factors which contributed to the growth of New Public Management perspectives: 1. Reaction against Bureaucratic Administration and Elephantine growth of governmental expenditure: The impact of globalisation has been significant on the public administration. The globalisation prompted such changes such as increased interdependence among states, reduction intrade barriers among nations, growing use of information and communication technology and close realignment of public and private sectors. The prevailing state bureaucracy was not able to face these challenges as it was too unwieldy, unresponsive, inefficient, ineffective and not suitable to face emerging competition. In the decade of 1980, the bureaucracy came under severe criticism for the above deficiency. Also, in 1970s and 1980s, due to public welfare orientation, there was an excessive growth in government expenditure which was poorly managed by the large state bureaucracy. Under these circumstances both the size and role of the state was questioned under the prevailing conditions. 2. Impact of Neo-liberalism: The political ideology of neo-liberalism has held a dominating presence during 1980s and 1990s as far as the nature and role of the state is concerned. Neo-liberalism advocated dominant presence of markets against state, rolling-back the state in welfare activities, maximizing individual liberty and freedoms. The tenets of neo-liberalism have close bearing on the rise of New Public Management. 3. Hold of New Right Philosophy in U.K. and U.S.A.: The New Right philosophy with more efficient allocation of resources through market mechanism and less role of the state in social and economic sphere held its sway in 1970s in the U.K. and the U.S.A. Thus, it is not surprising that the new public management perspective was most popular in these countries. 4. Washington Consensus: The Washington consensus is a set of economic reform measures evolved in 1989 by IMF, World Bank, U.s. Congress and scholars such as Williamson to restructure economies in view of financial crisis of 1980s in Latin American countries. It is a structural adjustment and economic stabilisation programme which advocated trade and financial liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation of domestic markets. The tenets of Washington consensus bear close affinity with the New Public Management perspective. 5. Influence of Public Choice Approach: The public choice approach pro-pounded byeconomists such as Fullock, Niskanen, Buchanen, argues that the dominant feature of human behaviour is self interest, which should be maximised through the arrangement of multiple public service agencies that would amplify the scope of people’s choice. It emphasises on the competition and efficiency among the multiple public service delivery mechanism. This approach has influenced the fundamental principles of the New Public Management. Thus, the New Public Management perspective is the result of a number of pull factors such as inefficiency of the state and traditional bureaucracy and certain pull factors such as neo-liberalism, New Right Philosophy, public choice approach and Washington consensus which inter alias supported roll-back of the state, dominance of Market mechanism and need of competition and efficiency