A Separate Peace Essay Example for Free

A Separate Peace Essay A Separate Peace tells the story of a sixteen-year-old boy at boarding school in New Hampshire during World War II, and the mixed feelings of admiration and jealousy he harbors for his best friend and roommate. Things get messy pretty fast, as you might expect from a bunch of ill-supervised adolescents. John Knowles novel, often compared to Catcher In The Rye, he raises a question about competition amongst teens. Competition is supposed to be healthy, but Knowles questions when do you draw a line between a fruitless rivalry and wanting to win at all costs. Knowles uses themes of friendship, identity and youth to establish quite clearly that knocking your best friend out of a tree is on the wrong side of that line. A Separate Peace focuses on the friendship between two sixteen-year-old boys, and its complicated. Friendship is a combination of admiration, respect, jealousy, and resentment. For all the camaraderie between them, these boys are still driven by good old healthy competition, which at times can end up being, well, less than healthy. Friendship blurs identity, as one boy begins to assimilate the life of the other. Narrator Gene has an inner struggle with himself trying to decide if he pushed best firend Finn off a tree, shattering his leg and dreams, on purpose or not. In the book he says It struck me then that I was injuring him again. It occurred to me that this could be an even deeper injury than what I had done before. I would have to back out of it, I would have to disown it. There are two ways to interpret this passage. Either this is one of Genes greatest moments of honesty or its yet another moment of justification. Knowles leaves it to the reader to decide if Gene would rather live with his shame than hurt Finny by revealing the truth, or if he is pretending he doesnt want to hurt Finny in order to recant the truth and save himself from persecution. In A Separate Peace John Knowles explores the difficulties with understanding ones own identity during adolescence. Identity is complicated enough as the narrator enters adulthood in a time of war, but a difficult friendship with Finny leads to a further confusion of identity. Attempting to alter identity serves a number of purposes in the book, from escaping guilt to living through others to dealing with insanity. Gene begins abandoning his identity and assimilating that of Finny because of the would be the guilt he feels for ending his Olympic dreams. Finny interested in turning Gene into a version of himself for the very same reason. Furing Finnys funeral Gene says I did not cry then or ever about Finny I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case. If Gene did in some way become a part of Finny, then part of Finny lives on in Gene. Gene alludes to this when he says that he still lives his life in Finnys created atmosphere. In the book youth exists in its own environment. Knowles physically, mentally, and emotionally isolates it from the rest of the world. In doing so growing up becomes the transition from the sheltered environment to the harsh realities of things like war, hatred, and fear. In the book while taking a walk Gene does a little introspection stating levels of reality I had never suspected before, a kind of thronging and epic grandeur which my superficial eyes and cluttered mind had been blind to before. They unrolled away impervious to me as though I were a roaming ghost. Essentially Gene has moved into the adult world. In doing so he is leaving his youth behind. That sense of emergence is reflected as he considers his old self, his younthful self, dead. Nearly all the major characters in the book attempt to alter identity but these attempts ultimately fail and then the characters are forced to deal with themselves, actions, and personal identities. Knowles cleverly uses the title of the book in order to explain the overall It wasnt the cider which made me surpass myself, it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace. These lines offer meaning, and this one with a less militaristic meaning. Essentially in the book Knowles has created a peace that is separate from the rest of the world, isolated somehow, protected. Like the youth at Devon school? The rest of the world is at war, but Gene and the other boys at Devon have achieved a peace outside of that war, a peace that is separate from it.

Developmental Psychology :: Psychology Psychological Essays

Developmental Psychology There are three main theories of development that I shall discuss in this assignment, 'Cognitive', the main theorist being, 'Piaget', (1896 - 1980), The, 'Psychosocial Theory', 'Erikson', (1902 - 1994), and, The 'Psychosexual', of, 'Freud', (1856 - 1939). Cognitive Psychology draws the comparison between the human mind and a computer, suggesting that we like the computer process the information we acquire from around us and then react accordingly. Hearnshaw, (1987), claims that Cognitive Psychology is both one of the oldest and also one of the newest parts of Psychology, cited in ?T. Malim?, (1994). Information is collected through our senses i.e. vision, touch, smell etc and then processed through our brain. Cognitive Psychologists largely seek explanations of Cognitive development, memory, attention, artificial intelligence, perception and social cognition. The methods used are usually Laboratory experiments under controlled circumstances i.e. memory tests, and, Case studies. Piaget, (J), (1896-1980), carried out case studies on his own children to study the stages of cognitive development. Piaget concluded that the child was an organism which adapts to the environment, he also studied with the opinion that all children went through the same set stages of development and that there were no individual differences. Piagets? Stages of Development: - The Sensorimotor stage, (0-2): - Early in the sensorimotor stage the child is entirely egocentric, everything is an extension to the self, they can?t distinguish themselves from their environment. The child has no concept of past or future all it is aware of is the here and now. The child relies entirely on it?s senses i.e. sight, hearing, touch. It is believed by Cognitive Psychologists that ?.. ?To begin with, a baby will rely on in-built behaviours for sucking, crawling and watching? as cited in Moonie, N, (1995). A child does not understand that an object does not cease to exist when it is out of sight. However, in contradiction, Bower & Wishart, (1972), used infrared cameras to see what the child does when an object disappears. The child is shown a bottle in the light, when the child reaches to grasp the bottle the lights are turned out. Bower & Wishart recorded that the child continued to reach for the bottle for up to 1.5minutes after the lights are turned out. Another point m ade by Piaget is that not only does the child look for an object, which is hidden, but also the child will not look for it even if part of it is showing.

Objectifying Women

Objectifying Women Women in the Media Although we may not realize it, but media is a very powerful source of influence. Influence that can affect people in many ways that may be positive and beneficial for corporations, but not so much for the general public. Media uses a variety of means such as advertisements, movies and music videos to convince its consumers and potential consumers in buying their products, or following their lifestyles. Majority of these means are dominated with portraying different views of women.Whether it is a detergent ad, a sports themed movie or a popular pop song, each and every source of media is focused on objectifying women. While watching your favorite television show, you may not pay attention to the advertisement in between, nor do you pay attention to the fact that most of them have women in it, nor the way that they are portrayed as. Since it is seen as a common thing, our minds are accustomed to this idea. Most women in today’s media are vi ewed as  sex objects, and most advertisements use this as a way to sell a product.Magazines, television, and the Internet display this quite well by constantly portraying pencil thin models with impossibly long legs, perfect complexions, enhanced breasts, and incredibly thick locks (DeYoung & Crane). These women are then illustrated in sexually provocative poses for the purpose of selling something as ordinary as shoes. This may seem to be a harmless way of promoting a product but these  sexually provocative advertisements  have had a grave effect on our society. Media completely changes the way we see women and how we describe beauty.It has started to sell beauty; it creates an unattainable ideal woman, compelling other women to attempt to transform themselves into model look-alikes. A beautiful women does not have to be tall, skinny or should have long hair, but these images have created a category which define beauty, hence we have started to believe that as being the real definition. After all, it’s been scientifically proven that extended exposure to media changes our brains and the way we think, with average media exposure for hildren shown to be around 10 hours per day there is a lot of brain changing going on (DeYoung & Crane). So we can only imagine the affect of all this on little girls, teens as well as older women. Many of which lack self-esteem and empowerment. They are struggling everyday to find ways to look and feel more confident and beautiful. To tackle this, Dove launched a marketing campaign in 2004, called â€Å" the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty†. It included all sorts of media sources such as advertisements, video, workshops, sleepover events and much more.The campaign featured women of diverse shapes and sizes. The central objective behind it was to celebrate differences in physical traits that represented all kinds of women: to inspire them so they can be confident and comfortable with themselves (Arruda, 2011). Fir stly, the idea that Dove has is impeccable, the implementation and its source are not. Unilever owns Dove, which also owns Axe (male grooming products) amongst many other brands. Axe is a well-known brand, especially for its sexual commercials in which they objectify women and perpetuate unrealistic images of beauty.They habitually feature young, longhaired, thin, and large breasted models that are usually throwing themselves at the male-models. If Dove truly believed in liberating women to broaden the conventional definition of beauty, it would end its affiliation with such companies. Even though, that might be difficult as Unilever is a parent company, the least Dove can do is to address criticism it faces. The central point of this campaign is to liberate women and celebrate different types of beauty.On the contrary, this campaign has been criticized to only show women that naturally have a small frame and all images that they show are manipulated. Not just faintly edited to remo ve pimples, but bodies are altered to fit the beauty norm. A ‘heavy’ woman may be included but she has got to be the right kind of heavy, her image will be altered to remove freckles, lumps and bumps (Dye). In other words, â€Å" Campaign for Real Beauty† presents unreal bodies, which people can never attain.Additionally, it has been said that to appear socially responsible and to gain more market share resulting in an increment in profits was the core reason of this campaign. Due to this, Dove brand itself is deceptive, as it is not fully committed to its core proposition of the campaign. We need to understand the power that media has on our societies. Objectification and degrading women has led to many consequences that include fatalities such as anorexia and bulimia. Many young girl and teens are self conscious about their appearance and weight.Some have gone as far as going on a diet from as little as 13 years of age (The causes and the experience of eating d isorders). To terminate this atrocity, the government needs to step in. We know that there are many campaigns against cigarettes and alcohol, if the government is able to spend money on such issues, we are certain they can take part in this. The government must control where/how diet pills and such products are sold. A teenager of 15 years must not be able to walk into Wal-Mart and pick up slimfast, on her way back home from school.An awareness campaign to attack this must begin immediately; it could include seminars to help with self-esteem, spread educational handouts. Media can become an instrument of change and help awaken minds. Videos can be put on the Internet about empowering women, advertisements can show real life stories to inspire young women rather than dishearten. To conclude, we need to understand the great damage that media is causing on our society as a whole. It portrays women not as an equal but as an object to boost profits. This makes an irrational criterion abo ut beauty in our minds, which corrupts the real definition.Women make up half the population on this planet, and if they lack self-esteem and confidence we are not on a suitable path to success. The government must take action as it distresses not just our generation but our future as well. Bibliography Arruda, C. (2011, March 05). Doves Revolution- Rhetorical Analysis #2. Retrieved May 31, 2012, from Rhetoric and Popular Culture: http://rhetoricandpopculture. com/2011/03/05/doves-evolution-rhetorical-analysis-2/ Dye, L. A Critique of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. Canadian Journal of Media Studies , 5 (1). DeYoung, S. & Crane, F. G. (n. d. ). Females' attitudes toward the portrayal of women in advertising: a Canadian study. Retrieved June 1, 2012, from Warc: http://www. warc. com/fulltext/ijoa/5225. htm Portrayal of Women in the Popular Media. (n. d. ). Retrieved June 1, 2012, from World Savvy: http://worldsavvy. org/monitor/index. php? option=com_content;view=article;id=6 02;Itemid=1049 The causes and the experience of eating disorders. (n. d. ). Retrieved June 1, 2012, from Feminist Resources for Women and Girls: http://womensstudies. homestead. com/edwords. html

Why the Way We Helped, Needed Help Essay - 2714 Words

It’s in the first sentence of the United States Constitution; listed as one of the six fundamental purposes of the government of the United States, â€Å"to†¦promote the general welfare.† Considering its location in the Preamble, one might imagine that the Founding Fathers held this idea to a very high standard. While the meaning of the Constitution is constantly debated, the notion of where the government stops providing and personal accountability must be had is the focus of this paper. During the Roosevelt era, America saw the birth of what some call the â€Å"welfare state† with the government taking a vastly greater role in providing the general welfare, leading to an ever increasing level of dependency. It wasn’t until 1996 that serious welfare†¦show more content†¦The most significant move was FDR’s New Deal; more specifically the Social Security Act of 1935 which established the framework for the United States welfare system. I n the following decades, America saw more and more people being added to the rolls and with it, an increase in costs and dependency. In the 1980’s, President Reagan sought reforms similar to those that were passed while he was governor of California but was unable to accomplish this. Then, in 1996, President Clinton and his Republican Congress signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, changing welfare in America forever. There are many different components of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), each equally responsible for its success. First, it instituted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program which had been in effect since 1935. According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ summary of the bill, one of PRWORA’s main goals was to end welfare as an entitlement program that simply handed out m oney without a second thought. The bill required recipients to begin working after two years of receiving benefits and placed a lifetime limit of five years on benefits paid by federal funds. It also aimed to encourage two-parent families and discouraged out-of-wedlock births. Another minor provision was an enhanced enforcement ofShow MoreRelatedEmotions: From Birth to Old Age by Richard Spilsbury1249 Words   |  5 Pagesemotions, since last year in science we learnt a bit about it, but we didn’t go into any real depth. 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