Literary Response #4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Literary Response #4 - Essay Example As the poem develops the speaker’s emotional state takes on a more somber and forlorn tone. Millay writes, â€Å"but the rain/ Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh/ Upon the glass and listen for reply;/ And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain/ For unremembered lads that not again/ Will turn to me at midnight with a cry† (Millay, 3-8). In these lines Millay uses the image of the ghosts in the rain to symbolize the speaker’s past lovers. One can envision the speaker looking out at the rain and attempting to recollect these past individuals. Upon realizing that the speaker will never again share a moment of love and intimacy with these past lovers the speaker’s emotional state is punctuated by a quiet pain. The image of the rain as the ghosts of past lovers is highly effective as rain has an immediate visceral effect of creating the emotion of sadness and slight depression; when coupled with the image of past lovers that the speaker will never again be able to spend time with, it is not difficult for the viewer to not only understand, but also feel this somber emotional state. As the poem advances and ultimately concludes the speaker’s emotional state is explored in greater depth, with more complex images. Millay writes, â€Å"Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree,/ Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,/ Yet know its boughs more silent than before:/ I cannot say what loves have come and gone;/ I only know that summer sang in me/ A little while, that in me sings no more† (Millay 9-14). In referring to the lonely tree, the speaker is actually referencing herself. The image of winter conveys both the passage of time, as well the coldness that accompanies the speaker’s loneliness. While previously the speaker’s emotional state was perceived as slightly somber, this image of winter is starkly dark and despondent. This despondency is advanced in the following image of birds that once frequented the tree

Paper On Elements Of Satire In Gullivers Travels

Paper On Elements Of Satire In Gullivers Travels Satire can be used in many different forms for writers to express themselves. Satire is used by writers in all types of literature to communicate with their readers. More importantly satire allows writers to send their readers messages in a very indirect way. This means writers can express themselves without being prosecuted. This makes satire an incredibly powerful tool because it allows writers to expose corruption, oppression, and lies that many people end up believing. Gulliver first goes to the island of Lilliput where he is shipwrecked and wakes up tied down to the ground. Hes been tied down by the tiny natives called Lilliputians. The Lilliputians are an extremely petty people which would put people to death for fraud or ingratitude. They are also an extremely corrupt society, for example they use rope dancing as a way to get and hold public office. With Lilliputians, Gulliver has to watch his back and take into consideration that they may be plotting against them. The Lilliputians pettiness can clearly be seen in their argument over the correct end of an egg to break with Big-Endians who actually protest to the death against the emperors order that all shall break the egg at its small end. The Lilliputians are also at war with the Blefuscudians and the emperor tells Gulliver to intervene in order to end the war. He does, but the emperor then tells him to destroy all their ships so that they can enslave the Blefuscudians. Gulliver refuses and hi s luck with the Lilliputians starts taking a turn for the worst. A fire breaks out one night and Gulliver puts it out by peeing on it. This incident combined with rumors that he hit on the emperors wife and that he was a traitor in leagues with the Blefuscudians get the emperor to turn on him. The emperor plans to have Gulliver blinded, however Gulliver finds out and escapes. Eventually Gulliver gets home to have another adventure later on. These little people represent much more than just some imaginary characters created by Swift. They are actually a representation of the bureaucracy and political polices OF Swifts time. Swift is pointing out how petty and corrupt those in power actually are. Swift uses their size as a metaphor to show how small politicians are morally. He is trying to show how pathetic, greedy, and self-centered their deeds are. By showing how they plot behind closed doors in secret hes also criticizing the political system which allows politicians to do that and make pacts that are in their best interest instead of the peoples. In addition, he also exposes the coldness of politics, like the coldness of the proposer in A Modest Proposal. The emperor had no problem killing and enslaving a city of people. Swift is merely showing that is also happens in real life through satire. Next Gulliver travels to Brobdingnag where he finds that giants are the natives of this land. Gulliver is found by a farmer and stays with him until the queen of the country buys Gulliver from him and gives Gulliver to the king as a present. Gulliver spends time with the royal family learning their language and their culture. Gulliver also has several incidents while in this country that start giving him a negative attitude of the country. One day Gulliver tells the king about Englands history, however the king is disgusted with Gullivers account of Englands history. According to DeGategno the enlightened King responds to Gullivers description of European hypocrisy, avarice, and hatred, and memorably declares the bulk of your natives, to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth (DeGategno). Gulliver doesnt like the kings reaction and starts thinking he might be reacting like that because he is less educated than him. Gulliver tries to repair his image with the king by telling him about gunpowder and how England uses it to solve conflicts and win wars. However, this completely backfires on Gulliver instead of being intrigued the king is disguised with this violence. He says that he is amazed that such an impotent and groveling insect as Gulliver could entertain such inhuman ideas and threatens Gulliver with death if he ever mentions gunpowder again. After this Gulliver doesnt try to change the kings mind about how he feels about England. However, he does start to look down on aspects of the Brobdingnagian society such as their education, laws, books, language, and military. He concludes that their education, law, and society as a whole is inferior to that of England. Eventually Gulliver starts becoming home sick and wishes to be around people that are as smart as he is. Luckily for him one day a bird picks up the box that he is carried in and drops it in the sea. Though Gulliver almost drowns he does manage to escape and is eventually rescued by some sailors. The sailors take him back home. However, Gulliver doesnt stay in England for too long in fact in another couple days Gulliver sets sail again and goes on another adventure. Brobdingnag was the exact opposite of Lilliput. In Lilliput Gulliver is surround by evil, but in Brobdingnag he is evil. This can be seen by the kings reaction tp Gullivers description of European history and how Gullivers feelings change during his stay. Gulliver starts looking down on Brobdingnagians in a way thats almost Lilliputian. It seems that he doesnt like being criticized and adding that he already feels inferior to Brobdingnagians due to their size differences he starts protecting his esteem; so he strikes back like a Lilliputian. This is yet another way Swift is using satire to communicate with the reader. Swift doesnt just use the characters that Gulliver meets, but every tool he has available. I believe DeGategnos word are very relevant to this when he says that Swift seeks nothing less than his readers participation in a thoroughgoing physical, intellectual, political, and moral analysis of mankinds condition (DeGategno). After setting sail, as a surgeon, Gullivers ship is captured by pirates, however they let Gulliver go in a small canoe and eventually he ends up in Laputa, which is actually an island that floats in the sky. Laputa is very different from Brobdingnag and Lilliput in that there are many different types of people. Brobdingnag had giants and Lilliput had tiny people and each had their own lesson, yet Laputa is filled with different types of people and has several different lessons. I cant help but believe that Swift named the first city that Gulliver travels to Laputa as a way to describe the events that were to come. I say this because in Spanish Laputa actually means the bitch. Gulliver sees that the inhabitants of Laputa are a very strange people. Since they are constantly thinking about math and music they actually have servants called Flappers that remind them when to listen and when to talk. They also constantly worry about things like the sun dropping out of the sky. This causes many women in Laputa to commit adultery since most of their husbands are lost in their own thoughts. Gulliver then travels to Lagado where he meets Lord Munodi who acts as a guide for him. Munodi takes Gulliver to go see the Academy of Lagado where he meets a group of professors that are involved with some extremely ridiculous experiments. Gulliver sees that theyre trying to extract sunbeams from cucumbers, turn human excrement back into its original food, transform ice into gunpowder, and build houses from the roof down. Three professors were developing a strategy for improving the language of their country by eliminating all words except nouns or eliminating all words and having people carry around all the objects they need to express themselves. Another professor which is responsible for public affairs tries to cure diseases and corruptions of public officials with the same prescriptions used for curing diseases of the body. The same professor also says that citizens should inflict physical pain upon public officials until what they want is granted or absolutely refused. The professor goes on to say that Senators should vote the exact opposite of their opinion since it would be in the publics best interest. Lastly he says that if political parties cant come to an agreement they should take a hundred leaders of each party, cut their brains in half, and have all the leaders trade one half with one of their opponents. His rationale for this plan is that when the two half-brains are left to debate the matter between themselves in the same head theyll eventually reach an agreement. Gulliver actually has a positive reaction to the professors proposals and seems to think they may be able to actually work. Though, he may just want t o see the politicians killed off. After visiting the academy Gulliver starts wanting get back to England and go back home, so he goes to Maldonada in order to find passage to Luggangg from which he can get to Japan and finally back to England. He discovers that no ships will set sail to Luggangg for a month, so Gulliver decides to visit an island thats close by named Glubbdubdrib. The inhabitants of Glubbdubdrib are sorcerers, and their Governor is capable of calling spirits back from the dead. Once he arrives Gulliver decides to ask the Governor to summon ancients who were most renowned for being intellectuals. He first meets Homer and Aristotle and all of their commentators. He discovers that in the underworld, these modern commentators avoid the ancient philosophers because of the shame they feel at having so grossly misrepresented their work. Gulliver also has Descartes and Gassendi brought back to life to explain their principal theories to Aristotle. However, Aristotle isnt impressed; he dismisses their theories and actually compares them to being like fads in fashion. It seems that as the scholars become more recent the less intellectual they actually are. Gulliver concludes that the world has been misled by histori ans who give qualities such as bravery, virtue, piety, and honor to those who were only cowards and scoundrels. Afterwards, Gulliver returns to Maldonada and leaves to Luggnagg. Once Gulliver arrives at Luggnagg he is detained by a custom-house officer because he is a stranger. Gulliver is then transported to Traldragdubb where he visits the King of Luggnagg. When he arrives in the throne room, he has to crawl on his belly and lick the floor as he goes until he comes within four yards of the throne, then he raises himself up on his knees and bangs his forehead on the ground several times. This is how Luggnaggians approach their king. The king is kind to Gulliver and gives him housing, gold, and a pass to Japan. Before Gulliver leaves he hears about a group of people called Struldbrugs who are immortal. Clear, Swift is criticizing social codes imposed by royalty. Gulliver then decides to learn more about these people and pay them a visit. Gulliver imagined that the Struldbrugs lived a wonderful life where they never grew old, however he could not have been more wrong. The Struldbrugs actual do age, they just dont die. This turns out to be a nightmare for the Struldbrugs because once they pass the age of eighty they basically live in absolute misery. The Struldbrugs are hated by society and are denied the deaths they so badly want as their bodies and minds continue to age and decay. When Gulliver finally meets some Struldbrugs he is disgusted by them and completely changes his mind about how he felt about immortality. Afterwards, Gulliver returns to Luggnagg and from there goes to Japan. From Japan Gulliver eventually makes his way home to England where he is reunited with his family. The adventure to Laputa, Lagado, Glubbdubdrib, and Luggnagg has a couple different lessons that Swift is telling the reader. The first one in Laputa, he is criticizing people like Pangloss in Candide. In Laputa they rely solely on reasoning to the point that their reasoning is corrupted and has no reason at all. According to Brackett, Swift satirizes the Royal Academy in a depiction of an academy at nearby Lagado where members attempt absurd acts (Brackett). I believe that it is also criticizing peoples reliance on technology. I also think this point may be more relevant today that it was during Swifts time. The sorcerers are used to show how backward humanity is becoming. All of the scholars of the ancient were actual intellectuals, however the most recent ones were simply people who got lucky and become famous in history; they didnt possess any superior intellect. Swift also makes it a point to say that people recorded in recent history many times are not what they seem. Getting re corded in history seems to be more like survival of the fittest than who actually deserves it. Finally, the Struldbrugs are to teach people that immortality is not all that its cracked up to be, eventually everyone would get tired of life and would want to rest in peace. After being home for five months Gulliver embarks on another adventure as a captain of a ship. To no surprise the trip is plagued by tragedies. First his crewmen start dying of distemper and when he hires men to replace them they mutiny against him. The crew then leaves Gulliver on a longboat near a beach. Gulliver lands on the beach and starts exploring the land in hope of finding some people. He finally finds some creatures that he has never seen before. After watching them for a bit Gulliver believes that these are the most disgusting creatures hes ever seen. One of the creatures, which are called Yahoos, approaches Gulliver and he hits it away from him. This causes the Yahoo to yell which attracts more Yahoos. They then attack Gulliver by climbing in trees and defecating on him. Then a horse appears and the Yahoos run away in fear. The horse, which is a Houyhnhnm, looks at Gulliver as if studying him and looks disgusted when Gulliver touches him. The horse takes Gulliver to a large building. Gulliver starts calling the horse he meet the master horse because he seems to have authority over the other horses. They then meet up with another horse and the horses take Gulliver to a courtyard where they bring a Yahoo and have it stand next to Gulliver. Gulliver first realizes that the Yahoos are actually humans and hes completely horrified, then he realizes that the horses are actually comparing him to the Yahoo and is horrified even farther. Gulliver then tries to make a point to distinguish himself from the Yahoos for the Houyhnhnms. The Houyhnhnms teach Gulliver their language and Gulliver starts trying to convince them that hes not a Yahoo. Gulliver tells the master horse the story of how he got to the Houyhnhnms, but the master says his story is the thing which was not. The master is implying that he is lying, but since all Houyhnhnms always speak the truth their language does not have a word for lying. The Houyhnhnm master asks Gulliver more questions about his past. Gulliver tells the master that in his world people are the masters and horses are the beast. The master cant believe what he hears and replies that it isnt possible for a Yahoo to be master over a Houyhnhnm because they are superior both physical and intellectually The master tries to understand humanity more through Gulliver and so they have many conversations. In these many conversations Gulliver goes over topics such as poverty, ambition, crime, envy, oppressions, lust, law and politics. He also informs the master of Englands history and the master says that he has a good idea of what human nature is capable of. At one point the master again points out the physical weakness of Yahoos to Gulliver and Gulliver decides to tell him about gun powder. The master is appalled by what Gulliver tells him and orders Gulliver to be silent. The master then says that Yahoos who pretend to have reason are far more detestable than those who do not because it isnt really reason that they have but something that increases their natural vices. After Gulliver spends three years with the Houyhnhnms he becomes very attached to them. He believes that they are pure and innocent and starts losing his humanity in exchange to be more Houyhnhnm-like. He makes clothing out of Yahoo skin and whenever he starts missing his family or friends he merely thinks of them as Yahoos. Gulliver has found happiness among the Houyhnhnm, however one day his master tells him that he must leave. With the help of the masters servant Gulliver builds a boat and leaves. Gulliver doesnt go straight home because hes actually sick of humanity. He considers all humans Yahoos and wants nothing to do with humanity. Even when he finally gets home his own wife and kids disgust him. The story ends with Gulliver allowing his wife to have dinner with him and him talking about how everyone reminds him of a Yahoo. Swift is showing the two possibilities in human nature in the last portion of Gullivers Travels. One is that humans may choose to embrace their uncivilized animalistic nature, as did the Yahoos, and the other that they might reject all emotion to function only with logic, as did the Houyhnhnms. For example, the Yahoos throw their feces at each other and spend all day on the beach picking up shiny stuff. However, the Houyhnhnms find their behavior disgusting and illogical. The Yahoos throwing feces at each other represents how little respect humans have for each other. Them worshipping shiny stuff represents humanities obsession with objects that arent really as valuable as we make them to be. The Importance of Being Earnest is a very funny play that satirizes social roles and the customs of Oscar Wildes time. The satire is very light hearted because Wilde wrote it for the upper classes he was actually poking fun at. However, when we look at it day we can see how ridiculous many of their customs were and how petty the upper-class could be. The play starts off with a conversation about marriage between Algernon Moncrieff and his servant Lane. It also sets the tone for the play as Algernon concludes that Lanes views seem negligent and that Lanes class seems to have a lack of moral responsibility, here Wilde is using irony because it is in fact Algernons class that lacks moral responsibility. The play becomes satirical very fast as Jack Worthing admits that Earnest is an alter ego he pretends is his brother that often needs his help in the city and Algernon admits that he also has an alter ego named Bunbury, who often needs his help in the country. Wilde is using this to show how ridiculous their customs were and that for someone to get away somewhere and still be respectable in the eyes of society they had to make up another identity. The first scene also has Jack proposing to Gwendolen which she accepts, but her mom tells her she cant engage herself. Lady Bracknell then asks Jack some personal questions to see if he is suitable for Gwendolen. All seems fine until she realizes that he doesnt have parents, at this she finds him unacceptable and leaves. In this scene Wilde is criticizing the social code as petty and cruel. The irony becomes even more incredible when Algernon goes to Jacks house in the country saying that his name is Earnest and hes Jacks brother. Algernon introduces himself to Cecily, as Earnest, and very quickly the two fall in love. When Jack gets home and discovers that Algernon is posing as his imaginary brother, Earnest, he is furious and tells him to leave. However, Algernon doesnt and in fact he meets up with Cecily and proposes to her. She accepts and tells him that she loves him because his name is Earnest, which is ironic because its the same thing Gwendolen told Jack. Afterwards, Algernon contacts Dr. Chasuble to christen him so that he can change his name to Earnest, the irony here is that Jack has also done this. The story continues when Gwendolen comes to visit Jack, but since he isnt home Cecily meets with her until he comes back. They immediately like each other and agree to call each other by their first names. However, while they converse they learn that they both plan to marry Earnest even though Earnest doesnt really exist and they both plan on marrying two different people. After the girls start believing that they are in love with the same man they turn on each other and start calling each other by their proper titles. In this scene Wilde is exposing how petty the upper class is through Cecily and Gwendolen, at first they call each other by their first names and then revert to proper titles because of their argument. Jack finally comes home and finds the Cecily and Gwendolen having tea. Immediately Gwendolen asks him if hes engaged to Cecily. He denies the claim and Cecily tells Gwendolen that he is actually her guardian Mr. John Worthing. At this Algernon enters and Cecily says that he is the true Earnest. She then asks him if he is engaged to Gwendolen. He denies the claim, but Gwendolen says that his name is actually Algernon Moncrieff. The girls make up and after Jack tells them that there is no Earnest they both leave the house. The satire in this makes the play hilarious and is the reason why Wilde can get away with making fun of the upper class. The third and final act starts with Cecily and Gwendolen asking the Jack and Algernon why they lied. They both respond that is was necessary for them to see each other and Gwendolen and Cecily forgive them. However, Lady Bracknell enters and after seeing Gwendolen with Jack she wants to know whats going on. Gwendolen tells her that shes marrying Jack, but the Lady Bracknell stills refuses to allow it. For a comic effect she also asks Algernon if this is the home of Bunbury and Algernon tells her that Bunbury is dead. He then introduces her to Cecily and tells his aunt that theyre engaged. Lady Bracknell isnt sure she approves until she discovers that Cecily is wealthy. Jack then says that he wont allow Algernon to marry Cecily unless she allows Gwendolen to marry him; still Lady Bracknell refuses to consent. Afterwards Lady Bracknell discovers that Jack is her sisters lost son and that Jack is Algernons older brother. With this knowledge she consents to his marriage with Gwendolen. In this play we see not only the pettiness of upper class people through Lady Bracknell, but also their greed and shallowness through her immediate consent to Algernons marriage once she discovers that Cecily is rich. Wilde also uses marriage to criticize the aristocracy for corrupting a traditionally sacred ceremony into a financial contract that is based on wealth and status. In addition, Wilde is criticizing the leisure life style of the upper class. This entire play has absolutely no action and the drama is completely self created. He shows how far nobles lives are from regular peoples through characters like Lane and Dr. Chasuble, who actually have to work instead of fooling around in social drama. Satire also allows Wilde to criticize the rich and powerful without offending them by making the characters look absurd and unbelievable. As Virginia says the absurdity of the situations is made doubly absurd by the contrasted grace and dignity of everyones utterance (Brackett). The o utcome is a witty comedy that makes fun of the very people watching it! Truly, Wilde is a genius. The Man That Was Used Up starts with an unnamed narrator meeting the famous Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith. He instantly falls in love with the Generals physical characteristics. He describes the General as having the head of hair that would have done honor to a Brutus and the handsomest pair of whiskers under the sun. The narrator is not only captured by Smiths physicals, but almost everything about him he says that he never heard a clearer nor a stronger voice and when he spoke to him he said the gallant soldier preferred topics of philosophical interest, meaning hes well educated. The narrator decides that he wants to learn more about the General, but with respect to the tremendous events which occurred during the Bugaboo and Kickapoo campaign, a time of war. The narrator asks around to find out more about the General, but he discovers that the only thing people ever talk about when it comes to the General is his accomplishments. They never seem want to talk about his personal life. They only talk about how great the General is and comment on the wonderfully inventive age. The narrator then starts getting suspicious and starts thinking that there might be something that people are hiding or at least not showing. He decides to visit the Generals home. When he enters he doesnt see anyone home or anything strange. However, he does observe a strange bundle of things on the floor. The narrator kicks the bundle in order to move it and discovers that the bundle can talk. The bundle turns out to be the General and the story begins to unwind. The General calls his servant and has him put him together piece by piece. At this time during the story the reader discovers the real General Smith. He is completely fake all his limbs need to be attached including his legs, arms, shoulders, eyes, teeth, and even his tongue. While the General is being assembled he actually recommends people to the narrator who can provide the best body parts for whatever part is needed. In this scene we not only see that the general is fake on the exterior but also on the inside, before the general was seen as an intellectual elite however while his servant is putting him together he goes now, you nigger, my teeth! this is completely unprecedented behavior from the General and its a glimpse at the real person that he is. The General is actually a lot like the officer in The Nose and Gregor Samsa from The Metamorphosis. He is like the officer from the Nose in that he is a public figure with authority, but is completely fake. His authority is derived completely from what people see him as. If he tried to hold a public position as a bundle of human skin he would be shunned. Peeples confirms this in hes writing when he says Smiths prosthetic body parts can be read as emblematic of the cultural icons exalted reputations: the story advances the notion that public figures are largely artificial creations (Peeples 25). The General is also like Gregor Samsa, in the way that if Gregor would have never had his metamorphosis he would have eventually ended up like the General. The General did not have a transformation so he stayed in the machine and was completely absorbed by it until he started becoming one. The worst part is that since there was no intervention for the general, like Gregors, he never saw how much damage he was actually doing to himself. In fact, he embraced it, according to Peeples, the man that was used up expresses no regrets at having being dismantled by savages, for his new parts seem to work better than those of mere mortals (Peeples, 25). This made the General become the man that was used up. This story may use many devices of absurd, but it makes its shocking points thanks to satire. The story builds up the image of the General through satire. The reader is able to see how highly regarded people like the General are in real life. The absurd is used to rip down the beautiful picture of the General as was previously painted, still this is a form of irony to show people that what they may worship may actually be much less than we they believe it to be. In conclusion satire can be used in many different forms for writers to express themselves. Because satire allows writers to send their readers messages in a very indirect ways, writers can express themselves without being prosecuted. As has been in Gullivers Travels, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Man That Was Used Up satire is an incredibly powerful tool because it allows writers to expose corruption, oppression, and lies that many people end up believing.

Summary of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Essay -- essays research paper

The Jungle The Jungle by Upton Sinclair is about a Lithuanian family living in Chicago in the 1900’s. They had faith in the American dream, hoping to start a new and successful life. Unfortunately they were deprived of they hopes and dreams. They were placed in the middle of a society where only the strongest and richest survived. The rich keep getting richer and the poor get even poorer. Jurgis and his family went to extreme lengths just in hopes of finding a job, they were forced to travel in heavy rain, strong winds, and thick snow, even when they were sick, in fear of losing their jobs. The Jungle pointed out many flaws in society such as filthy meat and sickening work conditions. When Jurgis and his family arrived in Chicago they thought that they would find life a lot easier. T...

Ebenezer Howard

It is said that there were two major inventions in the beginning of the twentieth century; the invention of the airplane, and Ebenezer Howards’ creation of the Garden City. In the 19th century, as a response to extremes of the capitalist order and an alternative to the industrial city, communitarian activity started to search new forms of community. Ebenezer Howard cropped up a new type of human settlement which is more rational for an industrial age, The Garden City. It was a new form of social and economic collaboration with a control and order.Howard aimed to reverse the congestion and spread of the large city through new form of planned community. To build a garden city, Howard needed money to buy land. He decided to get funding from â€Å"gentlemen of responsible position and undoubted probity and honor†. He founded the Garden City Association in 1899, although it took forty years to win a serious consideration from the government. By 1945, government noticed the p roblems of some form of planning and it was the Howard’s contribution to modify a nonconformist vision of community developed in nineteenth century reform circles.The most significant thing is that Howard’s utopian thinking was the transitional figure which connected 19th century reformers to 20th century professional planners. Ebenezer Howard had a better vision for town community life to end the congestion in English cities to build self sufficient colonies in agricultural land. He knew that larger cities didn't create large communities but created alienated lonely separate people whom lacked the sense of a community. According to Howard’s aspect Garden City was the key to bring man to a natural order that would further the social associations necessary for individual fulfillment.In the late 1880’s it all started with the Howard’s â€Å"alluring dream of co-operative commonwealth that would end social discord†. With the inspiration he gain ed from the Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, he started working on technocratic-socialist utopia. By the early 1890’s Howard started to contact with two groups who were interested in starting colonies. This idea of colonies was first mentioned in Alfred Marshall’s article. He urged that in order to relieve the unemployment and congestion of London’s slums, colonies of factory workers should be placed on agricultural land out of the core.For Howard, the crowded city was the reason that communities can’t survive and the reason for that is the size. So he proposed a communal settlement with a population 32. 000 of to maintain the idea of a community. In his books’s first chapter he formuliazed the ideal city. 6000 acres of cheap rural land are to be purchased, 1000 of which are reserved for the city. A 32,000 person population cap is set, after which a new city will have to be colonized. As far as the design goes, Howard wants to make it as l ittle like the overcrowded London of his day as possible, so public parks and private lawns are everywhere.The roads are incredibly wide, ranging from 120 to 420 feet for the Grand Avenue, and they are radial rather than linear. Commercial, industrial, residential, and public uses are clearly differentiated from each other spatially. With the foundation of The Land Nationalization Society, by Alfred Wallace, the idea of creating labor colonies outside cities to reduce redundancy of joblessness in the urban centers occurred. At one of the meetings of this Society, Howard proposed the formation of a â€Å"Co-operative Commonwealth†, which was described as the subject of a good deal of discussion in recent months in advanced circles.This scheme was supposed to eliminate the landlord and there would be experiments of capitalism. According to Howard’s beliefs Garden City, including the colony systems, was the practical answers to planning problems and should have attracted the majority of the public to start the community. Despite his thoughts, many writers found his ideas ridiculous with the belief of â€Å"towns are not created; they grow† In spite of all the negative feedbacks, The Land Nationalization Society remained important in Howard’s efforts to create a Garden City Association in 1899.For the first years of Associations, it was all about propaganda rather than action. With the lectures, interviews, and tracts Howard’s ideology became widespread and started to be considered as practical and successful. Within few months many council members, engineers, businessmen, architects had joined the Association. Between 1900 and 1901, membership number rose to 500. However, there was no donation enough to buy an estate and place factories. By the end of the 1901, Ralph Neville, Liberal politician and King’s Counsel attended the Association.With his support, events speeded up, in the mean time Howard slipped into a secondary position in the Association. With this changes, also the original scheme changed significantly into a more controlled company. The real idea of the association became a chance and chaos in urban growth. Howard’s garden city became confused in the public minds with a type of low-density suburban development. After Thomas Adam and Ewart Culpin took over the control of the Association, they started the umbrella organization for all housing and planning activity. The whole idea of Howard’s got lost.After eight years of Howard’s death Osborn became active in the Association and tried to resume Howard’s ideology. After World War I, Association played an important role in British town planning. We certainly believe the fact with the concept that Ebenezer Howard’s concept was an make an effort to remove capitalists ‘so as it was accomplished’ despite its some time to what could be done. It was very obvious that his concepts opended up many in dividuals' horizans according to providing a new concept of resident Ebenezer Howard was a great men for urban planning who provided the vision and details of a community for both town and country life.He believed that these two life should be married together in small Garden Cities, each with its own greenbelt. He promoted well-planned towns with careful land zoning and a quality of life. A Garden City would have well designed houses with gardens set in tree lined avenues, clean and healthy work places and a pleasant and healthy environment in which to live, work and follow leisure pursuits. His purpose is to sustain a healthy, natural, and economic combination of town and country life through a balance of work and leisure.In this goal, Howard reflects the ideal and harmonious relationship between the  industry and garden. Industry and agriculture coexist in his ideal community, as do city and countryside, utopia and arcadia. Howard's sense of balance, in this case, the concentri c circles of the Garden City intersected by broad boulevards, assumes that ideal forms will shape and perfect human functions. The overall goal for Howard is to combine the traditional countryside with the traditional town.For too long residents have had to make the unfulfilling choice between living in a culturally isolated rural area or giving up nature to live in a city, but â€Å"human society and the beauty of nature are meant to be enjoyed together. † As he sees it, in a rather Hegelian fashion, in our opinion the two â€Å"magnets† of Town and Country that have in the past pulled people in either direction will, in the future, be synthesized into one â€Å"Town-Country magnet. †Ã‚   Green Belt hich was a part of Howard’s aim was developed for places which did not develop more, it was more like a limitation for cities . However, although that was not a certain remedy, places keep growing. As far as we learn in city planning, cities are living format ions which reshape in years over and over again. At the same time, even though this idea was developed as a feature of non-urban and town which keep growing and its inhabitants increase, this suggestions stayed poor.In conclusion, in spite of this information , the solution for a citites future life depent on the decision of the right problem. Maybe the restriction of population and ground may not be work in today’s societies, but Howard’s proposal could be modified and then, be used. We could modernize it easily in more ecological manner. We could locate it on a brownfield, for example, and follow a more urban, transect based planning scheme. In doing so, according to us, we can keep the heart of Howard’s vision while reforming the logistics per our more advanced knowledge.

Uses and Abuses of Information in Orwell’s 1984

In George Orwell†s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, we are presented with a dystopian vision of the future. Orwell†s book follows the life of Winston Smith, a citizen of Airstrip 1, formerly Britain and part of the nation of Oceania. The country is governed by Ingsoc, the English Socialists, a totalitarian regime led by the iconic leader Big Brother. Oceania is constantly at war with as well as always being in alliance with one of the other two nations of the earth, Euraisia and Eastasia. The population is divided into three social groups, at the top of the power structure is the Inner Party, whose members are the policy makers and number relatively few. Below them are the members of the Outer Party, who are educated and work in governmental departments. It is this group which Winston Smith belongs to. Underneath them are the proletariat, the uneducated masses that made up 85% of the population. The life of a party member involves being constantly subjected to government propaganda by the medium of the telescreen. This is a device similar to a television placed in the home and workplace of Party members, unlike a television it cannot be turned off and it transmits as well as receives. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, one of four government ministries. The Ministry of Love is concerned with law and order, The Ministry of peace concerns itself with war, The Ministry of Plenty which deals with economic affairs and The Ministry of Truth which is responsible for the production of news, education, entertainment and fine arts. Orwell is said to have based the infrastructure of Oceania on that of Stalinist Russia of the 1940s. I want to compare and contrast Orwell†s vision of the future and control of information to the world of today. I hope to draw parallels in the ideology of Insog, governments of the present day and those of past regimes. Winston worked in the records department of the Ministry of Truth. His job consisted of the constant updating of news archives. He was responsible for altering or ‘rectifying† news reports from back issues of the state newspaper. For example, it appeared from The Times of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that the South Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian offensive would shortly be launched in North Africa. As it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North Africa alone. It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother†s speech, in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened. (Orwell1949). In another case the Ministry of Plenty promised there would be no cut in the chocolate ration. After a cut in the ration, this speech was rewritten to say that they had predicted a cut some time in the future and eventually that the ration had been increased. Once these articles had been rewritten, the old newspapers were destroyed, new issues printed and used as historical records. All documentation of the past had been tailored to say exactly what the government wanted it to. No other records of the past existed other than those that had been manipulated and falsified by the ministry of truth. This may seem fantastic and unfeasible in modern western society, but Orwell himself performed a similar role in the BBC during World War II. This gave him a solid taste of bureaucratic hypocrisy and may have provided the inspiration for his invention of â€Å"newspeak,† the truth-denying language of Big Brother's rule in Nineteen Eighty-Four (Johnson 1993). In 1944 Orwell wrote a letter to tribune bringing up the question of how true history actually is. He said that until recently the chances were that major events were recorded with some accuracy. He says that the battle of Hastings probably happened in 1066, that Columbus discovered America, that Henry VIII had six wives, and so on. A certain degree of truthfulness was possible so long as it was admitted that a fact may be true even if you don†t like it. (Orwell1944). He goes on to say that even as late as just prior to World War I, a substantial amount of facts in the encyclopaedia Britannica are compiled from German sources and were regarded as neutral. An account of World War II would vary from different sources. The Nazis of the day would have a completely different account of the war than that of the Allies. The decision of which of these accounts reaches the history books is decided on the battlefield. If Hitler and the Nazis had won the war, the ‘history books† would undoubtedly be different from those we are brought up to believe in post war Britain. For example Orwell says that in 1941 and 1942 the Luftwaffe were busy in Russia, whilst at the same time German radio was proclaiming the devastation of London through aerial bombing. According to our history, these raids never happened. If we were living in London at that time we would know that those raids never happened, if Hitler then seizes power, those raids might as well have happened as the history books will be written accordingly. This theory is the basis that Orwell uses for the management of information in the fictitious Ministry of Truth. There are countless examples of history being re-written. Orwell gives other examples: Is the protocols of the Elders of Zion a genuine document? Did Trotsky plot with the Nazis? How many German aeroplanes were shot down in the Battle of Britain? Does Europe welcome the New Order? In no case do you get one answer that is universally accepted because it is true: in each case you get a number of totally incompatible answers, one of which is finally adopted as the result of a physical struggle. History is written by the winners. (Orwell 1944). Noam Chomsky develops these ideas and applies them to the Vietnam and Gulf wars. He describes a study that was done at the University of Massachusetts on attitudes towards the Gulf war. This study was designed to gauge the beliefs and attitudes of television watchers. One of the questions asked in that study was, How (sic) many Vietnamese casualties would you estimate that there were during the Vietnam war? The average response on the part of Americans today is about 100,000. The official figure is about two million. The actual figure is probably three to four million. (Chomsky 1991). This example highlights an almost eerie foresight into the future from Orwell. Are the telescreens that pump out propaganda and manipulated facts and figures to the population of Oceania really that different in principle to the televisions that are dotted around our houses now? It seems that the information broadcast on television is believed by its viewers. The history of the Vietnam war has probably altered since it ended. It may be hard to write an objective history of it from an American perspective, as attitudes toward the conflict seem to be ambiguous. When the war ended, American vets were seen by their country as failures, now they are honoured officially. It is unclear who is writing the history of Vietnam. During the conflict, news coverage was biased toward the plight of the American forces and anti communist ideals, creating a monster out of the enemy as to keep people†s thought irrational and unquestionably loyal to the American war effort. Towards the end of the seventies we saw the first of a wave of Vietnam feature films. It was now the directors telling the story, but whose is correct? Mc Carthyists may argue that Hollywood is adopting a communist point of view and thus siding with the old enemy. Is it just wars whose facts and figures are subject to alteration? Who is to say for instance that the so-called financial boom of the eighties actually happened? As it the decade gets more vague in our memories, it may be open to historical manipulation for political means. The likelihood is the current Labour government of 1999 will have a different recollection of the financial situation of the last twenty years than that of the Conservatives. Which, if either, account is correct? We (the public) have our own realities of the era; the amount of money we had at the time. As individuals though we are not in a position of power with which to rewrite history. Chomsky talks about the first modern government propaganda, that of the Woodrow Wilson Administration of The United States at the time of World War I. The population of America were pacifistic at that time and saw no reason to become involved in a European conflict. The Wilson government were committed to war and decided to do something about it. They established a government propaganda division, called the Creel Commission, which succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to tear the Germans limb from limb, go to war and save the world. (Chomsky 1991). These same techniques were used for anti socialist campaigns after the war, which destroyed unions and restricted the freedom of the press. The same techniques were used by the British propaganda ministry, whose commitment at the time, as they put it in their secret deliberations, was ‘to direct the thought of most of the world†. (Chomsky1991). Chomsky goes on to say that the British propaganda ministry†s aim was to control the thought of the more intelligent members of the community in the United States, who would then disseminate the propaganda that they were concocting and convert the pacifistic country to wartime hysteria. He says that this taught a lesson to Hitler and many others that state propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. A concise example of the use of propaganda in nineteen eighty- four is the rabble rousing Two Minutes Hate. This is a daily gathering where members of the Party vent their hatred for enemies of the state, In particular the spectre of Emmanuel Goldstein. Party members gather together in front of a telescreen while a film of the traitor Goldstein is shown. The participants are worked into a fury of hate before being brought back to calm by the image and voice of Big Brother. In chapter 1 of the book Orwell describes the event: Goldstein was delivering his usual venomous attack upon the doctrines of the Party – an attack so exaggerated and perverse that a child should have been able to see through it, and yet just plausible enough to leave one with an alarmed feeling that other people, less level headed than oneself, might be taken in by it. (1949) I believe evidence of Orwell†s own belief in the power of persuasive propaganda is expressed through the thoughts of Winston. Although Winston is a rebellious thinker who initially uses the two minute hate to vent his detestation of Insoc and it†s subsidiary organisations, he finds his feelings switching to a hatred of the image of Goldstein. He then voluntarily switches his hatred to the image of the girl behind him. Oceania is personified by the image of Big Brother, whilst its enemies are symbolised by Goldstein. This rhetoric is well used in propaganda and there are many examples, either official, as with Marianne and Germania, or unofficial, as in the cartoon stereotypes of John Bull. (Hobsbawm 1983). I have not really scratched the surface of concepts of information manipulation that Orwell highlights in Nineteen Eighty- Four, Newspeak for instance. A whole book could be written on this language and probably has been. After reading Orwell and Chomsky a great deal of correlation is evident between their ideas. Orwell says: The really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits ‘atrocities† but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims to control the past as well as the future (1944) Although we live in a so-called democracy today the practice of history rewriting still seems to be prevalent. Chomsky says: the picture of the world that†s presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies upon lies†¦ It†s not like a totalitarian state, where it†s done by force. These achievements are under conditions of freedom (1991). Although we do live in a free society (try arguing that we don†t with someone who†s lived under an oppressive regime), we live under what Chomsky calls a self-imposed totalitarianism (1991) with our televisions as our telescreens. As our daily newspapers switch political allegiances, who is to say that they are not employing modern day Winston Smiths to change accounts of the past. Why should the Sun hark on about the good old days under the Tory government when they want Blair to win the next election?